58 thoughts on “Better Than Burning Ants.”

  4. Dude, what?

    This must take intense patience and pain resistance

    I would very much like to know how this is done in basic instructions before burning my skin and fucking up

  6. freekyeyes – If it leaves a scar I’d say it could be called scarification, but yes.. I see your point. It was mostly because “solar powered scarification” sounded better 🙂

  14. haha so cool, one of the lenses looks like a contact juggling ball,
    i have totally decided what i’m doing at my next juggling festival 😀

  23. Concerning the skin cancer worries…

    Skin cancer is the sort of cancer that forms in the epidermis due to prolonged exposure to shortwave UV radiation, generally in the form of sunlight but also via lightbulbs designed to emit that specific wavelength.

    Now, silica or quartz glass has the handy propery of being opaque to shortwave ultra-violet light. It’s safe to assume, therefore, that this fellow’s exposure was much less than, say, taking your dog for a walk through the park. It’s also worth noting that skin cancer is more likely to develop as a result of prolonged exposure, not extreme exposure.

  24. Solar radiation is roughly 1366 Wm-2. Assuming a lens of 7.5 cm in diameter, that glass would focus roughly 22 W onto the skin. Assuming 11 W absorbed on a 0.3175 cm diameter (1/8 inch, or roughly 8 gauge) working area with a volume of roughly 0.0320059844 cm^3 and properties similar to water, at 4.184 J/(g*C), it would take roughly 14 milliseconds in theory to raise said area from room temperature to 74 *C (165 *F, the temperature recommended for cooking meat to).

    .0320059844g *4.184 J*gram-1*degree C-1 *50 degree C * 11 J/s =.014 s

    Even if I’m horribly off as far as efficiency goes, that setup still seems like it’s going to burn pretty quickly on skin with such a low albedo. Either way, if my back of the envelope calculations are even remotely in the ballpark, I may have found the technique for my next star scar.

  25. Oh…umm…did anyone else go cross eyed whilst reading anametamystick’s post?

  26. Maybe this is silly of me, but I hope he posts an experience! This is really neat.

  28. Glynnavrye…

    In theory, such scarification/branding should occur very rapidly (within seconds). In practice, we’ll have to try it ourselves or wait until he posts an experience.

    I think I’ve been reading a bit too much of XKCD.

  29. The green is from the marker we used to draw on the design.
    It’s now pink ish, like the rest of my scars.

    And the brand was done on me, BY Andrew S. (contrary to the description above).

  31. Shit, one more.

    The lens that did the branding is a contact juggling ball. The actual magnifying glass we had left a dot that was a little too big, and had to be held further away which made it more difficult to be precise.

  35. This is absolutely incredible. It just feels so natural, I’m surprised it hasn’t been done before!

  43. Besides, I’m for a detailed report of this technique and your exepriences on modblog too 🙂

  45. Ok at the risk of sounding really dumb, I’m confused as to how he made the spiral? Did he just catch a ray and direct it by moving the glass or?????????????????????????????

  46. #44, a magnifying glass of that size would have focused only a small dot capable of burning, so yeah, he moved the glass in a spiral.

    Love the second photo!

  47. *third photo, not to say I don’t think the spiral is rad, I’m just a huge photography nerd.

  49. that looks awesome.
    i NEED to try something like this.
    sorry I’m copying you 😛
    ill try to keep away from anything spiral-ie

  51. For the life of me I could not work out how this was possible but I think I get it now. It’s such a unique idea, I hope it turns out well, it looks pretty damn cool.

  54. I wonder whether using a “Stencil” for this would be effective, stroking the light back and forth to cover an area for those without steady hands whilst undergoing pain

  56. #54, We thought about the same thing.

    I cut a lot of stencils anyway.

    This design did expand quite a bit. About the same as strike branding. So a super detailed design, even with a stencil, I think is unlikely.

    If I ever get around to it, I was going to coat my paper in silicone before cutting the stencil. Silicone’s heat resistance, I think, would make it ideal.

    I hope to see pictures of anyone else trying this. (with or without a stencil)

  57. I met a guy called Cricket in Tucson several years back who did a sun scarification on his own forearm.
    Also, this
    forum     might be relevant.

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