Skin Removal Scarification = Profit?

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

Australian Israeli-born and currently Iceland-based conceptual jeweler Sruli Recht — who tends to have a wonderful sci-fi aesthetic to his fashion and design that is less silly than much of the “far out” ideas too-often presented by his field — recently had a roughly 1/2″ by 4″ strip of skin cut off his belly which was then tanned and wrapped around a 24k gold ring, now being offered for a half million dollars. The somewhat grotesque design doesn’t just look like random leather — it’s even got wiry belly hair. He calls it the “Forget Me Knot”. Recht has lots of experience working with dubious organic materials — animal and fish remains including a stillborn lamb, hair, spider silk from a modified goat — but this is the first time he’s used human skin.

sruli-ring

Here’s a graphic YouTube video of the procedure and some stills from it. The procedure is actually quite fascinating if you’re more used to the sort of skin removal scars done in the body modification world where the concern is the scar, rather than the excised tissue. You’ll see the doctor first spend a surprisingly long time anesthetizing the area, then cutting the outline using a scalpel, and then quickly cutting off the strip of skin using a pair of surgical scissors. Next you’ll see an interesting use of an electrocautery tool to stop small bleeders, where instead of applying the electrocautery tool to the wound itself, the vessels are pinched using tweezers, which are then electrified. Finally the wound is sutured closed.

Recht’s work is in a way another example of the “fine art” world catching up to and borrowing from the body modification world (Recht is no outsider though, and has tattoos as well as large gauge inner conch piercings), which has been using procedure remnants in jewelry for ages. Here are a few examples formerly featured on BME — a couple examples of removed nipples encased in cast acrylic resin (this seems to be a trend!), and a heart-shaped piece of human skin and cartilage inside a set of earplugs, also cast in clear resin. Below the pictures are a list of the previous entries that cover them in more detail.

Nipple plugs #1: Mustache March and Guess What
Nipple plugs #2: Grossest Plugs Ever
Ear-heart plugs: Heart-shaped Ear Cartilage Preserved in Resin and Heart-shaped Cartilage Removal

PS. If anyone wants a strip of my belly skin — I have plenty of it, more than I need — I’ll sell it to you for a hell of a lot less than a half million dollars!

Be As Two Or Three

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Jordan Ginsberg

Oh hey, it’s our old friend Ferdudurke. This guy, always putting interesting things in his nose! Except instead of tools of death and destruction, as is his wont, this time he’s chosen to stuff his nostrils with a dainty lady’s (?) finger, which is a fine choice. He looks pretty pleased with his decision, no? Granted, he could also just be happy with how great his forehead tattoo still looks, or his fancy triangular ear jewelry, and really, we would not begrudge him either of those things.

See more in “Big Nostrils“ (Nose Piercing)

This Week in BME

Posted on August 7, 2009 by Jordan Ginsberg

This is pretty fantastic: Turns out, a little while ago, Micah (intentionally) snipped one lobe and fit it with some prostheses of his own design. This fancy little number fits in the lobe like normal and then is held in place by what appears to be a leather strap or perhaps some industrial hockey tape, which is then secured to posts in the lobe. He’s currently at 1.5 inches and has literally nothing standing in his way; ingenuity, thy name is Micah.

And so goes our week, gentle ModBloggers. What happened this time around?

– We had this intricate cutting courtesy of Brendan.

– Smiles and bindis.

– Thesinnerteam suspended pretty damn high, and instigated a valuable discussion about safety procedures.

– A beautiful story here about a young man who died before he was able to get tattooed.

– This is why you don’t buy used iPods.

– Anders never ceases to impress with his incredible scarification work.

– Meghan McCain is going to be trawling for ass at a tattoo convention near you.

And that’s it! We’ll be by over the next couple days, then come Monday, we gas things back up and get back to our full crushing power. Until then, enjoy the weekend, stay safe and, of course, thank you for your continued support of BME.

Tattoo Hollywood, BME’s first tattoo convention, is coming to Los Angeles from August 21-23, featuring contests, prizes and some of the best artists from around the world! Click here for more information.

