Tattoos that we can see in almost everyone’s body today; While for some it was a perception of aesthetics, for some it was a lifestyle, for some it was a symbolic meaning, for some it was just a fun experience, for Doctor Masichi it was a strange interest.
Masichi traveled the Earth talking to tattooed people, making deals to get their skins when they died. Indeed, it achieved its purpose. He had the skin of many tattooed people.
Masaichi’s interest in medicine had led him to other paths, and he found himself hiding the skins of dead people.
Fukushi Masaichi, born in 1878, had a great interest in medicine. After studying at the University of Tokyo, he started working on syphilis by founding the Japanese Society of Pathology.
While working on syphilis, the pathologist noticed something; tattoo ink was able to repair the skin damage caused by the disease. Upon realizing this, he experienced a turning point and in 1907 he began to take an interest in tattoos. He was particularly interested in tattoos owned by members of the Japanese mafia Yakuza.
He met many tattooed people and made deals with them.
While working at Mitsui Memorial Hospital in Tokyo, which is mostly underclass, he met people like many gangsters and lower-class workers. Almost all of these people had tattoos.
The doctor, who went to many parts of the world and talked to tattooed people, offered money to get their skin after they died. In fact, he even covered the fees for tattoos that would be done by those whose financial situation was not very good. He paid some of them a lot of money to get full body tattoos. He didn’t have a single tattoo.
Having collected hundreds of skins, the doctor even opened an exhibition by turning his work into art.
The doctor, who took the skins of deceased tattooed people, collected 2000 human skins and documented them with more than 3000 photographs. This was stripping the skins from the body and scraping off the nerves and tissues. He then stretched the skin and waited for it to dry. He managed to hide them using glycerin or formalin.
As a result of an air raid, only 105 of his collection remained, and with these remaining pieces he had a non-public display at the Tokyo University Medical Pathology Museum.
Now outwardly strange, Masaichi held a respected position in the medical community and was the world’s only known tattoo collector. What do you think, is this an art or a weird obsession?
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