Is THIS just a simple shape/object with an image as a "texture" fill?

[TomkatDF1]

So, this is apparently an Illustrator file...
As a relative newbie, I'm strying to figure out how this was accomplished.
A "live trace" for something like this would generate THOUSANDS of paths/anchors, and not look nearly this good.  Is this just a simple shape/object in the shape of the skull outline, with an image as a "texture?"

[Doug A Roberts]

I would do it in the manner you describe.

But the result would not be any more scalable than the image was before placing it in Illustrator. Pixels are pixels whether in an Illustrator wrapper or not.