Re: Anyone have any idea what these are? [plus some random thoughts]

The second image is associated with Morgellons. You see it at times
on their sites. One site was put up before Morgellons became widely
known, such as http://www.lymphotos.com. Look there for "star-shaped
larva". People there are not biologists and grossly mislabled images,
but then again they were dealing with the unknown.

The other one is at http://www.dpref.com/starfish.html

Then there are others. Google morgellons or skin parasite.