Active cutaneous technology to emulate the cutaneous characteristics of skin in medical training and other applications. Skin color changes are implemented with paint-on, electrically tunable, reflecting material that can conform to a mold, such as a manikin body or consumer product, and will enable the device to simulate skin. For example, skin colors associated with bruises, blue skin or cyanosis, redness from carbon monoxide poisoning or over radiation, and yellow skin from jaundice. Skin texture changes (e.g., goosebumps, rashes, and poxes) are established using tunable topological polymer films that grow in predetermined directions. Hair-raising, or piloerections, are accomplished with polymer-MEMS with varying thermal expansion coefficients on either side of a hair fiber due to anisotropic molecular alignment. These technologies are integrated, addressable and programmable through a control system.