Mandinka skin tone: Fitzpatrick type and undertone in 66 observed portraits

Mandinka: fitzpatrick skin type Type VI — deeply pigmented brown to black in 77% of 66; skin undertone Neutral in 59% of 61; pigmentation pattern Uniform in 100% of 66; freckling density None in 100% of 67.

  • Mandinka catalog portrait, AI-generated, skin tone in view

Catalog portraits for Mandinka are AI-generated adult subjects; the measurements on this page come from documented photographs of real people, not from these images.

Fitzpatrick skin type

n = 66 assessable · 2 not assessable

Six-class ordinal classification of constitutive skin pigmentation, originally developed for sun-reactivity assessment but now the de-facto skin-tone vocabulary in dermatology and computer-vision fairness research.

ValueSharen
Type IV — olive / light brownBurns minimally, tans easily and well. Olive to light brown skin. Common in Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Latin American, Southeast Asian populations.2%1
Type V — brownRarely burns, tans deeply. Brown skin tone. Common in South Asian, North African, Middle Eastern, some Latin American populations.18%12
Type VI — deeply pigmented brown to blackNever burns, deeply pigmented at baseline. Common in Sub-Saharan African, African-diaspora, some South Asian, some Pacific Islander populations.77%51
Range IV-VBridging type used when assessment indicates the subject sits between Types IV and V.2%1
Range V-VIBridging type used when assessment indicates the subject sits between Types V and VI.2%1

Vocabulary: Fitzpatrick skin type (fitzpatrick_1988)

Skin undertone

n = 61 assessable · 7 not assessable

Hue character of the skin independent of overall depth (Fitzpatrick). Reflects relative balance of hemoglobin (red), melanin (brown), and carotenoid (yellow) contributions to perceived color.

ValueSharen
NeutralBalanced; neither warm nor cool dominant.59%36
Warm (yellow / golden)Yellow, peach, or golden cast. Veins on inner wrist appear greenish.31%19
Cool (pink / red / blue)Pink, rosy, or bluish cast. Veins on inner wrist appear blue or purple.10%6

Vocabulary: Skin undertone (undertone_qualitative)

Pigmentation pattern

n = 66 assessable · 1 not assessable

Distribution pattern of skin pigmentation independent of overall Fitzpatrick depth.

ValueSharen
UniformEven pigmentation across visible skin; no obvious lighter or darker patches.100%66

Vocabulary: Pigmentation pattern (pigmentation_pattern_qualitative)

Freckling density

n = 67 assessable

Density of visible freckles (ephelides) on the face. A separate dimension from pigmentation_pattern because freckling density varies continuously and is meaningful even within the freckled category.

ValueSharen
NoneNo discernible freckles.100%67

Vocabulary: Freckling density (freckle_density_qualitative)

Where these numbers come from

69 publicly documented portraits of notable Mandinka people were assessed by a vision model against the full 22-vocabulary schema, one value per dimension. Values are what the photographs show, read by a model, not population measurements. Each table counts only portraits where the value could be assessed; covered, obscured and unclear portraits are reported separately.

Notable-people corpora skew older, so hair color over-represents gray and white, and image quality varies. Treat shares as a description of this sample.

These rows are not yet in the published catalog dataset, which currently carries the earlier single-row analysis; see the methodology. A family page exists only when at least 10 portraits carry an assessable value.