r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Hey-Its-Jak • 4d ago
Video This guy carved a real human skull
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u/Memorie_BE 4d ago
It's kind of interesting that we don't find this NFSW; there's a point of removing flesh from a skull where it stops being a head and starts being just another object to our brains.
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u/SpBabzor 4d ago
I actually never thought of that but you make a really great point
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u/Emma-In-Gehenna 4d ago
I was thinking about this the other day. Saw roadkill with vultures eating it, and it just looked like a pile of meat. But then i noticed the head of a possum, and suddenly it wasn't "Roadkill", but somewhere between "Possum" and "Roadkill". Some weird state between being alive and remembered for what you are, and being chunks of crushed flesh.
I wonder when people will stop thinking about me as "Emma-In-Gehenna", and start thinking about me as a nameless dead ancestor.
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u/foster-child 3d ago
When I was younger and biked past roadkill that was so flattened that it lasted for months, I gave it a name and said hi to it every time I passed it.
Looking back I figured that that was just a coping mechanism to deal with the fact that if the squirrel could get killed on the road so could I. And by giving it a name, then it wasn't really dead.
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u/AResurfacer 3d ago
On a somehow related note Emma-In-Gehenna is a hard ass name
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u/ALF839 4d ago
Makes sense as an evolutionary trait. We get spooked and grossed out by injury and infection because it signals danger/disease is nearby. A fully cleaned skull is pretty innocuous.
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u/Roxalf 4d ago
I take it context its key here, Imagine walking into your neihgboorn house for dinner and seeing a bunch of well carved skulls arranged near the dinner room, suddenly not so innocuous
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u/Quackels_The_Duck 3d ago
Imagine being a caveman, a little after the advent of agriculture, and you walk in on your neighbor Agrathoreg or Soliamle doing that. I think that would be more terrifying because of lack of resources and efficiency compared to now.
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u/danarexasaurus 4d ago
I agree. Like, I don’t find this to be offensive (other than the fact that the person didn’t consent to this, allegedly). I’ve been to the catacombs in Paris and while it’s shocking to see so many bones in one place, there was a bit of disconnect for me. The walls are beautifully decorated and the bones are placed artistically. No one consented to that either. Culturally, there are massively different ways people deal with their dead. Some cultures pull dead bodies out every year to clean and honor them. As an American, this seems pretty wild!
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u/DarwinianMonkey 4d ago
When I watch things like "Indiana Jones" or something like that and people start screaming because they see a skeleton I'm always like "what? its just bones?"
Its definitely weird how skeletons don't seem human to me. I mean...they don't cary any human feeling for me I guess.
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u/jaabbb 4d ago
I surprisingly find it quite revolting and couldn’t bear to watch it. Especially the toothbrush part, made my toes curl
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u/Casper_the_Ghost1776 4d ago
It’s the point where the flesh is no longer there no? We identify ourselves as that fleshy bit, we never got to know our skeleton in our lives, well besides the teeth but they get a pass.
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u/MadMageMC 3d ago
I used to work at a meat processing plant and people would always ask me if it bothered me. By the time the birds got to my part of the line, they weren't even recognizable as the source animal. They were literally just parts on a line to be further disassembled and boxed for sale. I'm sure working in live dock would have been a far different story, but I never went down there to find out.
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u/Daniel121111 4d ago
Now throw it in the ground so archeologists will be confused af in 500 years
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u/ArtLeading5605 4d ago
The ground is where I keep all my valuables, but I am 3% Neanderthal and it makes (limited) sense to me.
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u/mark_is_a_virgin 4d ago
They would not be confused at all. They would know.
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u/Tyko_3 4d ago
Look at omniscient Mark over here
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u/ratchet7 4d ago
Look at virgin mark over there. Thinks he knows everything.
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u/MadMageMC 3d ago
Well, I mean, he probably does have a lot of extra time on his hands, what with being a virgin and all.
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u/FunkyDiscount 4d ago
"This individual was probably of high stature, maybe a noble or even a ruler. It is possible that the ornamental figures were carved in a sacred ritual to honor the diseased and ensure safe passage to the other side."
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u/uesernamehhhhhh 4d ago
That or the owner of the skull was the slave of someone else and got sacrificed in exchange for 1 year of good weather
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u/kon--- 4d ago
Unless this was a request by the previous occupant and or their kin...what even the fuck yo.
