that's why they call it the blues

[the_siobhan]

Last time I was sitting around drinking wine with a group of friends the conversation somehow turned to blue people. Not blue as in depressed, but blue as in having blue coloured skin.

I remember a case we looked at in school of a family in the Ozarks that turned blue due to a very recessive gene and generations of inbreeding. I looked it up and I mis-remembered the exact mechanism but the details are the same. They were known as The blue Fugates of Kentucky.

xthlc brought up the cosmetic effects of drinking colloidal silver, which turns the skin premanently gray so that it looks blue. Appaerntly the effect is called Argyria

And when I was hunting around I also found mention of the Tuaregs of Africa - a nomadic tribe known as the "blue people" because they wear indigo-dyed clothing that turns their skin blue.

And of course, the picts painted themselves blue with woad before battle. (Which apparently also protected them from cancer. Who knew?)

Next I'm going to start looking for green people.

Comments

[greylock]

Odd.
I've seen Tree People. I am not alone.
Green people? Must exist.