So this is what happens when you go to your local Sao Paulo cutter and ask him for an ear pointing and he doesn’t notice that you’re standing on your head, right? Gawd, I feel like this picture is a caption joke goldmine and I’m letting you down by only writing one. Anyway, what you’re looking at is an earlobe repair/reconstruction, where the first artist built it all pointy-like. The resultant upside-down elf was not too happy with that, so they went down the street to see Rafael Leão Dias at Dhar Shan Body Art in Jundai, who repaired it for them. It still looks a little wonky in the second picture, but it’s likely that the curve of the lobe will smooth slightly as it heals (and it’s certainly not going to be giving boners to gelflings with vertigo any more).

Those with very long memories may recognize the ear in this photo, because it was featured on ModBlog in the 2008 interview with Howie/LunaCobra (click here to see it then). Initially the customer wanted one of the most radical conch removals, creating a hole that encompassed not just the inner conch (primarily the cymba, the upper half), but the outer (a good chunk of the triangular fossa and the anterior crus of the antihelix or “rook ridge”) as well. Howie expertly accomplished this, and it healed nicely and the customer seemed happy with it for years. But as with many procedures — as you’ve seen with the deluge of tattoo removals and lobe stretching reversals — tastes change, and the customer decided to have the procedure partially reversed to build a more normal (and more structurally stable) ear.

As regular readers know, when it comes to body modification reversals, there are few people more capable than Samppa von Cyborg (voncyb.org). I’ve seen conch closures in the past (here’s one by Quentin), but this is definitely the biggest to date, and anything bigger might not be possible. I’d say this ear is at the edges of what can safely by rebuilt short of growing new tissue (possible, but out of the reach of the bodmod community for now), and Samppa has very successfully put it back together. Reversing some procedures isn’t too hard — lobe stretching reversals tend to be universally successful — but when you start talking about procedures built around amputating tissue, it gets harder and harder. I hope that modified people, especially young people, take a very hard look at the fact that more and more and more procedures are starting to be reversed, and spend more time considering whether they really want to jump into procedures that are difficult to reverse — as I’ve commented before, the potential permanence is one of my big worries about eyeball tattoos.

Either way, nice work in these photos by both Howie (lunacobra.net) on the initial ear, and later Samppa (voncyb.org) on the reconstruction.

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.

Martin sent me this video of the autocannibalism fun they got up to at GELOCHT UND SCHARF GESTOCHEN (gelocht.com) in Neuss, Germany (across the Rhine from Düsseldorf). Before I start making obvious jokes about Germans and cannibalism, can I just say this is the best studio name ever? It’s one of those wonderful phrases that doesn’t translate cleanly into English but roughly it’s “holes made and sharply stuck”. Perhaps you have to speak both languages but to me it’s both hilarious and somehow poetic.

Martin to we’re watching here is the closure of 68 mm (2 5/8″) lobes, which looks like it was very well done, but is completely outshined by the apparently Aghori-inspired autocannibalism ritual in which the soft jiggly but very chewy ear leftovers are consumed. You’d be surprised how common this is (for atheists as well as for those with spiritual justification) in tissue removal procedures and skin removal scarification. I will try and update this entry in a day or two with some more information, so check back if you’re interested.

Click the thumbnails to see them bigger, or click here for the video.

Gabriele at Max Art in Italy (who you know best for the SkinTunnel project) recently performed a rather tricky ear reconstruction. The surgery involved both bridging two piercings into one, as well as repairing the damage from a piercing that tore out some time earlier. Once it’s healed, the client will be able to put in a new tunnel and no one will be the wiser — and hopefully they will have learned a valuable lesson about responsible stretching! Or getting in fights — I don’t actually know how the damage occurred.