Googling for human leather reveals a couple of hoax sites and some nazi era information but nothing especially trustworthy. If I wanted my skin to be turned into leather after I die and be used to make commemorative items, would this be against any US law?
edit: Do NOT need answers fast.
Well, you can certainly put it in your will. You can put anything you like in your will. But that raises two other questions.
Is it legal to treat human remains in this way? And that, obviously, is going to depend on the law of the place where you die. Lots of places have laws governing the disposal of human remains, and they may not accommodate curing and tanning.
If it is legal, can you compel your executors to dispose of your remains in this way, i.e. is your will enforceable in this regard? Again, this is going to depend on the law of the place where all this happens. But a fairly common legal stance is that there is no property in a human body, and it does not form part of your estate. Your executors have a responsibilty to arrange seemly and lawful disposal, and they can use the resources of your estate for this purpose (e.g. by paying to have you buried or cremated) but your wishes as to how you would like your remains disposed of are just that; wishes. The final decision will not be yours but will be your executors’.
Fred would do it.
Some history of skin as leather -
Here’s the story of a guy who wrote his memoirs while on death row, then requested his skin be used to bind it and the book be given to one of his robbery victims. The family donated it to the Boston Athenaeum decades later.
Death penalty for a robbery? Good lord. Musta been in Texas lol
It’s a much smaller version of what you want, but this company does post mortem preservation and framing of tattoos:
How one Ohio company is preserving human tattoos.
Ummm. I’ve turned animal skins into leather.
I could, probably not would, help you out.
Unless, we’re talking some real money. I mean real money.
And maybe a kinda legal waiver, or some such device.
I doubt it’s legal, for real.
Seems to be doable in Australia, to the point that one bloke is planning for his fully tattooed skin to go to the National Gallery of Australia. I heard about this in 2015, from when the article dates. From a quick check Geoff Ostling seems to still be alive and kicking, so the offer has not been taken up … yet.
There’s a lot of concern about museum collections of human remains, and their repatriation is being strongly pushed by (usually) indigenous descendants. A lot of the disquiet boils down to how power was exercised at the point of a gun in colonial settings and the complete absence of any dignity or consent, let alone it being informed. So, if a well-educated, older white man who knows all the pros and cons, gives his informed consent to having his skin removed, tanned and displayed, then unless there is a public health issue, its hard to see a moral basis for refusal.
Also, the Australian love-song ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport’ features the lines:
Tan me hide when I’d dead, Fred,
Tan me hide when I’m dead
So we tanned his hide when he died, Clyde
And that’s it hanging on the shed!.
My 10 year old mistake. He was in prison in Massachusetts, but not on death row. He died of tuberculosis while incarcerated in the 1800s.
A book about books bound in human skin leather is the featured article on Wikipedia’s front page today:
The book is written by Megan Rosenbloom, who appears sympathetic to the preservation of such books.
On the other side of the debate is Paul Needham, who argues that when such books are found, the leather should be buried.