The Skin exhibition opens at the Wellcome Collection in London on June 10th and includes a collection of dry-prepared tattooed human skin specimens amassed by Dr ‘La Valette’ in the 19th century. Mostly homemade stuff but with some early machined pieces too. Shown to explore the fascination criminologists at the time had with tattoos as visual codes, seen as the harbinger of social degeneration. I’m more interested in how he got his hands on them…