What if Lasik screws up? Get a retinal implant
Filed Under Body Modification, News |
The number one question in my mind that deters me from laser eye surgery to correct my vision is “what if the doctor screws up and I’m blind?” My sight is an important part of my life, as it is for most people, and I can’t imagine trying to function in life without it. I’ve joked in the past that I’ll get lasik when they have replacements on hand in case something goes wrong. Well, now they will. It has taken them 20 years, but the Boston Retinal Implant Project has designed an implant that will “provide patients with a sense of their surroundings - to detect shapes and obstacles in their pathways”. It’s not a perfect replacement for your natural eyesight yet, but it will allow you to get around on your own without a guide dog or a white cane. Most of the hardware is kept outside of the eye, with only a small strip of plastic actually implanted. This plus the reports that LASIK can improve eyesight beyond 20/20 continue to make the procedure more attractive to me. If you want to check out more info on the retinal implant, there’s a good article on The Boston Herald with more details on how it was designed.
LASIK improving vision past 20/20
Filed Under Body Modification |
A lot of the time, people forget that the term “body modification” extends beyond tattoos and piercings. Plastic surgery, removal of misbehaving organs, and correction of damaged senses are all still under the umbrella of body modification. For years I’ve been wearing contact lenses because my vision is, shall we say, less than perfect. It’s not much of a hassle for me as I’m used to them and the cost is not a huge impact to my budget so when I heard about the different surgeries to fix eyesight I wasn’t running to get it done. But now that I’ve heard that LASIK surgery can improve vision beyond the normal 20/20, I’m much more interested. According to Slate, LASIK is pretty consistently providing people (primarily pro athletes) with vision better than 20/20 in almost 85% of people who get LASIK done with the new “wavefront” technology. As with any body modification, there are the risks of LASIK. These risks have been significantly reduced however, and studies show that under 1% of well-selected patients have complications. I’ve had a couple friends and family members (my mother who is a physician) undergo LASIK and for the most part I’ve heard good things. But please don’t consider this an endorsement or condemnation of the procedure. It’s your body, you need to weigh the risks and benefits before modifying it.
thoughts sparked via
Electronic Ink Tattoos
Filed Under Art, Body Modification, Gadgets, Video |
Every day it seems like we’re living in a Neal Stephenson book more and more. While the thought of tattoos that change via technology is not necessarily new, this is the first time that I’ve really seen someone illustrating the concept in a video. And on top of the sexy video, the people behind this are none other than Philips.
They describe this project as such:
Tattoos and physical mutilation are amongst the oldest forms of personal expression and identity. Subcultures have used tattoos as a form of self representation; a visual language communicating personality and status. Philips Design examined the growing trend of extreme body adornment like tattoos, piercing, implants and scarring.
The Electronics Tattoo film expresses the visual power of sensitive technology applied to the human body. The film subtly leads the viewer through the simultaneous emotional and aesthetic transformations between two lovers.
While the video really touches on the possible sensuality of a tattoo that changes with arousal and emotion, there are also practical applications for something as incredible as electronic tattoo ink. Imagine a simple text display created in electronic ink. Nothing more complex in display than a character LCD. Add bluetooth (or some other form of wireless) support to that with a small implant. Now you can display any text you’d like. Use your cell phone to pull the latest weather, sports, stocks, RSS feeds, or subjects from your emails as they download. Your latest twitter scrolling across the nape of your neck, or perhaps the song currently playing on your mp3 player. Or more importantly, serious medical information that provides EMTs with life-saving info right on your chest. The possibilities are endless, and not really that far off.