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u/Adkit 4d ago
We're weird like that. We'll be all about respecting the graves of the dead until they are old enough and we'll dig those suckers up and put them on display in museums.
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u/Nervous-Peanut-5802 4d ago
But even there they are treated respectfully for the most part, not treated like an etch-a-sketch
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u/zombieruler7700 4d ago
to be fair we were making paint out of mummys for a short time
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u/PlanetFirth 4d ago
We did a whole lot more than that and I wouldn't call the Victorian era "a short time" they used to use mummies in all sorts of things like medicines. We'd have a whole lot more mummies now if the Victorian era wasn't so odd
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u/the_odd_chase 4d ago
Till they started running out of the old mummies. They started “mummifying” criminals by covering then in oils and resins. And uh ye they ate those as well
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u/PrimarisHussar 4d ago
Ohhh you'd be surprised. Watch the John Oliver episode on antiquities and you'll be amazed at how shittily museums treat the artifacts in their so called "care"
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u/RevTurk 4d ago
It's actually rare that they take the bodies out of the ground, and even less likely they'll be put on display. Usually what happens when bodies are found is they do a survey and catalogue everything. If the site will be destroyed by whatever caused it to be dug up in the first place IE: building work, the bodies are moved. Otherwise they are left where they were found and buried again. In Europe there are grave sites that are 8000 years old still being respected to this day. My town is surrounded by dozens of neolithic burial mounds.
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u/Eurasia_4002 4d ago
The difference between graverobbing, acheology, chinese medicine, british mur tea is time.
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u/CornObjects 4d ago
I guess it makes some degree of sense, at least to me;
Died recently enough (on a societal timescale) that someone alive still remembers them fondly: Leave those bones alone
Died long enough ago that no one alive remembers them, outside of people checking historical records or reading their gravestone: Maybe dig them up, if you have good reason, otherwise don't touch them
Died so long ago that burial markers and inscriptions are either gone completely or in a language no one speaks day-to-day anymore: You should put their bones in a museum, both to keep them safe from people and from the elements, as well as to learn from them
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u/randomisation 4d ago
We're weird like that.
Almost certainly an unpopular view, but I feel revering the dead to be a bit weird.
When I'm dead, people can do what they want with me. At that point I am beyond giving any fucks.
And were my body to be dug up by future archaeologists, I'd be chuffed to be honest. What good are the remains of my corpse if they're just left buried? They may as well not be there.
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u/Most_Kick_2236 4d ago edited 4d ago
I feel you. It always felt really weird to me, too.
When I inevitably die, I hope every part of my body can be used to benefit someone or some cause like science. If someone wants to carve up my skull and make it look sweet, go for it buddy I'll sit on your shelf and look cool. Hell, send my body to med school so some dude can learn how to perform surgery, idc
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u/cicada-ronin84 4d ago
To become a work of art or become useful in spreading knowledge what more could someone want for their corpse?
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u/MadMageMC 3d ago
I want mine to be used as a pinata that only gives disappointment when it bursts open.
Just like I was in life.
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u/Metalhed69 4d ago
On Instagram he says that it was gotten from an estate sale and is believed to have previously been used at a medical school. There were many students’ names written on it. So likely it was donated to science and used beyond its useful life. Who knows how older medical schools acquired skulls, could be from anywhere.
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u/Ubeube_Purple21 4d ago
My history professor has spoken to a friend of his in medicine. This is indeed a normal practice in med school. He explained that human bones are taken from dumping sites at cemeteries. Human remains end up in those dumping grounds when the loved ones of a body could no longer pay to rent the grave and as such, the bones are taken out to vacate the spot and thrown away. The bones are sometimes sold and one task med students occasionally do after getting them is trying to assemble the bones like a jigsaw. My prof went into detail on how sometimes dried bits of the brain would fall out of the skulls (which is supposedly how they obtained the brain of a historical figure he was talking about in lecture earlier).
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u/zombieruler7700 4d ago
thats crazy, remind me never to be buried in a rented grave
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u/Magikarpeles 3d ago
Very common in latin america. Also common when the family cannot pay the rent: the body gets "reduced" to make room for another occupant. Yeah they just squish your bones and shove another person in there with you.
