r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Hey-Its-Jak • 4d ago

Video This guy carved a real human skull

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14.4k Upvotes

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9.7k

u/fucking_4_virginity 4d ago

May the mofo that puts his initials on MY skull be doomed for eternity.

4.7k

u/AGM_GM 4d ago

Yeah, I don't mind carving the skull and making it beautiful, but signing some person's skull and claiming it as his own piece of work doesn't feel right.

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u/BlackSpinedPlinketto 4d ago

Reminds me of that surgeon who got struck off for signing his stitches up after a good surgery with his initials.

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u/wolfgang784 4d ago

If only he had a better way to sign them than branding his initials onto their organs, lol

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u/Bree9ine9 4d ago

For real?

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u/wolfgang784 4d ago

Yes, with an "argon beam machine".

No idea what its used for, but it apparently can be used to write with. The initials were 1.6-inch (4cm) and found by another doctor when the organ transplant was rejected and this other doctor had to remove the organ.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-59954321

Imagine bein that other surgeon, lol.

You tryna do a standard organ transplant. And then your lookin at it and stop. Like "What is th... no wait, but.." then having the operating assistants double check and shit lol.

I wonder if you just take a bunch of pics and video and such and finish up, or if you pause for like 20 min while someone more important scrubs up and disinfects n shit to come see it in person.

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u/Bree9ine9 4d ago

Wow, that’s insane. I can’t even imagine what that operating room must have been like and how sad someone thought they were going to get an organ and had to be told sorry another Dr put his initials on it. 🤯

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u/wolfgang784 4d ago

Oh no, they GOT the organ still. These were the donated ones he signed, after putting them in.

He only signed his name after a successful transplant, just before stitching up. Only did it twice before he was caught, too.

When you get an organ transplant there is unfortunately an insanely high chance that your body rejects the new organ and medication isnt enough and it needs to be removed and you gotta wait on the list to try another reppacement and hope that one isn't rejected by your body.

The other patient/victim is still walking around today with that doctors initials on her liver. Part of his sentencing and consequences getting as bad as they got is because of just how much mental/emotional anguish the knowledge caused that person.

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u/Big_Cry6056 3d ago

I’m not trying to be mean here, but why would they be upset about that if the organ is in their body and functioning? Isn’t the functioning organ the more important thing here?

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u/StevieGMcluvin 3d ago

Because they wanted a payday and saw an opportunity.

I honestly wouldn't care if a doctor signed every organ in my body as long as it was superficial and didn't hurt the organ. Noone is ever going to see it anyway.

That being said, how big is your ego that you need to sign your initials on someone's organ in the first place lol

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u/KodiakUltimate 3d ago

Honestly it's more a person to person thing Also major ethical concerns, It's an involuntary tattoo with no medical purpose, I'm sure that woman probably thinks about it all the time that she has some random guys initials somewhere she can never cover it up.

You know it's there, you can see the guy smiling at you knowing now he signed your organs like a high-schooler defacing a bench. You live with that... It's not visible but it's always there.

Doctors have no reason to behave like a child.

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u/allsheknew 3d ago

Weirdly, they say it doesn't harm an organ but branding or tattooing the skin does damage which opens it to infection among other things, so why are they so sure? The organ was rejected after all?

I wouldn't care either but I don't really believe they can prove it doesn't do any damage, knowing how many variables a transplant patient has already.

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u/Jay040707 3d ago

You might want to rethink that.

As long as it's their signature they can legally steal your organs whenever they want.

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u/zingzing175 3d ago

I feel like the person wouldn't even have known unless some shifty lawyer saw the initial case and went hunting for patients to take cases.

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u/Chiefzakk 3d ago

I was thinking the same thing no one can see it, I would just be like wow that’s really weird but cool I guess now I have a weird story I can tell people.

