ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Livor mortis

Okay kiddo, so you know how when you cut your finger, it turns red and kinda swollen? Well, something similar happens when someone dies. When a person dies, the blood stops moving around their body and starts to settle in one place. This makes the skin turn a purple-ish color in that area.

This is called livor mortis, which means "death color" in Latin. It usually starts to show up within 30 minutes to 2 hours after a person dies, and becomes more noticeable over time.

The reason this happens is because the red blood cells start to break down and release a chemical called hemoglobin. This chemical reacts with the tissues in the body and makes the skin take on a purple hue where the blood has pooled.

So, livor mortis is just the scientific way to describe the purple-ish coloring that you might see on someone's skin after they have died. It's not something to be scared of, but rather a natural process that happens after death.