KHO Story Time - Doctor Fukushi Masaichi: A Dying Art

Tattooing and art have always intertwined, but a Japanese doctor by the name of Fukushi Masaichi would take this one step further. With many people calling him the skin collector, he would take the skin of deceased Yakuza members, infamous for their incredible body suit tattoo’s, and preserve them. Intrigued by the tattoos, Maisachi would immortalise these skin suits and are now in museums for people to see.

With tattooing still being a taboo in Japan, with its heavy connotations with the Japanese mafia, for a doctor to do this in 1878 was extremely out of the ordinary. Although, unlike a character out of horror film, the doctor instead has a profound admiration for the tattoos and both family’s and individuals would donate him their bodies after their death for him to operate on.

The fusion of art and tattooing like this is likely still today unmatched, and his visceral body suits both make us grimace and astonished through their beauty at the same time.