Photo: Alexander Milligan

If you live in Bed-Stuy and happen to hear the sound of trash cans being banged around at night, don’t assume it’s a rat or a homeless person. It might be Nate Hill, 29, a local artist who often spends his evenings rummaging through garbage for his medium of choice: dead animals. Hill, who earned a biology degree and once worked as a lab technician, is a self-styled “rogue taxidermist,” who uses the parts of deceased critters for his work. He’s quite aware that many people find his idea of art repulsive. “I’ve had bottles thrown at me,” he says nonchalantly. “I’ve been threatened, but I just don’t care. I think I’m on to something!”

Hill’s “scraps,” as he refers to them, are scattered throughout his Brooklyn apartment-cum-mortuary, which is permeated with the smell of formaldehyde. Mice and rats can be seen floating in bottles of the stuff, but there are also cow parts and even deer limbs. His current piece, “The Adam Project,” is a human-size figure made of sewn-together chicken feathers, frog heads and just about anything else he can get his hands on. “I love the idea of imitating God,” he says. “Since He made animals, I want to make animals—only new forms of animals that have never existed.”

When this hipster Frankenstein isn’t buying and selling the once-living on taxidermy websites, he goes Dumpster-diving. One of his favorite haunts is Chinatown, where fish markets have much to offer in the way of discards. Recently, Hill invited anyone interested to accompany him on a nighttime tour there to see what could be found. Later, they headed to Home Sweet Home, a taxidermy-themed bar where patrons can find stiff drinks and stuffed squirrels.

So how did Hill get into all of this? It began with a crush. “I liked a girl who was into stapling animal parts together,” he says. “I made my first piece to impress her. We never worked out, but the idea stuck.” Now that’s romance.