Dutch Artist Caspar Berger used a CT scanner and 3D printer to create a unique self-portrait.

Thanks to x-ray technologies, many of us have seen images of our own skeletons — but imagine holding your own skull in your hand.

Berger is possibly the only person in the world to have done so. Using advanced CT scanning (PDF), he scanned and created a 3D model of his own skeletal system.

But what would you do with your own bones?

Well, of course, you can cast them in gold, which Berger did — but the skull, which he called the vera icon (“true image”, or true face) got a more special treatment.

From Berger’s web page:

This image has formed the basis for a facial reconstruction by a forensic anthropologist, who received the skull anonymously, accompanied only by the information that it belonged to a man in his mid-40s born in Western Europe. This facial reconstruction is based on the available scientific documentation of tissue structure, skin thickness and muscle groups. The clay reconstruction has been cast in bronze to be presented as self-portrait 21, a self-portrait that has not been made by the artist.