One more SkinTunnel

I don’t know how I missed including this in my earlier post. Since SkinTunnels are new, I think a good percentage of people just want them for their own sake — they’re something cool and new and exciting, so people want them for their own sake. As a result, some of them are a little random and just “stuck wherever” rather than cleanly integrated into the body, let alone into a pre-existing body art plan. Not so with this example by early adopter Iestyn Flye (the-absolute.co.uk), who’s done probably my favorite SkinTunnel to date with this awesome example that fits perfectly into a tattoo. And I’m a little surprised at myself, because normally I think metal/ink combos are a little silly, but this one is great.

SkinTunnels Galore

I’m happy to see that Gabriele‘s SKINTUNNEL design is entering the palette of body modification options beyond Italy. For example, Brian Decker of Pure (purebodyarts.com) just did a set of them on Ashan’s arm, using a single incision to insert both of them (push the incisions for the posts to push through — see our earlier posts on SKINTUNNELs to see the jewelry if you’re unfamiliar with it).

Iestyn Flye (the-absolute.co.uk) has also been doing them, the one on the back a collaboration with Gabriele that’s a month old, as well as another one on Yann Brënyàk. You gotta love the hex-head transdermal next to it by the way!

I’ll also mention that the first ones that Gabriele did are still looking good and beginning to stand the test of time. Here’s the neck at four months old, with a fancy new cap on it as well, which you can also see on the original wrist SKINTUNNEL which I think is about six months old now.

PS. Until Gabriele and Rachel have a chat about adding SkinTunnels to BMEshop (which I think would be a great way to introduce them to even more people), if you are a body modification practitioner interested in these, contact Gabriele directly if you’d like to talk about ordering a set.

Dual SkinTunnels

Any time I post Gabriele’s (MaxArt Body Piercing in Rome, Italy) extremely clever SkinTunnel jewelry (which I’ve finally given its own tag here on ModBlog making it easy to see all the entries on it), it always generates a lot of confusion because people aren’t used to seeing something like it, and often make the erroneous assumption that the central circle is open flesh. It’s not. The design is like a transdermal implant, but instead of a single central post, it has two separate U-shaped posts. These U’s have threading on them so that a large top can be attached. In theory, this design should be able to carry more weight than a standard transdermal, in addition to having a unique aesthetic.

Gabriele’s very first customer for this — he’s slowly and responsibly been doing a few of these, monitoring them carefully, and making subtle improvements in each generation — has come back to get a matching one on their other wrist, so that’s what you’re seeing here in these pictures. For those still having trouble picturing how the jewelry is implanted, I draw your attention to the picture where the two U-shaped slots are being cut.

Zoom into this second photo for a closer view of the finished product.

Day 5 SkinTunnel Nape Healing Update

I wanted to post a quick update showing you how the SkinTunnel that Gabriele at MaxArt in Italy installed recently is doing. So far, so good! As you can see there is almost no irritation around the posts (which are made out of G23 titanium with an unpolished base design), and the skin is holding tight to the inside curve as well, so it seems like the design improvements may be successful. Now, this photo is five days, so it’s still early, but at the same time, that means it’s great how quickly things are healing.

If you didn’t see my original post:
    news.bme.com/2012/08/12/skintunnel-take-two/

skintunnel-5days

SkinTunnel, Take Two

I’m very excited that Gabriele from MaxArt Body Piercing in Rome, Italy has been refining his SKIN TUNNEL project, with the second one being installed in a nape. I think it also speaks very well for him that he didn’t install a whole bunch of them right away, but that instead he installed one, carefully watched it healing, made improvements to the design, and then installed a single second one. Not all practitioners are so responsible — many rush ahead and start offering new procedures to the public before they’re even close to verified as functional. Here’s a picture of the new piece in a nape:

skintunnel-nape

There are actually two variations that he’s made to this iteration of the skin tunnel, so perhaps we’ll see one more soon as well. As you can see there are second-generation two prototypes, one slightly taller than the other, and one with four posts and the other with two. They’ve also both been given horizontal holes through the threaded posts, which hopefully will decrease the possibility of the skin pulling away from the posts, and anchoring it more solidly. It’s a very clever and quite visually fascinating improvement on the transdermal, and may offer a significant improvement in mounting technology because of the sheer size of the threading possible.

skintunnel-prototype

If I was giving advice on iteration three, I think the biggest thing I’d change would be drilling more holes around the base — not spacing them so broadly. Finally, since I don’t think it has yet been featured on ModBlog, here are some pictures of the first one that Gabriele did, on a wrist.

skintunnel-wrist

The Shaped Transdermals of MaxArt

As I’ve mentioned before, Gabriele of MaxArt Body Piercing in Italy has been creating innovative shaped transdermals (to say nothing of his invention of the Skin Tunnel invention), starting with a cross-shaped one, and most recently a teardrop shaped one. Let me update you on the cross-shaped one first. I have to admit that I expected the skin to retract — I didn’t think this would be successful. But much to my surprise, even at three weeks in (which is when the two larger shots were taken), the skin rather than retracting, seems to be pulling in toward the implant. This is most likely due to Gabriele’s design decision of cross-drilling the transdermal (which you can see in the shots of the jewelry).

solidshapedtransdermal-1

Most recently Gabriele has done a tear-shaped one as well, another piece of great design. Obviously some of these aesthetics can also be accomplished by putting shaped beads on normal transdermals, but these are much more powerful on closer inspection. Now all we have to wait for is the cheap knockoffs of his design — I’m already seeing horrendous clones of his skin tunnel that have none of the beautiful high-quality titanium machining that is typical of Gabriele’s transdermals and Skin Tunnels (manufactured by Veleno Web).

solidshapedtransdermal-2

Shaped Transdermal

Speaking of that famous Italian inventor (no, not Leonardo) Gabriele from MaxArt, after the SkinTunnel he’s got another innovation that he’s beginning experiments with, a design for a shaped-post transdermal. These get installed like a normal transdermal would be, but the hole is cut to shape with a scalpel rather than being dermal punched as you’d do with a typical round post. I will admit that I’m not quite so certain that this will heal as beautifully, because it’s asking a lot of the body to pull into some of those little detailed indents in my opinion. Whether I’m wrong or not time will tell, and I am eagerly awaiting pictures of how the healing is going — it’s a ton of fun seeing people continuing to innovate in body modification.

High Nasallang

Here’s another one of those extremely, extremely rare ultra-unusual piercings that always make my day when I wake up to seeing them. I can’t imagine how much force it must have taken to push the needle or punch through the big hunk of cartilage that makes up that portion of the nose — it’s a very imposing. The high nasallang piercing was done by Gabriele of Max Art in Italy (who I’m sure you know best from the SkinTunnel procedure), to accompany the existing nasallang and bridge piercings. Unfortunately it is unlikely that any more piercings between the bridge and the high nasallang could be done due to the anatomy, although they could be faked with microdermals.

highnasalang

Complex Ear Reconstruction

Gabriele at Max Art in Italy (who you know best for the SkinTunnel project) recently performed a rather tricky ear reconstruction. The surgery involved both bridging two piercings into one, as well as repairing the damage from a piercing that tore out some time earlier. Once it’s healed, the client will be able to put in a new tunnel and no one will be the wiser — and hopefully they will have learned a valuable lesson about responsible stretching! Or getting in fights — I don’t actually know how the damage occurred.

gabriele-ear-repair