Horror, Sleaze and Trash.

The preserved tattoo “Roses and Daggers,” part of the Wellcome Collection. As fascinating as it is, public exhibits of preserved tattooed skin are rare and controversial. That’s in part because it’s unclear whether many of these skins were acquired ethically. The preserved skins in the Wellcome Collection, for example, were all purchased from a single mysterious individual. "As is often the case, the museum acquisition records are sketchy,“ Angel explained. "The seller called himself Dr. La Valette, but there was no registered medical professional by that name at the medical school during that time. In all likelihood, he was using a pseudonym—there had been one or two public scandals surrounding the use of human skin excised from cadavers to make souvenir items at the Paris medical faculty, as well as experimental tattoo removal on inmates at La Sante prison, so it makes sense that anyone in possession of such a large collection of preserved tattoos would be wary of revealing his identity.”
Photograph © Gemma Angel, courtesy of the Science Museum, London