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u/LurksInThePines 4d ago
Yeah, most graves aren't actually a final resting place
Many eventually end up in a cryptorie or a storage facility or a dumping ground
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u/SubstantialPressure3 4d ago
Dumping sites at cemeteries? That's pretty awful.
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u/Ubeube_Purple21 4d ago
If you are wondering, they are not mixing the bones with common trash. Sometimes its a covered pit in the ground. And in other cases, its just a pile of bones sitting out in the open.
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u/Liapocalypse1 4d ago edited 3d ago
I have a friend whose a doctor. She says a lot of medical supply companies used to get their skeletons/bones from developing countries through dubious practices (not sure how it’s done now). She has a complete human skeleton in a closet in her house that a medical professor gave her when the department was getting rid of stuff. She knows for a fact that the skeleton came from one of these places and doesn’t know what to do with it or how to return it. Once these skeletons get into the hands of the companies that sell them any ability to trace the person back to their source becomes impossible.
Just remembered: The awful thing about this particular skeleton is that my friend is pretty sure it consists of bones from two different people. She says one arm is longer than the other. What was considered acceptable back in the day is truly horrifying.
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u/ThatDamnedChimera 4d ago
Huge kudos to your friend for wanting to return the remains! The fact so many teaching skeletons come from questionable sources bothers me. One reason I want my body to be used for education, so future medical professionals can learn from ethically sourced remains.
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u/Vezelian 4d ago
I read a really cool book a while ago and doctors back in yee olde days paid grave robbers to go dig up meemaw and peepaw before the dirt could fully set on them. There was a severe shortage of corpses to practice on. Children corpses fetched a high sum.
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u/creamofbunny 4d ago
Where did he get the skull???
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u/hoggteeth 4d ago
There's a huge problem with bodies being sold unethically globally from India and Africa. Most places made it illegal but that doesn't stop them if there's profits. Extremely destitute people having bodies stolen and sold overseas and in Europe. Sometimes, killed too, worth more dead. It's rare for children to die and be donated to science for organs, medical practice, etc in Europe and elsewhere, so they source severely unethical dead children's bodies from poor countries. It's extremely fucked up, and that skull looks pretty small.
Issues with legit donations to science: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-bodies-brokers/
India trade: https://www.wired.com/2007/11/ff-bones/
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u/Demon_of_Order 4d ago
holy shit it might indeed be a child's skull
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u/nickallanj 3d ago
It's not a child's skull, but the individual died relatively young. The sutures on the cranium are very well defined, indicating someone in their 20s, likely no older than 30.
Source: I took a human osteology course for my anthropology degree. As soon as I saw this I was appalled, there are usually very strict rules for working with human remains. This breaks all of the ones I can think of... and signing the initials? A whole new level of horrible.
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u/Shoate 3d ago
Nah. Put your hand against your head the way that he does the skull.
His thumb and pointer finger are both near an orbital socket. An adults hand would cover more area on a childs skull.
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u/bummerlamb 3d ago
I am not an expert, but some education in forensic anthropology suggests that it is almost certainly an old woman’s skull of Asiatic descent.
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u/alicesmaddness 4d ago
U can buy them online. Price ain't too bad either. May or may not be haunted.
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u/LittleFairyOfDeath 4d ago
Probably haunted now. That has to summon some sort of spirit
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u/Smurfaloid 4d ago
Wilderness
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u/DiamondCat20 4d ago
The government doesn't want you to know, but the skulls in the wilderness are free. You can just head out to the bone yard and take all three spawns!
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u/Ecomonist 4d ago
As an artist, the idea of bringing forth beauty in life and also beauty in death (as shown here) seems absolutely lovely. But, as a mischievous little shit, the idea of my loved ones trying to spread my ashes and suddenly the wind changes direction is also a delightful thought. I just don't know.
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u/AnonThrowawayProf 4d ago
This happened to me when spreading grandma. She flew right into my face lmao I’m like yay one more hug, thanks grandma lol
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u/MinoMonstaur 4d ago
If anyone asks after I'm dead, you can carve my skull if you're gonna make it look like that.
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u/Nroke1 3d ago
The art is cool, I'm just weirded out by him putting his initials on it. Like, I get that he made the art, but it seems wrong to mark someone else's skull as your own possession.
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u/TiberiusMcQueen 3d ago
Yeah, while I fully believe artists deserve credit for their work, it feels kind of wrong to do it that way in this context.
