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(Finally came up with a name for my species. Maruvans-derived from maruva, meaning flowers in Shona).

Maruvans have "unnatural" (which is natural for them) colored skin and hair (eyebrows and eyelashes), which comes from pigments that give flowers their color. Would it be possible that flower pigment would color humanlike skin and hair? I still have to do basic research about flower/plant pigment.

To clarify some things:

Maruvan skin tone and hair color matches their petals, what I’ve intended. It’s 100% biological or in their genes. There’s no (natural, magical, or artificial) modification or change. They were born like that.

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    $\begingroup$ Please clarify what is your transfer mechanism. Are they rubbing plants on their skin? AKA makeup? Are they eating the plants and then having their skin/hair change color like flamingos? Or are they asking the plant spirit in their meditations to give them the power of color? $\endgroup$
    – Gault Drakkor
    Dec 14, 2021 at 1:13
  • $\begingroup$ Looking around me at the mall, it appears that lots of shoppers have unnatural hair colors. The Maruvan invasion is well on its way! (And seriously, humans have used plant-based dyes to color their skin and hair ever since the Stone Age. Have you ever heard of henna, for example? Or maybe woad?) $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Dec 14, 2021 at 1:16
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    $\begingroup$ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carotenosis $\endgroup$
    – Adrian Colomitchi
    Dec 14, 2021 at 1:40
  • $\begingroup$ @Gault Drakkor Sorry, I should’ve specified it more. I’ll edit the post. $\endgroup$
    – Sydni
    Dec 14, 2021 at 3:07
  • $\begingroup$ @AlexP Lol XD I’ve heard of henna, but not woad. Sounds interesting though. $\endgroup$
    – Sydni
    Dec 14, 2021 at 3:08

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Anthocyanins and Carotenoids can probably be added to the chemicals of a human-like species and be a part of DNA

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  • $\begingroup$ Yeah, that’s what I thought too. $\endgroup$
    – Sydni
    Dec 14, 2021 at 16:03
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Mechanisms of skin/coat pigmentation that may be present on long term and/or be transmitted between generations (genetically or not):

  • genetic skin/fur pigmentation with high variability: cats have two coat pigments: red and black/brown - everything else is a combination of the two. Dogs are the same.

  • Mandrills have natural blue face and behinds, but it's not because of a pigment, just the orientation of skin fibrils, leading to Tyndall_effect. Looks like a sexual selection trait.

  • Ingestion of particular substances may lead to prolonged (still temporary) or quasi-permanent skin pigmentation: carotenoids (yellow/orange) or silver (blue gray, usually permanent even after discontinuation of exposure). Would the population be exposed to such agents due to their particular environ, they may display variability of skin pigmentation due to exogenic causes

  • symbiosis/parasitism - some sloths acquire a green coat, due to infestation with a green algae (Trichophilus welckeri)- some considers it a symbiotic relation rather than a case a parasitism, but it looks like it is transmissible from mother to offspring.

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  • $\begingroup$ Fascinating! I remember an older man rubbing silver on his body and he turned blue. I was thinking about some sort of transmitting/transferring of the pigments. $\endgroup$
    – Sydni
    Dec 14, 2021 at 4:46

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