In fact, way back in the dark ages (1995) there were some people that had a similar idea. There is a patent filed by Andrew J Singer and Sean White from Interval Research Corporation in Palo Alto, CA. This patent is for an implantable and programmable LCD that might actually be possible with today’s advances in technology. Unfortunately Interval Research closed their doors in June 2006. *sigh* Maybe we’ll have better luck with Philips in 15 years.
via BehindTheInk
How not to get pierced
Filed Under Body Modification, Video |
Today we bring you two videos of how not to get pierced, thanks to ModBlog (NSFW). While we’ve got nothing against piercing outside of professional studios as long as the person knows what they’re doing, it’s pretty obvious that the people in these videos don’t. Well at least they had an idea to
Learn to type tattoo
Filed Under Body Modification |
Were you one of those kids in typign class that never could remember which key was where? Maybe you should have had the smarts to do what Nathan did.
via modblog of course
Geeky Scarification
Filed Under Body Modification |
I didn’t really intended for Geeked.Info to turn into such a body modification focused site (ModBlog is the best site for that), but for some reason all the geeky body mods are coming to light on the internet lately. The latest is this set of computer related scarification. Those familiar with computers will recognize the power, usb and firewire symbols on Der Teufel’s fingers.
photo and story via ModBlog
Windows Bluescreen Tattoo
Filed Under Art, Body Modification, Funny, Software, Windows |
We recently posted some geeky video game tattoos, but in the world of geek tattoos, this one definitely ranks pretty high up there. A guy named Paul got this homage to the part of Windows 98 that we all curse to this day done by Sam Rulz of Two Hands Tattoo in New Zealand. Wow….
via ModBlog
Nintendo Tattoos
Filed Under Art, Body Modification, Video Games |
More “Gamer Ink” at www.thebbps.com.
via BehindTheInk. Picture source: www.thebbps.com.
Dali Elephant Cutting
Filed Under Body Modification |
Like many of my body modification posts, this may not be for those that are squeamish and following any links in this post may lead you to NSFW material. This content is not for everyone. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
ModBlog brings us yet another incredible cutting. This time it’s an elephant in the style of Salvador Dali running down the side of a man with a high threshold for pain. Technically it was an ink rubbing, but the picture posted was prior to any ink. To save the more queasy of our readers I won’t post the image, you’ll have to hit up ModBlog for that.
Sokushinbutsu, or How To Mummify Yourself in 4 Easy Steps
Filed Under Body Modification, Education, Interesting |
1. Change your diet
For 1000 days (almost 3 years), only eat nuts and seeds that are naturally found. This, in combination with hard physical training will reduce your body fat to nearly nil, eliminating an easily decomposable part of your body.
2. Switch to Bark
Ok, now that you are sick of eating nuts and seeds for almost 3 years, it’s time to switch it up. For the next 1000 days, eat only the bark and roots from pine trees. This will reduce the amount of fluid you have in your body, leaving you even more dessicated.
3. Start drinking poisonous tea
Towards the end of your 1000 day stint eating delicious bark and roots, start drinking tea made from the sap of the usushi tree. Usually this sap is used to make laquer, but it will help you vomit, sweat, and urinate more often. This will help get rid of that terrible moisture in your body. Oh, and it will help to kill any maggots or other insects that might try to eat your mummified body later.
4. Lock yourself in a tomb
Finally, you’ll want to enclose yourself in a tiny tomb, just big enough to sit lotus style in. You’ll hang out in here for the next 1000 days, but chances are you’ll die long before you hit the 1000 day mark. How will you breath? A small tube will be run into the tomb. How will everyone know when you’re dead? A bell will be placed inside. Ring this bell every day until you die, then stop ringing it. When we don’t hear the bell anymore, we’ll pull out the air tube and seal up the tomb.
When the last 1000 days are up, we’ll crack open the tomb to see if you were successful. If we find a mummy, hurray! You’ll be considered a Buddha and will join an elite group of only a couple dozen monks who have succeeded over the years! If you’re all rotted, we’ll commend you for your effort, and tell you better luck next time. Want some tips? Try drinking the water from the sacred spring on Yudono mountain in Yamagata. I hear it helps because it has arsenic in it to help kill off any bacteria or micro-organisms. Oh, and watch out for the government, this whole practice was outlawed by the government back in the late 19th century.
Buddhist Mummies of Japan(image #1 source and a listing of visits to the different mummies along with a few pictures)
Buddhist Mummies of Japan (image #2 source)
Article in JSTOR that I wish I had access to Thanks to Bethany for hooking me up with a copy!
The Very Special Dead - more pictures
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