Silicone-encased Sacred Object Implant

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

Jonah Wagner’s girlfriend, Namru La Vey, had a lapis lazuli stone disc, something that she’d treasured for thirteen years before giving it to Jonah, making him swear never to lose it. About three years ago Jonah crossed paths with Steve Haworth (stevehaworth.com) at the BMXnet conference, where he asked Steve whether he could build a a silicone implant around the disc — because lapis contains a wide cross-section of minerals, it’s unlikely that it could be safely implanted without being sheathed in a biocompatible scabbard to isolate it. Steve did some experiments to figure out the best way to cast silicone around the stone, and two years later sent Jonah a large silicone cross with the stone suspended in the center. Because of its size, he had Samppa Von Cyborg help out as well by cutting down the implant slightly so it would be more suited to a hand, and finally the pact was sealed as Jonah’s girlfriend, the original holder and gifter of the stone, implanted the cross into Jonah’s hand (with help from their boss Andrea Venhaus) at the Dortmund, Germany studio they all work at, Deep Metal (deepmetal.de).

The pictures below show the project the day of implantation, in November 2012, and in healed pictures taken a few days ago. Same drill as always — click and for the big pic.

Mutated Hand

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

Here’s a great example of combining implants with tattoos. Hugo Ferreira of BIOTECH in Toulouse, France has taken some of Max Yampolskiy’s ring implants and put them into Noss’s hand, augmented with red tattoos that not only match the implants but his knuckles as well. I should add that the tattoos were there before the implant, making Hugo’s job much more difficult, but as you can see he lined them up beautifully.

noss-hand

Patience is a Jedi virtue

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

…but is it a Stormtrooper virtue?

Ever since it was mentioned in September, people ask me regularly what’s going on with the stormtrooper-shaped implant. Unfortunately not much to show yet — the pictures in this entry of Damaris’s hand implant are only three months old, and it’s hard to make out in photos even if you know exactly what you’re looking at. It doesn’t help that right after getting the implant done, Damaris had the bad luck of standing next a women with certain shortcomings of balance, who grabbed her hand to save herself from a fall — “I’ve never felt pain like that before!” — and caused it to shift from it’s originally straight placement. That said, some implants can take a year or more to really show their maximum detail, so it’s not necessarily worrying. I’ll continue to update on the healing of this over time.

Power Button Hand Implant (and more)

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

You may have seen this multi-level power icon implant before (designed and fabricated by Max Yampolskiy), but I wanted to post an updated picture of it as it’s now well over a year old and looking just gorgeous — the stepped height of the design is incredibly effective. In the bottom photo, which is actually an older picture, you can also see the implant design and the complex base that Max creates, intended to maximize both the detail level and the adhesion of the implant.

And I must confess a mini-crush on the model as well, who has a plethora of intense modifications and rare, advanced piercings including subclavicals and vertical lowbrets. Although I don’t know of anyone ever having serious complications from them, I can’t tell you that subclavicals are safe or recommended on any level, but wow, I just love them… One of the most hardcore piercings that exist.

While I’m mentioning Max’s implant designs (he both performs them and retails them to other artists), another one that I like quite a lot and is similar on a design level is this “Iron Man” chest implant, four months old in this photo. There’s a good chance that in time the centre indent may pull down and become defined and that the middle circle (of the three) will start to show, but you can already see nice definition in the rest of it.

PS. You may also remember the space invaders implants that Max did.

That might just be WOLVERINE

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Shannon Larratt

Sorry for my long absence by the way — I’ve been wrapping up my new (or old, since it’s been in the works for over a decade) book of interviews, which I hope you’ll see in the shelves of BMEshop and elsewhere quite soon. The book is complete; it’s just a matter of finalizing the deal with the publisher.

Anyway, I saw this new implant by Bruno (brunobma.com) in Italy and was quite struck by it. It’s intended to give the appearance of being similar to Wolverine right about to blow his Adamantium load. I enjoy this conceptually, and not just because I’ve become a comics superfan in the last couple years, but because I like any mod that makes people question the anatomy they’re looking at. I think a lot of people are going to look at this and have absolutely no idea what they’re looking at, what strange anatomy is in that hand, and whether it’s aliens among us, an odd mutation, or perhaps a weirdly healed injury… Holy headfuck. You don’t get that with a circular barbell!

Silicone Knuckles

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Shannon Larratt

This brass knuckles hand implant is one of my all-time-favorite hand implants I think, mostly because it’s absolutely perfectly sized and placed. Unlike many brass knuckle designs on the hand, which are just sort of slapped across the back of the hand like a logo, this one actually integrates with the anatomy (no offense intended to other placements, but compare it for example to this earlier implant posted last year). This was done by Rafael Leão Dias of Dhar-Shan Body Art in Jundiaí, Brazil.