Deviant Bodies Interview - Online Publication 2004

Deviant Bodies is an online project of the Church of Satan Science Special Interest Group. You can contact the editor here:

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Bone Daddy and Mortuary Science:

An Interview with Necrosculptor Owen Leitsch

Part 1

This is the first part of an interview series with Necrosculptor Owen Leitsch. For those of you who are not aware of Owen Leitsch and his artwork, get ready. His medium is bone and other organic material. This up and coming artist is swiftly becoming a hot property to collectors. Knowing that his background is in the Mortuary Sciences, we felt it was a must to take this opportunity to learn about the trade first hand from a professional.

DB: What is the degree you hold from mortuary school?

OL: Associates Degree in the Applied Science of Mortuary Science.

DB: What led you to decide on a career in mortuary sciences?

OL: The field of Mortuary Science is a well respected profession. Most people couldn't or wouldn't want to deal with death on a daily basis. In that sense, people respect those who do deal with it. When one goes into the field of Mortuary Science, they have to do a lot of inward observation, or "soul searching". You have to think about the whys and wherefores. As I thought about it, I wanted to understand life and what happens after its end. I don't believe in a spiritual afterlife, but I did want to know what goes on behind the closed doors of the funeral home. Also, I have an interest in all things deemed "creepy" or "odd" and the Mortuary Science profession fit into this interest. The main thing that people need to understand about the Mortuary Field is that mainly the ones who enter it are there to help people. After all of the pomp and ceremonies are done, when the lights are turned out, the profession breaks down into helping people go through a traumatic experience. Death is never an easy experience to deal with, some deal with it better than others. But that's where the Funeral Director comes in. He or she is there to help the ones who are having a difficult time handling the death of a loved one. The Funeral Director is the one who consults the members of the family and tries to help them cope with their loss.

I on the other hand do not feel comfortable around people going through a crisis. When I entered the field, I did not want to become a Funeral Director. I wanted to be an Embalmer, one who prepares a deceased body for disposal. This way, I didn't have to deal with the drama that occurs in the offices of the Funeral Director.

DB: Tell us about the experience of your first embalming.

OL: My first embalming experience was an epiphany for me. I remember walking in through the back door of a Funeral Home into their business office. The sickening sweet smell of the embalming fluid was heavy in the air. Even though the embalming room and offices have a good ventilation system, the smell permeated the rooms. I went into a holding room, which is a room that houses many deceased bodies before they are embalmed, and saw eight bodies lying on gurneys with sheets over them. It was like walking onto a set of a horror movie, only this was the real deal. While in the holding room, I "suited up" into the usual embalming garments. First goes on the apron, a shirt type of garment that is slit up the back. It has long sleeves with elastic bands around the wrists and ties in the back. Next, the shoe covers are placed over the shoes. Then goggles are placed over the eyes, a hair cover and a helmet with a face shield is placed on the head. The last item to be put on is the latex gloves. I remember looking into a mirror and thinking I was ready for surgery, which embalming is in a way. It is a surgery that takes place with a dead body.

When I entered the embalming room, there were two steel tables next to a sink; one had a body on it, ready for embalming. There was a professional embalmer in the room as well, eager to teach the student about his profession. I was very nervous because I had never handled human remains before.

We started off with the cleaning of the body. This was done by taking soap that has a very strong disinfectant in it and scrubbing the body down by hand. Next, the mouth is closed by taking an instrument that looks like a small nail with a wire attached to it, this is called a needle injector, this needle injector is inserted into the mouth right above the space between the two front teeth and the two bottom teeth and the wires of the needle injectors are twisted together to close the mouth.

After the mouth was closed, the next thing was to put "eye caps" under the eye lids. These are contact lens looking instruments that have a rough texture to them. They are placed under the eyelids on top of the eyeball. The rough texture holds the eye lids in place so the eyes do not "pop" open at an inconvenient time. Next, the hairs in the nasal passages are clipped. And then, the actual injection of the embalming fluid.

