Hey, so here we have Frank, a tattoo and scarification artist in Quebec, and, as you can see, he’s in the middle of cutting a spider into his chest and showing off an excess of intestinal fortitude. After the jump, he digs in pretty deep, so we consult with Ask.BME‘s Efix to get his expert opinion.

As you can see, the body of the spider is cut pretty damn deep. So what sayeth Efix (who, it turns out, is friends with and has worked on Frank in the past)?

Some people like to work on themselves, either because they don’t really trust others to work on them, or, most of the time, because they simply enjoy the DIY experience. But people should never underestimate the complexity and risk level associated with some more advanced procedures such as this skin removal scarification. Frank is a skilled tattoo artist and has done quite a bunch of cutting work, however, a large skin peeling like this one should never be taken lightly. In my opinion, the abdomen part of the spider has been cut too deeply. A wound that deep will take a long time to heal, and the scar can be quite out of control and give unexpected results.

Frank, of course, is experienced, as Efix says, and he’s working on himself, so he likely knows what sort of reaction to expect from his body as far as scarring is concerned (and he may well be hoping the spider’s body scars more dramatically). As well, as far as consent is concerned…well, again, he’s doing it on himself. If an artist were to do a piece like this on a client, it may be a different story. At any rate, best of luck, sir! Keep us posted as this bad boy heals.

Just to clarify: Nobody here is criticizing Frank or saying he’s done a bad job! Quite the opposite. I wanted to post this, but because of how deep part of the cut is, I just wanted to have some manner of explanation to go along with it. That is all.