The controversial German artist and professor Gunther von Hagens has sparked outrage around the world with his macabre displays of "plastinated" human bodies. Unsuprisingly, his attempts to stage exhibitions featuring skinless children, chess players, and horsemen (with their steeds) were frequently stymied. Von Hagens, however, sought to assuage his critics: "I would reach the limit of good taste," he once admitted, "if I carved a vase from a lung, filled it with water and placed a daisy in it. Or if I fashioned a carnival mask from a stomach. Or turned a penis into a revolver. Or if I decorated a brain with testicles and displayed it as a virility medal..."

[Thousands of fans have offered to donate their bodies to Von Hagens for plastination.]