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Four remarkable personal stories that show there is nothing skin-deep about our skin.

The skin on Tim Steiner's back legally belongs to another person - a German art collector named Rik Reinking. Tim has an elaborate, colourful tattoo on his back that was designed by a famous artist. Reinking owns this work of art and the right to exhibit it in galleries several times a year, with Tim attached to it. Stranger still, when Tim dies the skin on his back will be removed, framed and kept in Reinking's personal art collection.

Tim loves his tattoo, but the wrong tattoo in the wrong place can ruin someone's life. David Ores is a doctor in New York who has launched a campaign to get doctors to remove unwanted tattoos for free from former gang members, prisoners and victims of human trafficking.

Nowhere has skin been more politicised than in South Africa. For 46 years, a white minority ruled the country, and ghettoised the black majority. The population was completely segregated. Black and white people weren't even allowed to have relationships until 1985. So when one of the best-known black actors in the country was asked to kiss a white woman on stage, he was taking a very serious risk. John Kani's portrayal of Shakespeare's only black hero, Othello was an important moment - one that he risked his life for.

South African Thando Hopa is a catwalk model with a difference - she has albinism. She is black but her condition makes her skin look white and gives her blonde hair. People with albinism often face prejudice and Thando wants to change perceptions about beauty and skin.

Photo: Thomas Scheu of Germany, posing in heavyweight class, World Games 2005, Duisburg, Germany.
Credit: Christof Koepsel/Bongarts/Getty Images