M0019275: Tattooing instruments with box and pigments. Bushongo, Congo

Previous title, replaced July 2022: Tatooing instruments, box and pigments. Bushongo, Congo.

Photograph of a set of tattooing instruments, with carved wooden box and sample of pigment, originally from the Bushongo, or Songora, people based around the Congo River region. The set was purchased at auction by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum in 1935 and accessioned in 1938 (accession number R1017/1938). It was removed from the Museum's holdings in 1965.

December 1962

1 photograph sheet film negative; 10.2 x 12.7 cm

Wellcome Collection holds the accession register which provides an entry for the item: R1017/1938

Copyright is held by Wellcome Collection

Catalogue data comes from a combination of entries in the original glass plate registers, metadata created when the glass plates were digitised in the early 2000s and enhancements made by the cataloguer in 2022.

This item is fragile. Email library@wellcomecollection.org to request access to the physical item.