Cat Man Plastic Surgery Before and After Photos

in 1980, Dennis Abner was your average San Diego guy. He is a former Marine with a college education and one night he had a dream where an indian chief told him to “follow the way of the tiger”. Now, dreams can be interpreted in a number of ways, for example, to me “following the way of the tiger” would be about being strong and brave. Apparently Dennis took it literally and immediately started transforming himself into a strange, cat-like anomaly.

‘Cat Man’ found dead in Nevada, rumors of suicide

Dennis Avner earned a world record for body modifications because of the extremes to which he had gone to transform his body to look like a tiger.

"Cat Man" Dennis Avner poses during the grand opening celebration of Ripley's Believe It Or Not Odditorium Thursday, June 21, 2007 in Times Square. Anver was found dead in his hometown in Nevada Nov. 5.

A man whose numerous tattoos, piercings and other cosmetic surgeries earned him the world-record for body modifications died earlier this month under unclear circumstances.

Dennis Avner, known as “Cat Man” was found dead on Nov. 5 in his home of Tonopah, Nevada.

The 54-year-old former US Navy sonar technician, also known by his Native American name Stalking Cat, had become famous for transforming his face to resemble a tiger.

His cause of death has not been released, but it is believed he took his own life.

Shannon Larratt, who knew Stalking Cat, wrote in a blog post that Avner had tried to adopt the spiritual essence of the animal world. He had tried to transform “himself not just into a tiger, but a female tiger at that, blurring and exploring the gender line as much as the species line.”

"A wonderful and complex person, he was at times as troubled as he was remarkable, and he recently took his own life at the age of 54," the piece read.

Over 20 years ago, Dennis Avner began his bizarre surgical transformation on his quest to alter his looks into that of a tiger. His unusual surgeries, body modification and tattoos made him somewhat of a media sideshow and he appeared on many high-profile programs throughout the years. In the underground world of bod mod, Avner, or “Stalking Cat”, as he liked to be called, was looked up to and held in the highest regard by fellow body modifiers. Unfortunately the story of Stalking Cat has come to an untimely end, and it has been confirmed that Dennis Avner was found dead at his home on November 5th. Avner was 54-years old.

Avner became well-known around the world as ‘Catman’ and became an inspiration to many people in the underground world of body modification. Many of the body modifications that he underwent had never been performed before, such as: septum relocation to flatten the nose and bifurcation of the upper lip. And while Avner’s transformation caused quite a bit of attention, he was always the first to admit that he had, “found fame, but not fortune.”

The cause of death has not been released, but due to what some called his “troubled nature”, rumor has it that Dennis “Stalking Cat” Avner ended his own life.