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Extreme Body Modification
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
The story... Old story...
The catman...
Stalking devotion
Seattle Times/byline Vanessa Renee Casavant
Dateline: Seattle - At a time when plastic surgery has become fairly commonplace, some believe the Catman of Whidbey Island may have gone too far.
Dennis Avner, who goes by his American Indian name, Stalking Cat, is known around the world as the Catman. Over the past 25 years, Stalking Cat, 47, has received so many surgical and cosmetic procedures he’s lost count. And he says all of them - from full-face tattoos to fanged dentures to steel implants for detachable "whiskers" - have been done to achieve oneness with what he calls his totem, the tiger.
Dennis Avner shows his tiger teeth at his home in Freeland, Wash. He had all of his teeth removed to install tiger-like dentures.
"I’m Huron and Lakota," he said, relaxing barefoot in his Freeland, Wash., living room. "I’m just taking a very old tradition, that to my knowledge is not practiced anymore."
He insists his unusually startling appearance is nothing more than trying to make physical his spiritual and traditional calling. He was raised in a small Michigan town near the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa in Sutton Bay. Respect for the old ways, he said, was passed on to him by a Huron medicine man. Undergoing extreme measures of body modification, he said, is simply taking advantage of modern technologies to practice a devotion that’s been lost.
Stalking Cat started his transformation in 1980 after leaving his post as a sonar submarine technician for the Navy. He eventually settled in the San Diego area as a computer technician, and began the series of procedures that has resulted in his current appearance.
He has had all his teeth removed and replaced with tigerlike dentures and fangs. He has had his lip split to resemble the mouth of a cat. He has six stainless-steel mounts implanted on his forehead and 18 piercings above his lip to which he can attach whiskers. He has had nose and brow implants, and silicone cheek, chin and lip injections. The tips of his ears are pointed. And he has so many tattoos they almost cover his body.
Stalking Cat said he has lost track of how much his transformation has cost, though one figure quoted on a Web site estimates it would cost more than $200,000 - a figure Stalking Cat would neither confirm nor deny. He would only say, "It’s a lot."
As for any pain, Stalking Cat said some of the procedures hurt, but says there is no ongoing discomfort: "This is me," he said. "This is who I am."
The man responsible for the majority of Stalking Cat’s most extreme procedures is Phoenix body-modification artist Steve Haworth. He could not be reached for comment, but Stalking Cat is featured on Haworth’s Web site, www.stevehaworth.com.
Stalking Cat said he next plans to start tattooing the rest of his body with tiger stripes and to go back to Haworth to have stainless-steel mounts implanted in the top of his head so he can attach catlike ears to them. But further procedures will have to wait while he goes about the more mundane process of finding a job and fixing up the home he has shared since May with friends Tess Calhoun and Rick Weiss.
"The people here have been pretty welcoming," he said.
He has already found a local manicurist to paint his fingernails. "They don’t look very good today," he said, examining the tiger print detailing on them. "I’m still teaching her how to do it."
"I think he fits in well on the island," said Sarah Pankau, 18, who works near Stalking Cat’s house. She said there’s already a diverse mix of people on the island and he’s a welcome addition.
Nevertheless, not all islanders have embraced him. After Stalking Cat announced his move on his online journal, a person with the screen name "atomicdrunk" said, "... we have lots of hunters here. You can move here if you agree to stay in the woods and not wear orange."
The catman...
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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Check out te site posted then, there is some cool one there...
Why they do it is quite easy, money... Private dentist, surgen and others would do aything if you give them enough cash and well, I guess for them it is also something a bit different to go and do...
I agree with this...
If its something he wants to do and he is happy with it then why not!
Yep I think he look like shit too, I like body modification, frankly even considered getting implants myself 7 years ago when I was in the industry a bit, but after move and never had the opportunity... Also if I go and do it one day, it will not be to look like Mr Catman here...
yep...
source
2 twins brother that remove a part from on to attach to the others...
pretty fucked up...
as i said check the date of the article...
That makes feel all warm inside...
April Fool perchance?
Yep the lizzard man is quite popular, a bit like that puzzle guy...
Apparantly for the puzzle man it's his mum that stated tattoing but she did before she could finish it... Also I think it's all done now, but couldn't be bothered to look or a finish view...
The catman never heard of him before today...