Graveyard Shift Human Corpses Are Being Used To Make Modern Products And People Are Actually Buying This Stuff

Cosmetics Made From The Corpses Of Executed Chinese Prisoners

As it turns out, the fountain of youth may actually spring from the dead. According to the Guardian, a Chinese company is developing cosmetic products … made from the corpses of deceased/executed prisoners … to market in Europe. In other words, your next collagen treatment, facial filler, or lip-pumping injection just might be composed of corpse-fat.

Though this news has incited a predictable outcry, the firm’s agents insist that only “some” of the company’s products have been exported to the UK, and that the whole thing is nothing to “make such a big fuss about,” anyway. After all, beauty is pain, as the old saying goes, so perhaps dead body ingredients are just par for the corpse.

Jam Made From Princess Diana’s Hair

London-based company Bompas and Parr might be “globally recognized as the leading expert in multi-sensory experience design,” as their website states, but they’re also apparently pioneers in the imaginative use of corpse-hair. In 2010, the company manufactured something called “Occult Jam,” which supposedly contained a few strands of the late Princess Diana’s hair.

No, the tresses didn’t come off the Princess’s corpse. Co-founder Sam Bompas claims to have acquired them on e-Bay. Nevertheless, as CNN puts it, “what started out as art itself has become a product with a lot of major retailers.”

Cadaver Skin As A Treatment For Burns And Ulcers

A dead person doesn’t need their skin anymore, so why not donate it to those who do? That’s the logic that bioengineers at the University of Manchester are employing, anyway. And interestingly, they’ve found that skin taken from cadavers is actually more effective at healing wounds than living tissue is. Corpse-flesh (once it’s been de-contaminated by antibiotics, that is) is also specifically beneficial as a remedy for burns and ulcers.

As head researcher Ardeshir Bayat explains, the living body is akin to “an empty shell of a house without furniture that is easier to populate then building a house from scratch. In the same way, decellularized dermis provides a scaffold that the body can try to populate with its own cells.”

Finally, a way to break out of the holding-cell of death.

Cured Meat Made From The Skin Of Celebrities

It’s been said that Hollywood is a meat market that chews up ingenues and spits them out. But macabre start-up BiteLabs is taking said cynicism to a whole new level. In 2014, the organization attempted (unsuccessfully) to convince certain celebrities to donate tissue samples that the company could process into “specialty meats.” (No, it doesn’t involve said movie stars being dead, but meat itself is dead. So close enough, yes?).

The website delineates the process: “Isolating muscle stem cells, we grow celebrity meat in our proprietary bioreactors. In the tradition of Italian cured meats, we dry, age, and spice our product into fine charcuterie.”

Though company spokespeople insist that this is not a hoax, they obviously have wicked senses of humor. Of their proposed James Franco salami, for example, they say: “[It] must be smoky, sexy, and smooth … sharp Tellicherry peppercorns and caramelized onions provide Franco’s underlying flavors, complemented by a charming hint of lavender. The Franco salami’s taste will be arrogant, distinctive, and completely undeniable.”

Touché

Human Gelatin For A Yum Batch Of J-E-L-L-O-M-G

Gelatin, it turns out, is a hugely popular ingredient in the culinary world … a fact that doesn’t sit well with those who disapprove of animal products. But a few researchers at Beijing University’s College of Life Science and Technology have a controversial idea that might, if not satisfy, at least confuse vegans around the world. According to Engadget, they are pioneering a Soylent Green-type method for revolutionizing gelatin production. The plan? To take “human genes [and insert them] into a strain of yeast [producing] gelatin with controllable features.”

The word “features” definitely conjures up disturbing images of eyes or noses solidified in Cherry Jell-O. Another purpose of the new method is to “reduce the risk of diseases like Mad Cow, which may be present in the bones and cartilage that gelatin is made of.” Who knew?

Diamonds Made From A Loved One’s Human Cremains

The idea of diamonds made from the cremains of loved ones is actually rather lovely and poetic, when you think about it. (Or infinitely more soothing than the vision of an embalmed corpse slowly rotting underground, anyway). And the Chicago-area based LifeGem is only one of the companies offering this innovative service. According to their website,

“From just 8 ounces (200 grams) of cremated remains, we can extract enough carbon to make multiple diamonds…typically all the diamonds that a family wants. We store any unused carbon free for the family after their order is completed. This is great protection in case their LifeGem diamonds are ever lost or stolen.”

A novel idea, and one with many variations. The Arlington, Vermont, based company Cremation Solutions also offers crystals that resemble “peridot, citrine, aquamarine, onyx, jade and chocolate diamonds.”

The Human Skin Art Of Andrew Krasnow

He may not be as creative as Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs, but US artist Andrew Krasnow is nonetheless making a splash with his human skin art and sculptures, which he’s been crafting for 20 years. In 2009, Krasnow had his first exhibit in London’s GV Art Gallery. According to the artist, all of his skins are gleaned from bodies that have been donated to medical science; and his work – far from being mere shock art – is intended to be “a commentary on human cruelty.”

The Human Body Parts Family Photo Albums Of Linda Jones

In a way, using bits and pieces of actual bodies in photo albums makes perfect sense. After all, people do routinely save their children’s baby teeth and paste locks of hair into scrapbooks. That’s the logic Vermont-based artist Linda Jones applies to her abstract art pieces. An exhibit at Burlington’s Firehouse Gallery reportedly included “x-rays, stitches from real surgical procedures [and] even human teeth, hair, and flesh preserved in formaldehyde.”

However, the work is not intended to be Frankenstein-grotesque but, rather, deeply personal. Jones claims that said medical waste is “from procedures treating her and her family,” and adds that “injuries and sickness are major events that affect people in profound ways.” All of which is true enough.

Headdresses Made From The Hair Of The Dead

In China, corpse-hair isn’t just a novelty, it’s tradition. Rumor has it that the Miao people from the village of Suojia in Liupanshui City in the Guizhou province regularly don wigs fashioned from the hair of the dead. As the Daily Mail explains it, “every wig is passed down from mother to daughter, and includes not just yarn and twine but also the hair from a line of female ancestors, which the owners of the headdresses claim go back hundreds of years.”

Said hair is apparently routinely harvested from combing and brushing. Though, since it technically comes from a person who was alive at the time they donated it, calling it “corpse hair” might be a bit of a stretch. Though, if we’re getting even more technical, isn’t all hair “dead”?