Vintage Photos of the Hands of Workers and Artisans

Whenever I go out of town, I’m always surprised by how different my hands feel and look after a few days off my normal schedule. I am by no means a manual laborer, but with all the cutting, woodworking, painting, cooking, instrument playing, bike riding, and other things to which I put my hands, there’s always a cut, a callous, a scar, an abrasion, or non-human-skin-like coloring.

Weird Universe found these old photographs of the hands of laborers, artists, craftspeople, and factory workers that detail the damage left by each profession, published in 1942. The guy on the top left is a leather tanner and has basically tanned his own skin, and the one below is a wood carver with callouses left from holding a chisel all day. Top right is a jeweler with a dislocated thumb, and below him a metal worker with steel particles buried into his skin.

And this guy? A walnut sheller. Huh.

See them all at The Worker’s Hand [Weird Universe]