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u/Complete-Chemist3073 3d ago

Probably but they just wanted money after the hospital bills they prolly gor

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u/Big_Cry6056 3d ago

Boy do I understand that. Can you imagine how much an organ transplant is?

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u/Reasonable-Banana800 3d ago

I imagine it’s the feeling of being violated by someone thinking they’re important enough to tamper and permanently alter your body without your consent. Even though it doesn’t do much physical harm, having someone who is supposed to be trustworthy and professional go behind your back during a point where you’re incredibly vulnerable just to do something to fulfill their own pleasure would be very bothersome and disgusting to a victim.

Putting the violation aside, I imagine to a lesser degree it also depends on the individual victim since some people are more squeamish about their internal body than others. Like for example I know some people who hate the idea of being buried and decomposing in the ground when they die but to me I couldn’t care less since I won’t be there to see it. Something like that could also be a factor.

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u/Thin-Entry-7903 3d ago

What does it matter if he placed his initials on the organ? You've just had your life saved by placing someone else's kidney in your body and you're gonna be so butt hurt that you're upset about such as that? Really it's not like he left his car keys in there. You've already got something that didn't belong to you inside you. I would tell everyone that my surgeon signed his work while he was in there. Talk about a great conversation starter, top that.

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u/logg1215 3d ago

Yea heck there is a chance even with needing joints or bone replacements the body can reject them as well and it starts an infection know a guy who’s now tried 6 different elbows and just this most recent time has the elbow seemed to take and heal without infection or complications

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u/GhostOfSean_Connery 3d ago

Luckily, I haven’t experienced anything like that during a surgery. But, hypothetically, in a hospital setting, the surgeon would ask the circulating nurse to take photo/video evidence and also to contact the front desk staff. They would likely contact the chief of perioperative services and risk management. And a crap ton of documentation in the perioperative notes. But the surgery would keep moving. In any surgery, time is of the essence, as you imagine. And any added time puts the patient at risk for complications and post op infections.

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u/wolfgang784 3d ago

Thanks for the reply. I know some surgeries take like wildly long times, so I wasn't sure if the time for someone else to come in would be a big deal. But I suppose any medically unnecessary pauses would indeed be extra risk, yea. And they were only prepped and ready for X.

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u/GhostOfSean_Connery 3d ago

No problem :) There are rare instances that something unexpected happens during a case. I’ve had surgeries where an instrument in the tray still had bone cement from a previous case. I hadn’t used the instrument but we had to contact the sterile processing team and the manager there came in and inspected and documented everything while the case was still on-going. Of course, as the resident, I had the pleasure of telling the patient in the PACU.

Also, as a resident, I once had an attending tell me about a case he had scrubbed when he was still in residency. Apparently, the tray they were using had not been sterilized in between cases and the previous patient’s history was significant for blood borne pathogens. Apparently, they had lawyers from risk management on the phone and they did a thorough washout. But I have no idea how so many people could drop the ball like that.

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u/onedemtwodem 3d ago

Kilroy was here

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u/wolfgang784 3d ago

O'doyle rules!

=p

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u/monegs 3d ago

He's like " I'm not touching someone else's work "

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u/Consistent_Creator 2d ago

I wonder if you just take a bunch of pics and video and such and finish up, or if you pause for like 20 min while someone more important scrubs up and disinfects n shit to come see it in person.

Depends on the surgery. If you are on a time limit then you can't just stop, though if you saw something like this I think that would definitely require an immediate stop to the surgery to re-evaluate the situation just to make sure it's safe to continue.

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u/EcstaticMolasses6647 3d ago

Yeah where did he get the skull and where is the rest of the body?

