Posted: Sun, Aug 11, 2024
Date |
16th January 2024 |
Location |
CALM Bodymodification, Stockholm, Sweden |
Artist |
Sonchai Maibert, or just Chai for short! |
Unfortunately, in the UK, any form of body modification more ‘intense’ than a piercing or a tattoo is illegal, with practitioners being charged with GBH (grievous bodily harm). If you want any work done legally, you’ll have to travel. I flew once again to Stockholm, Sweden to see Chai who had split my tongue about 6 months prior.
I’m keeping this post quite focused just on the procedure and recovery, as if I write about the whole trip this will turn into a short novel. I may do a fuller trip blog type thing in the future! Blogs are cute and fun.
General itinerary
- 14th Jan - We got a late flight and arrived at the hostel around 3am on the 15th
- 15th Jan - Exploring the city, bit shopping, drinks in Jakobsberg to end the day
- 16th Jan - Slice and dice!
- 17th Jan - Bit of a lazy one. Ended the day seeing Tongue Depressor perform at Larry’s Corner
- 18th Jan - midday flight back to Edinburgh, and an evening train from Edinburgh back home
The length of time we went for entirely revolved around when flights were available. If there were abundant flights at all dates and times, and getting the mod is the only thing you’re bothered about, I would 100% have been comfortable flying the day before, getting some good sleep, and flying back the same night as getting sliced.
the day of
Hmm, so perhaps the time of year wasn’t the best to go. It had been a dream of mine for years to see the Nordic countries in the dead of winter, and now I’d finally got a taste for it. Snow a foot deep all over the city centre, and get this, all the public transport was still running. Minimal delays. It was a beautiful sight. The minor problem was that it was the coldest temperature I have ever experienced in my life. I’m not sure how accurate these archived weather websites are, but World Weather shows temperatures as low as -14°C (feeling as cold as -22°C), and Extreme Weather Watch has 16th January listed as the coldest temperature in Stockholm this year, as of writing.
To be getting my hand operated on in extremely cold temperatures where I wouldn’t be able to wear a glove on said hand is probably something I should have planned for. I had a scarf though, which when wrapped around me hand worked just fine! I do have plans to get my other hand done within the next year, so if I can hack it in the dead of winter, I’m sure the other hand will be a breeze. Ish.
the actual procedure
CONTENT WARNINGin this section for gore
Chai is chill as fuck and it’s always a pleasure to see him. It was so lovely to walk into his shop again! It was also my first time meeting his partner Nåmi, who I believe was either ill or on holiday last time I’d been in. Over the course of the next few hours I’d also meet many of their dogs too. I didn’t know how many they had, so seeing one was cute, 2 was adorable, then it started messing with my head when more and more showed up!
Right, the actual thingie. I took a couple paracetamol so they’d have a bit of time to settle in. The first step was getting measured up. Chai roughly measured my thumb and brought out an implant that he thought would look good. He then sat me down and marked out an outline for wriggling it into place once it was under my skin. Here’s a before pic.
DISCLAIMERthe implant pictured below is a test implant NOT for insertion, simply for verifying size and placement before any incisions are made. Implants designated for insertion are sterilised.
Once all done, it was time to slice. Watching this take place is a bizarre experience. I’m wondering if there’s some fancy psychological phenomenon that takes place seeing metal instruments cutting your skin and sliding underneath it. Even going back through the photos I took made me feel a little strange - it’s so cool to see my own muscle tissue but it also makes me feel so weird!
One incision was made at the base of my thumb, a tool was used to stretch and make some space under the skin (a gaping joke is here somewhere), before the implant was popped in and moved into place. Chai then stitched the wound up - obviously I had to get a little snap before the bandages went on.
I’d also had my nails done by the legendary Hilda of Hex Nails (IG: @hexnailsuk). She’s been doing my nails for years and I can’t recommend her highly enough.
