I’ve been browsing antique jewelry a lot lately and wonder about this. With jewelry specifically I think about hair, coral, pearls.
Then that extends out to animal skins, bones, human relics, etc.
What makes one thing gross but the other okay?
I think it’s more about presentation for me. For instance I have a turtle skull covered in snake skin on my desk. It make it look like a sick dragon head. So like a slab of human meat would be disgusting just sitting there. However if it was old skin preserved using a specific technique and presented in an artful way then I’d be down with it
I mean, what else should we expect from cryptTurtle?
I mean… how far down the rabbit hole are we going with ‘once part of a living being?’ Leather/wool/down?
Limestone
Paper?
I think that’s my question, but I am realizing it could be two or more questions.
Does owning/using something that was part of a living being gross you out?
Either way, what do you consider to have been part of a living being? I think this is an especially interesting question if you do say it does gross you out.
If some things gross you out but others don’t, why?
Removed by mod
Well done! Rubber/latex?
That’s a plant. Not an animal.
was once part of a living being
He did not say animal.
I think human parts are a hard no for me, but I’m general good with anything, though usually much less so if the product isn’t being produced incidentally.
This means cow leather is generally a okay, but crocodile is something I’ll shy away from.
Same for human parts for me.
Weirdly enough, I still think my preferred way to dispose of my eventual cadaver is being made into a book.
I wouldn’t want to own book me, but I love the idea of being a book. Not like a gruesome one where someone could tell right off, something more boring than that.
You would have to check the legality of that in your jurisdiction. Aaaand find someone willing to do it. It would be dope tho… As for me, I would prefer a sky burial… Return to nature man, also metal as fuck.
Oh yeah, being turned into a book is unlikely to be worth the headache for anyone involved. The tree burials that are legal in some spots is a reasonable option. Or just donation to science.
Whatever is cheapest/lowest fuss is fine. If that means I get reused or recycled great! If not, just don’t let me be a bother.
Sky burial is also awesome. Hopefully there are enough vultures to keep that up in at least some places. There’s a 99% Invisible episode that talks about collapsing vulture populations resulting in issues with doing it in India.
I think human parts are a hard no for me
I’m pretty confident we still have the kids’ baby teeth stored somewhere in a box of mementos in the basement (where all our treasured family memories / water heater are stored). I think that is my personal threshold.
You might want to move your memories some place else a little safer. You know, just in case you have an incident with your water heater.
Here’s a fun story… Mark Gruenwald, the creator of the Marvel superhero team “Squadron Supreme” (a pastiche of DC’s Justice League) passed away.
As part of his will, he requested that he be cremated and his ashes mixed in with the black ink on a reprint of Squadron Supreme.
https://screenrant.com/marvel-comic-printed-creators-ashes-squadron-supreme-gruenwald/
His wife was also stamping his signature in books with the ash ink.
https://teddyandtheyeti.blogspot.com/2019/05/mark-gruenwalds-ash-o-graph-in-squadron.html?m=1
Okay, that’s quite a cool memento. I might not mind that.
Anything not cured because it’s sticky and stinky.
My house is basically just taxidermy, skulls, and antlers for decoration.
Mostly everything from an animal is gross. I still have some stuff like leather shoes or Merino Wool Underwear for hiking but that’s only because I haven’t found vailable alternatives.
I personally think keeping things that used to be part of someone else is a bit creepy at best. Bones, skin, feathers, fur, it’s all not something I need to have in my home. For example, I saw this guy had turned a family member’s bones into a guitar once and it just squicked me the fuck out.
Hello comrade 😊
Of the examples I gave pearl and coral are a hard no, but I was kind of surprised by how horrified I was at the idea of owning something with human hair in it. It made me wonder how other people draw that line.
I would also like to avoid bones, plz.
The necklace made of human ears my grandpa brought back from Vietnam is totally disgusting because they’re all really shriveled up so they look like little kids’ ears now.
But he also made one from human teeth, and that’s less disturbing because maybe he just got them from a dentist’s office in Saigon, you know? I never asked him while he was still alive.
Ethics are the big line for me. The human remains market is pretty infamous for having dubiously sourced parts - people who did not consent to having their body bought and sold.
The exhibit Body Worlds, which travels to different museums, is an example of this. Some of the bodies are likely executed prisoners, who did not consent to have their bodies displayed in this way. The US has a horrible history of treating indigenous peoples corpses with disrespect. Two of the children who died in the MOVE bombing ended up in a universities collection without the knowledge or consent of their relatives.
I would be willing to have a skeleton or preserved organs as teaching materials, if I knew the individual involved gave their consent for that use. If I ever can afford a hysterectomy I would love to preserve my uterus for that purpose. I’d love to be an articulated skeleton in a science classroom after I’m done here on earth.
Lampshades made of human skin. How about no.
No limits, but no interest, either.
Imagine a sentient tree looking around your home at the table, the chairs, the cabinets, the books…
I mean historically we wore the skin of an animal while killing the rest of it’s family so
“You mean you build a desk out of my brothers’ flesh. Then you pack that desk into a container made of more of my brothers’ flesh. Then you sit at that desk and use an instrument made of my brothers’ flesh to write on a sheet of my brothers’ flesh. Is there anything you don’t use our flesh for?”
“Just please don’t go into the bathroom.”
My only concern for body parts and specimens is/would be: were they ethically sourced? There are laws arround that thankfully.
I’ve discussed with family members how it would be awesome to have jewelery made from each others bones. My sister said she’d like to have my dad’s skeleton, prepped like for an anatomy class and he was up for it, but it seemed very complicated (and possibly just not allowed) and unsurprisingly expensive.
I don’t think we’re particularly morbid or gothy, just not grossed out by stuff like that. And I think having a smooth bone ring is a nicer way to remember someone you cared about than an ugly urn full of ashes.
was once part of a living being
When you drink a glass of water, about a hundred molecules of that water come from the pee of Isaac Newton from the specific day the apple fell on his head. Generally, every single atom surrounding us has been part of some living being or other thousands of times. Only drink pristine water harvested from interstellar comets!
If I ever were to lose a limb like a finger (and if it couldn’t be reattached) I would like to keep it like preserved in an alcohol jar or just the bone part as a good terrible conversation piece
woodworkers hate this one simple trick
