Dennis Avner, a.k.a. the stalking cat man, was found dead earlier this week at his home in Tonopah, Nevada.
Avner earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records after he underwent extreme body modification to make himself look more like a tiger. Avner, a US Navy veteran who went by his Native American name Stalking Cat, was 54.
According to Shannon Larratt, a friend of the Stalking Cat, Avner wanted to modify his body in order to adopt his animal spirit.
Larratt writes:
“In addition to being almost completely covered in tattoos, he’d also sculpted his face and body with extensive silicone work, had custom teeth built to emulate his inner nature, and regularly wore contact lenses and an artificial robotic tail …. (Avner wanted to turn) himself not just into a tiger, but a female tiger at that, blurring and exploring the gender line as much as the species line.”
According to the Mail Online , Avner had much of his body modification done by Steve Haworth. Haworth sharpened the points of Avner’s ears, placed silicone in his cheeks and forehead, filed his teeth into fangs, and split his upper lip.
The cause of death has not been determined yet. According to the Herald Sun , many people are speculating that the stalking cat man committed suicide.
