Martinez Brothers Taxidermists

The story

Long before South Lamar Boulevard became lined with mid-rise apartment developments, Alex Martinez Sr. hung a hand-painted jaguar sign at the corner of Oltorf Street in 1962 and opened his workshop. Back then, South Austin was still overrun with critters from the nearby creek rather than boutiques. Over six decades later, three generations of the Martinez family still run the shop as one of Texas's last traditional taxidermy operations—sculpting forms by hand and using paper mannikins and custom tanning methods fine enough to earn commissions for Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, and a deer head mount that hangs in the Smithsonian.

Today, third-generation taxidermist Alex Martinez II balances traditional game mounts with much weirder commissions. When Hollywood directors needed gruesome, authentic props for the reboot of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse, they came directly to this Lamar workshop. But the strangest orders on the workbench are often the personal ones: Alex mounted a pet black bear as a memorial, and once transformed a grieving client's two deceased house cats into custom hand warmers because "their fur was just so soft."

That blur of traditional trade craft, film props, and eccentric pet memorials keeps Martinez Brothers anchored in place. While old South Austin shops disappear around it, this working space remains completely untouched by boutique polish—a place where taxidermists still mix Grumbacher artist oils, stretch hides over custom forms, and keep a sixty-year family tradition alive.