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I recently finished my PhD thesis in basic yeast genetics — yeast used as a model organism for cancer research — and I'm still searching my scientific future right now (at least: good jobs in range now), since I finished my last paper. I have various passions like science over all — especially meteorology — photography, sports, science-fiction and last but not least piercings and implants. Contrary to most people, I found my way to body modification late, and it started with piercings, but not with usual ones. These days I even cannot imagine living without the silver chains which really became part of me.
Since I was a very small child I was fascinated by things like physical symbiosis or the possibility that things may grow into the body. I don't know where this passion came from, but it has been a part of me for a very long time. I did some early experiments with glue, but I never was satisfied — it wore off too easily and it never felt like a part of me. Long after growing up, while I was studying, piercing came up as a trend of modern body art. This was interesting — metal is pushed through the skin, and after healing it will be nice jewelery. But when I searched the web I found many things, but never any piercing which became really a part of the body. I wondered if I had this dream for my own, but when reading literature, when thinking about cyborgs and so on I felt other people must have the same idea.
Nevertheless, nobody else tried to find a way to wear a really permanent, not removable piercing (now there are a few colleagues on BME). So I started thinking about inventing my own method, and I got the idea of using chains as jewelery. When the body heals the piercing wound, tissue should grow into the holes of the chain-loops and thus seal the metal to the body. I simply tried it, pierced a hole, and pulled a silver-chain (silver was a metal I knew my body would tolerate) through and took care for healing.
It worked, and my piercing (and ten more since then) became a real part of my body. In this manner these piercings are quite related to transdermal implants. But the idea grew further. When I saw the first implants on BME I thought about the possibility of using my silver chains as implants and beadings. If this worked, I would have found a great possibility of making a metal part of my body without having the risk of infections through the weak skin around the entry points of the piercings (infections — even of healed piercings — are the main risk of my chain piercings, as bacteria find lots of places to hide).
Procedure
Now, since I did not find anything about using chains for piercing or implanting in the web I had to find the best method myself. But I can say, that using chains as implants leads to a MUCH more easy procedure than other implants. Only beadings and ribs require similar simple methods. The trick is not simply to do a piercing, but to take care that at the end the whole metal is under the skin. That is an extremely easy procedure when used as genital beads, and the skin is very flexible and can be folded, so the needle crosses a thin layer of tissue from one side to the other. The procedure becomes more tricky when done elsewhere on the body. The needle must be accurately driven under the skin to obtain a very shallow piercing tunnel, and if you want to get considerable chain lengths under the skin at once, four or five inches of skin must be tunneled exactly.
Nevertheless, it's a quite easy and painless procedure in comparison to the most of the other implants around there (and in comparison to all the deep chain piercings — see two implant photos and two arm piercing pictures).
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Due to the easy procedure, little damage is done to the tissue around the implanted chain, and the healing process is very short. After one to two weeks of careful cleaning and disinfecting of the regions around the implants two times a day, the chain becomes really integrated into the connective tissue below the skin. This is accompanied by scar-free healing of the entry holes.
After a month the implant is completely stabilized, but things can go wrong. If there is an infection, it becomes drastically more when there is a lot of hiding space for bacteria. I had to fight back two infections of this type by puncturing a bump of red and swollen tissue around the implant to remove the pus (both times the implant could be saved). Such problems can result in drastically slowed down healing (see the photos) and in scar tissue formation (or change into really severe infections when not treated!).
There is another, more cosmetic problem which occurs sometimes: before being integrated into the connective tissue the chains can migrate, and in moving regions of the body they will migrate. So one nice two inch chain implanted below the navel formed into a ball during the next week (which then healed fast). I learned that doing too much of the implants at once can overwhelm the body's healing capacity and enhance the risk for unwelcome side effects. When the healing is over the implants are perfectly stable, and due to their flexibility they never disturb movements of the body.
Results
When I started implanting the silver chains I thought about really private and discrete new metal parts of my body. With time they turned out not to be that discrete, as the surface of silver turns black inside the body (AgS formation). Thus, the older implants became visible as gray shades, resembling blood vessels or old tattoos. I hope this process will now make all of the chains slightly visible. The big Y from the shoulders, along the collarbones down to the sternum is already visible, but the wing-like shape from the navel down to the pubic hair and sideways to the hips is still partly hidden.
All in all (counting) I have now 58 chains of one to five inch length implanted below my skin, and eleven further chains I wear as piercings. This means there are three to four meters of silver chains below my skin (an X-ray of my chest should be quite... interesting), four of them are crossing muscles (a X-ray of my upper arm too). I'm happy that the quite dangerous experiment worked well and I'm happy I decided to do it some years ago. In other words: I would try it again, and I would to it myself again, as this was an important part of changing metal into a part of myself.
Nevertheless there are some things which I probably could do better now... more exactly, more safe, and with better material used. Since I gathered some experience in self-made body modification there are several details I could do better now (for example using tank chains only, avoid edges, do not do too much at once, and always be really sterile).
There was a nice question asked by BME... How has it affected my life? My piercings have affected my live much more than the quite private implants. There is more effect by a visible piercing through the biceps than by a dozen of hidden implants. But all in all the effects came gradually. Some people around me were shocked, but I never had real problems or quarrels due to the modifications (thanks to my parents — they absolutely don't like them, but they can tolerate them — and as I like my parents it was very important for me not to find the friendship breaking due to the modifications).
On the positive side I became more self-confident showing and living with the piercings, and knowing that they are unique. Additionally, I'm more happy and satisfied than before when feeling the metal, and when realizing the fulfilled dream of foreign things becoming a part of my body. I was self-confident and happy before too, but it's better now, and this can be important in hard times (before examinations and so on). Counting over all my chains makes me feel better. I would not like to miss one of them. Last but not least, there is same spirit of science inside them, due to the fact I invented the method... I hope there is never a reason to remove them (surgically) — for me this would be like removing a natural body part (due to their flexibility they even feel like a body part).
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