Why is blood able to stain clothes but not skin?
In: Other
Clothes are absorbent. Human skin is not. Skin is almost waterproof. Blood, if left on the skin long enough, will actually stain. I know from experience. But it doesnt stay long, the skin flakes off and with it the stain.
Partly because of other reasons stated here. But also its super hard to stain skin. As your skin exfoliates it takes the ink or blood stains with it, so basically you are permanently staining your skin, you just grow new skin.
Partly due to hemolysis (burst red blood cells). Using water causes the red blood cells to expand and burst, releasing the hemoglobin and staining the clothes. If you use a saline solution to rinse blood out, you avoid breaking up the cells, and you’re able to remove the blood without staining.
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Skin is amazing. The mechanics of our whole body are super interesting, the skin is the relevant one here.
Top part of the skin is called the stratum corneum. Touch your skin, that is what you’re touching (and what you’re typically touching stuff with). It is a layer of flat, dead skin cells packed with keratin (same protein your hair is made of), and coated with acidic, salty fat. Have a shower and watch water bead – the skin’s fatty layer protects it from water coming in. That same layer provides defence against radiation, microbes, fungus, etc. Without that layer you’d be dead in no time, the world is an unfriendly place.
Blood is pretty much protein and water. It mostly dissolves in water and not fat. The outer layer is fatty/greasy, so blood doesn’t penetrate and stick. What little blood sticks gets rubbed off as your skin sheds those dead cells and makes new ones.
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