One type of implant I’ve always liked are the ones that mess with the person’s anatomy — Eaten Placenta’s ribcage bumps are a good example, as are these forearm implants (manufactured by Alejandro Hernandez) done on Johan Guardia by Juan Castro of Poder Sin Limites Body Mods (“Unlimited Power Body Mods”) in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Now, assuming my Spanish isn’t failing me, this is “doble joroba”, that is, two implants, not three, done using 12mm (1/2″) x 55mm (2″) Teflon half-domes. The third bump is the natural bump of Johan’s wrist, and I think Juan has done a great job cleanly aesthetically integrating this implant into Johan’s anatomy.

But what I really love about this particular implant is that if Johan ever has to go to a hospital ER, it’s going to the make the doctors FREAK THE FUCK OUT as they imagine the horrible compound fracture in his arm. That said, I won’t be so amused if the doctors break his arm trying to fix what doesn’t need fixing!

When cosmetic surgeons do cheek implants or jaw implants and things like that, they generally use cast implants that come in a few basic sizes and shapes. These are not exactly “one-size-fits-all” (or even “large-size-fits-all-large-heads”) and it’s not unusual for doctors to take these implants and carve them both for fit and aesthetic. It’s possible to do that in our body modification world as well, and that’s what Arseniy Andersson of Total Ink Body Modifications in St. Petersburg did for this customer, taking a set of Steve Haworth-manufactured implant rods and carving them into a custom shape for the forearm of this photogenic customer — a great way of using an implant with a known and proven high quality and turning it into something one-of-a-kind without the trouble of carving a block or the cost of casting a complete custom implant. This photo was taken a month and a half after the procedure.

Samppa Von Cyborg (voncyb.org… and oh my god, I can’t believe I just “got” his URL now… I just thought it was a short form… I feel so dumb) did this amazingly cool and vaguely creepy implant popping out the eye of a tattooed sea creature. This was done about a year ago while he was touring in Brazil.

Matias Tafel of Argentina’s Rata Body Art (ratabodyartstudio.com.ar), a long-time friend of BME, today showed me one of his latest pieces of implant art, a well-defined “broken heart” on the back of the hand. The break is nicely defined, but to me it looks much more like a lightning bolt, and I have to admit that I like the idea of a high voltage heart more than a broken heart anyway. Maybe the wearer can change their mind about what it means to suit their mood.

He did another heart implant a while back that I want to share with you, this little heart implanted underneath a heart tattoo tucked away behind the client’s ear. I gotta say though, I wish I had never seen the “gout spider tattoo” because now that’s all I can think of any time I see an implant with a red tattoo over it.