Guy Has Surgery To Look Like Garfield (Warning, scary cat-guy inside)

[korme]

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/0...orld/59160.htm

Stalking Devotion
Dennis Avner shows his tiger teeth at his home in Freeland, Wash. He had all of his teeth removed to install tiger-like dentures.
AP photo

Stalking devotion


By Vanessa Renee Casavant
The Seattle Times


SEATTLE - At a time when plastic surgery has become fairly commonplace, some believe the Catman of Whidbey Island may have gone too far. Dennis Avner, who goes by his American Indian name, Stalking Cat, is known around the world as the Catman. Over the past 25 years, Stalking Cat, 47, has received so many surgical and cosmetic procedures he’s lost count. And he says all of them - from full-face tattoos to fanged dentures to steel implants for detachable "whiskers" - have been done to achieve oneness with what he calls his totem, the tiger.

"I’m Huron and Lakota," he said, relaxing barefoot in his Freeland, Wash., living room. "I’m just taking a very old tradition, that to my knowledge is not practiced anymore."

But some doctors contend that Stalking Cat displays a form of body dysmorphic disorder, which affects one’s perception of personal appearance to the point of obsession.

Glenn McGee, director of the Center for Bioethics at Albany Medical College in New York, said it’s true that traditional people around the world have, like Stalking Cat, tried to emulate animals as a model for virility. But McGee said he believes the extreme to which Stalking Cat is pushing medical technology is dangerous.

"Cosmetic surgery is a practice based on informed consent" that needs to balance the risks with the benefits, he said. McGee believes Stalking Cat is seriously risking his health by undergoing so many surgeries.

"It is possible to have a coherent view that is nonetheless detrimental to one’s well-being," McGee said. "This is a patient who’s being harmed by medicine in the interest of his tradition."

The result is certainly manifested in a startling way in his appearance. Stalking Cat has been featured on "Ripley’s Believe It or Not!," "Larry King Live," VH1’s "Totally Obsessed" and other television shows. There are several Web sites, blogs and chat forums devoted to him, including his own, www.stalkingcat.net, and the online journal www.livejournal.com/users/stalkingcat.

He insists his unusually startling appearance is nothing more than trying to make physical his spiritual and traditional calling. He was raised in a small Michigan town near the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa in Sutton Bay. Respect for the old ways, he said, was passed on to him by a Huron medicine man. Undergoing extreme measures of body modification, he said, is simply taking advantage of modern technologies to practice a devotion that’s been lost.

Stalking Cat started his transformation in 1980 after leaving his post as a sonar submarine technician for the Navy. He eventually settled in the San Diego area as a computer technician, and began the series of procedures that has resulted in his current appearance.

He has had all his teeth removed and replaced with tigerlike dentures and fangs. He has had his lip split to resemble the mouth of a cat. He has six stainless-steel mounts implanted on his forehead and 18 piercings above his lip to which he can attach whiskers. He has had nose and brow implants, and silicone cheek, chin and lip injections. The tips of his ears are pointed. And he has so many tattoos they almost cover his body.

Stalking Cat said he has lost track of how much his transformation has cost, though one figure quoted on a Web site estimates it would cost more than $200,000 - a figure Stalking Cat would neither confirm nor deny. He would only say, "It’s a lot."

As for any pain, Stalking Cat said some of the procedures hurt, but says there is no ongoing discomfort: "This is me," he said. "This is who I am."

The man responsible for the majority of Stalking Cat’s most extreme procedures is Phoenix body-modification artist Steve Haworth. He could not be reached for comment, but Stalking Cat is featured on Haworth’s Web site, www.stevehaworth.com.

Stalking Cat said he next plans to start tattooing the rest of his body with tiger stripes and to go back to Haworth to have stainless-steel mounts implanted in the top of his head so he can attach catlike ears to them. But further procedures will have to wait while he goes about the more mundane process of finding a job and fixing up the home he has shared since May with friends Tess Calhoun and Rick Weiss.

