The human body is a wondrous thing and arguably a miracle of science. Consider how many other things are as complex as a human in the known universe and we do kind of stand out as pretty incredible. It’s either extremely fitting or extremely offputting then that some people have taken it upon themselves to use parts of bodies to craft new and interesting things.
10. Flesh Map
Artists are often unique and creative individuals. They have to be if they want to succeed at their craft. So while some artists are happy to put ink to paper or paint to canvas, others like to experiment with how they create their works. After all, anything can technically be art if you try hard enough.
American artist Andrew Krasnow is an artist who pushes the envelope in how he makes art and also what he considers art. For twenty years, Krasnow has used human flesh to make sculptures.
Using skin from bodies that have been donated to science, Krasnow has made lampshades, boots, and even a map of the United States. Naturally, Krasnow has a meaning behind his art and considers it a commentary on human cruelty.
9. Ancient Blood Paint
Few things are more interesting from an archaeological standpoint than ancient cave paintings. Seeing some of the earliest forms of communication, art, and historical documentation is fascinating. Most of us think of cave art as little stick figures throwing spears at stick buffalo, but there’s more to it than all that. For instance, aside from the subject of the cave paintings, there’s something to be said for the paint itself.
Research has shown that prehistoric artists in Australia and Tasmania developed the red pigment they used for their art in a very simple and all too obvious way. They used blood.
Several paintings dating back 10,000 years, and one at least 20,000 years, show evidence of proteins from human blood. The art itself looks to have been painted over even older carvings. It’s possible these date back as much as 31,000 years, making them some of the oldest cave paintings in the world.
8. Bone Sculptures
Not so long ago, humans used to be big fans of carving things from ivory. The fact that this had to be harvested from elephants wasn’t a concern for many people, and we’ve made countless pieces of art and even piano keys from it. The cruel and macabre practice is mostly, but not completely, behind us. But the fact is, death and the things it leaves behind have always fascinated us as a species. Some people are still making art from the bones of animals. And humans.
Bruce Mahalski makes sculptures that, from a distance, might look like any other sculpture you’d see in a museum. Get closer, however, and the textures will catch your eye. He makes extensive use of animal bones, the kinds of things that might be left over from dinner or found on the forest floor. But then there are the human ones.
Mahalski’s art is like a three-dimensional collage of bits and pieces, large and small. The human bones are given no more prominence than any others and, in fact, are often hard to pick out of the crowd. This is intentional, as Mahalski doesn’t feel like humans are any more important than the other creatures of the earth. His goal is simple to show a reverence for both life and death, whether the bones are from chickens or humans.
7. Body Worlds
In 1995, the first Body Worlds exhibit opened to the public in Tokyo. Since that time, over 40 million people have gone to museums around the world to check out the exhibit or some of the spin-offs it inspired.
The concept of the exhibit is as fascinating as it is grisly. They subject human bodies to a process called plastination. They remove fluids from the body, replacing them with polymers that harden and preserve the body perfectly. This allows the bodies to be manipulated in a variety of fascinating and unusual ways. They can be stripped of their flesh, or cut to show perfectly preserved cross sections. They can remove layers beyond just flesh including fat, muscle, and bone. In some cases, whole bodies constructed of nothing but veins and arteries in the shape of the human that once housed them have been made.
Originally it was said that all of the bodies were donated by people who, in life, were 100% aware of what would happen to their bodies after death. That said, the exhibit actually returned some bodies to China in the early 2000s as there was evidence they had been executed prisoners. A competing exhibit called Bodies says that they are simply unable to verify one way or another if the bodies they used were executed prisoners or not.
6. Human Skin Books
For a serious book fan, nothing beats a leather-bound tome. Whether it’s a personal journal or a valuable old antique, a book bound in leather can be a conversation piece and a collectible. But it’s worth looking into when a leather-bound book was made, and exactly how it was made. Leather comes in various forms after all, from sheep to cow and, more often than you might think, human.
In the 19th century, it became a rare but not unheard-of practice for the flesh of executed criminals or mental patients to be used to bind books. The skin of the first man hanged at the Bristol Gaol in England was used to bind the book that told the story of the man’s crime. The flesh of William Burke, a known murderer, was used to bind a journal cover.
