No, those are just where he rubbed the pigment off...I had a girl do that MONTHS ago; I put a new hide box in, she went into shed (temps, humidity etc. spot on) and when she shed out she ended up I guess rubbing the pigment off on a few spots...it left white spots exactly like those in the same area. I found a slightly rougher than normal area on the new hide and later sanded it off; looks like your boy did the same thing.
As for my girl, the white areas remained white for a LONG time (months) and are only now beginning to go back to normal. No scale damage, just the lack of color. But his head markings are awesome!
Ball Pythons
1.0 Normal "Draccy"
0.2 Normal "Matika", "Lara Croft"
1.0 Lesser Cinny "Thor"
Actually it's the Japanese number "6" ... or if you include the "dot" toward the side it's the Japanese symbol for "dog". (My girlfriend is Japanese... )
I don't know if the kanji will show up, but it reminded me of fire (火) and it does indeed look like six (六).
"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed."
~The Little Prince; Antoine de Saint Exupery