Many cultures throughout history have harvested the remains of both humans and animals for a bewildering array of purposes—clothing, weapons, rituals, medicine, and more. While you might not expect many of these practices to survive into the modern era, a surprising number of artists and entrepreneurs continue to repurpose dead (and occasionally living) bodies, refusing to let public outcry stop their unconventional creativity. This roundup of the top 10 artworks showcases the most striking, unsettling, and sometimes oddly beautiful ways people turn human tissue into art.
Top 10 Artworks Turning Human Remains Into Odd Creations
10 Jewelry
While the idea of having a diamond forged from a loved one’s ashes has already made headlines, bone and tooth jewelry offers a grittier alternative for those who want to wear the departed. Sunspot Designs, helmed by Columbine Phoenix, treats each piece like “homegrown ivory,” celebrating life rather than mourning death. Phoenix sources her macabre materials from educational suppliers who acquire surplus bones and teeth from schools or museums updating their collections, catering primarily to a gothic clientele with price tags that can climb up to $200 per item.
For the living who still have loved ones close by, there’s a curious niche market turning breast milk into wearable keepsakes. Over seventy companies, including Breast Milk Keepsakes and Mommy Milk Creations, will accept a small sample of a mother’s milk and embed it into beads suitable for pendants, earrings, or bracelets, typically costing around $80. The result is a personal, almost poetic, tribute that literally carries a piece of the giver.
Pop star Kesha once took fan devotion to an extreme by fashioning accessories out of her admirers’ teeth. In 2012 she launched a campaign asking fans to mail her a single tooth each; the response was overwhelming, yielding roughly a thousand teeth. She transformed the collection into a series of earrings, a headdress, several necklaces, and even a bra—proof that a supportive fan base can literally become part of the fashion runway.
9 Photography
Auctions often hide unexpected treasures for the art‑savvy, and one Michigan school auction proved no different. Francois Robert walked in looking for a few practical lockers, but the auctioneer’s rule—”what you buy, you keep”—meant he also walked away with a human skeleton tucked inside one of the units for a modest $50. The skeleton had previously served science classes and was wired to retain its shape, prompting Robert to swap it for a second skeleton before embarking on his project.
Robert’s vision turned the bones into a stark visual protest: arranging them into silhouettes of guns, grenades, tanks, planes, and knives, he produced a haunting photographic series entitled Stop the Violence. The work is unapologetically graphic, yet the bargain price of fifty dollars underscores how low‑cost procurement can yield high‑impact commentary on conflict.
8 Sculpture
Tim Hawkinson’s twin 1997 pieces, Egg and Bird, may look like ordinary representations at first glance, but a closer look reveals they’re constructed entirely from hair and fingernails—materials most of us would rather keep to ourselves. By employing these intimate, disembodied body parts, Hawkinson blurs the line between nature and artifact, prompting viewers to contemplate how our very own biology supplies the raw ingredients for artistic illusion.
The sculptures operate on a subtle level, inviting contemplation about the inseparable link between our physical selves and the creative objects we produce. Hawkinson’s use of such personal, often overlooked materials underscores the notion that art can never truly escape the corporeal origins that give it form.
7 Molds
British sculptor Anthony‑Noel Kelly made a name in the 1990s for his hyper‑realistic busts, but his career took a dark turn when police, investigating a 1997 exhibition, uncovered human remains hidden in his home and his girlfriend’s flat. With assistance from Niel Lindsay of the Royal College of Surgeons, Kelly had pilfered body parts over three years, using them to cast sculptures that were later gilded in silver and gold.
Authorities recovered roughly 40 distinct pieces—heads, torsos, limbs—while Lindsay received a £400 fee for his involvement, only to serve six months in jail. Kelly himself was sentenced to nine months, becoming the first UK citizen convicted of theft of human remains after a legal ruling established that bodies can be owned and therefore stolen. The case was deemed an “outraging of public decency,” highlighting the legal gray area surrounding the ownership of human tissue.
6 Lampshades
For decades, rumors swirled that Nazis fashioned lampshades from human skin, a claim many dismissed as urban legend. In 2005, a man at a British car‑boot sale offered a lampshade for $35, claiming it was made from the skin of a Jewish victim. The buyer, uneasy with the provenance, passed the item to journalist Mark Jacobson, who sent it to Bode Technology in Washington, D.C. for DNA analysis.
