Geoff Ostling will have his skin removed and sent to the National Gallery of Australia after he dies

SOME people make the decision to donate their organs, but a retired Sydney schoolteacher is really taking things to the next level.

Let me get this right, you want my skin to put in a museum.

SOME people make the decision to donate their organs after death, but a retired Sydney schoolteacher is taking things to the next level.

Geoff Ostling has made the choice to have his skin removed and sent to the National Gallery of Australia after he dies.

The decision came to be when a curator approached Mr Ostling with the bizarre request after he showcased his heavily tattooed body at  the Sydney Tattoo and Body Art Expo last February.

News_Rich_Media: Geoff Ostling is one of Australia's most heavily tattooed man, meet him and others as they describe their own personal journey in the world of skin ink at the Australian Tattoo and Body Art Expo in Sydney.

“Yes, it sometimes gets a squeamish reaction,” he told the Australian.

“I’d like them to display it on a mannequin — but they might just store it away.”

With a highly-coloured, seamless tattooed bodysuit spanning from his neck to his toes, you could be mistaken for thinking Mr Ostling has spent a lifetime under the needle.

News_Image_File: His works are a long collaboration with him and Australian artist eX de Medici.

However, as the middle-class son of an Anglican vicar, he didn’t get his first work done until the tender age of 42.

Now, 26 years later, what began as a single flower on his chest, has taken over his whole body with his head remaining the only part of his skin free from tattoos.

Mr Ostling said he decided to become heavily tattooed because he felt it help him take possession of his body.

However, he admits he kept his tattoos hidden until he retired on his 60th birthday.

“I was discreet about it at school, just as I was about being gay,” he said.

As for the skin-removal procedure itself, Mr Ostling likens it to the removal of wallpaper.

“Very easy to do, but not easy to do well,” he told Vice.

“You have to be careful to not tear it, but after it’s tanned and preserved it will last for a very long time.”

News_Image_File: His head is the only blank canvas. News_Image_File: A close up of some work on his leg.

While this will be the first tattooed skins on display at the National Museum of Australia, the practice is nothing new.

Tattoo historian and anthropologist Dr Gemma Angel said there are a number of large tattoo skin collections on display worldwide, with the largest collection containing over 300 individual tattoo fragments at London’s Science Museum.

However, she admits that the procurement of that collection is slightly more dubious than the methods that will be used with Mr Ostling.

“As is often the case, the museum acquisition records are sketchy,” she told Vice.

“The seller called himself Dr La Valette, but there was no registered medical professional by that name at the medical school during that time.

“In all likelihood, he was using a pseudonym — there had been one or two public scandals surrounding the use of human skin excised from cadavers to make souvenir items at the Paris medical faculty, as well as experimental tattoo removal on inmates at La Sante prison, so it makes sense that anyone in possession of such a large collection of preserved tattoos would be wary of revealing his identity.”News_Image_File: Maybe they will recreate this pose in the museum.

As for the process of removing the skin, Ms Angel gave a little more detail by adding it is often cut away from the body using a scalpel.

“Depending upon the degree of decomposition and atmospheric conditions, this is a relatively straightforward operation,” she said.

“Skin decomposes very quickly, so in most cases removal would have taken place during autopsy.”

From here the skin is scraped clean of connective tissue and is stretched before being hung out to dry.