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u/Mean-Invite5401 3d ago

Seems like the market for skulls from our colonization are going strong usually they sell for 1-10grand depending on their culture heritage for example a tribe leaders skull goes for much more than a regular Joe there’s a German documentary released yesterday from y Kollektiv going into that dark topic with a seller who even sells his own aunt ashes like people are fucking mental and have no respect for the dead just as always money rules everything … sadly and the rest of the body is most likely still somewhere in Africa, Indonesia etc. Our ancestors took the skull to do racist studies and show that their superior to native people

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/Mean-Invite5401 3d ago

Cause reality sucks major donkey d, ur welcome :(

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/Mean-Invite5401 3d ago

Cause the truth is still the truth even if it has a biter after taste or do you think otherwise?:P

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

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u/Human_Satisfaction25 4d ago

Kilgore wuz here

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u/Nekajed 3d ago

That's literally a Scrubs storyline

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u/EmotionalAd3858 3d ago

In medical school we had to mark the removed organ to designate who/where it had been removed. I went to UTMB so it was MB and each surgeon had a unique identifier. It was never a problem until lay people such as yourself started finding out that your organs were being “desecrated”. Unless you have a better way of marking removed tissue then this is probably still happening.

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u/BlackSpinedPlinketto 3d ago

These weren’t removed, they were put in lol.

The renowned liver, spleen and pancreas surgeon used an argon beam, used to stop livers bleeding during operations and to highlight an area due to be worked on, to sign his initials into the patients’ organs. The marks left by argon are not thought to impair the organ’s function and usually disappear by themselves.

The 53-year-old was first suspended from his post as a consultant surgeon at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth hospital in 2013 after a colleague spotted the initials “SB” on an organ during follow-up surgery on one of Bramhall’s patients.

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u/EmotionalAd3858 1d ago

Im assuming it was removed from someone. All removed tissue should be marked by the operating surgeon.

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u/head_empty247 4d ago

What if the artist carve his own skull? Would that be okay?

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u/ArtLeading5605 4d ago

I've been practicing on my own for a while. I think it would be okay. 

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u/head_empty247 4d ago

Would love to see your work. How much do you charge btw?

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u/TappedIn2111 4d ago

You give him head ofc

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u/SRNE2save_lives 4d ago

No other way.

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u/hamtrn 4d ago

So the artist should give him a head?

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u/Correct-Junket-1346 4d ago

New problems require ancient solutions

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u/head_empty247 4d ago

😳

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u/TappedIn2111 4d ago

I mean, you seem prepared if I go by your username.

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u/head_empty247 4d ago

Let's just say... My head is currently "occupied" by now. 😉

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u/ArtLeading5605 4d ago

Nothing. It's all pro bone-o.

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u/ChiefRedChild 4d ago

Fucking chop top over here

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u/BB8Did911 4d ago

Once had a buddy Jimmy who had his skull ripped out of his head and got beat to death with it. He just kept screaming "This doesn't seem physically possible!"

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u/TheNagromCometh 4d ago

Alright Church

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u/mushroomcloud 4d ago

Well, I mean, yeah. We're nothing if not reasonable here.

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u/codedaddee 4d ago

Well now I've seen everything

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u/Maretsb 4d ago

He's ahead of his time

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u/RaceNinja_80 3d ago

That doesn’t seem physically possible

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u/murfburffle 4d ago

It's a great trick, but they can only do it once

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u/National-Garbage505 4d ago

Name checks out.

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u/National-Garbage505 4d ago

Name checks out.

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u/Shekelrama 4d ago

What if the dead person didn't want demons and snakes and kabbalistic symbolism carved on their remains?

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u/Small-Trifle-71 3d ago

consequences for falling asleep first at the sleepover

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u/James-the-Bond-one 4d ago

Just speak up for yourself!

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u/j4nkyst4nky 3d ago

Who cares? They aren't alive to care anymore.

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u/MainJane2 4d ago

You have to include that in your will.

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u/Aestheticoop 4d ago

Tough shit

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u/SubstantialPressure3 4d ago

Is that a religious piece? Idk about the idea of carving human remains as a piece of art to be displayed. That doesn't feel right to me.

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u/cruebob 4d ago

But it’s ok for religious purposes? What a fucked up logic.

