Transdermal Implant Removal

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Well, let’s see if this risks entry goes better than the last one where people’s heads exploded and we had hundreds of posts that many people will probably regret in the future when they reread them with a calmer head.

After a heavy blow right on the implant, Bena decided it would be best to remove (DIY) the implant. Luckily it seems to have come out fairly easily.

I know of another case where someone recieved a blow on a similarly placed transdermal implant, and things didn’t turn out as well. I asked the person to do an interview, but they decided against it, so I’ll try and recount the story as best I remember it. After receiving the blow, the surrounding tissue swelled and there were some signs of infection, but then it went down again, so the person paid it no more worry. Then, much later, they started getting severe headaches, and when they became unbearable, they went to the hospital. Doctors discovered that the infection had not gone away, but simply moved underneath the implant. It had eroded a quarter-sized hole in his forehead, and the doctors warned that had he waited a few more days to come in he could have dropped dead.

I really want to extend thanks to people (and practitioners) who share their stories when things go wrong. I think for this community to grow safely, sharing what we know about the problems is in many ways more important than sharing what we know about performing procedures.

Your kind ain’t welcome here, boy.

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This story is from the Morning Herald Despatch (Decatur, IL) newspaper, dated July 2, 1897. The characterizations are kind of odd — although I do find the idea of using “heathen” to describe anyone who’s not Christian sort of amusing…

TATTOO ARTEST [sic] IN TROUBLE.

A young and dirty looking tattoo artist drifted into Quong Kee’s Chinese laundry on East Eldorado street shortly before dark last night and before he left the place became mixed in a row with the heathen and was locked up by Officers Holser and Weity. The young fellow claimed that he had gone into the place to purchase some India ink and when he offered the shirt strainer the money for the ink he refused to take it and swatted him in the face. The heathen grabbed the fellow’s coat and ran after the police to whom he told an unintelligible story and the tattoo artist was placed in the lockup for the night. The police were unable to understand the Celestial but thought from his motions and carryings on that the fellow had tried to get out of his wash shop without settling for his purchaser. From his looks the police do not think he will make good citizen of this town and he will be fired out at sun up in the morning.

Now, I’m not sure that the above story is really “anti-tattoo”, because it could just as easily be “anti-criminal”. But let’s post a story that’s later into the tattoo trend, from the Reno Evening Gazette‘s August 7, 1906 edition. I like that child protection was one of the dominion of the Humane Society!

Tattooing Will Be Done Away With

Old Custom of Sailors Has Been Frowned Upong By the Navy Department, and Practice Will Be Stopped.

WASHINGTON, August 7.— Enlisted men in the navy have instituted a movement to do away with tattoo marking, which was formerly popular with sailors. Since the conviction of a Brooklyn man, through the efforts of officers of the Humane Society, for mutilating the arms of a young boy by decorating them with India ink designs, tattooers have shown unwillingness to embellish the bodies of men who are not known to be of age, and as few adults care to have their bodies decorated, the practice may soon become a thing of the past.

The following description of a deserter of the navy shows to what extremes some men have gone in decorations which cannot be removed:
Tattoo marks on chest, shoulders, arms and back, vis: Eagle, ship, woman, flag, sailor, cards, clasped hands, flag and flowers.

Tattoo marks are a ready means of identification of deserters.

I guess the war on tattoos was as successful as the war on drugs… It just made people want them more.