Cold be hand and heart and bone

Still one of the most perfect frosty mornings I've ever witnessed 😭

A skull of the extinct bluebuck (Hippotragus leucophaeus) from the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of only two bluebuck skulls in existence.

So, it all started because I’ve been thinking a lot about tattoos lately and with hearing my coyotes the other night, I started dreaming about my Micoa/Melahuac tattoo again.  Then I remembered that when I found Micoa, there was also a vulture that had been hit and killed by a car who was presumably trying to scavenge him.  It was sad to see, but it’s been a while and I had kinda forgotten about it.  In remembering it, I thought perhaps I could add vultures to my coyote tattoo, or at least have the vulture beside Micoa in order to honor the poor scavenger.  I was about to tell someone my idea when I accidentally hit the “c” key instead of “v” when it hit me.

Vulture Culture.

I was so excited that I immediately felt my heart race because it was so perfect, especially because it went so well with Naturepunk’s recent suggestion that a vulture should be the mascot of the taxidermy community (which, even though I’m not a taxidermist, I feel like it kinda applies to us bone collectors too).  Aside from deciding that I definitely want a vulture tattoo with the words “Vulture Culture” to honor the poor vulture and my bone collecting “hobby” (if I can even call it a mere hobby anymore), I realized its potential as a term for us as a community.  I was waiting to say anything about it until I had drawn up a design to debut it with, but after this fiasco with the “Bone Queen” issue and being encouraged by Watserbones to release it, I felt that perhaps now would be a good time.

Great Auk skull compared to a Razorbill.

Found this book about skulls at a junk store and cried a little on the inside when I turned to this page which showcases a sheep skull as a horse skull.

For reference, this is a real horse skull: