What is the process of blood pooling in the skin after death called?

The process of blood pooling in the skin after death is called livor mortis. This phenomenon occurs as the heart stops beating, and gravity causes the blood to settle in the lower parts of the body. Livor mortis can help in determining the time of death, as it typically becomes noticeable within a couple of hours after death and continues to develop for up to 12 hours, after which it becomes fixed.

Understanding livor mortis is crucial in forensic science as it provides insights into the position of the body after death and can assist in ruling out or confirming certain hypotheses during an investigation. This is distinct from other terms related to post-mortem changes, such as rigor mortis, which refers to the stiffening of muscles, or decomposition, which involves the breakdown of body tissues. Contact wound relates more specifically to injuries caused by an object coming into direct contact with the skin rather than changes in blood flow post-death.