Original Skin

May 9, 2011
An omnibus of meandering essays on human epidermis takes Australian journalist Cuskelly through reflections on touch, tattooing, fingerprinting, and organ donation, among other themes. Cuskelly delves into skin color and new theories about reproduction that better explain why dark-skinned populations tended to be near the equator and light-skinned ones in the north. (Moreover, women have lighter skin tones than men in all racial groups in order to absorb more vitamin D when pregnant and breastfeeding.) Moles, aging, and blushing garner their own treatment, as well as a host of ghastly skin diseases from leprosy to melanoma. Most unnerving is Cuskelly's look at different cultural practices of flaying, such as depicted in Herodotus and Ovid and, later, its grisly apotheosis in the Nazi lampshades made of human skin. There's a good deal of humor ("Facial tattoos, for example, will most likely ensure that you have a seat to yourself on public transport") though such nuggets as "peering into the abyss" of severe burn injuries reveals startling information that elevates this lightweight title above an engaging magazine article.

June 1, 2011
We tan it, pierce it, and pamper it with lotions and perfumes, yet more often than not we take for granted how vitally important it is. The skin, which biology textbooks remind us belongs among the body's nine major organs, represents the fragile interface between our insides and our outsides, and its chronic underappreciation is something Australian Cuskelly is resolved to correct. In a smorgasbord of lyrical essays exploring the wonders of human flesh, Cuskelly takes the reader from Japanese bathhouses and tattoo parlors to Botox treatment centers and little-known library collections featuring books bound in the skin of executed criminals. At times her prose becomes ecstatic, as when she reminisces about her young son's obsession with touch, while other excursions are more unsettling, as when she profiles a serial killer who fashioned suits from his victims' flayed skin. While Cuskelly also dutifully addresses the scientific angles of the human epidermis, it's in urging readers to contemplate their own mortal flesh that this fascinating and sensuously written volume excels.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)