There are multiple heinous murderers who carried out the process of skinning their victims after killing them.
One such psycho was
Ed Gein, 'The Butcher of Plainfield,' who gutted and skinned a woman he killed; Gein also used victim-skin to fashion himself ornaments and outfits.
In the iconic American psychological crime-thriller (and pseudo-horror) film
The Silence of the Lambs, an incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer named Dr. Hannibal Lecter helps an idealistic young rookie-FBI agent named Clarice Starling pursue a ruthless and eerie American serial killer named 'Buffalo Bill' who targets obese women and then keeps them in his 'dungeon' for long periods of time before skinning and/or mutilating them.
The notion of keeping or transforming the bodies of victims for 'personal' reasons may reflect an intention to objectify the victim as some 'symbol/totem' of pedestrian 'contact.' In particular, skinning the victim seems to suggest an interest by the victimizer/killer to transform the visual appearance of the victim so as to make him/her seem basically like a 'Golem' of pain, suffering, and most of all humiliation.
After all, we wear cosmetics and moisturizers on our skin or suntan-lotion and consider the appearance of our skin as a testament of the presentation aesthetics of human bodies to normal civilization.
A killer who takes the time to skin victims obviously intends to convey that 'presentation' of the human body to 'normal civilization' is some 'face' of spiritual vanity, which explains why we see the fictional chainsaw-wielding cannibal
Leatherface (from the iconic American horror-film franchise
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) often wearing a mask made out of the skin of his dead human victims!).
Leatherface obviously represents the psychological abnormality associated with a very eschewed perspective on the 'sensitivity' of human skin! Many criminal psychologists and film-critics alike have argued that Ed Gein was the real-life inspiration for the fictional Leatherface.
So how can we use 'skin-pathology' crime-fingerprints to evaluate the 'vanities' of civilization self-presentation psychology (e.g., suntan lotion)?
Such a question may help us better evaluate the links between criminality and intentionality (e.g., a serial killer who preys specifically on people at the beach wearing suntan lotion!).
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DR. LECTER: Why did you make a mask made out of your victims' skin?
LEATHERFACE: Pretty!!!
DR. LECTER: Pretty? Are you trying to 'resemble' your victims?
LEATHERFACE: Leatherface original!
DR. LECTER: I know you're 'unique,' but why do you want to look ugly?
LEATHERFACE: Ugly skin.
DR. LECTER: So you think skin is the 'hallmark' of beauty?
LEATHERFACE: Flesh and bone!!!
DR. LECTER: Correct; those are covered by skin --- a real marvel, no?
LEATHERFACE: Ugly!
DR. LECTER: In other words, you believe crime is ugly, and ugliness is 'natural.'
LEATHERFACE: Skin is ugly!!!
DR. LECTER: I suspect you targeted quite a few people based on 'skin color.'
LEATHERFACE: Maybe...
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Article: 14 Disturbed Killers Who Skinned Their Victims (ranker.com)
