Woman turns excess skin from weight loss surgery into human leather

A woman has turned her old skin left over from weight loss surgery into human leather using a freezer and tumble dryer.

Artist Katie Taylor, 52, said the idea "came naturally" to her once she decided to have an operation.

She stored the nearly 2kg of skin in her freezer for nine months before turning it into leather, which she now wants to put it in an exhibition.

The mum-of-two lost six stone after being diagnosed with type two diabetes in 2004.

In order to manage her diabetes she resorted to a keto diet and started weightlifting, and lost the weight in the process.

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In March last year, Taylor, from Oxford, had reached a happy weight and decided to get surgery to remove the loose skin around her stomach.

The fine art PhD student at Oxford Brookes University said: "To others this idea is bonkers and sounds really weird, but it came naturally to me.

"I use materials that challenge what can and can't be done in my art and I definitely have a bodily aspect to my work.

"The idea of bodies and the circularity of human remains or decomposition is part of my PhD project – so this fed into that quite nicely."

Taylor had to get special permission from the hospital that she could keep the skin, which they said had to be collected immediately.

She initially bought a home tanning kit but eventually decided against undergoing the process herself.

She reached out to several survival courses but was turned away until she got in touch with Theresa Emmerich Kamper.

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Kamper has a PhD in experimental archaeology and over 30 years of experience in prehistoric skin tanning.

Taylor travelled to Exeter in January this year and stayed in a hotel nearby Kamper's house for a week whilst they completed the process.

Taylor said: "We began by scraping the fat off the back and getting the membrane off.

''Then we soaked the skin in vegetable tanning solution whilst stirring and checking on it everyday.

"After it had soaked we stretched it lots and rubbed oil on it before drying it out in Theresa's tumble dryer."

She said she wants to turn it into art because "it's capturing marks and signs of my life," with a caesarean scar, stretch marks and hair follicles on the leather.

How safe is weight loss surgery in the UK?

Generally, weight loss surgery is considered very safe in the UK.

The procedure is available on the NHS and is particularly likely to be recommended by your doctor if you suffer from obesity-related illnesses like type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure.

It is usually only recommended after other forms of weight loss has failed.

The NHS lists several risks involved with getting weight loss surgery, they are:

• Being left with excess folds of skin

• Not getting enough vitamins and minerals from your diet after the surgery necessitating the need to take supplements.

• Gallstones

• The gastric band slipping out of place or food leaking between the stomach and small intestine.

• Infection

• Blood clots

According to the London Obesity Group, the three main types of procedures are the gastric band, sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass.

The gastric band is the least invasive and has a mortality rate of 1 in 2000, while the gastric bypass is more dangerous with a mortality rate of 1 in 200.