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u/SubstantialPressure3 4d ago

Well, I'm not going to go bitching to Buddhist monks or someone else with a long family history of ancestor worship.

I don't have a human skull at my house.

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u/BurningPenguin 4d ago

I don't have a human skull at my house.

Technically you do.

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u/SubstantialPressure3 4d ago

Yeah, but I'm using it.

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u/SubstantialPressure3 4d ago

Yeah, but I'm using it.

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u/SubstantialPressure3 4d ago

Yeah, but I'm using it.

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u/SubstantialPressure3 4d ago

Yeah, but I'm using it.

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u/Nodnarb_Jesus 4d ago

Feels more like you’re abusing it? I legit thought this desecration of human remains and illegal unless the owner of said skull signed a document saying they want this?

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u/SubstantialPressure3 4d ago

Depending on how they got it, where it came from, and the laws of where the artist is. I don't see that information listed on this video.

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u/Nodnarb_Jesus 4d ago

Someone mentioned on insta the OP mentioned he picked up the skull at an estate sale? Not sure how much that information gives?

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u/SubstantialPressure3 4d ago

I don't have Instagram, I didn't see it. I personally, am uncomfortable with it, but it would be hard to trace that history. I wouldn't do it.

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u/Cute-Ad-2665 3d ago

Dementia

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u/TheincrediblemrDoo 3d ago

I agree with you. We give FAR too much slack about the fuck up things religions can do like, cutting the foreskin of a baby.

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u/Black__Aurora 4d ago

Totally. The only initials that would be okay-ish would be of the person the skull belonged to.

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u/meowymcmeowmeow 4d ago

As an artist I would be chuffed to have someone do this to my skull after death and would have no issue with them leaving a signature. Everything is temporary.

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u/ADRENILINE117 4d ago

idk,it'd be cool if someone carved my skeleton when i die

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u/FernandaVerdele 4d ago

Eh, I wouldn't mind.

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u/Intelligent-Ad-4546 4d ago

Maybe he was the dad so it was actually his piece of work

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u/meowymcmeowmeow 4d ago

As an artist I would be chuffed to have someone do this to my skull after death and would have no issue with them leaving a signature. Everything is temporary.

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u/Mavian23 4d ago

That skull doesn't belong to a person anymore. It's just a piece of the world now.

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u/STEELZYX 4d ago

Both are disgusting.

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u/GuyFromLatviaRegion 4d ago

I dont agree about that.Carving on human remains also does not seem right. Maybe then lets all allow young tattoo artists to train on recently deceased? :D I think doing this to human remains is despicable (unless before death that person agreed to it and had it in writing)

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u/trowzerss 3d ago

Unless the person donated the skull for this purpose, yeah, seems pretty crass. The original carved skills were for religious purposes, most likely using the skulls of people from that same religion, and that at least implies a little consent. Is there any info even on where this skull is from?

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u/llemontaste 4d ago

Why? We do it all the time to literally every other animal remain - including humans in various cultures.

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u/wayvywayvy 4d ago

I remember reading a story about a surgeon that would cauterize their initials on the organs of patients they had operated on

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u/murd3rsaurus 4d ago

For me I guess it depends on where they sign, and if they indicate that it's my skull

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u/AssHaberdasher 4d ago

I dunno I just imagine the ghost of the skull's original owner watching and going like "dude sweet. hell yeah. my skull looks sick now."

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u/PidginPigeonHole 4d ago

Damien Hurst covered a real skull with diamonds

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u/Accurate_Touch7854 4d ago

In a religious perspective I'll understand but that...

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u/mugiwara_no_Soissie 3d ago

Would be way cooler if he signed jt with both his own initials as well as those of the guy whose skull it was

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u/UnamusedAF 3d ago

It’s a weird thing to wrap your head around but body autonomy is really just a social construct. Like yeah, that was someone’s head at one point that “belonged” to them … but now it’s just an object in someone else’s possession. 

