A former Oregon man who recently moved to California is blue, and that's not a reference to his mood.

Paul Karason’s skin is a dark grayish-blue color.

The 57-year-old started making the transition from fair skin and freckles to shocking blue about 14 years ago.

"The change was so gradual, I didn't perceive it,” Karason said. “And people around me, it was so gradual that no one around me noticed. It wasn't until a friend I hadn't seen in months came by my parent's place to see me and he asked me, ‘Well what did you do?’ "

What he did was use a substance called colloidal silver.

Made by extracting silver into water with an electrical current, and drinking it, it's billed as a cold drug, decongestant and all-around germ fighter.

In fact, Karason swears by it. Even after turning his skin blue, he continues drinking the substance, but much less of it.

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Karason doesn't believe drinking the potion caused his discoloration. He believes it happened because he rubbed it on his face to treat a skin problem.

However, a medical condition called argyria has been linked to such discoloration since the days when silver solutions were used as antibiotics.

Argyria is a permanent skin condition.

Whatever the cause, Karason says it's not easy living life as a blue man.

"I do tend to avoid public places as much as I can,” he said.

His girlfriend, Jackie Northup, says she was surprised at first, but is now quite used to it.

"The only time now I really think about it or notice it is if we're out in public and people start staring,” Northup said.

Karason moved to Madera, Calif. about six months ago after living in Bend, Oregon. He says too many people there weren't nice to him and he hopes Madera residents will be different.

"I hope that they just accept me and learn to like me," Karason said. "And I think that will happen here. Where I was, I rather doubt it would have. This is a different kind of community here."