My old friend Quentin at Kalima (kalima.co.uk) is one of those body modification masters that’s been at it since caveman days, but doesn’t seek out media attention so he flies under most people’s radar. Anyway, he posted this beautifully done ear reconstruction that included the reversal of a large inner conch hole, and the first comment practically had me on the floor laughing — “Was tissue removed from the lobe to repair the conch?”
The picture is misleading because Quentin did the lobe closure and the conch closure at the same time, so both are stitched up. I suppose it’s not a terribly unreasonable assumption if you’re a layperson that doesn’t have much experience with these procedures, but after laughing a bit, I was a little terrified that someone might see this and actually try and do a lobe reversal that way — which would almost certainly result in necrosis (you might as well stick in a piece of hamburger beef for all the good it’ll do). In any case, it’s not a big deal to remove cartilage from the inner conch and then close the skin over the void — in fact, this is quite commonly done by cosmetic surgeons, who often choose the inner conch to harvest cartilage for transplant in rhinoplasty (ie. nose job) procedures!
Click to zoom in and take a close look at how perfectly this turned out.
