When Will Lee, the actor who played Mr. Hooper in Sesame Street, died of heart attack in 1982, he had already shot several episodes set to air the next year so his absence did not have to be immediately explained. One year after, the producers decided that no one would replace him and that it was time young viewers learned one of the saddest facts of life: Death. Farewell, Mr. Hooper aired on November 24, 1983, Thanksgiving Day. Thirty-two years later this episode still makes me weep.
The idea of preserving tattoos after death came into existence long before NAPSA . London's Wellcome Collection has over 300 specimens of preserved human flesh bearing tattoos , collected in the late 19th century. There are many more examples of smaller collections in Paris, Poland, Portugal, Berlin, and Austria. But what fascinates me the most is this lesser-known museum at Tokyo University, the Medical Pathology Museum, which houses pieces of skin collected since 1926 by Dr. Masaichi Fukushi. "Fukushi would perform autopsies on donated cadavers and dissect off just the skin. He created a method of treatment to preserve the skin and kept them stretched in a glass frame, essentially like a leather. Later the ownership of the tattooed skin collection was passed on to Fukushi's son Katsunari. Katsunari added a further 20 tattooed skins himself and it's believed that the Medical Pathology Museum has 105 in its collection, many with full body suits." ...
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