Eccentric Collections!
“I love interesting people with eccentric stories and outsiders of the world.”
—Paloma Faith
Hello everyone! Today I’m going to take you on quite an adventure! I must warn you though, this is definitely not for the faint of heart. If you’re easily scared, or feel queasy about animals and/or insects that have passed on to a better life, then I would suggest you skip this article all together.
However, if you’re the kind that finds beauty on things which have been given a second chance to charm us in their afterlife, then this is the article for you.
Last week I had the amazing opportunity to spend some time visiting with an up-and-coming Instagram influencer, Matt Martinez (@Mourns__). During this time, he introduced me to a world I had no idea existed--The fascinating world of Goth Taxidermy and Eccentric Collectibles.
Matt has a wide range of items from your basic skulls, all the way to some very interesting animal and insect specimens. But before we get into those I’d like to start with Matt’s story about how he even got started in this new world.
His gateway find was a rabbit’s foot, which he acquired at a very unique store in Richmond, Virginia. I do have to say, I love the name of this store: Rest in Pieces. Perhaps you’re wondering how this young truck driver from Texas wound up at such a place so far from home. Well that’s a very interesting story all on its own.
As it turns out, on October 2020, Matt had gone up there to get a tattoo from the bassist of his favorite band… Apparently the bassist is also a tattoo artist! It was during this time where Matt learned from him about Rest in Pieces. Once the tattoo was done and he was patched up, he immediately headed there.
As soon as he stepped foot in there, he was greeted by an extensive amount of all sorts of very different and exquisite items. “I wanted to buy everything!” was Matt’s prompt reaction.
Just a few months later, Matt’s collection has grown quite a bit since that first rabbit’s foot and it now features a range of items which include masks, skulls, and wet & dry specimens amongst other things. How about I just show you them:
Let’s start with a skull center piece which you’ll normally find in the middle of one of his coffee tables.
Next is one of my favorites, a plague doctor mask. I liked this so much that I ended up doing a couple of different edits. What do you think? Which do you like better? Feel free to let me know in the comments section!
Now a shrunken head replica. No this one is not real, but it’s still just as fascinating!
These three are wet specimens: a baby beaver, a baby chick, and a garden snake. Both the beaver and the chick just seem so peaceful.
This particular dry specimen is a baby pig fetus. The interesting thing about this is that you can actually take it out of the frame. It was quite the experience!
Something about these bats are just so familiar to me. The blue one just reminds me of Batman, whereas the red one reminds of the Bacardi logo haha!
And I had to save the best for last. By far, this is my favorite one: a large fanged tarantula. It is the size of Matt’s face!!
I liked the tarantula so much that I just had to get a close-up shot. This thing can give you nightmares! LOL!
Well, if you made it all the way to here, then you are truly as amazing as I thought you would be. This has definitely been one of my most interesting and unique adventures I’ve had to date. How about you? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Or maybe you yourself have acquired something similar in your travels! I’d love to hear about it in the comments section below.
If you’d like to learn more about Matt and what he does, pop over to Instagram and give him a follow: @Mourns__
If you are interested to learn more about what Rest in Pieces has to offer, and how they ethically acquire their specimens, please make sure you check them out.
As always, thank you for stopping by. Your time is precious and I appreciate you spending it here. If you haven’t already, make sure you don’t miss any new posts by signing up below. Take care of yourselves and see you back here in two weeks!