At first glance, Tale of 1000 Condoms/Geisha and Skeleton looks like a babe getting ready for a titillating night in, but upon closer inspection, Masami Teraoka’s larger-than-life painting is a powerful social commentary highlighting the importance of protection over pleasure.

In the early 1980s, Teraoka was banging out paintings in his one-of-a-kind style that combined techniques from Edo Period ukiyo-e woodblock prints with the bold colors, cartoon-like figures, and unstoppable “go big or go home” attitude typical of Pop Art. The result was countless series of eye-catching, fantastical, and comical pieces like 31 Flavors Invading Japan, where big ideas such as commercialism, cultural globalization, and free love were presented in a lighthearted and playful manner. Overall, Teraoka was a positive guy who loved love, adored the female body, and found thrill in the indulgence of one’s deepest desires, especially the naughty ones. But Teraoka’s rose colored glasses shattered into a million pieces when AIDS broke out as a global pandemic. 

Although Teraoka never had HIV or AIDS, the disease affected him in both his private and professional realms. After learning that a friend’s baby contracted HIV from a blood transfusion, Teraoka was devastated. It was the first time that Teraoka understood that HIV and AIDS were not someone else’s problem that he could just ignore. Like his contemporaries Félix González-Torres and Keith Haring, Teraoka believed he had a responsibility as an artist to bring light to the AIDS crisis. So, Teraoka ditched his positive painting style and began to create dynamic and satirical artwork that commented on the mass hysteria, fear, and pain AIDS was causing throughout the world.

Tale of 1000 Condoms/Geisha and Skeleton is one of three pieces Teraoka created in 1989 as part of his Tale of 1000 Condoms series. The Tale of 1000 Condoms series reflects the public’s fear of contracting AIDS and drills into the viewers’ heads the importance of effective contraception in preventing transmission. Tale of 1000 Condoms/Geisha and Skeleton shows a geisha tearing open a XL condom as she gets ready for her next client. Geisha are Japanese female entertainers who sing, dance, converse, perform tea ceremonies, and play music to captivate wealthy male clientele. Although their primary duties are considered high art, many geisha are known to dabble in prostitution to capitalize on their customers’ desires and deep pockets.

Geisha might be used to seeing their clients without clothes on, but it’s probably a little daunting when they show up without flesh. Nonetheless, Teraoka’s geisha seems to be handling it like a pro. According to the inscription, after one of her repeat customers dies of AIDS and his skeleton arrives at her door, the geisha nonchalantly states, “Oh my God, it’s you that came back?” as if she was expecting some other corpse to be stopping by. Her bony visitor replies “Yes, it’s me again. I took a subway to get here. I felt bad on the train because everybody was afraid of me.” Of course riding next to a skeleton on the subway would be freaky, but the fact that the skeleton had AIDS is what the public would find truly terrifying. Lucky for her, the geisha’s got a condom big enough for three skeleton willies. Assuming she goes through with her duty to her client, the geisha must place all of her trust in her magnum condom, for that thin bit of latex is the only thing separating her from AIDS and a symbol of death. Fingers and toes crossed it doesn’t rip.