The lab confirmed the material was indeed human skin, sourced from two different individuals. Historical accounts from 1945, such as reporter Ann Stringer’s coverage of Buchenwald, mention other grotesque items like shrunken heads and a pelvis‑shaped ashtray. Contemporary artist Andrew Krasnow has also produced skin‑based works—including lampshades, boots, maps, flags, and even a $10 bill—using the macabre medium as a stark commentary on morality and remembrance.
5 3‑D Printed Sculptures
Ten years ago, the notion of a machine autonomously constructing a house seemed sci‑fi, yet today 3‑D printers can fabricate furniture from the ashes of the departed. Dutch artist Wieki Somers embraced this technology for her “In Progress” exhibition, loading printers with donated cremated remains and watching them emerge as familiar household objects—rocking chairs, vases, and more.
The resulting pieces force viewers to reconsider the emotional weight of everyday items when they’re literally built from a loved one’s ash. While the concept may not become mainstream overnight, Somers’ work asks us to differentiate between a cheeky “Rock on, Grandpa!” slogan and a solemn, literal rocking chair made of his ashes—blurring the line between remembrance and design.
4 Cheese
The Dublin Science Gallery’s “Selfmade” exhibition pushed the boundaries of edible art by producing cheese from the bodily fluids of celebrities. Volunteers contributed not just milk but also phlegm, tears, skin bacteria, and even samples from belly buttons. These biological ingredients were cultured to create cheeses that bore the scent and flavor of the specific body part they originated from.
During a curated cheese‑and‑wine evening, guests were invited to inhale the aromas and discuss the experience, though they were expressly forbidden from tasting the creations. The project highlighted the intimate, sometimes unsettling relationship between our bodies and the foods we consume, turning personal biology into a sensory, albeit untasted, artwork.
3 Fly‑Lashes
British creator Jessica Harrison, known for her “body furniture” series—pieces that echo human flesh without actually using it—captured attention in 2010 with a startling video. She fashioned faux eyelashes from real fly legs, stitching together the tiny limbs to create a bizarre, shimmering fringe.
Although the fly‑lash accessories aren’t commercially available yet, Harrison personally wore them, sparking both intrigue and disgust. Animal‑rights organization PETA condemned the work, likening it to the cruel practice of cutting off beagle ears for fashion. The piece remains a provocative commentary on the lengths artists will go to blur the boundary between the living and the inanimate.
2 Wall Art
Forgotten Inheritance is a striking wall installation composed of stone, hardened sand, and authentic Hawaiian native bones. Debuting at the Hawaii Convention Center in 1996, the piece received committee approval that included native Hawaiian representation, yet it sparked fierce opposition from other indigenous groups who viewed the inclusion of ancestral bones as a violation of malama iwi—the cultural duty to honor and protect ancestors’ remains.
After years of complaints, officials finally obscured the artwork in September 2013 while negotiating a removal plan that would preserve both the sculpture and the skeletal elements. Ultimately, a compromise allowed the piece to remain on display, underscoring the complex interplay between artistic expression, cultural heritage, and community sentiment.
1 Self‑Sculpture
19th‑century Japanese artist Hananuma Masakichi faced a terminal tuberculosis diagnosis and chose an extraordinary legacy: a life‑size self‑portrait sculpted entirely from his own body parts. Using a sophisticated mirror system, he could carve portions of himself he couldn’t directly see, assembling roughly 5,000 individual pieces into a seamless whole that even a magnifying glass can’t detect.
Masakichi painstakingly polished the composite, puncturing tiny pores to insert his own hair, and embedding his teeth, fingernails, and toenails into the appropriate regions. He even crafted glass eyes and replicated his eyelashes using his own lash hairs. Completed in 1885, the sculpture was displayed alongside the artist so viewers could guess which parts were genuine flesh and which were expertly fabricated.
Today, the piece resides in Ripley’s Odditorium, where meticulous conservators maintain its delicate construction. The work stands as a testament to obsessive self‑representation and the lengths one might go to achieve literal immortality through art.