266
skin suit. Unlike cotton and silk, the skin is thick and strength is required to pierce
the hide with the bone needle ( http://en.showchina.org/Features/15/3/200907/
t368164.htm ).
Yet it has not been until relatively recent times that Western culture has utilized
more than a few species of fi sh to make leather (see for review Price 2005 ). Sharks,
for example, have been used for their strong, rough lenticular abrasive surface, that
is ideal for military boots, and non-slip sword handles. Eels on the other hand have
extremely smooth, thin, skin, but it too is very strong and consequently used in the
high-end shoe and purse/wallet markets. During World War II, Norwegians covered
their feet with salmon skins. In the Western Fjords of Iceland, people made shoes
from the Atlantic wolfi sh and even measured the length of mountain-roads with
their endurance as they counted how many pair of shoes they had to use to get from
a to b. These were not durable shoes, and as a result people mostly used them as
slippers and to wear in the hay fi elds when harvesting grass (see for details http://
www.huld.is/ ).
In the last decade, however, the skin of farmed fi sh, Tilapia and salmon, has
stormed into the global designer fashion industry for clothing and small items such
as belts, purses, wallets, and bikinis. It is well established that the fi sh skin can be
processed and transformed into a quality raw material of unique and peculiar aspect
after tanning, due to its resistance and drawing on its surface, mainly the skins of
fi sh with scales.
According to Ingram and Dixon ( 1994 ), the skin of fi sh is considered an exotic
and innovative leather, and is being accepted in different clothing industry segments.
It has been verifi ed that in the fi sh skin commercialization and industrialization
there are problems associated with its small size and apparent fragility. However,
because of the need to know and test the quality of this raw material, some works
have been developed to test its resistance by physical-mechanical interrogations.
The after-tanning exotic drawing of the skins of fi sh with scales compensates its
reduced size. The original drawing of these skins, which can hardly be imitated by
impression plates on other leathers, hinders the falsifi cation of this type of product,
mainly if the lamellas of insertion of the scale are more elongated (Price 2005 ).
The physical-mechanical tests confi rm that the skins of fi sh present variable
resistance in function of a series of factors such as: the species of fi sh and composition of collagen fi bers, the fi sh dimensions, technique of tanning employed, region
of the skin and orientation or direction of the leather (longitudinally and transversally to the length of the fi sh), among others.
As for the species, the resistance of the skin is related to its architectural histology,
e.g., the disposition, orientation and composition of the collagen fi bers. According
to Junqueira et al. ( 1983 ), the structural arrangement of the collagen fi bers in the
compact dermis, as well as the thickness of its stratus, allows for the skin to present
great resistance to different traction forces. Therefore, the skin of some species of
fi sh can be used commercially in the confection of leather devices. As for the size of
the fi sh, it is directly related to the thickness of the skin: as the fi sh grow, the skin
proportionally thickens due to the increasing amount of collagen fi bers, which will
react with the tanning agents and give the characteristic resistance to the leather.
6 Fish Skin: From Clothing to Tissue Engineering
skin suit. Unlike cotton and silk, the skin is thick and strength is required to pierce
the hide with the bone needle ( http://en.showchina.org/Features/15/3/200907/
t368164.htm ).
Yet it has not been until relatively recent times that Western culture has utilized
more than a few species of fi sh to make leather (see for review Price 2005 ). Sharks,
for example, have been used for their strong, rough lenticular abrasive surface, that
is ideal for military boots, and non-slip sword handles. Eels on the other hand have
extremely smooth, thin, skin, but it too is very strong and consequently used in the
high-end shoe and purse/wallet markets. During World War II, Norwegians covered
their feet with salmon skins. In the Western Fjords of Iceland, people made shoes
from the Atlantic wolfi sh and even measured the length of mountain-roads with
their endurance as they counted how many pair of shoes they had to use to get from
a to b. These were not durable shoes, and as a result people mostly used them as
slippers and to wear in the hay fi elds when harvesting grass (see for details http://
www.huld.is/ ).
In the last decade, however, the skin of farmed fi sh, Tilapia and salmon, has
stormed into the global designer fashion industry for clothing and small items such
as belts, purses, wallets, and bikinis. It is well established that the fi sh skin can be
processed and transformed into a quality raw material of unique and peculiar aspect
after tanning, due to its resistance and drawing on its surface, mainly the skins of
fi sh with scales.
According to Ingram and Dixon ( 1994 ), the skin of fi sh is considered an exotic
and innovative leather, and is being accepted in different clothing industry segments.
It has been verifi ed that in the fi sh skin commercialization and industrialization
there are problems associated with its small size and apparent fragility. However,
because of the need to know and test the quality of this raw material, some works
have been developed to test its resistance by physical-mechanical interrogations.
The after-tanning exotic drawing of the skins of fi sh with scales compensates its
reduced size. The original drawing of these skins, which can hardly be imitated by
impression plates on other leathers, hinders the falsifi cation of this type of product,
mainly if the lamellas of insertion of the scale are more elongated (Price 2005 ).
The physical-mechanical tests confi rm that the skins of fi sh present variable
resistance in function of a series of factors such as: the species of fi sh and composition of collagen fi bers, the fi sh dimensions, technique of tanning employed, region
of the skin and orientation or direction of the leather (longitudinally and transversally to the length of the fi sh), among others.
As for the species, the resistance of the skin is related to its architectural histology,
e.g., the disposition, orientation and composition of the collagen fi bers. According
to Junqueira et al. ( 1983 ), the structural arrangement of the collagen fi bers in the
compact dermis, as well as the thickness of its stratus, allows for the skin to present
great resistance to different traction forces. Therefore, the skin of some species of
fi sh can be used commercially in the confection of leather devices. As for the size of
the fi sh, it is directly related to the thickness of the skin: as the fi sh grow, the skin
proportionally thickens due to the increasing amount of collagen fi bers, which will
react with the tanning agents and give the characteristic resistance to the leather.
6 Fish Skin: From Clothing to Tissue Engineering