A Virginia artist is making thousands of dollars not just by using his head, but using the skulls of others.
Zane Wylie carves intricate designs on to real human skulls he has obtained legally, usually online.
He sells them online at RealHumanSkull.com for as much as $8,000 each.
The bone-carving business has its roots in Wylie’s childhood. He was fascinated by skulls, especially the flaming one of the Marvel character Ghost Rider.
Later on, he saw the online popularity of bones and bone carvings, and he decided to take a stab at it himself, according to Vocativ.com.
Wylie first practiced on deer and goat skulls before setting his files to human bone.
“I wish I would have clocked how many hours it took me [to carve] the first one,” he told Vocativ.com. “And it wasn’t just because the equipment that I had wasn’t the best. It was because I was just so paranoid about doing something wrong and disrespecting what I was carving.”
Wylie has dozens of skulls waiting for carving, which is good since EBay banned the sale of human remains in July.
Previously, the auction site allowed the sale of human bones as long as the remains were clean, articulated, and for medical purposes.
According to the FAQ page on Wylie’s website, he legally purchases the skulls he carves from multiple sources including SkullsUnlimited.com, as well as archeologists and businesses that sell to medical schools.
For people willing to use their own noggin, Wylie also says you can will your skull to him for future carving ― if you pay him a $950 non-refundable deposit first.
Wylie discusses his work in the video above and says there’s one question he asks himself before he starts carving a design.
“I think, ‘Would I find this disrespectful if this was carved on my skull?’”