they are specific to humans, though fur does help to hide (heh, get it) a lot, so it wouldn’t surprise me for there to be extra challenge to a pig. in addition to the lack of fur though, humans also have very thin skin, which tears easily.
furthermore, if you’re taxidermizing a human, you would generally want the end product to look like that person. most of what makes a human look like themself is not the skin. it’s the bones and muscles and fat in the face, and the perceptions of living humans are incredibly sensitive to subtle variations in those features. to have any hope of recognizability, you would probably need an extremely detailed sculpture of the subject’s head to be made ahead of time to be used as the form. at that point you really might as well just use the sculpture to commemorate the person, rather than wrapping their skin around it at all.
Pretty much what I suspected about “naked” skin vs fur, which just intuitively seems way more “forgiving.”
most of what makes a human look like themself is not the skin. it’s the bones and muscles and fat in the face, and the perceptions of living humans are incredibly sensitive to subtle variations in those features.
Ohhh this makes complete sense now that you say it; we’re incredibly well tuned for recognizing faces, so I guess not only would it be hard to make the person recognizable, but it might also be hard to not have imperfections in the face that give everyone an “uncanny valley” sort of feeling that something’s off about it?
I can definitely say that the problems with taxidermizing humans was definitely not something I expected to learn about today (or necessarily ever really), so thank you for taking the time to explain all that. It was honestly interesting to learn about something that I had absolutely no knowledge of beforehand.
If you don’t mind me asking, do you know this stuff via actually doing taxidermy, or are you just another infinitely curious person?
but it might also be hard to not have imperfections in the face that give everyone an “uncanny valley” sort of feeling that something’s off about it?
yep, precisely so.
do you know this stuff via actually doing taxidermy, or are you just another infinitely curious person?
the latter, i suppose. i’ve had a fascination with the history of sideshows, professional freaks, medical anomalies, and the like since i was a wee lass, and attempts at taxidermizing humans come up somewhat often in that course of study.
Interesting! Do you know if these difficulties are specific to humans or would eg. taxidermizing a pig have some of the same ones?
they are specific to humans, though fur does help to hide (heh, get it) a lot, so it wouldn’t surprise me for there to be extra challenge to a pig. in addition to the lack of fur though, humans also have very thin skin, which tears easily.
furthermore, if you’re taxidermizing a human, you would generally want the end product to look like that person. most of what makes a human look like themself is not the skin. it’s the bones and muscles and fat in the face, and the perceptions of living humans are incredibly sensitive to subtle variations in those features. to have any hope of recognizability, you would probably need an extremely detailed sculpture of the subject’s head to be made ahead of time to be used as the form. at that point you really might as well just use the sculpture to commemorate the person, rather than wrapping their skin around it at all.
🥁
Pretty much what I suspected about “naked” skin vs fur, which just intuitively seems way more “forgiving.”
Ohhh this makes complete sense now that you say it; we’re incredibly well tuned for recognizing faces, so I guess not only would it be hard to make the person recognizable, but it might also be hard to not have imperfections in the face that give everyone an “uncanny valley” sort of feeling that something’s off about it?
I can definitely say that the problems with taxidermizing humans was definitely not something I expected to learn about today (or necessarily ever really), so thank you for taking the time to explain all that. It was honestly interesting to learn about something that I had absolutely no knowledge of beforehand.
If you don’t mind me asking, do you know this stuff via actually doing taxidermy, or are you just another infinitely curious person?
yep, precisely so.
the latter, i suppose. i’ve had a fascination with the history of sideshows, professional freaks, medical anomalies, and the like since i was a wee lass, and attempts at taxidermizing humans come up somewhat often in that course of study.
Oh neat. That definitely qualifies under infinite curiosity.