"The people here have been pretty welcoming," he said.

He has already found a local manicurist to paint his fingernails. "They don’t look very good today," he said, examining the tiger print detailing on them. "I’m still teaching her how to do it."

"I think he fits in well on the island," said Sarah Pankau, 18, who works near Stalking Cat’s house. She said there’s already a diverse mix of people on the island and he’s a welcome addition.

Nevertheless, not all islanders have embraced him. After Stalking Cat announced his move on his online journal, a person with the screen name "atomicdrunk" said, "... we have lots of hunters here. You can move here if you agree to stay in the woods and not wear orange."

Stalking Cat has created a different kind of family with Calhoun and Weiss, a married couple he has known for almost five years. When the two recently relocated to Washington from California for Weiss’ job with Boeing, they asked Stalking Cat to join them. He keeps busy doing renovations on their home.

"What we have going here works very well," he said of living with the couple. The household also includes two (real) cats, Morris and Pretty Girl; two Pomeranians; one albino garter snake; and three geckos.

"Family is a lot of different things to a lot of different people," Calhoun said. "We are mutually supportive and we respect each other’s choices."

[korme]

uh

[Peregrine]

yeesh

[BigJohn&TheLions]

Wow.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbo...ry_case2.shtml

[Marc Vaughan]

Very very very strange ... but imho if it makes him happy and doesn't affect anyone else then thats cool by me ...

(however if he moves into my neighbourhood I'll be keeping a close eye on the goldfish pond )

[Tekneek]

Western civilization clearly has too much spare time and spare money...still.

[ice4277]

I can't wait until he begins to have second thoughts.

[Fidatelo]

I can't really judge this until I've seen the "before" pics. For all we know this was an upgrade.

[jeff061]

The guys been doing this for something like 20 years. I think he is well beyond the point of having second thoughts. He's just a loon and found some surgeons who'll take advantage of him.

[JeeberD]

This thread looks funny.

[vtbub]

He looks like Johnny Damon

[Raiders Army]

He needs to be neutered.

[Lorena]

Someone find him a pussy!!

[Passacaglia]

Someone should dress like Odie, and follow him around all the time. That would really piss him off!

[LoneStarGirl]

he makes me naseous.

[Lathum]

the doctor that did these surgeries should lose his license forever.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by Lathum

the doctor that did these surgeries should lose his license forever.

absolutely - that guy looks way too much like Meg Ryan now...there's copyright infringement going on!

[MikeVic]

Why are all the messages in Shorty's post?

[korme]

Yea MV I don't know why, but also the first 2 posts and the article I posted got lost when I made the thread.

Originally Posted by Subby

absolutely - that guy looks way too much like Meg Ryan now...there's copyright infringement going on!

Meg Ryan was the hottest chick ever in the late 80's. I know, I was there.

[Mustang]

Wow..

Well, at least the people that speak Klingon have moved up the 'Least Likely to be Laid' depth chart...

[Anthony]

Goddess Bunny The Tap Dancer

[Leonidas]

I hope he has sense enough to avoid Chinese restaraunts.

[cincyreds]

RANCH!!

[Farrah Whitworth-Rahn]

I'd hit it.


Yuk. Ok not really. Hormones aren't that raging.

[Raven]

1. Good luck getting laid.
2. Good luck getting a job.

[BigJohn&TheLions]

Originally Posted by Lathum

the doctor that did these surgeries should lose his license forever.

Doctor?

Originally Posted by BBC Story

He now travels to Phoenix, Arizona to have his surgery carried out by body modification artist Steve Hayward. Cat cannot go under the surgeon's knife because it is illegal in the United States for a medical professional to alter someone's appearance beyond what society deems normal.

This also means that Cat has to brave surgery without taking anything for the pain. In the US, only qualified doctors are licensed to administer anaesthetic.

[BigJohn&TheLions]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

Goddess Bunny The Tap Dancer

That's a guy too. Sad, and sick at the same time...