- On Wisconsin Avenue in Appleton
in the lobby of a tattoo shop,
[buzzing]
there's an inkling of something strange.
- Just about anything from human skulls
to antique vaporizers.
If it looks cool to me, I put it in the store.
- Did you see the football Steve made?
- Scott Watzlawick runs an oddities shop
called "Forty Three Skulls" out of this tattoo parlor.
As a child, Scott always repurposed
things other people threw away.
- My father, in a lot of cases, was less than thrilled
with the things I brought home.
- Like somebody'd have a broken doll
and he'd bring the little parts and pieces home
and make a design out of 'em.
And I'm like,
"There's a reason they're throwing this stuff away.
"It's no good.
"No, it'll be okay, really.
I can make something out of this."
- Scott still dabbles in recycled art,
but he's gained notoriety
for collecting and repurposing animals into his work.
From skulls to skeletons to folk art,
his store showcases his eclectic collection.
- This is an old chemistry cabinet from a science lab.
This is a panther skull.
Some tattooed pig skin.
Some old quack medicinery
they use to sell off of wagons years ago.
Marmoset monkey.
Skelton of a snake.
I would rather see an animal go into an art piece
that could educate a child,
as opposed to go into a landfill and rot with garbage.
All my things are ethically sourced.
So nothing has been killed for the art
or killed to be put into a jar.
This actually comes from a scientific dissection lab.
- Scott sees this as preserving an animal's legacy,
while educating people along the way.
For instance, he says he sells
a lot of items to science teachers.
- To me that's the most fun of it.
It's teaching kids and keeping them focused and interested
so they want to go home and hit up Google and go ...
"Where did this bat come from?"
Or "What's a flying fox bat?"
Or "I saw a giraffe at Forty Three Skulls.
Where do giraffes come from?"
- Scott's father Ron, once a skeptic, is now a believer.
- Yeah, there have been things that he has asked me to do
and I'm like, "You gotta be kidding.
Nobody's gonna want this."
And then, he'll put it in the store and it's gone.
The more time goes by, the more I learn
there's a collector for everything.
[pounding]
- Now they work together to create new pieces of art,
like this walking stick.
- My father routed out with a dremel
so we could inlay the skull here.
In all the trial and error, you come up with
some pretty cool, unique items and, you know,
I can say I built that with my father.
- Scott realizes that many people find his hobby strange,
but it's actually brought his family closer together.
- Over the last five years, I think we've probably gotten
closer than we've ever been.
I burst at the seams telling people about it, 'cause yeah,
I couldn't be happier.
I couldn't be more proud of him.
- And that's not so odd after all.
- The old saying goes,
"A family that plays together stays together."
Well, I'm living proof of that.