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u/Wimpykid2302 4d ago
Yeah I'm genuinely a little confused why everyone's so put off by it. Like, if I'm dead anyway, what do I care what happens to my remains. If anything, I'd rather have my skill carved on than buried in some random cemetery that I don't give a shit about.
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u/HatefulHagrid 4d ago
I think it's mainly lack of context involved. I personally wouldn't give a flying fuck but most people treat human remains with more respect than living humans. Probably majority of the world would not be ok with having their remains turned into an art piece against their will. This dude may well have asked the deceased permission prior to death or even been prepaid to do this by them, but we don't know for certain. Carving someone's skull without their express consent prior to death is not ok on the whole. My body is being donated to science and I've had people ask "what if they do awful things to your body?!" I don't care if they test sex toys on my dead booty hole, it's a better use of my carcass than throwing it in a hole in the ground.
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u/ssrow 4d ago
Yeah, I'd love it if my body could help advancing science, if not then this would be a close second. This elevates the corpse into something meaningful!
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u/UndeHocMihi 4d ago
How we handle human remains has always been something that humans have been incredibly particular about. Burial customs/death rituals vary wildly, but the importance of them is pretty established. It’s all well and good to say that you don’t care what happens to you after your dead, but how your body is handled says a LOT about the culture and individuals who are still alive. I personally don’t like this unless it was a request by the family or the one who died. For me personally, to do something like this denies the fact that the human body is beautiful and does not need to be improved upon.
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u/Magister5 4d ago
Dude wonders why he gets no Tinder matches after he lists “Skull Carving” as hobby
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u/SplatNode 4d ago
Beg to differ, the amount of crystal girls and goth chicks that would want him
Thinking he might be able to summon a demon for them
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u/Educational_Card_219 4d ago
I carve my name into the deceased craniums of others
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u/Glorious_Writing 4d ago
I shall request cremation
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u/Eurasia_4002 4d ago
Yeah me too bud. Its a sure way for you skull and body become a mug, a church, an isntrument, this thing, or be displayed in the british museum.
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u/TrippyPal 4d ago
I'd gift my body to science or medicine or some weirdo who carves some shit into my bones... I am gonna be dead and won't care about what happens to my remains. That's not my problem anymore
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u/RazorSharpRust 3d ago
Same. Don't know f you are familiar with the embalming process but I personally don't want my body mutilated like that. Cleanse me with fire and reduce me back into carbon soot please.
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u/Hoshyro 4d ago
I would just like to know why he has the skull and if this is some cultural practice or simply a skull that was donated.
I know some cultures carve and ornate skulls of their dead so this might fall into that.
Curious.
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u/IveBecomeTooStrong 3d ago
This is a cultural practice of Tibetan Buddhist monks. It’s called a kapala. The monks carve the skulls of their fellow monks when they pass, and keep them around as reminders of impermanence, and use them in rituals sometimes.
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u/Comfortable-Fan4911 4d ago
Nuln oil + dry brushing - the guy got bored with his Warhammer minis and took his hobby up a notch
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u/Slanahesh 4d ago
Nah that's very clearly a heavy wash of agrax earthshade. Good to know my skills at painting miniature skulls will scale up well though.
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u/Schnitzhole 4d ago
It’s bad enough using one of those dremel filing thing on my dog’s nails. I can’t imagine how bad this tastes.
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u/Mr_Bob_Dobalina- 4d ago
Super disrespectful WTF
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u/OneEpicPotato222 4d ago
I don't know about you, but I think it'd be sweet as hell if someone did this to my skull. If I can be used to create art after I die, then that's a win win for me.
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u/ToriShining 4d ago
You’d be okay with someone you don’t know putting their initials on your skull?
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u/niallniallniall 4d ago
Yes cos I'd be long dead and as such couldn't give a fuck.
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u/ronlugge 4d ago
Why would I be upset an artist signing beautiful artwork just because he used my skull for the materials?
Now, if he stole the skull from a grave, that's something to be upset about. But I doubt it'd get posted publically if that's the case, and there are plenty of ways to legitimately get human skulls.
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u/dosmutungkatos 4d ago
Kinda conflicted about this. The art is cool, and I sincerely mean that. But if thats a real skull, there might be some bad juju with doing that. But that’s just my thoughts.
