A person skilled in the tanning profession, the craft of converting animal hides into leather that can then be used to make articles of various kinds. (2Ki 1:8; Mt 3:4) Doubtless the tanning operation was performed in the past as it has been recently in the Middle East​—in a one- or two-room tannery, housing tools and vats for preparing the hides. The basic process of preparing leather involved (1) loosening the hair, usually with a lime solution; (2) removing the hair, bits of flesh, and fat adhering to the hide; and (3) tanning the hide with a liquor made from such things as the bark of sumac or of oak, or from other kinds of plants.

Peter spent “quite a few days . . . in Joppa with a certain Simon, a tanner,” whose house was by the sea.​—Ac 9:43; 10:32.