Despite how some later interpretations claiming 黑 is a window turning black due to smoke from fires, the earliest version of the character clearly shows a person with a line across his face. So 黑 actually means tattoos. So originally it was pretty much the same meaning as 黥, which uses facial tattoo to mark a person for life as a form of punishment. 墨 originally likely also meant the ink used to tattoo a criminal’s face.
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