An exasperated teenager has joked that he wants a "normal" mum after she cooked a family dinner that looked exactly like him.
Earlier this month Collin Suriano was shocked when he sat down for dinner and discovered a surreal likeness looking back at him from his lump of meatloaf.
The 17-year-old was amused by his mum Melissa Suriano, who created his face from ground meat.
It had grated cheese hair, olive eyes, pepper eyebrows and mouth, along with onion teeth.
The 42-year-old constructed the meatloaf artwork to thank her son for all his help when she began her new job, by tidying the house and supporting his brother with special needs.
But as the family began to eat the edible artwork, Collin admitted that it did feel "weird" to see himself being eaten.
The mum-of-four, who works as behaviour technician for children with special needs, said Collin quipped that her gesture made her the "weirdest" parent ever before questioning why he couldn't have a 'normal mum'.
Melissa, who describes her son as a 'good young man', said that all jokes were made in jest and that her response to his comments were 'I know deep down inside you love it'.
Collin, of Mesick, Michigan, US, said: "At first I found the whole thing extremely funny - like the whole fact that she sculpted my face off a photo into a meatloaf.
"I don't think any other mother in the world has done that before which makes it really weird, but it's a good weird.
"And it wasn't really that good, I found that really funny.
"I felt uncomfortable when they all started making jokes about eating me and all that kind of stuff and referring to the meatloaf as me.
"It felt like a part of me was slowly going more and more missing."
Melissa, who's a mum to four boys, said Collin has stepped up to the plate in recent years following the death of her partner 13 years ago.
Melissa said: "Collin is just sweet, helpful and is very, very kind.
"He is in the middle of four brothers. I'm not married, I'm a widow, and this young man has grown up and he's helped.
"I don't have to ask him and he always does the right thing, he's just a good young man.
"I cooked this meal because he was really helpful this past week.
"I started a new job and I needed help at home taking care of one of his brothers who's special needs and is in a wheelchair.
"He also organised my basement for me because it was really messy.
"So I wanted to make him happy and made him a meatloaf to show my appreciation for what he does.
"I thought it would be fun to make it look like him because we had a special celebration dinner."
After moulding the meatloaf into Collin's face, she used veggies lurking in her fridge to recreate his features.
Melissa said: "He thought it was really funny at first and started laughing.
"Then his brother started teasing him about it and saying silly things like 'are you going to have second helpings? You're really going to be full of yourself'.
"Then all of a sudden, he got really concerned looking and said 'I don't know how I feel about this. Why are you so weird? You're the weirdest mom ever'.
"He said 'nobody would ever do this, but you. Why can't I have a normal mom?'
"But it was funny and he was teasing, he wasn't angry about it.
"I said 'you don't have to say it out loud but I know deep down inside you love it'."
