Tattoos. From rushed jobs with questionable quality to gigantic projects that stretch over years, it's hard to deny their deep artistic profile. Experienced tattoo artists can surely describe a more exact number of problems associated with tattoos, but right now two come to mind: their complex reversibility, and the fact of being created on a perishable medium such as human skin. However, a Japanese doctor known as Fukushi Masaichi dedicated a good part of his life to preserving tattoos by 'rescuing' them from the corpses of their owners...
Many people on the Web enjoy making a face swap with their tattoos, an activity that usually guarantees funny and horrifying results. At the same time, some professionals have managed to fully embrace new media, and use them to share their works, combining concepts as different as tribal tattoos and electronic circuits. Forms of expression, simple impulses, long-term projects... the definition of a tattoo changes with each person, but one thing is sure: They are not forever.
Fukushi Masaichi: The Tattoo Collector
Fukushi Masaichi was a Japanese physician. He was the creator of the only collection of tattoos in the world, recovered from corpses. In the mid-1920s, this pathologist focused his attention on irezumi, traditional Japanese tattoos. He managed to form a very good relationship with his patients, who, delighted with the idea of protecting their tattoos, gave him explicit permission to do so. In fact, it is believed that Fukushi even financed the completion of some tattoos.
His dedication turned into a gigantic collection of 2,000 'real' tattoos and about 3,000 photographs. Unfortunately, most of that material was lost during the Second World War. Only a fraction survived thanks to Fukushi storing it in an air-raid shelter. Fukushi's son, Katsunari, has been in charge of preserving his father's legacy. Several of the surviving tattoos are in the University of Tokyo's Pathology Museum, but it is not open to the public.
