• recklessengagement@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I’ve looked into this as I had a phase where I wanted to bequeath my various bones to my friends, family, and enemies after my death.

    The best way to clean a skeleton is with dermestid beetles. They are most commonly used at natural history museums for preparing animal bones, but I couldn’t find any that would work with humans. Your best bet is to find a private entity with experience in preparing bodies for scientific study. Alternatively, you could source the beetles yourself - this would likely take longer as you need quite a few, so storage will be a concern, but you wouldn’t need to worry about transport which has more legal considerations. Once the beetles have done their work, the bones themselves keep quite well if stored properly - no different than animal bones.

    Unfortunately the whole processes seemed cost prohibitive so I’ll probably just ask to be dumped in a forest somewhere

    • meyotch@slrpnk.net
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      2 months ago

      I helped maintain a dermestid beetle colony that was used by a natural history museum to prep specimens for display.

      They are surprisingly easy to care for. It was just a large wooden box full of ripped up paper egg cartons. Drop a nice head in there and mist the cardboard with some water. Soon you have a nice clean skull. When not using it, just mist the cardboard once a week. The beetles just hang out between feedings.

      For science purposes only, folks

  • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    The skeleton, as Prince Midnight tells Guitar World, belonged to his uncle, Filip, who passed away in the ‘90s in Greece.

    “He originally donated his skeleton to the local college and was medically prepared for the school,” Midnight says.

    “After 20 years, he ended up in a cemetery my family had to pay rent on. Like, literally in a wooden box. It’s a big problem in Greece because orthodoxy religion doesn’t want people cremated.”

    Prince Midnight proceeded to contact the proper authorities, including the state department and state attorney’s office, in order to repatriate his uncle’s remains.

    Here’s him playing Dark Throne’s Transylvanian Hunger on it, as linked in the article. (it’s a little hilarious that this is marked “for kids” by YouTube)

  • halvar@lemy.lol
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    2 months ago

    Yes but imagine playing pop on it as a session guitarist, that would go even harder for sure

  • Eq0@literature.cafe
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    2 months ago

    I wonder: was it a sign of respect towards the uncle or was it an insult? Or neither, just cool?

  • Victor@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Can… Can people just… have their relatives’ bones? To make things with?

      • mavu@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 months ago

        concentrating on this reasonable question is good, so i can stop thinking about the origin of the topic.
        Burying does not get rid of the bones, and in many cultures (past and present) the dead stay in the ground only for a limited time (most people can’t afford to pay a grave site in perpetuity), then their (then clean) bones are moved to a smaller permanent storage, or apparently made into a guitar.

        • Lemminary@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Ah, of course! I was thinking cremation would make the bones brittle, but unburying them makes more sense.