New book on dark tourism...

Image: the wreckage of the World Trade Centre, Steve McCurry

Edited by Philip Stone and Richard Sharpley of the Dark Tourism Forum, Tourist Experience: Contemporary Perspectives features three chapters dedicated to thanatourism. Set to be published in September, you can pre-order a copy here!

Heritage that hurts...

Image: 'Work sets you free', the gate at Auschwitz, Kvinnonet

From Auschwitz to Ground Zero: dealing with heritage that hurts is a new weekend-long course being offered by the Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge. The course examines how and why sites wounded by violent events have been remembered - or not. It will also explore why historic sites and monuments are specifically targeted for destruction. For more information and booking details, see here.

Using the Killing Fields of Cambodia, the Oklahoma City National Memorial, Ground Zero, Auschwitz and the Soviet Gulags among others as case-studies, we will reflect on how these 'dark tourism' sites are 'produced' and 'consumed'. We will ask: why tourists visit, what they experience while they are there and what messages they walk away with.

Book of the Dead...

Image: Catatonic Man, Magenta Magazine 

This photograph is one of 52 images captured by Canadian photographer James Burman in his provocative new book, The Dead. The book is a collection of memento moris and post-mortem photography that documents his travels from the catacombs of Sicily to the gas chambers of Poland. You can read more about the book and the man in question here, which alas, is only available in the US and Canada at this time.

Skeletons do pin-up...

Images: Style Noir

Medical imaging firm EIZO decided to make their own version of the infamous Pirelli calendar for 2010 as a marketing give-away, highlighting their expertise in the field.With 12 images of naked women literally baring all, what do you think of the end result? As an ardent admirer of the pin-up aesthetic and obviously, a self-confessed fan of the, er, skeleton, I can't help feeling that this just verges on the ever-so-slighty creepy...

Teenage undertakers...

Image: The Arts Desk

Interesting programme on last night about teenage undertakers...if you've ever fancied a nose behind closed doors, check out the programme here.

Skeleton of dismembered child found by archaeologists...

Image: Dr Jill Eyers, Bucks Free Press

Archaeologists re-investigating a mass burial of 97 infants have discovered the skeleton of a dismembered child. The group has been carrying out tests on excavation finds from 1912 at the Yewden villa, examining the remains of the infants which were rediscovered in boxes kept at Buckinghamshire County Museum. The examination has revealed that the infants died at 40 weeks gestation, leading Chiltern archaeologists to suspect that the site in Hambleden could have been a Roman brothelm, where unwanted children were systematically killed.

For more on this story, see here or alternatively, check out the new BBC series 'Digging for Britain' which features the excavations at Yewden villa in the first episode.

Tattoo collection...

Yoinked from Morbid Anatomy, I highly recommend checking out the ‘photo story’ documenting a collection of tattoos found in the Department of Forensic Medicine at Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.

Image: Morbid Anatomy

Accompanying the images is a fascinating article, an excerpt from which is provided below!

Preserving the Criminal Code

Photo Stories

Katarzyna Mirczak

In Poland, tattoos are common among criminals. Traditionally, they could be found on people who exhibited a tendency towards perverse behaviour: such as burglars, thieves, rapists and pimps. It was noticed that a significant percentage of tattooed people showed signs of personality disorders and aggressive behaviour. In the 1960s in Poland, getting a prison tattoo required special skills and criminal ambition – it was a kind of ennoblement, each tattoo in the criminal world was meaningful…

The tattoo collection at the Department of Forensic Medicine at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland consists of 60 objects preserved in formaldehyde, a method devised by one of the experts employed by the Department at the turn of 20th century.

The tattoos were collected from the prisoners of the nearby state penitentiary on Montelupich Street as well as from the deceased on whom autopsies were performed.

The majority of the prison tattoos represent connections between the convicts. Besides gestures and mimics it is a kind of secret code – revealing why ‘informative’ tattoos appeared on uncovered body parts: face, neck or arms.

The collection was created with a view to deciphering the code – among prisoners known as a ‘pattern language’.

By looking closely at the prisoners’ tattoos, their traits, temper, past, place of residence or the criminal group in which they were involved could be determined.

The entire photo story, with the full article and image collection can be found here.

Hande with Care...

Image: Metro

Held in Chiltern Woodland Burial Park, the exhibition will run for two days from 10-11 July 2010 and will provide visitors the opportunity to visit the grounds and view a bewildering array of coffins. Manufactors of said coffins will also be on hand should you feel the sudden urge to make a purchase…for further details see the website.

Death on display...

Image: ABC News

Interesting news story on the BBC website about the iconic plaster casts of Pompeii which are the subject of a new exhibition and raising all sorts of questions about ‘dark tourism’ and the notion of the ‘real thing’…