I tell you what, it was very nice to be able to actually talk after it was done compared to the bumbling mess I was after my tongue. The gift of speech is a precious one.
recovery
For the first few days, I took the maximum recommended doses of both paracetamol and ibuprofen, which honestly did me fine. Within a couple of weeks I had fully regained the functionality of my thumb and felt no pain or discomfort gripping things. I also didn’t have any help during my recovery as I live on my own, so I had to adjust to doing things one-handed. I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world though - it made me exercise my hand (sensibly!) to try and help it settle as soon as possible so I could do what I needed to do!
day 1
I think all the chaos of travelling, awful sleep from a room too hot, and general exhaustion from lots of walking in extremely cold weather the past couple of days overshadowed the pain from my fresh hand addition. Even waking up in a bed not my own can make me feel a bit funny in the morning. I took some painkillers with my morning (read: 1pm) coffee and honestly didn’t feel too bad. Luckily not a lot was planned this day - it was fairly chill, just making sure our bags were packed with a small ICA and 7-Eleven run to get snacks to take home, and a small trip to Larry’s Corner for a gig.
day 2
Flying home! What a long day. It’s 7pm by the time I’m home and able to attend to this thing. It’s my first time seeing my hand out of its bandages. As you can imagine, it’s swollen as shit, with bruises running along my knuckles and down my arm.
day 4
My hand turned green! The bruising was less angry and more spread out. I’ve been gently moving my thumb around to exercise it lightly and to allow my body to adjust to having a fat bit of silicone in it. My eczema was a bit angry, but nothing was bothering me too much healing wise.
day 5
Bruises were turning a very yellow colour. I was still keeping on top of the painkillers. Honestly, the most annoying thing was wearing a damn bandage. The texture of it constantly against my skin was very grating, and the knot I’d tied in it would often loosen over time which would stress me out! I couldn’t wait to be free of it.
day 6
The bruising was travelling down my arm which I thought looked really cool. Not much else to report. I saw Dlina Volny that night! Have a listen of their song Tomorrow while you’re here, actually. My memory is hazy, but I think I must’ve figured out how to wash my hair one-handed at this point as there’s no way I could’ve left me flat a greaseball, so go me.
one week
I’d say the bumps are starting to look more visible now as the swelling continued to go down.
I sent a piccie of the progress to Chai, who used it as part of a timelapse video he posted to Instagram of the procedure - to a fat beat, no less! Track is Breathe by Bou and Mark XTC.
Download this video
The original, non-edited version is available on his Instagram if you want to see it, but as of writing this the audio is muted due to licensing. Classic.
day 10 - suture removal
A close friend of mine removed my sutures for me. How nice it is to have them gone! I also stopped putting the Micropore tape on my skin, as I have sensitive skin along with eczema (the fucking joys) and after a few days of wearing tape, even with changing it every couple days as advised, my skin was starting to get a little angry with me. I also no longer needed to wear a bandage as the worst of the swelling had passed. As for painkillers, I don’t remember when I stopped feeling like I needed to take them, but it was at some point before getting these sutures out. I have no pictures so I don’t think anything that exciting could’ve been visible.
two weeks
There was not much bruising left (mainly just patchy down the forearm) and the ridges only got more prominent. The incision site was also healing really nicely too! So pretty and clean.
8 weeks
As the progress was so gradual after the first couple weeks, I didn’t really cotton on as to how much progress had took place. In quite a short amount of time, my skin had shrink wrapped around the implant quite a bit, and was a lot more spiny! Over time it’ll just become more and more defined, but I’d say you could very much call this ‘healed’. I sent these photos to Chai who assembled them and put a lush watermark on it, so I stole it and mangled it for your viewing pleasure.
life while implanted
I don’t think I’ve lost anything in terms of range of motion in my thumb. The only thing I haven’t tested is balling my hand into a tight fist, but I’ve been unable to do that for years due to my claws! The implant feels very natural under my skin. It’s firm with a little bit of squish, I’d say very similar to pinching the section of your nose just under where your bone stops. The one thing that feels VERY weird is if it gets a very hard nudge that makes it unstick from where it’s placed. This only happened to me once, and while it wasn’t painful I’d really rather not do that again. Imagine yanking a suction toy off a shower wall, but it’s under your skin… yeah.
I can’t wait to get the other side done. The lack of symmetry in me hands is killing me. I don’t think the post for that one will be as lengthy, for obvious reasons, but it’ll be interesting to see how that goes as that’ll be my dominant hand being sliced!
