The Hamlet Project

It’s funny that we use the same word for leather treatment as we do for darkening the pigment of skin. Is that accidental or on purpose? Do we say someone is tan because the color is tan (as I previously assumed) or because a piece of leather darkens when it is a tanned? It would appear so. And it connects, too, to the old saying of someone threatening to “tan your hide.” It is probably quite useful to remember that we are not so far from the animals whose skins we tan. It is probably useful, too, to think of tanning from the sun as close to that process of curing leathers. We need all the encouragement we can get to avoid skin cancer.