A Dying Art – Doctor Fukushi Masaichi, the Body Collector
Tattooed skin is an ever-increasing aesthetic, becoming more of an accepted accessory to your look, even within Japan. Especially amongst the youth; the more synergized the East becomes with the West and vice versa the more tattoos are being celebrated rather than scorned. Although in Japan there were, and still are, big connotations with tattoos and the Yakuza so in general these are frowned upon.
Although, one Doctor, Fukushi Masaichi, would not seek to abolish these tattooed bodysuits of the Yakuza but instead preserve them, and we mean this in every sense of the word. Masaichi, born in 1878, would become a well-respected doctor, but more known for something else; collecting the tattooed bodysuits of deceased people.
A doctor by trade, Masaichi would become obsessed with tattooed skin through his work and the people he met. He was fascinated by it, especially the bodysuits of the Yakuza. He would ask people if that when they die, he could preserve their art by peeling off their skin. Two different methods were used to preserve the doctors ‘hides’: wet and dry. The skin was gently peeled away from the body and the nerves and tissues were scraped off. It was then stretched out to dry, or with the wet method, it was preserved by immersion in either glycerin or formalin.
It’s not as morbid as one would think. In fact, Masaichi would curate a highly respected collection of art with this endeavour over his many years, and it would always be regulated. Masaichi would sometimes pay his subjects or offer to pay for their skin to be tattooed in return for their skin once they pass, and would also go on to set up a club where people would come along and admire each other’s art.
Although grizzly work, the result was, at his peak, a collection of 2000 bodysuits preserved in all their glory before losing most of it to air raid bombings. Now, just 105 remain and can be seen on display at the Medical Pathology Museum of Tokyo University, although is not open to the public.
