12 Comments

1. 

   cymast

    /  February 6, 2009

   Here we go again with the crocoduck . .

   DO DO DO DO DO

2. 

   cymast

    /  February 6, 2009

   That split tongue is gross. And I’ve read that extreme body modifiers are actually finding surgeons to cut off their limbs!

3. 

   acilius

    /  February 6, 2009

   It’s very disturbing. I’ve now seen several people who’ve had their tongues split, and it alarms me every time.

   The ATLANTIC MONTHLY ran a piece about apotemnophiliacs (people who have a compulsion to rid themselves of all or part of a limb) a few years ago. At that point they couldn’t find anyone who’d gotten a surgeon to deliberately remove a limb for them. A few people they talked to had engineered “accidents” as a result of which surgeons were left with no choice but to amputate. That was several years ago now, so surgeons may have become more accommodating.

4. 

   cymast

    /  February 6, 2009

   UGH!

   Do you remember whether these apotemnophiliacs gave reasons for being apotemnophiliacs? I’m sure apotemnophilia qualifies as a mental illness, but where do you draw the line?

5. 

   acilius

    /  February 6, 2009

   They appealed to the example of transsexuals and said that their condition was a matter of identity. So they claimed to be one-legged people (or whatever) born into a two-legged body.

6. 

   cymast

    /  February 6, 2009

   Holy crap.

   I was going to say next we’ll see people trying to turn themselves into animals but then I remembered we already have that. There’s a catman with whisker implants and surgically altered ears and nose. There’s a lizardman with a full-body tattoo and a forked tongue. There’s even a demonman with horn implants on his forehead. And let’s not forget Jocelyn Wildenstein:

   

7. 

   acilius

    /  February 6, 2009

   Oh please let’s forget Jocelyn Wildenstein. I try not to judge other people, and transsexualism makes perfect sense to me. But body modifications like that really do horrify me. When I see people with tattoos on their faces or split tongues or other permanent disfigurements of that sort, my first impulse is always to lean in and ask, “You poor thing, who did that to you?”

8. 

   cymast

    /  February 6, 2009

   Jocelyn who?

   Ditto on the trying to not judge and perfect sense transsexualism.

   I was once acquainted with a body modifier, but haven’t seen any of his shows:

   http://www.freakshowfoley.com/Freakshow%20Foley%20Main%20Page.htm

9. 

   cymast

    /  February 6, 2009

   Wow I was scrolling through a Google picture search for “most pierced” and I didn’t even recognize what it was! I thought it was a nose at first glance.

10. 

    acilius

     /  February 6, 2009

    So what about that zipper-shaped train track? Pretty nifty, eh?

11. 

    cymast

     /  February 6, 2009

    Yeah, I like that one. My fav is the zipper dress by Sebastian Errazuriz. He’s also got a couple interesting pics of a bandage man on his website.

12. 

    acilius

     /  February 6, 2009

    The zipper dress is interesting. Some, like the banana, egg, tree, and tongue, seem like comments on what industrialization is doing to nature. Others, like the railroad and the some of the buildings, seem like attempts to bring massive technologies down to a human scale. The zipper dress, that doesn’t fit either of those categories.