Scratch A Lover

Posted on August 5, 2009 by Jordan Ginsberg

Hey, you all know the rules—Wednesday is Wangday here on ModBlog! Today’s entry into the pantheon is the music aficionado you see above, sporting an 11 mm. Prince Albert piercing through which he has threaded his standard issue Apple iPod earbuds and then proceeded to Midori himself nicely up with the rest of the cord. (For the completists, the iPod itself seems to be playing Finger Eleven’s “I’ll Keep Your Memory Vague.”) Warning: Neither BME nor Apple officially endorse this use of Apple products, and such use may void one’s warrantee.

Bend Up Every Spirit

Posted on August 5, 2009 by Jordan Ginsberg

Oh, what’s this, now? Some young turk, calls himself Will, trying place himself as the heir to the Babasom throne, hmm? With his septum at 18 mm., this gent out of São Paulo can clearly fit a finger in there, but will he challenge the reigning champion with various feats of septum pluggery? Only time will tell. Another photo, after the jump.

See more in “Big Septums“ (Nose Piercing)

Fall Into the Pot

Posted on July 7, 2009 by Jordan Ginsberg

See, you see a photo like this one of Largo and his new friend, and you wonder, was it staged? Did he fall asleep on the beach and wake up with this pinchy little bastard holding on for dear life? Did he lose a bet? Is it just part of the jewelry he’s wearing? Is there a fire burning? Did he bring any lemon slices? Is there rice in the truck? Is th— oh, sorry. I’ll be at Red Lobster if anyone needs me.

See more in “Larger gauge nipple piercings“ (Nipple Piercing)

Balmy Sweets

Posted on June 18, 2009 by Jordan Ginsberg

Well hey, it’s our old friend Babasom, checking in for our vaunted “Irregular Septum Jewelry Week” here on ModBlog! Babasom is, of course, known for, among other things, just cold stickin’ things through that huge septum piercing of his, all the time. Here, he’s stowing some tasty jalapeno peppers, surely because he does not trust the people at Chipotle or wherever to provide sufficiently spicy fare. To be fair, I would shove the merciless peppers of Quetzlzacatenango up my nose a million times over before ever letting a worm poke around in there.

Never a Stab Nor Squirm

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Jordan Ginsberg

Sure, we’re all aware by now of the irrefutable fact that, over the course one’s life, the average person will eat several hundred thousand spiders, typically while sleeping, because spiders are nature’s pranksters. As Chuckie from Hungary up there illustrates, however, a lesser-known (but no less chilling) tidbit is that, on average of once a month, an earthworm crawls right up your damn nose. Chuckie’s stretched septum piercing confused this primitive monster from lodging itself in his brain, luckily, but most of us, sadly, will not be so fortunate.

Gravity Undoes You

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Jordan Ginsberg

Oh, hello! Welcome to ModBlog’s award-winning “Mustache Thursday,” wherein we celebrate the finest in mustaches belong to members of our beloved body modification community. Today’s featured soup strainer belongs to the lovely Dee, who was last seen here melting our minds with this piece. It’s funny—in my experience, it hasn’t been uncommon to hear people claim that septum piercings, by and large, make people seem more intimidating than any single other facial piercing. At the same time, though…they enable you to do stuff like this. Which is kind of the opposite of intimidating.

More photographic evidence, after the jump.

See more in “Septum piercing“ (Nose Piercing)

The Color of Their Eyes Matches the Color of Our Blood

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Jordan Ginsberg

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Good morning, ModBloggers! Hope the day finds you well. Let’s kick off the week with this fine ear project all the way from Kunming, Yunnan, China. I initially assumed the screws in the cartilage were some sort of custom jewelry, but, as the post-jump photo will show, those are some real screws. Probably not terribly comfortable for long-term wear, but if the structural integrity of your ear has been compromised? Can’t be too careful. Or something.

See more in “Misc. Ear Cartilage Piercing“ (Ear Piercing)