MALLERY. ] PACIFIC COAST TATTOO. 397 
As is well known, the black pigments, when picked into the human 
skin, become rather bluish, which tint, when beneath the yellowish tinge 
of the Indian’s cuticle, appears of an olive or sometimes a greenish-blue 
shade. The colors, immediately after being tattooed upon the skin, 
retain more or less of the blue-black shade; but by absorption of the 
pigment and the persistence of the coloring matter of the pigmentary 
membrane the greenish tint soon appears, becoming gradually less con- 
spicuous as time progresses, so that in some of the oldest tattooed 
Indians the designs are greatly weakened in coloration. 
Fig. 517.—Haida tattoo, sculpin and dragon fly. 
Upon the bodies of some persons examined the results of ulceration 
are conspicuous. This destruction of tissue is the result of inflamma- 
tion caused by the tattooing and the introduction under the skin of so 
great a quantity of irritating foreign matter that, instead of designs in 
color, there are distinct, sharply detined figures in white or nearly white 
cicatrices, the pigmentary membrane having been totally destroyed by 
the ulceration. 