The practice was by no means widespread, and today there are only a handful of examples that have been found and definitively identified. It seems as though the books were mostly produced by doctors, people who had access to corpses and the skill to remove human flesh. Why they also felt the need to use it to make books is a matter that has not been fully determined, however.
5. Lab Grown Human Skin Bags
The future comes at your fast and technology is changing the world every day. Just look at your local grocery store in the meat section and you’ll see that there’s already a section devoted to meat that isn’t actually meat. And soon there will be a section devoted to meat that is meat. It was just never alive.
Lab-grown tissue is a real thing and will revolutionize both your barbecue and healthcare. But maybe it’s destined to revolutionize fashion as well. After all, if you can grow skin without a living body, what’s stopping you from making your own leather? And, for that matter, what’s stopping you from making human skin leather?
Designer Tina Gorjanc had plans as far back as 2016 to make leather handbags made from skin grown from the DNA of designer Alexander McQueen. McQueen died in 2010, but Gorjanc has access to some of his DNA thanks to hair samples he left behind.
Celebrity bags aside, the same technology could be used to make a bag out of anyone’s DNA, if they had the money and the interest.
4. Teeth Necklaces
There’s a popular legend that George Washington had wooden teeth. Look into it and you’ll see that’s not the case and he very likely may have had dentures made from the teeth of other humans. There has always been a market for human teeth, and they’ve served a number of purposes. Reusing them as dentures is almost too normal. Back in the day, they were used as necklaces as well.
Archaeologists in Turkey uncovered relics in a Neolithic that date back thousands of years. Among them are some teeth that are around 8,500 years old, which were drilled and strung together to form a necklace, just like beads. Analysis also indicated that the teeth likely came from different people.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that ancient peoples were knocking teeth out just for the fun of making jewelry, but it also doesn’t preclude that as a possibility. There was no sign of disease, so the likeliest possibility was that they were removed from someone on purpose, rather than falling out naturally.
3. Hair Sweaters
In the Bible, wearing a hair shirt is a form of penance. You slip into a camel hair garment as a way to punish yourself because it’s terribly uncomfortable. In modern times we have terribly uncomfortable wool sweaters that can get very itchy and arguably fit the bill here as well. Suffice it to say, there are not many benefits to wearing a shirt made of hair. And those ones aren’t even human hair.
For those who do like the idea of hair, or fur, but not the cruelty aspect associated with traditional fur farming, some design clothing made from human hair. It’s arguably sustainable and offers something unique if nothing else.
2. Blood Album
Sometimes an artist will talk about how they put their blood, sweat, and tears into the work that they make. It’s a metaphor in almost every single case, but not always. For instance, there is at least one album you can get that has been pressed with the blood of several pop stars inside.
The Flaming Lips released an album called The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends back in 2012. As a special treat for extremely rabid fans, there were 10 special pressings of the album made. These versions contain blood samples taken from the aforementioned friends, including Ke$ha, Chris Martin, and Erykah Badu. The album had a price tag of $2,500 a pop and was sold with a normal copy of the album so you could still listen to it without risking a bloodbath in your record player.
In 2014, Meredith Graves of the band Perfect Pussy one-upped the Flaming Lips by having her own blood pressed into the wax itself rather than just being encased in a compartment in the vinyl and put out 180 copies of the album.
1. Blood Ink
Ancient cave artists aren’t the only ones who saw the upside to using blood as ink. Modern art has found some uses for it as well, and it’s not the avant-garde fringe art you may think. In fact, in more than one instance the use of blood in art has been incredibly mainstream.
Back in the year 1977, the band KISS was incredibly huge. They were so big, in fact, that Marvel comics actually had a KISS comic to chronicle some fictional adventures for the band.
For the Super Special #1 issue, blood was drawn from all four band members and mixed into the ink used to color the book. And why not? They were taking on some big-time Marvel villains like Dr. Doom. Blood was inevitably going to be spilled.
Though it sounds like the stuff of urban legends, it really did happen and was even certified by a notary public. Obviously, someone felt it was unbelievable even at the time it was happening. A copy of the book in decent condition will run you a few hundred dollars on eBay.
Closer to the present, rapper Lil Nas X caused a stir by releasing some limited-edition Satan-themed shoes in 2021 that also contained his blood in the ink used for the design. Many people were up in arms over the idea, but it also made international news and guaranteed that the shoes would be known the world over, so maybe the plan worked out just fine.