Full Ear Reshaping by Samppa

Samppa Von Cyborg (voncyb.org) just posted this remarkable ear reshaping. When Steve Haworth first pointed Katzen’s ear in the mid 1990s, the procedure was just a small snip and fold at the top of the ear, and by and large, the procedure hasn’t really changed a whole lot until recently, and Samppa is arguably at the forefront of showing that you don’t have to just point the top corner to one degree or another — you can actually reshape the entire contour and form of the ear from top to bottom. If I didn’t know and trust Samppa implicitly, I don’t think I’d even believe it was the same ear!

While I’m mentioning Samppa, let me also post an update of the skull chest implant that I posted fresh a while back. The incision is still settling, but the implant itself is full healed and looks great. As far as I know more skulls are being added at the other points of the cross.

Illusion — Two implants or three?

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!

Forearm Ridges

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.

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I’ve got spiders under my skin! Yeeaaarghhh!!!

The last spider implant I posted from Emilio Gonzalez (mithostattoo.com or emilio.gonzalez.3511 on Facebook) was in Marilyn’s forehead (who he also did badass black eyeballs on) and surprisingly subtle, but this one on the back of a hand really pops out. It would be such enormous fun hanging out at bars, telling drunks about how you got bit by a spider, and being, like, “Can you look at this for me? Do you think I should go to the hospital?” — maybe flex your hand a bit so it looks like it’s struggling under the skin. Good times.

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Senja Sidoro Framed

I’m watching the incredibly cheesy Samuel Jackson reality-tv gladiator movie Arena on one monitor and editing tasteful classic photos of the beautiful Senja Sidoro on the other. So while half of my brain reminiscences about one of the stranger consulting gigs I ever did, creating a an untrackable video site for broadcasting biker-run dog fights (and handling the gambling on them) — one of the many things I’m not terribly proud of — I’m calming the guilt into submission with Photoshop filters and burying it with layers. In any case, here are some pictures of Senja Sidoro practicing with makeup — in the one image you can see an unpainted face next to what she made with makeup leftovers (click here to see it true, without all my editing). I like her piercings of course, and in this age of mega-implants, it’s somehow very friendly seeing a couple of dainty first-gen horns. By the way, if Senja seems familiar to you, it might be because she’s married to Lassi (scar.fi), is a talented performer in her own right, and founded Helsinki’s Başka Theater Group — find her on Facebook at SouciJawsDerringer.

Well, I think I’m all Photoshopped out for one day. Click to zoom.

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Guess What Plus Implants

I want to start off with a “guess what”… Click to see if you were right.

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The mod you see in that picture is on Walker Bod Mod and was done by Oscar Kbza Santos. While I’m talking about Oscar, I wanted to show you his hand implants, because they’re a little unusual — unique would be a better word.

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That reminds me that I’ve been meaning to show you Sandy from True Body Art, a beautiful looking studio in Zurich. Anyway, I spent some time looking at her hand implants, trying to figure out what they are — my first guess was some sort of I Ching symbol.

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The truth more enigmatic and amusing — it’s actually a random shape devoid of specific meaning, and is there to confuse the viewer!!! This is especially funny because Sandy isn’t some strange troll that no one sees, or that when they do see, are afraid of them… She’s actually a very beautiful model in addition to being a body modification artist, so these unusual implants have been featured in the work of many photographers (the photo on the left is by Siete Ramirez, and the one on the right is by Dark-Style Fotografie), and I’m sure as a result a great deal of time has been spent pondering their meaning. She has an implant on her chest as well that is similarly strange. I always enjoy people who have a sense of humor.

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Oh and you can click that picture for one last shot.

Broken Heart or High Voltage Heart

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.

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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.

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Black-Eyed Spider Goddess

Rob featured Marilyn when Emilio Gonzalez (mithostattoo.com) first did her spider implant, which you can see on her forehead in these shots, but I wanted to update you with not just some new pictures but also because he’s also tattooed her eye black (just getting ready for a crime spree I assume). You’ll also notice that she’s had her ear rebuilt, with the helix pointed and the lobe removed. One of the things that I love about Marilyn is the dichotomy in her appearance — if you see her from her right, you won’t see either her implant or her tattooed eyeball, and if her hair is covering her ear you might convince yourself that she’s your average glamorous beautiful plainskin woman, but if you view her from the other side, she’s still just as glamorous and beautiful, but now heavily modified as well.

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The Three Mod Amigos

My friend Emilio Gonzalez as well as old BME friend Matt Gone (interviewed by The Lizardman back in 2003) and also Mary Jose Cristerna are down at the Costa Rica convention to promote it, and are doing lots of television interviews while there. I’m sure the media are thrilled to have three superstars of body modification all in one place at once. And doesn’t Emilio just dwarf Matt? His head looks about twice as large, as I’ve said before, I suspect that that Emilio is not fully human — some sort of tattooed alien werebear creature I think.

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