I've seen plenty of ear sculpting but never anyone completely removing their ears. Based on my google search it appears that this body mod is still fairly rare but I was able to find a few examples of people that had undergone this strange procedure.
In the world of body modification, implants are artificial objects which are surgically inserted into the body usually for decorative purposes. Implants may be either subdermal or transdermal.
Subdermal refers to implants which are completely beneath the skin leaving a sculptural change to the appearance of the body. The procedure involves making an incision next to the area the implant is to be placed. A dermal elevator is used to create a pocket in which the implant (typically made of silicone) is inserted. Once in place, the incision is stitched up and given time to heal.
Transdermal refers to implants which are placed partially below and partially above the skin. Like the subdermal implant, the procedure involves making an incision near the area the implant is to be located. A pocket is opened using a dermal elevator and a hole is made. The implant is then inserted so that the decorative part passes through the hole and the base stays under the skin.
Joe Aylward's Metal Mohawk
Body modification artist Steve Haworth is credited as having invented and popularized both subdermal and transdermal implants. Haworth grew up around the medical industry, his father owning a surgical instrument manufacturing company. Continuing in the family business, Haworth started his own company called Haworth Med Tech (later called Haworth Tech Company) in the late 1980's. Shortly after he opened a chain of piercing studios called HTC peircing studios.
In the mid 1990's Howarth began experimenting with and creating the first implants used for adornment purposes, initially using surgical steel then later teflon and carved silicone. He performed his first subdermal modification in 1994 on a New Zealand woman giving her an under the skin beaded bracelet around her wrist. In 1996 he performed the first transdermal implant called the "Metal Mohawk".
Apparently, over the past few years, there has been an increasing number of people tattooing the white area of their eyes.
This fairly new body modification was first attempted back in 2007 by tattoo artist LunaCobra and was performed on Shannon Larratt, Pauly Unstoppable and Josh Rahn. Here is a link to an article written by Larratt describing how it all went down.
Shannon Larratt having his eye tattooed
In this Eyeball Tattoo FAQ, Larratt claims that a great deal of research was done prior to the experiment. Interestingly, he summarizes the history of eyeball tattooing stating that the earliest reference dates back almost two thousand years when a Roman doctor attempted to color white patches over the iris. In the 19th century doctors made many attempts to use tattooing methods to cosmetically correct eye deformities. Larratt goes on to say that in the early 1900's, eyeball tattooing was advertised in newspapers by tattoo artist to change the color of the iris but points out that it is unknown if anyone actually went through with the procedure and that no references to these services exist beyond 1920.
Though I doubt it will become a big thing in the near future, eyeball tattooing has started to gain some popularity. Here are a few examples for your viewing pleasure.
Tongue splitting, also known as bifurcation or forking, is a type of body modification where the tip of the tongue is cut in half to look somewhat like that of a reptile's tongue. Over the past decade it has become more prevalent in the body-mod subculture but overall is still a pretty rare thing to come across.
It is believed that the first tongue split happened sometime in the mid 90's. In 1997, an unknown Italian man e-mailed pictures to the body-modification ezine BME describing how three years earlier he had a dentist split his tongue.
Pictures of the first known tongue split. credit BME
Just prior to the Italian's pictures being posted online a Californian woman named Dustin Allor split her tongue by threading fishing line through her existing piercing and looping it so that it wrapped around the end of her tongue. For over three weeks she continually tightened the loop until it cut through, splitting her tongue in two. Dustin's split was published at the end of 1997 in the magazine Body Play and Modern Primitives Quarterly.
Dustin Allor
Erik Sprague, a man you would never confuse with someone else, was the third person to have their tongue split. In July of 1997 he had an oral surgeon split his tongue with a laser. Erik has since continued to modify and alter his body and is now the side show performer known as The Lizardman.
There are now a multitude of images and videos on the internet of people sharing their tongue splits. Bellow are a few of the more eye catching ones I have come across.
The world of body modification is fertile ground when it comes to weird stuff. As a first venture, I picked something that most have probably never seen before. See through lip mods.
