Human skin color protect them from genetic damage. One melanocyte supplies melanin to thirty-six keratinocytes according to signals from the keratinocytes. They also regulate melanin production and replication of melanocytes. People have different skin colors mainly because their melanocytes produce different amount and kinds of melanin. The genetic mechanism behind human skin color is mainly regulated by the enzyme tyrosinase, which creates the color of the skin, eyes, and hair shades. Differences in skin color are also attributed to differences in size and distribution of melanosomes in the skin. Melanocytes produce two types of melanin. The most common form of biological melanin is
The Painted Skin "a typical piece of moral didacticism that denounces sexual promiscuity, extols faithfulness, and endorses belief in karma and retribution." "The Painted Skin" utilises both the "zhiguai" and "chuanqi" styles of writing in bringing out "the ghost's critical and creative writing", whereas the complexity of prose parallels the "cultural ramifications of the ghost." Skin is a major plot device in "The Painted Skin", serving as a "path between the separate worlds of human and animal, or the natural and the supernatural". Reality versus perception of it is another overarching issue; what Wang deems to be a pretty female is in fact