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Hair dye?

Trying again with the pics. The circles are so strange.

Try a dab of diluted bleach on one spot.

Good question.

Never seen anything like that before. wysmama might be right. As suggested, try a dab of diluted bleach. (Use a Q-tip.)

Mildew. Are you in a cold climate? It looks like that spot is colder because of where the nail is causing mildew to form there.

It could be the screws for the drywall. They looked to be lined up on a joist. They may have popped and have now rusted? Take a small screwdriver and scratch it to see if it is the metal screw.

My guess is that these aren't where the screws/nails are for the drywall. The pic a bit deceptive, they aren't lined up at all and are definitely not a standard width apart. Its sitting right on the drywall, not a nail or screw. We are in a cold climate (NJ). It's so weird and we cant figure it out.

Any other thoughts?

Have you tried wiping it off?

My guess is the ceiling was slightly wet and a mothfly (AKA drainfly) or some other tiny scaled fly or moth bopped up against it and stuck. The rings are probably just from the *poof* of the collision in water.

Looks like "nail/screw pops."

Another vote here for rusted nails/screws. If you take a small magnet and hold it to these spots, you'll find out immediately if that's metal....

Just wipe it off and forget about it!

This isn't a design dilemma. At. All.

And you don't seem to be paying any attention. Can't you just try to clean it yourself?

Tatts - not very helpful post there. I’m not having a problem removing it. Yes it wipes off as if it was mold but I wanted to confirm if it was mold or not considering how strange it looked with it growing circular like that. There are no nails or screws in the area. I’ve never seen something like this and it seems like nobody else has that has commented either. The screw/nail theory is not the case either so I’m still a bit bewildered by it. The site suggested posting it here among other boards.

Do you have access to a microscope or even a good hand lens or magnifying glass? Betcha it's insect fluff.