Japanese Doctor was the World’s Leading Colleector of Body Torn Tattoos

August 14, 2020 2:45 pm By Nadia Vella

Fukushi Masaichi (1878-1956) was a Japanese pathologist, and was passionate about Irezumi: Japanese Style Tattoo often associate with Yakuza.

He was so passionate about them that he started to document them, and even remove the skin from donated body to preserve them and keep them stretched in a glass case. He would also offer to pay money to help people finish their tattoo if they would allow him to skin their body upon their passing away and preserve the tattoos.

Today his collection is kept at the Medical Pathology Museum of Tokyo University, and contain more than 3,000 photographs of tattoos (heavily documented with notes) and 105 tattooed human skins (many of which are full body suits).