As the CBC recounts, at the age of 17, Mark Holmgren grievously injured his right arm and shoulder in a motorbike accident. Nerve damage left the limb permanently limp, so he had it amputated. However, he couldn’t bear to part with his arm entirely. “If I was going to get rid of it, I wanted to do something cool with it,” he remarked in an interview. He drew inspiration from Halloween decorations and resolved to have a taxidermist preserve the skeletal remains.

Five taxidermy requests resulted in five rejections, but the sixth time was a charm. Danielle Swift, director of the Alberta-based company Legends Taxidermy and Skull Cleaning, agreed to grant Holmgren’s wish. Though she often rejected requests to stuff dead pets, a human arm somehow didn’t cross the line. Swift explained, “I get the feeling of not wanting to lose a part of yourself.” Flesh-eating beetles feasted on the dead arm, and the bones were bleached and pieced back together, guaranteeing that even in death Holmgen’s arm would hold onto object permanence.