Some describe him as eccentric, while others label him as crazy; however, the individual who set a Guinness World Record for extreme body modifications to resemble a tiger has passed away.
Dennis Avner, known to many as Stalking Cat, a name rooted in his Native American heritage, was 54 and a veteran of the US Navy.
With oversized fingernails, fangs, and a striped complexion, he was discovered deceased in his residence located in Tonopah, Nevada.
His transformation was not limited to resembling a tiger; he aimed to embody a female tiger, traversing and challenging the boundaries of both gender and species.
The surgeries he underwent, primarily performed by body modification artist Steve Haworth, involved bifurcating (splitting) his upper lip, surgically pointing his ears, implanting silicone in his cheeks and forehead, filing his teeth, tattooing his body, and various facial piercings.
Beyond being nearly entirely tattooed, he had extensively sculpted his body and face with silicone, had custom-molded teeth to reflect his inner identity, and frequently adorned himself with contact lenses and a mechanical tail.
“Dennis’s life, which pushed boundaries, was never simple, and he often remarked that he ‘secured fame, but not fortune.'”
In previous reports, it was mentioned that Avner, who had Native American ancestry, “felt called by his spirit to the wild and aimed to modify his body in homage to the tiger,” regarded as his totem animal.
He stated in 2005, “I’m Huron and Lakota.”
“I’m merely revisiting an ancient tradition that, to my knowledge, has fallen out of practice.”
”As a Huron, I have followed an ancient tradition and transformed myself into a tiger,” he mentioned on his now-defunct site.
While the specifics of his death remain undisclosed, there are widespread speculations that Avner may have taken his own life.
Avner had a career as a computer programmer and frequently made appearances at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! events across the globe.
by Robbo Green
