Skin Deep

September Morn (1912), Image of painting by Paul Émile Chabas [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Skin, Oh skin, where to begin?

As the largest and most visible organ of the human body, our skin really gets the smallest credit. There are plenty of sayings about skin but perhaps our skin has become too thick to absorb more than the skin deep (surface) meaning.

• Slap me some skin
• No skin off my back/nose
• That makes my skin crawl
• I jumped out of my skin
• By the skin of my teeth
• Comfortable in your own skin
• You're just skin and bones

And of course, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, old sayings die hard as they say without saying exactly what is meant. Metaphorically, our skin is our container, our packaging, the exposed and judged part of our life that we carry with us from the moment we receive our first sensations of light and heat to our last dying shudder marked with chicken skin (goose bumps). Our skin has a built-in recipe for magic called healing that us complicated humans completely take for granted. Every single second our skin is working for us, sending signals and guarding us from dangerous elements. It is truly our shield whether thick or thin, with as much or as little Melanin or Carotene that happens to be visible.

Are you Caucasian? Check here:

Image represents Caucasian roots from the Russian Empire, first pub.d 1855 1) Represents a Tcherkessia, or Circassian 2) A Mmingrelian 3) a Nogai Tartar 4) A Georgian 5) An Armenian 6) A Lesghian 7) A Cossack of Terek)

Some basic facts or the skinny about your skin (also see infographic at the end):

• The average adult persons skin is between 16-21 square feet and 0.10 in. thick.
• One square inch of skin holds around 20 blood vessels( not found in epidermis layer), 650 sweat glands and more than 1,000 nerve endings.
• There are around 50 million microorganisms within one square inch of human skin creating its own micro-eco-system.
• People with oily skin do not wrinkle as much with aging.
• The three layers of the skin are: the epidermis, dermis and the hypodermis. There are 5 additional sublayers. Epis originates from the Greek “epi” for “Over” or “upon”.

In the young country of America, skin color has historically and presently been made a focus of controversy. From the original conception of America being the “melting pot” of cultures, to China Towns and Little Italy’s, expats tend to huddle together creating and representing microcosms of ‘foreign’ cultures all over the US, but this isn’t really melting anything, it’s more like mixing in blobs that are semipermeable, kind of like our skin. Simulating behaviorally both rubber and glue, our skin absorbs everything from Vitamins to toxins, yet it still has a very low permeability ratio, excreting less than it can absorb (sweat and other excess particulates) but scientist (mainly in the medical field) would like to increase this permeability order to treat things such as nicotine and other addictions, cancer, diabetes and much more.

Microbiome of Human Skin

Image By w:en:User:Gzuckier [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

The color of our skin in also directly related to its absorption capacity and the environment and aside from basic adaptation and geographical purposes, it has now been determined that there really is no such thing as “race” (there’s a great YouTube video about this revelation).  According to raw DNA analysis we are all the same color humans. Our biggest diversities (that genetically relate to our skin) are actually in the microbes which differ the highest in between our fingers, between our toes and in our umbilical cord (stump) or belly button. The most similar microbes comparatively on the skin can be found inside our nose and on our back-there’s a metaphor in there somewhere, do you smell it?  

Humans aren’t really colored, color is an effect or result (even temporary). This poses problems for racists. In the 1920’s (tracing first to the Renaissance era) pale or fair skin (meaning the least melanin) was ‘popular’ since it was a sign of wealth, indoor idle time. Slate reported that in the old South women would chew on newspaper because they believed the ink would whiten their skin. Pale skin meant avoiding the sun at all costs excluding visits to spas or sanatoriums for nobles and aristocrats, (the rich knew the sun has healing properties-likely from watching their cats). By contrast, in 2014 the FDA estimated that 30 million Americans (2.3 million of those are teenagers) use indoor tanning facilities.  Beauty is fickle. 

Image of painting by Jean-Marc Nattier (1746) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Madame de Pompadour (1722-1764), mistress of Louis XV, represented as Diana.

Our skin takes a beating, literally. From acne, tattoos, scars, cancer, to plastic surgery (or any surgery)and even topicals like make-up, we wear our costume or our skin wherever we go, we are always judged by our cover, it is THE first impression we project consciously or not. And it is not our choice, no more than picking our parents, so why do we attach a value or classify other humans based on skin “color”? We like to change what we cannot. We like to sort, organize and prioritize as humans. Perhaps this is an evolutionary evolvement that has yet to be developed in our species, survival of the fittest is not merely a skin deep concept.

Image of painting by By Francisco Laso (Lima, 1807 - Lima, 1879) (Peruvian) entitled Equality Before the Law [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

People die (or is this vainglorious suicide?) for beauty, albeit mainly women who attach their life worth to a concept they have developed of what is “beautiful”. Aside from the obvious dangerous surgeries to lose weight, skin graphing and lightening, even the hair dye that women use to eradicate ‘grey’ hair (lost pigmentation) is suspected to be linked with causing breast cancer. 

Beauty marks aside, moles are considered ugly and often associated with witches.  Birthmarks such as strawberries and congenital anomalies become our natural brand which we go about “fixing” (eliminating/assimilating) if we can, as soon as we can.

While reading a book recently about theoretical physics and astrophysics, the author made a comment about our skin and how awkward it would be if our skin were ‘transparent’, yes see thru. This concept stopped me in my head spun orbit. Now, in your next conversation, try to image the other person (or even yourself) having transparent skin-I bet you cannot focus on what is being said. How distracting it would be to see all of our organs “working” our nerves “firing”, our microbes “building communities”, our stomach churning, our heart jumping around, our lungs pulsating? An incredible show but one that I would not necessarily like to see.  Then again, if we were all as clear as day (like a jellyfish) our concept of beauty would certainly change. Perhaps it would be beautiful to have an active brain, maybe having all of your organs would be coveted, and maybe people would only interact with you when your digestive system signals it is safe. If our skin was clear, most doctors would be worried about the future of their profession and their beneficial relationship with pharmaceutical companie$.

Personally, I like the tone and visibility of all skin, moles (if not cancerous) are sexy, freckles are cute, scars are stories, blushing is a beautiful signal and the gift wrapping is just too beautiful. I don’t need to see what’s going inside, I can feel it, I am directly connected and I am protected always, thanks to my skin. Its got the complicated me completely covered.

Image of painting by Luis Ricardo Falero [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. A beauty,1885.

Shedding Skin

Harryette Mullen, 1953

Pulling out of the old scarred skin
(old rough thing I don’t need now
I strip off
slip out of
leave behind)

I slough off deadscales
flick skinflakes to the ground

Shedding toughness
peeling layers down
to vulnerable stuff

And I’m blinking off old eyelids
for a new way of seeing

By the rock I rub against
I’m going to be tender again

From Blues Baby: Early Poems by Harryette Mullen, published by Bucknell University Press. Copyright © 1981, 2002 by Harryette Mullen. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

by Neomam.