Blood, Milk & Tears
My search to identify the tattooed man in a 1901 French police archive photograph - a tale of daggers through the heart, 19th-century milk advertisements, and a French paediatrician with a sideline in tattoo collecting.
Dry-preserved tattooed human skin (chest and abdomen), belonging to a man identified as 'Fromain', c.1901-1929.
Science Museum London (Wellcome Collection). Object number A555 (left) and A542 (right).
Photograph by Gemma Angel.
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It all began with two tattoos: a portrait of a young girl, and a dagger-through-the-heart.
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On Saturday June 15th 1929, Captain Johnston-Saint met with Dr. La Valette at the rue l'Ecole de Medicin in Paris to finalise the sale of a collection of curious objects.
Captain Peter Johnston-Saint was employed as a purchasing agent by Sir Henry Wellcome from ????-1936. He traveled all over Europe looking for objects of interest for Wellcome's 'Historical Medical Museum'.
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Ridge's (Patent Cooked) Foods - infant milk advertisement in 'The Sketch', August 2nd, 1893 p44.
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...I recognised her face instantly.
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I turned the page and gasped aloud, drawing disapproving looks from others in the library...