My Aortic Valve is Tingling


Hey, so here we have Frank, a tattoo and scarification artist in Quebec, and, as you can see, he’s in the middle of cutting a spider into his chest and showing off an excess of intestinal fortitude. After the jump, he digs in pretty deep, so we consult with Ask.BME‘s Efix to get his expert opinion.

As you can see, the body of the spider is cut pretty damn deep. So what sayeth Efix (who, it turns out, is friends with and has worked on Frank in the past)?

Some people like to work on themselves, either because they don’t really trust others to work on them, or, most of the time, because they simply enjoy the DIY experience. But people should never underestimate the complexity and risk level associated with some more advanced procedures such as this skin removal scarification. Frank is a skilled tattoo artist and has done quite a bunch of cutting work, however, a large skin peeling like this one should never be taken lightly. In my opinion, the abdomen part of the spider has been cut too deeply. A wound that deep will take a long time to heal, and the scar can be quite out of control and give unexpected results.

Frank, of course, is experienced, as Efix says, and he’s working on himself, so he likely knows what sort of reaction to expect from his body as far as scarring is concerned (and he may well be hoping the spider’s body scars more dramatically). As well, as far as consent is concerned…well, again, he’s doing it on himself. If an artist were to do a piece like this on a client, it may be a different story. At any rate, best of luck, sir! Keep us posted as this bad boy heals.

Just to clarify: Nobody here is criticizing Frank or saying he’s done a bad job! Quite the opposite. I wanted to post this, but because of how deep part of the cut is, I just wanted to have some manner of explanation to go along with it. That is all.

28 thoughts on “My Aortic Valve is Tingling

  1. so nice of modblog to single someone out and then dis them in front of the world. kudos.

  2. Who’s dissing him? It’s totally impressive and worthy of being posted, but I just didn’t want to publish it without a bit of explanation due to part of the cutting being rather deep.

  3. If you look at the first and second pictures, you can see two square cuttings underneath the spider that have been done prior. Around them, you can see other flesh cuttings on his chest.

    In my completely unprofessional opinion, it looks as though he knows what different cuttings at different depths will look like on his body. The cuts in the middle of his rib cage are obviously deeper cuts and have more well defined scars.

  4. my stomach dropped..into my throat….ughhhhhhhh

    As much as I love scarification…body modification…I can not help but cringe at times…

  5. perhaps the body of the spider will heal with a larger, more defined (protruding) scar. that would make the shape look more 3d, like it is a spider sitting his chest, rather one cut into it

  6. I actually cannot tell you how much I really like this.

    It doesn’t seem to me he did this without knowledge of how is body heals scars, and I’d say it was for the 3d effect, as london said.
    either way, fantastic work, and a fantastic face in the first picture :]

  7. my stomach dropped..into my throat….ughhhhhhhh

    You doing a handstand or something? =S
    Kudos on the sick scars dude.

  8. How else in good conscience could he test a new procedure like this on somebody else? The scar might result in an inversion of the deep part when it heals, ballooning into a realistic “opisthosoma” (the name of the spider part of the deep part of his cutting), but like many others this is an experimental procedure. Of course i don’t know his intent for healing or whether it was just for aesthetic appeal after getting carried away.
    I look forward to follow up healing of this thing.

  9. agreed with steev-o. after poking around at my own chest, it doesn’t feel like i’d have nearly enough.. which leads me to believe that the photos might make it look a little deeper?

    props to spiderman and 2x props for trying something different. good luck with the heal! 🙂

  10. I hate spiders…really, they scare me. I agree with Efix, I think the abdomen is pretty deep, specially in a chest, where you can get a BIG keloid, but if it grows out nicely, he’ll literally have a 3D spider on his chest…be careful with the healing dude.

  11. I’m fucking nervous about tissue removal in the chest area. It seems like I’ve seen more fucked up healed pictures than quality ones.

    I’m anxious to see how this turns out.

    Consider this my request to see this piece in six months or a year?

  12. I have seen some pretty crazy scarring in that area and i am worried looking at this. If it heals nicely awesome but the potential for this to hurt his daily life makes me worry. Heavy scarring in an area like that can attach to things and it can make regular movement difficult.

    I wish him luck and hope my worries turn out to be unneeded.

    I like the design and i agree with cutthroat i want to see it in a year.

  13. HOLY HELL! Was not prepared for that click through…

    I just wanna know how he could dig that deep into his own chest and not have any reflex to stop…

  14. @24. —anaesthetic would definitely stop that reflex. and by the white around the spider in the 2nd shot, and lack of blood, looks like he used a good amount.

  15. eek, it looks good,but wouldnt that be disruptive to daily life? just cause it looks hugely painful.

  16. And people tell me I have guts just for getting a scarification. I’m gonna tell them about this guy from now on. Now THAT’S a badass. Might consider one day doing one to myself on my thigh or something, but the chest just seems off limits for me. Maybe it seems too much like vivisecting yourself…

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