At A Glance Author chel Contact [email protected] IAM *chel* Artist Brian Decker (iam.xPUREx) Studio Lucky Devil Location Toronto, Canada

I am a twenty five year old girl from Australia named Chel — I refer to myself as a girl because I believe my interests vary a lot from a regular adult woman's. I spend a lot of my spare time hunting down toys (of the action figure variety), eating candy, and collecting "cute" articles of clothing, jewelry, and home wares.

Modification-wise I have a small collection of piercings and various tattoos based on the aforementioned subjects. It has never been my intention to commit to a full body concept transformation ala The Lizardman and so on, but I have been aware that in order to be a happy me there were certain procedures I needed to undertake to feel most comfortable and like myself.

Being a short girl with the interests I have and with the clothing and hairstyles I have worn it has made sense to continue on my path towards the slightly animated character style. Being especially interested in hair art and the like I collected headbands with wobbly antenna attachments of all varieties. Wearing these however was a problem — I was receiving headaches from the pressure of the head bands and wished it was possible to hold the antennas somehow without the band which caused me so much pain.

Shortly after joining BME I became aware of a transdermal implants, and was delighted that someone had devised a way to implant a piece of jewelery that looked much like a labret stud, but on any part of the body. With this knowledge and my desire for headband-less antennas it was only natural to look at getting transdermal implants to act as ports for antenna attachments.

Knowing whether I wanted the actual procedure was never an issue but finding someone to perform it surely was. Living in Australia where piercings were only just gaining popularity in the mainstream my queries about implants were fruitless and I was constantly advised to seek an overseas practitioner.

Over a three year period I consulted five different body artists. Two were keen but had never performed the procedure and three were overseas. After various issues with trust, comfortability, faith in the level of work I could expect, as well as recommendations from fellow IAM members, Brian Decker was my practitioner of choice.

I contacted Brian and we decided that while we were both traveling to Toronto for BMEfest we would meet and do the procedure then. During the four or so months waiting until I traveled, I read as much as I could to make sure I knew the procedure and risks without doubt and had no questions left to ask.

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It was July 1 (Canada Day) and I accompanied my travel buddy to an All Grrrl suscon that morning where she was taking part in a pull. I was reassured of Brian's talent while I was there from the other attendees, and by the time my friend had finished it was time to head over to the local studio where Brian was performing his work for the day.

I was greeted by three or four fellow IAM members at the studio who were there for work themselves or just to hang out. I felt nothing like I expected I would — I was about to have my head cut open and played with and I felt nothing but contentment and excitement... absolutely no fear or worry.

I waited a little while and soon enough it was my time, I met Brian and his lovely assistant George. They shaved the front part of my head and marked me up ready to go... I still felt completely calm but expected that the moment I saw tools I would become frantic as I'm not exactly the best patient to have at times.

During the procedure I felt nothing but pressure, pulling, blotting and what I thought was Brian's fingers clutching my forehead and nails digging in. This sensation turned out to be the elevators separating the tissue making a cavity for the transdermal pieces to be inserted. I am unaware of the time which had elapsed, however, one implant was in place and the other was just going in (for the second time) due to it not sitting correctly initially. After this, suturing commenced — three small stitches were made and I felt every bit of what was going on — thankfully they're not the most painful things to endure and I wasn't terribly fazed by the sensation.

I was all finished and I felt like a million dollars!

Not only did I go through with my plans but the procedure was an amazingly positive experience both mentally and physically. I was instructed to heal them like I have any other piercings and I was on my way.

Immediately after leaving the studio I returned to my hotel and took a mild pain killer because I had developed quite a headache, and went straight to sleep. The next day I woke up, gave the implant areas a hot water soak, and then covered them back up with some gauze and a hat because I was spending my entire day outdoors at BMEfest.

I continued the hot water soaks a couple of times daily and did my best to not touch them. The stitches healed within nine days and as I was traveling I had to remove them myself which was no drama. After roughly fifty days I was superficially healed and I could feel the shape of the two feet of the transdermal jewelry quite obviously through my skin. They had both raised roughly one or two milimeters above my scalp level and they continue to settle.

I'm very pleased with my healing and hopefully soon I will be able to remove the healing nubs and wear nothing so they will be completely undetectable and a lot harder to hit or snag on things, and also hopefully have some attachments made to utilize my implants for their purpose. I will start with extremely light materials such as PTFE to get a feel for how much weight I will be able to deal with, but I will find out in time.

My hair is still growing back and my transdermals are more or less unseen — however, there is one patch where the elevator damaged my follicles which has caused a slower growth rate and less thickness. It is growing back even though it may not appear to be in the pictures and I believe this has happened because my tissue was separated at a slightly shallower depth on one side — either way, it's not something I'm concerned with.

I feel a great sense of accomplishment and would have this procedure done again in a heartbeat. Brian (and George) did an excellent job for me and I would recommend him without question as he's very professional, caring, and has been available for any aftercare advice since having the procedure done.

I consider my collected mind and state before and during the procedure to be a result of preparation and trust in my artist. I urge anyone considering implants to take time to do the same as it may be the difference between a positive experience and a potentially terrible one.

Chel's Antenna Today