The RSU Anatomy Museum’s collection of tattooed skin evaluated by expert from the University of Oxford

From 31 May to 1 June Gemma Angel, a researcher and lecturer from the Department of Visual, Material and Museum Anthropology at the University of Oxford, visited the Anatomy Museum of Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) and worked with the museum’s collections.

Currently the RSU Anatomy Museum is creating a catalogue on the museum’s tattooed skin collection with the support of the State Culture Capital Foundation. Gemma Angel has been invited to contribute her academic expertise. 

‘Our museum has 30 exhibits of tattooed skin that were created in the Anatomical Theatre in the 1920s. It is known that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries similar collections were created elsewhere in Europe as well. We would like our catalogue to not only be visually impressive, but to also be valuable from an academic perspective so that our collection can place among other similar collections in Europe. Gemma Angel is a researcher and a renowned expert on this topic,’ explains Ieva Lībiete, the Head of the museum. 

Angel’s topics of research covers the history and anthropology of tattooing in Europe including the preservation of tattooed human skin. In 2014 Gemma defended her PhD thesis – a study of the largest collection of over 300 preserved specimens of tattooed human skin held in storage at the Science Museum in London.

After a detailed study of the RSU Anatomy Museum’s collection, Angel commented that ‘the tattoo collection at RSU contains a fascinating range of images and phrases, and is unique among the collections I have studied in so far as there is also archive documentation connecting the specimens with the individuals who wore them in life. This is an exciting historical thread that has the potential to reveal so much more about European tattooing in the early 20th century, which still remains a very misunderstood practice.’

At the beginning of 2019 a project developed by the RSU Anatomy Museum won the Museum Development Programme competition announced by the State Culture Capital Foundation. It received financial support for the preparation and publication of the museum catalogue Ādas/Skins. Gemma Angel, a researcher from the University of Oxford, and Kristians Brekte, a Professor at the Art Academy of Latvia, are involved in the implementation of the project. The catalogue will be published in early 2020 in English and Latvian.