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Tired of tattoos and body piercing? Try "body jewelry," I dare you

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What do you do when the pain you endured for hours while straddling a roller chair at the tattoo parlour no longer sets you apart from the crowd? Do you go get bigger tattoos, more piercings or go for something more extreme?BEAUTY isn’t just skin deep anymore. For a small community in Singapore, it’s under-the-skin deep. Tattoos and piercings aren’t enough for them. This is not for the squeamish: What they do is customize their flesh with “body jewelery”.Implants of silicone or Teflon beads are inserted under the skin, forming raised designs and patterns.Yes, it is very painful, and also potentially hazardous to their health as infections can easily set in.18 beads, each the size of a Singapore 50-cent coin, are inserted one by one after an incision is made and a metal rod pushed through to separate the layers of skin. The procedure is not done by a medical practitioner, but by a “traveling body artiste” in Thailand.anesthetic is administered, but it doesn't help.“Risks of anesthesia complications, wound infection and the body’s immune reaction to the implant may occur. So if you think you've got the heart and over S$1,000 (RM2,300) for all the implants then by all means go for it I DARE you. By the way this procedure – the medical term is subdermal implanting – is supposed to be a surgical one.Dermatologists strongly discourage it.Dr Derrick Aw, a consultant from Singapore’s National University Hospital’s Division of Dermatology, says while subdermal implants are used for medical reasons, such as pacemakers, only trained health professionals should perform these operations
stone246

39 responses // Tired of tattoos and body piercing? Try "body jewelry," I dare you

  • wild.
    kevung
  • Cool. But I wouldn't do it.
    I think...
    ThatGirlBrittni
  • Tumors are sexy! But how can you get that "end stage" look without giving yourself cancer? Thailand has the answer!

    Ha ha! This seems like a bad idea. Mike Tyson facial tattoo level of bad idea.
    crob80227
  • Ouch, separating layers of skin? No wonder it hurts, they're literally ripping you apart and then stuffing the resulting hole with, well stuffing. Overall though cool cool to the people that get it done, way to be unique and not another douche bag with a tribal. Oh, one more thing the dudes thinking about AMPUTATING HIS PINKY??!! Whatever floats your severed finger I guess.
    M_Pavlov
  • I wonder how long it would take to come states side.
    stone246
  • somewhat cool but I would NEVER do that to myself
    neokn
  • Pretty soon people won't have to do anything - just having 'non-art' skin will be a unique look.
    patsarts
  • watch this comment being used here and here
    It's like having hives that never go away--- how chic! Pretty soon people will be implanting spare tires around their waistlines... I mean... uh...
    shorescope
  • LOL.... I was just thinking that Patsart.

    People are trying so hard to stand out and be unique that eventually being non-pierced, non-tatted, and non-um...-implanted will be the rebellious thing. (says the girl with a back piece. LOL)

    Even now I am more stunned by a person wearing all white then those who are in all black with Gothic or emo inspired makeup.
    clarity_kat
  • watch this comment being used here, here, here and here
    All I see is bubble wrap... and I'm getting very anxious!

    In my opinion it just looks like it would hurt all the time.
    Globax
  • 'It's NOT a tumor!" I worked for a cancer doctor tha people there would see that and dial 911!
    patsarts
  • Oh my that’s weird. Then again its kinda lazy. Wow you got a series of bumps! I want to see the guy who has the faces of animals and or people poking out from his stomach. Now that’s a freaky idea.
    Ricky84
  • what if you fell or something on it? wouldn't they get jabbed farther in your skin?
    damartin90
  • Although I'm sure it's not constantly painful (I hope), that's all I can think it would feel like. And now that damartin90 gave me that awful mental image of someone falling and jabbing these into places they should not go, I will never ever get these...They also creep me out a little bit.
    dcuisinot
  • ouch!!!
    Spiral9
  • This isn't surprising at all...today's values are getting more and more skewed. We live in a superficial, warped world in which, for many, money and sex are the prevailing aims and pop culture consists of drugs and denigrating-towards-women lyrics...in which it's beautiful to have no fat on your body and advertisers strive to make today's children obese by selling them sugary cereals and processed snacks devoid of any nutrition...in which, on the other side of the world, people are dying of hunger and thirst and we're not doing anything about it...in which expensive cars and bags are valued more than a moral soul, and now, incisions under the skin and silicone insertions are considered "cool" and pretty.

