Trepanation

[scottobear]

Psionic tympani, craniomantic amulets, adding the Eighth Corner, qabalistic imprinting of the Mark of Cain, memory engrailment, worship of the Nazca sky-gods who built Sachsahuayman — the question isn't why drill a hole in your head, but why haven't you done it yet? (A variant on corrective phrenology).

Question. If you could have one type of body-modification done, what would it be, and why? anything from ritual scarring to prehensile tails...

Comments

[hissyfit.livejournal.com]

did you read my paper on body modification?
i want to be an integration of metal, plastic, wood and flesh. i want to be boiomechanical. i already have several mods done. i'm going to get more. i think, though, that i'd never go into implation or amputation even though they both intrigue me. you should go to bme (http://www.bmezine.com) and look around. they have a lot of ritual modification there and a lot of information on anytyhing that you could want to do to yourself, including an extensive picture and experiance archive, as well as experts to answer questions that you may have.
that's my rant. the end.

thank you!

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

that was informative and a great insight!

groovy, gal!

Re: Body mods . . .

[razz.livejournal.com]

Better fuzz like Nightcrawler than those creepy, spiky scales like they gave Mystique in the movie!

[razz.livejournal.com]

Well, if the modification were fully-operational, I would like wings. If I were to be more sensible and the internal could be modified, then a better pair of eyes and lungs would be nice. Otherwise, I'm pretty satisfied visually with my rounded, quirky self. More realistically, I've drawn a tattoo I'll get eventually -- the a nickname of mine in kanji.

Re:

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

really... all of those are quite keen.... what is the nickname?

[razz.livejournal.com]

Water Dragon -- it's symbolic of all my inner conflict -- a Cancer sign born in the Year of the Dragon, a water sign born in a fire year. It makes for a lot of excitement. It makes for a lot of steam, too. Hahaha! Should I be bugged when I laugh at my own jokes? Nah -- life's too short to be bugged. ;> So I love water, I love dragons, I love the thought of being able to fly -- the funny thing about me is I always give my best drawings and paintings away, and a few years back, I drew a poster-sized water dragon, sliced it up and mailed the pieces as postcards to a friend. She was in flight (yup, I gave her wings) and the moon (a good friend of Cancers and women in general) was in the background. It wasn't very detailed, but it's still one of my favorites. The tatoo is just the kanji symbols for "water" and "dragon" (there are two symbols for "dragon" -- I used the less intricate one).

Re:

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

makes sense, I'm an earth monkey, myself. :)

and, I've had an attraction to simians and the earth long before I knew that, too... I haven't a clue what an earth monkey would amount to...

thanks for the neato info!!

Body modification

[kundalinidreams.livejournal.com]

I already have the body modification I really wanted, a tatoo on the inner left arm for soldiers killed at the end of WW2 (slightly political, I know).

But another one I'd like would be a fencing scar on the left cheekbone. I know that sounds crazy. :-)
It was the rage in Germany (and elsewhere) in the early 1800s. They used to have mock duels, pad their bodies with pillows to try and just get the scars and not the injuries. :-) And then rub the scars in salt to prevent them from healing too nicely.

I've read the story by HP Lovecraft you mention in your list. I like his writing, I find it frightening enough, if a little convoluted. :-)

Thanks for asking such a cool question.

Your fear will get better.

-J.

Re: Body modification

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

dueling scars are quit the rage! perhaps a matching pince nez, or monocle?

I have a few folks in the family tree that have dueling scars (or lost limbs due to infection post-duel)

Re: Body modification

[kundalinidreams.livejournal.com]

Ouch ! The hazards of dueling, indeed.

Interesting you know these things about your ancestors. :)

I guess the same goes for some of my ancients as well.

I'd take the monocle and the waist coat, too, any day. :)

-J.

Re: Body modification

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

:) I wanted a monacle when I was younger...

Re: Body modification

[kundalinidreams.livejournal.com]

The dueling ancestors wouldn't happen to be German, would they ?

Maybe we're related ? (j/k) :-)

-J.

Re: Body modification

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

yes.

last names you can ref off of are -

von Berg
Frankenstein (really!)
Freling

if you're into geneology, let me know!

Body modification.

[danigolden.livejournal.com]

I have a recurring dream where I have a tattoo of Spiderman. He's in between my boobs kind of crawling out.

I've already got three tattoos but I doubt I would ever get that Spiderman one simply because it would be difficult to cover up and since I'm not embarking on a career as a rock star or tattoo artist, I guess it wouldn't really be acceptable. If tattoos ever became widely embraced in the professional sector I would definitely get it.

That and a tattoo of a pregnant nun. I've just always wanted one.

Oh, and one more thing. I would like to be totally hairless from the neck down. For me it would not only be aesthetically pleasing but it would save me a lot of grooming time.

Re: Body modification.

[burgundy.livejournal.com]

And here I was going to be original and say that my modification would be electrolysis. But you beat me to it. Pooh.

Re: Body modification.

[danigolden.livejournal.com]

You can have electrolysis, it sounds painful...I was hoping more for that problem hair to just disappear :)