The Fading Beauty of San Nicolas

There was a period in my life when I spent a considerable amount of time hanging around bars in Manila. I had friends who were musicians, and I'd go watch their gigs. After they wrapped up, our usual move was to head over to Marcy's house in San Nicolas to just chill.

What makes San Nicolas special is that it’s considered a heritage district of the city. Even now, you can still see these 19th-century ancestral houses, which were home to wealthy businessmen, artisans, and craftsmen. I have such vivid memories of wandering through those narrow alleys. You’d hear the neighbors chatting away, and you could see this amazing mix of history and everyday life happening all at once.

Honestly, it makes me a little sad to see how much time and modernization have changed San Nicolas. Those gorgeous wooden houses with all their intricate carvings are slowly disappearing. What used to feel like a living museum of Manila’s heritage is really struggling to hold onto its unique identity now.

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Preserved tattoos of the dead

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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finding cain

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