Gunther von Hagens, the man who turned dead bodies into educational art and himself into a walking controversy, has died at 81. His family announced that - in a move surprising absolutely no one - he has requested to be plastinated himself.

Von Hagens, sometimes called "Doctor Death," developed plastination, a technique that replaces bodily fluids and fatty tissue with rubber and polymers. This allowed him to display dissected human and animal bodies in his "Body Worlds" exhibitions, which have been seen by over 58 million people worldwide - and objected to by roughly 58 million religious leaders and ethicists.

He died on Friday after being admitted to a clinic in Heidelberg, Germany, with a brain haemorrhage. He had suffered from Parkinson's Disease for nearly two decades. His family's statement confirmed they will honor his wish to become a permanent exhibit.

Born in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1945, von Hagens grew up in communist East Germany before fleeing to the West in 1970. He developed plastination in the following years, initially for university teaching aids. But in the late 1990s, he took his show on the road - and the outrage followed.

Colleagues called him a "pioneer, a researcher, an inventor" who made anatomy accessible. Critics called him a voyeur who profited from death. In 2002, he performed the first public autopsy in London in 170 years on camera. Authorities warned it might be illegal, but no charges were brought - perhaps because no one wanted to argue with a man holding a plastinated lung.