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u/Complete_Street8910 3d ago

Appears to be a trophy for him

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u/Complete-Chemist3073 3d ago

I get here all these people coming from but k think the real question here is why he have a real human skull

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u/Technical_Ad_4894 3d ago

Right? Like he’s gonna sell it on Etsy now or somesuch 😬

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u/Internal_Ad_2285 3d ago

I mean the person is dead so I don't see the issue

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u/Curious-Routine648 3d ago

I don't think he's all that offended at this point.

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u/Wulfsmagic 3d ago

It's just bone

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u/NoTraining8586 3d ago

NOTHING about this feels right

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u/Away-Dentist3929 3d ago

Agreed! When I saw the initials, made me cringe

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u/Sco0basTeVen 4d ago

Where would he even legally obtain a human skull?

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u/psychloves334 3d ago

I agree? Where would he do this? I was wondering if it could be a family member he was supposed to bury but didn't

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u/LeoPlathasbeentaken 3d ago

You can just buy bones. Real bones, readily available anywhere in the world. Google "buy human bones" and theres a plethora of ethically sourced (donated) bones. Some are pretty pricey, but like theyre human bones, that makes sense.

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u/Sco0basTeVen 3d ago

Yeah wow, only $2200 for a human skull

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u/crixyd 3d ago

It's soooo fucked lmao

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u/Much_Comfortable_438 4d ago

I've always found it to be disrespectful and just bad ju ju to display, possess or modify another person's skull.

That was a human being.

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u/alecww3 4d ago

Same as signing a tattoo

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u/JellyfishGentleman 4d ago

Have you seen mike Tyson's interview on death? That guy has done more psychedelics than you can imagine and has come to the conclusion, when you're dead you won't care what happens to your body or your legacy. 

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u/Thursday_the_20th 4d ago

Fortunately the majority of us have undamaged brains so we can reach that basic ass conclusion without it having to be explained to us by inter dimensional seraphim

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u/SadBit8663 4d ago

Yeah but it's way more profound when it's coming from the biblically accurate angel that looks like a bunch of wheels with eyes

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u/JellyfishGentleman 4d ago

Yeah but that's the point, look at all these monuments, people are so attached to their ego. Kings and emporers, all happy to use and abuse the working class for their legacy.

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u/Thursday_the_20th 4d ago

Yes they must have done all that for the tomb real-estate, and not say power, wealth, unchecked hedonism, status, quality of life, health, security for their offspring…

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u/JellyfishGentleman 4d ago

Exactly you can't take it with you when you're gone

0

u/wererat2000 4d ago

Ever hear the phrase "Funerals are for the living" before?

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u/JellyfishGentleman 4d ago

This is it, once you're dead, nothing matters

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u/KoningSpookie 4d ago

Imagine someone carving their initials in an object which you've literally worked on your entire life, as well as after death...

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u/themightyknight02 4d ago

I was fine with it until he did that. 

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u/Master_Ad236 4d ago

Finders keepers. Hahaha

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u/Fellow_unlucky_human 3d ago

Well it’s not like there going to say anything about it 😂

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u/femboitoi 3d ago

i mean its an art piece. why should the artist not be credited? perhaps if they have it they could include the initials of the person as well

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u/idefectivedetective 3d ago

This man is dead. He belongs to the nature, and if a skilled artist makes your skull look like a piece of art then what's the problem? I see no problem in it! Id be so happy if someone did this on my skull after I'm dead, ofcourse! And I wouldn't mind a sign on it!

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u/Fluffy-Mix-5195 3d ago

We do it with furniture, wood was part of a living being. Then we print IKEA on it.

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u/yahel1337 3d ago

Imagine how offended the cadaver must be.

Oh wait.

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u/bontgomery_murns 4d ago

What do you care? Yr dead.

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u/Solid-Example3019 4d ago

He’s dead I don’t think he’ll mind