Someone emailed me recently, curious about the plot of Marked and wanting to know more about the project. Answering them sent me back to something I had written, and I think I need to rethink the beet stain.
You may remember the idea. For the culture I am building around the novel, I invited you to dip your hands in beet juice and choose your own mark (that post is here). It seemed lovely, harmless and very kitchen-friendly. As far as I know, it is also the kind of stain that washes off with soap.
That is a problem, because the stain in the book is not a craft project. It began with red soil on the hands and feet of people who worked the land, the same pé vermelho story that started all of this (I wrote about it here). In the world of the book it has to be made by hand from ordinary ingredients, without modern chemistry, it has to work outdoors in cold, damp weather, and it has to be very hard to scrub away.
So I did what any sensible author does and asked an AI 🤣. It gave me, with great confidence, a recipe: crushed madder root stewed with dried bitter leaves such as sumac or walnut husk, a splash of vinegar, and a little scrap mutton fat rubbed over the top to seal it. It also explained, in great detail, why each ingredient does what it does.
It sounded wonderful, and that is exactly the problem. I have no idea whether any of it makes chemical sense, and a confident answer is the thing I should check before I trust it (I wrote about that exact problem here). So I am asking someone who can.
If you are a chemist, here is what I would love to know.
Does it stain at all? Is madder root mainly a textile dye that needs a fixing agent, called a mordant, to hold? Would red clay or ochre, the iron-rich earth that started this, behave better than any plant?
Does it last? Skin sheds, so I assume a surface stain should fade in days or weeks. Is there a way, with ingredients that existed long before modern chemistry, to make one that lasts longer and does not wash off with plain soap? Is a tannin really what deepens the colour over hours?
Is it safe? Is anything in this recipe unsafe on skin?
Please do not try any of this on real skin, mine or yours. I do not know whether it is safe, and that is part of what I am asking.
I may end up with two answers: something safe and kitchen-friendly for readers who want to join in, and something stubborn for the world of the book. If you are a chemist, a natural dyer, a textile historian, a herbalist, a dermatologist, or someone who has simply lived through a very stubborn stain, I would love your two cents. Leave it in the comments or send it privately. If your answer changes the book, I would like to credit you, with your permission.
And if you are the person who emailed, thank you. If you want to know more about the project, the Marked page is the best place to start.
If you tried the beet stain, how long did it last on your hands, and what did it feel like to wear it? I read every answer. 💛
Follow the Marked Research Series here.
Jessica Gabrielzyk