On a "normal" case, the injection of the fluid into the body is done through the common Carotid artery in the neck, just above the clavicle, or collar bone. The area above the artery must be cut and the artery "raised". This is done by taking a scalpel and incising the skin above the artery. Then the artery is lifted up usually by an index finger and incised about one quarter the thickness into the artery. After this, an Arterial Injector Tube connected to the embalming fluid pump is inserted into the Artery, aimed towards the lower portion of the body. This tube is secured by a forceps called an Arterial fixation forceps, this is an instrument that looks like a normal forceps but has a hole in the middle where the instrument clamps the tube to the artery. After the tube has been secured, a drainage point for the blood that is still in the circulatory system must be created. This is done by incising the jugular vein and inserting a drainage tube into it. A hose is connected to the drainage tube and placed towards the foot end of the embalming table where the drain is. Then the embalming machine is turned on, the right amount of pressure is set and a little while later the blood begins to drain. When the blood has turned from a rust color to a pink color, the embalmer knows that the blood has drained from the lower portion of the body. When this happens, the embalming machine is turned off; the arterial tube is removed from the artery and then turned so it is aimed towards the head. It is secured and the embalming machine is turned on again. After a little while longer, the body is embalmed, but not fully yet. There are still the internal organs that still have blood, bile, and other fluids that could cause decomposition to occur. These have to be embalmed in a different way. How this is done is by aspiration. Aspiration is the process of removing fluids or gases from the body with a suction device. The process of this is to insert a long tube with a point on the top into the body cavity; this instrument is called a Trocar or also known as "The Mortician's Sword". Point of insertion is one to two inches to the left of the navel and one to two inches above that point. The Trocar is attached to a hose that is connected to a water control unit; this unit is like a vacuum, controlled by water flow. The higher the flow, the better the suction is for aspiration. After aspirating all of the organs, then a higher degree of embalming fluid must be injected into them. This is done by taking the Trocar off of the water control unit and connecting it to a hose that is connected to a bottle of embalming fluid. The Trocar is inserted into the cavity, the bottle is held above the embalmers head level and the same process that was used for aspiration is followed. After a couple of bottles of fluid are used, the body is now embalmed. I did not perform the arterial embalming, but I did perform the cavity aspiration and injection. I felt really odd actually plunging this sharp instrument into a person, similar to stabbing. However, after I did it, I felt very comfortable with the procedure.

The embalming process took almost two hours to complete, and after we were done, I wondered what else had to be done to prepare this body for burial. After embalming, the incisions are dried and sewn up. The body is then dried and a plastic undergarment is put on the genital region. This looks like a pair of plastic briefs, which doesn't allow for any fluids or solid wastes to exit the body. After all of these things have been completed, the body is placed onto a gurney and a sheet is draped over it. This is then wheeled into the holding room and this completed my first embalming. There are other procedures that take place after embalming to get the deceased ready for burial, like hair dressing, dressing the corpse in burial garments, and then the placing of the body into the casket. I did not witness these other processes this day, but I would another time.

When it was all done, I really felt like this was the field for me to get involved in, I felt like I was helping people behind the scenes… Most importantly, I felt alive, invigorated and I respected and appreciated life even more.

DB: How does the scientific method fit into this ritual?

OL: The scientific method fits into this mainly in the early developmental stages of embalming. This occurred in the late 1800's when the first embalmings occurred. The embalmers at that time did not know what to do or what to use, so there was a trial and error process to go through. Things that worked, they reused, things that didn't, they discarded and tried to find other methods of preservation. They formed hypothesis to figure out how a dead body decomposed, what caused it, and they experimented with many different chemicals to try to stop the decomposition process. Over time, the embalmers have found out that formaldehyde is the best way of preserving the dead body for the funeral process. It is important to know that the modern use of formaldehyde, while it stops the decomposition process for a while, does not preserve the body indefinitely. Over time, the body will break down and decompose.

DB: Does the mortuary science background help with your artwork?

OL: My mortuary background sometimes helps with creating my Necrosculptures. When constructing my work, sometimes the sculpture takes on the form of a mythical creature. I want people to think that these animals could actually exist. Through the training on the subject of Anatomy, I can figure out how bones fit together and how to make the parts work together to form a believable creature.

DB: What are the various rituals found in mortuary science?

OL: There are many rituals in the field of mortuary science. Most of them take place during the Embalming process, see the embalming description above. Others that take place are during Restorative Art, which is the reconstruction of parts of the body that have become missing, example: a nose, ear, lips, etc. The way to reconstruct these various parts, is to take measurements, use them in different mathematical formulas and then to construct the parts out of mortuary wax. Then the wax is tinted to the color of the deceased's skin to try to give it a "life like" appearance. Other rituals that are found in mortuary science occur during religious ceremonies.

**To check out and/or purchase pieces of Owen's artwork, go to www.necrosculptures.com.

All Images and Text is Copyrighted by Deviant Bodies © 2004

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