Human Leather?

After coming across a post on Instagram claiming that during the French Revolution, the government allowed the bodies of those guillotined to be skinned and tanned, and then turned into various goods, such as boots, pants, and jackets. The post also claimed that the skin of a man was preferred for fashion, because the skin of a woman was too soft to be useful. Is there any truth to the claim? Is there a market for Human Leather?

During the French Revolution, at least 17,000 people were officially condemned to death via the guillotine, however it is suggested that the number could be double that when taking into account other means of execution. Despite this, there is actually very little evidence on the internet to support the claim that the skin of those people were taken and turned into goods. In fact, nearly every document claims that the bodies of the dead were buried in the Paris catacombs.

According to Un detail inutile?, a book by Jean-Clément Martin, there is evidence to support the claim. The book draws on witness testimony from a committee that was assessing the conduct of the Military Commission and Revolutionary Committee during the Reign of Terror. The men testified that a military surgeon named Pequel flayed “thirty or so” corpses, and the skins had been tanned and taken to the premises of a manchonnier, or a “sleeve-maker”.

The credibility of the witnesses has been called into question, and as such, there is no guarantee that their claims were factual.

However, in 1852, historian Godard Faultrier tracked down an old man who had been an eye-witness to the fusillades at Sainte-Gemmes when he was just thirteen or fourteen. When asked about the victims whose skins had been removed and tanned, he reported that he had seen several bodies skinned from the waist down, lying beside the water on the river bank.

With that, trousers were already partially formed, all they had to do was tan and sew.

Other cultures have made items from human skin. For example, the Ekoi people in Nigeria and Cameroon use masks made from human skin during funeral ceremonies.

In Scotland in 1828, serial killer William Burke was executed and then publicly dissected. His skeleton was given to the Anatomical Museum of the Edinburgh Medical School where it remains to this day. However, in terms of his skin, it is reported that a book bound with his tanned skin can be seen at Surgeons’ Hall Museum.

We can’t talk about human leather without also talking about American serial killer, Ed Gein. Gein was known not only for killing, but also grave robbing and skinning his victims to make common household products. Some items he created included a belt, lamp shades, a waste basket, seat covers, not to mention a bodysuit and more.

There is also reportedly a company called “Human Leather” that specializes in creating fashion products from human skin (belts, wallets, hand bags). The company claimed to have received their supply of human skin from willing participants or donors who agreed to sign over their skin upon their death.

According to Human Leather, there are “prime” parts of the human body, namely the back and abdomen, for making fine products. These areas have the greatest amount of “uninterrupted material” and therefore are best for producing human leather. The tanning process is the same as the process for animal leathers and human leather is supposedly the finest grain leather, producing the smoothest and softest on earth.

For full transparency, we were not able to locate Human Leather to confirm any of the information posted about them on numerous sites. The web address listed for them does not work (www.humanleather.com)

If you look beyond harvesting skin from people, you get to the next concept. A project has created the concept of growing human leather in laboratories with the DNA of a person. Tina Gorjanc created the concept for her final master’s project and even patented the concept to use the DNA from late designer Alexander McQueen.

While the concept is conceptual, according to the website, www.tinagorjanc.com/pure-human, there are concerns regarding the patentability of human genetic materials.

Finally, there is a company that provides a service to collect and preserve human skin. www.savemyink.tattoo has developed a unique proprietary process for preserving the tattoos of the deceased. When a loved one passes, family can have the tattoo removed from their body, preserved, and framed.