Human/Animal Body Modification

 

A less obvious area of research is people who have already started to try and turn themselves into animals. They have done this through various procedures and each for different reasons.

 

 

Stalking Cat 'Cat Man'

 

Dennis Avner was a 54 year old Native American, whose totum was a cat. In ancient tribal ceremonies, tribe members would often wear masks and costumes to temporarily take on the features of their totum animal, but Dennis has had the following procedures to permamnently transform himself into a cat: bifurcation (splitting of his upper lip), surgical pointing of the ears, silicone implants in the cheeks, upper lip and forehead, teeth filing, tattoos and piercing so that he is able to insert nylon whiskers. He said in the past that if he could get fur he would, he also wore an animatronic tail. He spent about 25 years transforming himself before he died in 2012 of a suspected suicide. I'm not suggesting that what he did was necessarily a good or bad idea, but I think the procedures he had definately fulfilleed his intentions of looking more catlike. 

He approached his surgeries in an anatomically correct way - that is to say, for example, his forehead whiskers are positioned on him, where they would be on a tiger. They are 'brow' whiskers, but he had them positioned on his forehead so that they'd be correct for a tiger. 

I think the silicone has successfully changed his face shape to create the cat-like muzzle area, giving his proportions a more rounded, feline feel. 

He was the most committed person on the planet to accurately turn themself into an animal.

 

The Leopard Man

 

Tom Leppard has 99.2% of the surface of his body covered in leopard print tattoos. He claims to have done it as a way of making money to fund his modest lifestyle, in a shack on the Isle of Skye. He has no apparent interest of actually anatomically or surgically turning himself into a leopard based on religion or self-motivated purposes, unlike Dennis. He was, up until very recently, the worlds most tattoed man, but used this only as a means of making of living.

I can see this look being easily transffered into a full body painting look, but for the purposes of my project, I want to play a lot more with anatomy and go deeper than just patterns.

 

Jocelyn Wildenstein - Catwoman 

 

Ms Wildenstein, now 74, is a New York socielite known for her extensive lifestyle and surgeries. Her ex-husband was known to be a great fan of big cats, and it is believed by surgeons that she has had the following procedures in order to incite a more feline appearance: a brow lift, face lift, lip plumping injections, chin augmentation, fat grafting and/or cheek implants, upper and lower eyelid surgery and a canthopexy - a procedure that slants the eyes and creates a cat'like appearance.  

Again, like Stalking Cat, I believe she has had the correct work done to achieve her desired appearance; she states that (despite what people think) she loves her appearance and couldn't be happier with the outcome of the surgeries. 

Her face certainly has a feline quality to it. Though not as extreme as Stalking Cat's, her cheeks and chin certainly have that rounded, cat-like quality, enhanced by her small nose and slanted eyes. 

I think she still wanted to look glamorous, which is why I imagine she didn't take it to the level that Stalking Cat did, and I don't suppose she wanted to be quite as literal. 

 

 

Lizard Man - Eric Sprague

 

Eric is a 42 year old 'freakshow act' and sideshow performer. He seems to be the most sane out of all four cases, in that he doesn't believe he is an animal trapped in a persons body (like Dennis), he didn't do this for anyone else and he has a masters in philosophy. 

He stricly considers himself a professional freak and an artist whp happens to like lizards. 

He has an almost full-body green lizard scale tattoo, a bifurcated (split) tongue, subdermal implants and filed teeth.

He certainly has a few minor reptilian features, but clealy has not sought plastic surgery to alter his anatomy in the pursuit of looking more lizard like.

 

 

 

I am actually now considering one of my makeups to be a human to animal body modification. 

Again, like the Manimals, I feel it could look at subtle face alterations which would've been surgical, but would also give me the opportunity to focus on transformation within boundaries. Unlike just doing a human/animal hybrid where, with CGI, anything is possible, I would have to work within the rhealms of what is possible with current body modifications. 

I would maybe like to look at another animal that someone hasn't sought to do before.