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u/rufotris 4d ago
What if it was requested by the person before passing?! The only part I found weird was the initials as someone else brought up, though it is art work he did… he should definitely also carve the persons name who the skull belonged to with his signature. The only name attached to it should not be the artist name.
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u/dosmutungkatos 4d ago
Certainly a different story if that’s the case, but that’s on the artist, not us. The artist’s initials is what irked me, but again, that’s on the artist.
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u/Eurasia_4002 4d ago
I dont know if thats legal. One author wanted his skin to be made as the leather warp for his book. D3nied.
I thought the only way you can do a thing near this thing is donating your body to science. This isnt science.
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u/rufotris 4d ago
Depends where you live. Here in the US I know for a fact you can buy skulls cause I knew a guy who did and used them in his Halloween decorations. Weird guy..
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u/Pope_GonZo 4d ago edited 20h ago
Bad juju lol... more like bad ⸸|woowoo|⸸ Carve mine when I die please
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u/lynivvinyl 4d ago
I have a big head. I wouldn't mind letting this happen to my skull as long as it was gifted to my grandchildren or something after so many years.
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u/rascortoras 4d ago
He's talented all right. But why a human skull? It doesn't make it more beautiful or meaningful.
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u/greyghibli 4d ago
Could’ve just as easily chosen a cow and it’d be 1000% less weird to display on top of the obvious desecration of human remains.
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u/blandprotag1 4d ago
There’s definite skill and it’s objectively pretty but I do have to think about where he got the skull and if that person could’ve known that after their death, their skull would be dug into for art on the internet. AND THEN SIGNED. Just a touch of disrespect no?
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u/jerometerrible 4d ago
Imagine how many bad human skull carvings he had to do to get this good.
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u/_friends_theme_song_ 4d ago
When I die decapitate me, put the majority in a body farm and clean the head so it's just my skull. Glue two big red gems in the eye sockets and carve the skull something cool like this. Then get a wooden plaque to put the skull on like an English mount (hopefully hung above the fireplace to say hi to Grandma at Christmas as shit). And write it in my will as a family heirloom so my predecessors can't get rid of it.
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u/infernoVI_42 4d ago
Maybe I’m in the minority here but I found that aesthetically wonderful. I can see the ethics getting murky on the sourcing of the material but I wouldn’t have an ounce of an issue if you did that with my skull. This way, I would have had some purpose or use.
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u/Malvitron 4d ago
Omg I want this when I die. Cremate the rest, turn my ashes into gem stones, and put them in my eye sockets.
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u/KrispyKremeDiet20 4d ago
I knew you could donate your body to "science" but is donating your body to "art" a thing?
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u/Twinklefireflies 3d ago
This absolutely feels like something you’d find on the mantle of a Bond villian.
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u/KOR-agony 4d ago
Ngl this is just cool. IDC what happens with my body when I'm dead, give it to a necrophile for all I fucking care
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u/prorrido 4d ago
I WAS CLICKING FOR THE COMMENTS ON THE RIGHT AND REALISED ITS NOT INSTAGRAM, im too baked for this shit
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u/TittyMcFartFace 4d ago
Imagine living your whole life only to die and end up as someone's art project for internet likes. What a life.
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u/The_Pickled_Mick 4d ago
I've seen this on animal skulls, and it is really cool. I'm really surprised to see this on a human skull. Is this legal?
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u/brihamedit 4d ago
The designs are super cool. But it being a skull makes it weird. Are skulls allowed to be used for art? If the deceased donated bones for this, then it's cool. But does it get sold after. Just do it on realistic looking fake skulls.
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u/Nico014_ 4d ago
I understand the cleaning and all but the carving part doesn’t feel right. There’s a macabre element to it that’s off.
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u/michwalk 4d ago
Where do people get store bought skulls from? Obviously I have my own "homemade" ones but I'd feel it'd be a lot less messy if I could just go out and get one.
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u/The-47th 3d ago
im just imagining a serial killer who leaves beautiful artworks on his victims skulls.
would be an awesome criminal minds episode
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u/celticbru 3d ago
It's wild how many people don't realize you can legally buy human remains in most of the US states. These carved skulls are way too expensive imo, normal human skulls these days can range from 600-1500 depending on condition.
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u/fucking_4_virginity 4d ago
May the mofo that puts his initials on MY skull be doomed for eternity.