#51// tattoos, murders, ber

tattoos and murders

Dear Reader,

Instagram starts reminding me that the ‘ber’ months are here (September, October, November, December, for anyone wondering). It is the perfect time to cuddle up with cozy crime, wintry reads, gothic doorstoppers, horror books; what did I miss?

Read

Recently I chomped on this utterly delicious Japanese mystery The Tattoo Murder by Akimitsu Takagi. Funny enough, this was one of the choices for a read along at The Satchel Book Club, and lost the poll to The Mill house Murders (a more subtle, classic, cozy crime).

First published in 1948, The Tattoo Murder is translated into English by Deborah Boehm. It opens in 1947 at the first post-war meeting of the Edo tattoo society where a stunning Kinue Nomura, daughter of a famous tattoo artist, reveals her full body tattoo of a snake and wins appreciation and applause.

At the event, she hints to her new friend (and soon to be lover), Kenzo, a medical student, that she fears for her life. In a few days, Kinue is found murdered in a locked bathroom in her home. Her torso (and hence the beautiful body art) is missing. Her dismembered limbs are all that’s left of her corpse. Soon enough, more murders follow and the police suspect a tattoo-maniac might be behind them.

As the police investigation progresses, we learn that Kinue’s tattoo might be the cause of her downfall. Several superstitions surround the art of tattoos. A snake tattoo around the torso most certainly needs a ‘cut’ at a hidden portion of the body such as the armpit because the snake’s embrace might make it difficult to sleep and lead to death in three years. The most “taboo of all tattoos” are the Three Curses. There’s a saying “The snake eats the frog, the frog eats the slug, and the slug dissolves the snake.” These three animals are familiars of three rival sorcerers. If anybody tattoos all three on the same body, the creatures will fight to death. It seems the master tattoo artist, Kinue’s father, tattooed the three curses on his three children (two daughters, one being Kinue, and one son), inviting their deaths in mysterious circumstances. There’s a vivid scene where Kinue describes the curses and the tragic end that might follow in an intimate moment with Kenzo. When the police investigation does not yield results, Kenzo grows suspicious of these taboos that he hadn’t given much attention to earlier. (PS: There are two more investigators trying to get to the root of this mystery)

Cozy crime it may be, but The Tattoo Murder has a habit of surprising you, subtly or not, at the most unexpected places. In the middle of an important discussion, the author takes our eyes towards a display of disarticulated hand bones with missing finger joints, pointing at the custom of Japanese gangsters chopping away bits of their fingers to atone for errors in judgement (Yikes!). Or you might be trying to understand a clue when a character mentions a divorced mother throwing her tiny children into the mouth of a volcano (What?). Or how about the time when a woman passionately seduces her lover saying “I think it would be incredibly romantic to make love one last time and then have you kill me and dissolve my body in sulfuric acid” (Talk about golden age rizz)

The cast of characters is rich and diverse—tattooed women, yakuzas, assistants, lustful men. The mystery takes us through pleasure houses, shady streets, the seedy underbelly, rich people’s houses, tattoo exhibitions, dive bars, illegal tattoo centers frowned upon by mainstream society, post-war Japan and more. One of the shadiest characters is The Professor, fondly called Dr. Tattoo because of his obsession with tattoos—“He’s always sniffing around, trying to buy people’s skins before they die”. He has a collection (!) of tattooed skins, and takes pleasure in tattoo exhibitions.

The climax is predictable if you’ve had enough experience with golden mysteries but I absolutely loved the way the story progressed. The familiar listing of clues and suspects, voting out the improbable, finding loopholes—it’s really the perfect chunky title to read in bed that you wouldn’t even mind the weird stuff like the woman who carried her lover’s *brinjal emoji* in her purse. Absolute campy, pulpy, entertaining stuff.

Buy on Amazon In or at your local bookstore.

Read more

If you are like me, you simply can’t stop at one. Here’s a mix of Japanese cozy crime and modern crime fiction—

Watch

My cozy crime lovers must be wrapped up in the now-running Only Murders in the Building Season 3. Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are at their best, though there is no ‘podcast’ as of yet. The latest season as cozy as it can get—the murder of the main lead in the middle of the play on the stage. It is progressing slow, but oooh is Meryl Streep one of the suspects?

Amazing links

Summer reading list 2023 (by yours truly)

All the useful AI websites in one place

Training wheels : Learn to flirt

Annotating AI and the rise of the underclass

How cooking videos took over the world (PS: Loved this. This kind of interactive journalism is definitely the next big thing)

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I hope you have the coziest ber months ahead!

Much love,

Resh x