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"Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can't talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful."
- Philip K. Dick

Skin Toning  
  Using artificial means to effect a temporary change in skin color.  

When I first read this in the sixties, I thought that skin toning was pretty far fetched and not likely to occur in the future. Then people started dying their hair purple or pink. And with the current interest in piercings and tatoos, I'm not so sure anymore...

One had dyed her hair forest green and toned her skin a delicate lettuce green. The other wore a wig of lavender metal shavings with dead-white skin toning; an elaborate cloche of silver leaves and tendrils clung to her forehead, clasped her cheeks.
Technovelgy from The Star King, by Jack Vance.
Published by Berkeley in 1964
Additional resources -

Compare to the selective melanin boosting from William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for this item.

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  More Ideas and Technology from The Star King
  More Ideas and Technology by Jack Vance
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