Our Posthuman Skin Condition

When we walk along the street our fellow humans appear to us as entities that we immediately determine or define by their skin: old or young, male or female, healthily tanned or sickly pale, scarred or with tattoos, with no, moderate or exaggerated make-up. The skin is the first and often the only part of a person that we see, and more or less acknowledge as a presence. A first filter of our social interaction starts with this ‘skin deep’, but somehow still relevant, triage. We may not know what is inside the head of someone, but the skin shows us their state of mind, emotions, gender, tiredness, age and lots of other details that allow us to do a quick and superficial categorization. Before anything else we use people’s skin to determine and read who they are. Skin is the first text of the other (Derrida 1981, 71), and this superficial act of ‘knowing’ is very often the only impression we have of a person. Before language and dialogue, before sharing beliefs, principles, worldviews and secrets with our fellow humans, we have an epidermal encounter with them.