The presence of bilirubin deposits in the skin, whites of the eyes and mucosa. Bilirubin, the unrecyclable waste products of hemoglobin, are normally excreted in the bile, get carried down the intestinal tract and colour our faeces its usual comfortable brown. If the bile ducts are blocked, blood breaks down too quickly, or the liver itself is diseased (it performs much of the recycling), then the yellow/orange/brown bilirubin has nowhere to go but out the urine (making it the standard hepatitis color) and into the skin. Jaundice ain't bad...its the causes that one should worry about.