    It's up to us to change all this, my fellow Current-ers. And what better way than to reach the world than through the media?
    skyforsocialchange
  • i love superficiality - i can't begin to imagine a world without it - a world without superficiality ( broadening the definition of superficiality to include any kind of personal adornment - including clothes ) would be a state very similar to death .
    malathion
  • I'm not talking about superficiality in that sense - I love clothes, I love pretty jewelry, etc. What I'm talking about is superficiality in values: like, a crude example would be The Real World...those on the show have very superficial values.
    skyforsocialchange
  • "superficial " according to you - beware of fascism .
    malathion
  • This is so stupid.
    Blazesboy
  • Sky I’m sorry I have to disagree with you. I don’t think this movement has anything to do with what you mentioned. Body modification has always been in our culture. It is a positive declaration of many things: social status, individualism, religious beliefs and so on. The same people who are dying of hunger and thirst practice the same sort of body modifications. In reality body modification is much older than your belief structure, and more importantly it only conflicts when you are ignorant to what it truly represents.
    Ricky84
  • I have seen something similar, the outcome was horns impersonating the devils nubs... the only difference is the use of coral for the horns, which the body would envelope as natural bone... this is barbaric, ridiculous, and above all, idiotic... Machismo at work...
    superfinet
  • I fucking hurled. I don't get this, nor would I want to. Kind of like herpes.
    Mafioso
  • watch this comment being used here, here and here
    What are all you people talking about, barbaric? superficial? denigrating-towards-women? (wtf on the last one). When I read this story I thought it was about a man expressing his individuality. The people condemning this story are the ones that are superficial. This is a real PERSON who is molding and shaping his body to HIS LIKING, and not to the ideals or tastes of some other superficial pricks that think THEY KNOW what is beautiful or right. Get off the soap box, it's not a good look for you lol.
    M_Pavlov
  • i don't know if this was mentioned or not , but this kinda thing started with the "Yakuza" in Japan - a guy would have one pearl sub-cutaneously inserted into his penis for every year he served in prison , given that you weren't a lifer ....
    malathion
  • I think I'll pass on this kind of "body art". My arm got a weird tingle just thinking about that picture...
    lifestudentno83
  • Hmm. . . ga-rowss.
    CarlosIsDown
  • Funny. If he was born with skin that looked like that, he'd have them removed as soon as possible.
    Neghie
  • Hmmm, quite surprised to see this stuff has got such a negative reaction on this board. I doubt there's many people on here who haven't had a bodmod of some kind in their life.

    It's a little further than I'd choose to go but I don't see the harm in it.

    Besides, this stuff is old news, it's all about Eyeball tattoos now

    (not for the squeamish)
    http://www.absoluterandom.com/worlds-first-eyeball-tatt...
    Lionman
  • For some reason the word, Moron comes to mind.
    logicmaster
  • Like breast, butt and calf implants, this is just another surgical enhancement that involves putting foreign objects under the skin to "enhance" a person's perception of their body.

    But like Beaver Harris in Attica Blues sung with eloquence, "If it ain't natural, it ain't real."

    Still, I support the right of people to do what they want to and with their bodies with no judgment.

    I will point out, that when I go to LA, I'm one of a tiny minority of women with natural silver hair, lots of little laugh lines in my botox, face lift free face, and real breasts. I'm always amazed at the compliments I get from men of all ages for my silver hair, expressive face, and breasts. The sexiest quality of both men and women is confidence that comes from within, whatever your age.

    When you are really secure in who you are, and understand your purpose as a unique individual, you don't have to wear your uniqueness on your body, it comes out in who you are and what you do.
    TouchArt
  • I used to want alot of tats, but I am cute, gay, and really cool. So I am afraid the tats would come off as me trying to look "hard". I only have one tat behind my ear. It's a symbol commonly used in Ghana. I'm still gonna get more tats, but they have to either mean something or be a piece I designed.

    Mafioso
  • I don't think this can be taken as any sort of point of reference to judge the state of "today's society". In terms of body modification, tribal groups around the world have been doing things much more extreme than this. Singapore isn't "tribal" per se but they probably have strong ties to their traditional lifestyle.

    Some tribal groups have rites of passage like covering their body in 1000 razor blade cuts, or cultivating large callous lumps on the backs of their necks, which they have been doing for 1000s of years, independent of "today's society".

    But i wonder if those beads slide around under your skin...eeeewww
    Oxyuscan
  • kewl,but not cool enough 4 me
    straberryshortcake09
  • You've got to be complete out of your mind to do this to your body! The body was not designed to be mutilated by foreign objects. With all the disease in this world, why would anybody want to take a chance like this. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Self worth is something that you should always put up front. I certainly would not find it impressive to have 18 balls hanging around in the arm of my significate other. Crazy!
    bluecat1
  • I don't understand why so many people care about what everybody else is doing to their bodies?
    Kallico75
  • I understand setting yourself apart from other people, or trying to make a statement, and I think ritual scarification and old school tattooing in tribal societies is bad ass as are modern tattooing etc., but there's a point where it just sort of becomes pointless...not that that's bad or anything, we do pointless things everyday, but why endure the pain and risk jeopardizing your health, when after it's all said and done, you just end up with some uncomfortable lumps under your skin?
    noodlefour
  • Some people want intensity in life. We all go through extremes like diets, religious rituals, etc. and to some scarification, tattoos and now "body jewelry" is just another way of intensifying life, to get a lift on our looks and views. Just another way of self expression. Intense though, it's weird yet cool. I wouldn't personally do it for it doesn't appeal to myself and my way of modification but it is neat and to think people in Singapore are doing that too. Cleanest place in the world and strict too, it's nice. I know some people around where I live have some, here in the US. Crazy feeling, man.
    free_birdsdream
  • I'm not sure why this is framed as a story about something unusual taking place in Singapore. . .it's been done for a while now, including in the U.S.
    It's called a 'subdermal implant'.

    I truly don't understand why you would feel the need to call someone a moron for choosing to alter their own body in the way that is pleasing to them.
    peli