I felt that it would somehow be 'wrong' to pretend to be a different 'real' skin-colour

I did idly wonder whether feelings like this might have helped discourage people from putting any serious R&D effort into developing convenient methods of skin-dyeing, on the basis that they reckoned changing between black and white would be too much of a Politically Charged Statement and so there wouldn't be enough market for it.

(Not that that ought to stop anyone turning their skin blue, on the other hand, if that were conveniently available. And it would confuse the hell out of racists, who wouldn't be able to work out whether they should be looking down on you or not. Though I suppose they'd probably play it safe and do so anyway.)

Woad is probably a political statement too.

In 50 BC, maybe!

Amusingly I'm actually playing a blue-skinned religious fanatic in Ryzom (http://www.ryzom.com/) at the moment :)

I did idly wonder whether feelings like this might have helped discourage people from putting any serious R&D effort into developing convenient methods of skin-dyeing

Well, perhaps not in the UK. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-9tcXpW1DE)

Eek, scary. (But it is ayurvedic toxic bleach!)

Woo! Death to cold people!