Nope, the artist is not Ed Gein. The artist is Sruli Recht, an Israeli-born, Icelandic-based designer who makes clothing and accessories that are more like pieces of art than off-the-rack designs. But we are not here to discuss items created out of stillborn lamb hides or woven horse hair. We are here to discuss a ring made out of human skin.
Recht had a 110mm x 10mm strip of his own flesh surgically removed from his abdomen. He then salted and tanned the skin and attached the skin to a band of 24 carat gold. The most striking feature of the skin ring is the fact that it still has Recht's hair sprouting out of it. That just gives me the heebie-jeebies.
If you are keen to wear a stranger's skin on your hand, it can be yours for only 350,000 Euros (about US$455,000). But you get a DNA report to prove that ring is made of skin (y'know, for the doubters) and a DVD of the ring being made.
If you are not squeamish, you can check out a video of the skin being removed from Recht's abdomen right here: