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Stories

  • Article

The case for safe skin bleaching

Skin bleaching tends to attract a negative press for a whole host of reasons. But when used to treat medical problems, its positive side becomes clear.

  • Article

Colonialism and the origins of skin bleaching

The widespread practice of skin bleaching was heavily influenced by the Western colonisation and slavery of African and South Asian countries. Ngunan Adamu explores this toxic history.

  • Article

A brief history of tattoos

The earliest evidence of tattoo art dates from 5000 BC, and the practice continues to hold meaning for many cultures around the world.

  • Article

Illuminated manuscripts, illuminating medicines

From rare bugs to exorbitantly priced plant parts, find out more about the artistic and medical uses of pigments from the past.

All stories (6)

Images

  • Arsenical pigmentation of the skin
  • Right hand of man with pigmentation of the skin and clubbing of the fingers
  • Infant with a large pigmented area of skin on the right loin
  • Face of a man with peculiar staining of the skin, caused by melanotic sarcomata
  • Hands of a man with peculiar staining of the skin, caused by melanotic sarcomata
  • Wonderful spotted boy : seventeen months old, from the Caribee Islands, in the West Indies : to be seen at no.42, Piccadilly, opposite St. James' Churc. He is the progeny of negroes, on whose body is a display of the wonderful works of God ...
  • Right hand showing the later stages of pemphigus vegetans
  • Foot showing the later stages of pemphigus vegetans
  • The cabinet of curiosities, or wonders of the world displayed. No.5, The Spotted Negro Boy.
  • The cabinet of curiosities, or wonders of the world displayed. No.5, The Spotted Negro Boy.
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