What do you consider totally out there in terms of modifying your body? A few too many facial piercings, maybe? A conspicuously placed tattoo? How about attempts to make your entire body resemble a totally different species altogether, or an infamous super villain? There are a plethora of people who have undergone some mindboggling body modifications for personal and artistic reasonings. Here are five of the most extreme cases out there – be sure to brace yourself!

1. Eric “Lizardman” Sprague

Not so surprisingly, the Lizardman works as an American freak show attraction and sideshow performer. He has been featured on Ripley’s! Believe It Or Not and various other TV documentaries. His body modifications include a forked tongue, sharpened teeth, tattoos of scales over his entire body including his lips, and subdermal implants

Eric was not always so into his taboo lifestyle. He was a Ph. D. candidate for the University at Albany and has a Bachelors degree in philosophy. Eric states that he began this physical transformation as a “ body based art piece that would explore the idea of what it means to be human,” and states that his family has always been very supportive. He currently lives with his wife, their pet ferrets, and occasionally travels with his rock band LIZARD SKYNARD.

2. Marcus “The Creature” Boykin

Known not only for being heavily tattoed and pierced, but Marcus “The Creature” Boykin is also known for being one of the first African-American body mod artists in the history of freak shows. Working primarily at the Venice Beach Freakshow, he is also memorable for the fact that he has done many of his own piercings himself.

Marcus states that he became interested in tribal cultures as a child, which lead him to researching the many various tribal piercings around the world. He got his first piercing at the young age of 14, and just five years later began an apprenticeship at a Los Angeles tattoo and piercing parlor. He believes his modifications help strengthen his inner warrior and wanted to create a unique body that didn’t resemble anyone else’s.

3. Lucky Diamond Rich

Hailing from New Zealand is Lucky Diamond Rich, birth name Gregory McLaren, a street performer and performance artist who has talents aside from his strange appearance, such as sword swallowing and unicycle-bound juggling tricks. The Guinness World Records has certified him as being the most tattoed person in the world, with ink covering his entire body, including the inside of his eyelids, ears, mouth, and genital areas.

Overall his tattoos feature work by hundreds of artists and have added up to over a thousand hours of work. He isn’t stopping even though his body is fully covered, either. He has begun getting white tattoos laid over his black ones, and colored ones on top of those.

4. Dennis Avner aka “Stalking Cat”

Made relatively well known through his appearances on Ripley’s! Believe It Or Not and Larry King Live, Stalking Cat was a man who for a long time held a world record for most permanent transformations undergone to resemble an animal. He underwent 14 surgical procedures, including silicone injections, subdermal implants, surgical hairline modification, shaping of his ears, nose flattening, splitting his upper lip, and altering his teeth.

Dennis was born in Flint, Michigan, and was a sonar technician for the Navy as a young man. He felt a strong spiritual affinity for tigresses and first began with facial tattoos to better emulate what he felt was his personal spirit animal. He often told people that he was told to change his human form by a medicine man he encountered in a tribe he claimed to have grown up in.

Unfortunately, Stalking Cat passed away at the young age of 54 in his home. Not much was known about his passing, although one reporter did claim it was an apparent suicide.

5. Henry Damon aka The Red Skull

It isn’t every day that one takes the sentiment of chopping off their nose to spite their face quite so literally. A native of Venezuela, Henry is a die-hard Marvel fan, in particular, a fan of a super villain of the popular comics, Red Skull. He has had his nose severely altered, received subdermal implants in his forehead, tattooed his face, and also had his eyeballs tattooed black.

He has plans to continue and complete the look with further tattooing and subdermal implants in the future. Despite this radical transformation, those close to Henry say that he is a very healthy individual mentally, emotionally, and physically. They state that he is a great man overall, and a terrific husband and father.