The largest selection of preserved tattoos is from London's Wellcome Collection.
A tattoo on a piece of human skin showing a male bust and a flower stem.
There are over 300 individual pieces of skin, collected in the late 19th century.
A nude female, a pot of flowers and some guy.
They were preserved by slicing the tattoo off the body, scraping the connective tissue off the back, and then pinning the skin to dry.
A lady, possibly a girlfriend, surrounded by a garland of flowers.
As it dried, the skin would shrink away from the pins, creating a scooped effect around the edges.
A Greek-style bust of an Emperor and some writing.
Back then, tattoos were considered to be the mark of a criminal, or at least criminal tendencies or general badness.
A flower and some initials.
Medical men tried to interpret the most common images and symbols they found.
France, 1850-1920. A table set with a knife, fork, wine, a bunch of roses and a hand grasping a dagger.
Stars, butterflies, flowers, whatever.
République française. France, 1850-1920.
A lot of these.
France, 1880-1920.
The museum records aren't great, and no one's entirely certain that the one guy they acquired the tattoos from was using his real name.
A seated lady and a standing dude.
Or where, specifically, he got them from.
A figure of a man with a large dagger surrounded by female angels with trumpets. France, 1830-1900.
Maybe they came from prisoners.
Writing on a piece of human skin, 'Enfant du Malheur' (child of misery).
Maybe they came from soldiers in the French Foreign Legion.
France, 1850-1920. Naval symbols including an anchor and the image of a soldier with the word Legion above it.
Maybe someone had a hot girlfriend called Flora and wanted you to know about it.
A nude female called Flora.
Maybe this guy was a sailor who was just really into pictures of sailors.
France, 1880-1920. A sailor and two women wearing hats.
But we don't know whose nipple this was.
A flower and a selection of people.
Or what happened on May 19, 1891.
A heart with an arrow through it and the date of the 19th May 91.
Maybe he fell in love with this lady.
A female face.
Or bought a fan and liked it a lot.
A fan. Late 19th century.
No idea.
A small human figure. Late 19th century.
H/T to Simon Davis who wrote about human pelts and The Art of Preserving Tattooed Skin After Death.
