SPOILERS!!!
1. SKIN
First Published: 1952
This is the story that starts the collection and gives its name to the book. This takes place in France. An old man Drioli approaches an art gallery and sees the work of someone he used to know years ago, Chaim Soutine. The man remembers the day in 1913 when he, his wife and Soutine were celebrating Drioli's success. Then Drioli came up with the idea of Soutine tattooed a picture of his wife on his back, and Drioli told him that he would show him how to tattoo. Soutine was reluctant at first, but he did it.
Now Drioli walks into the gallery, but he is asked to leave. Then he says that he also has a painting by Soutine, and he uncovers his back and shows them. The group of people there are amazed, and two men want the painting and offer Drioli money, but he says that it is not possible. One of them offer him to work for him in his Bristol Hotel in Cannes whereas another man says that they will get a surgeon and remove the tattoo and the skin will be replaced. Some people fear for the man's health as he is not young. In the end Drioli decides to accept the offer of the man who owns the hotel.
The story concludes saying that the painting appeared a few weeks later in an art gallery, and it is noteworhty that there is no Bristol Hotel in Cannes. This suggests that the man must have been killed somehow.
This is quite a creepy story, and I like the fact that we never know what happened to Drioli, and it is the reader who has to guess the end for this man.
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