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.

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.

Tattoo competition at the Wellcome Collection...

Image: Don't Panic

A slightly bonkers competition in which you can get your design tattooed on a willing museum volunteer…see here for further details!

Skin...

Image: Wellcome Collection

10 June-26 September 2010, Wellcome Collection

This exhibition invites you to re-evaluate the largest and probably most overlooked human organ. We will consider the changing importance of skin, from anatomical thought in the 16th century through to contemporary artistic exploration.

‘Skin’ takes a philosophical approach, beginning by looking at the skin as a frontier between the inside and the outside of the body. Early anatomists saw it as having little value and sought to flay it to reveal the workings of the body beneath.

The exhibition then moves to look at the skin as a living document: with tattoos, scars, wrinkles or various pathologies, our skin tells a story of our life so far. Finally, the skin is considered as a sensory organ of touch and as a delicate threshold between the public and private self.

Through shivers, sweats, blushes, wrinkles and scars, our skin provides extraordinary, visible documentation of our life. Don’t miss this extraordinary exhibition where we will consider our existence within our constantly changing skin.