A black-and-white photo of a person mid-air in a Superman-style body suspension pose, supported by multiple hooks in their back and legs, smiling joyfully toward the camera. They are suspended horizontally in a large indoor space with high ceilings and visible rigging. A group of onlookers—some seated, some standing—watch with expressions of admiration, amusement, and support. The atmosphere is lively and communal, capturing a moment of shared experience and transformation.

When scarification goes bad

Update: First, the person in this procedure healed fine and is very happy. Second, I want to make it clear that while this procedure looks very intense, it’s probably less intense as a procedure than some large skin removal work, transscrotal piercings, implants, tongue splitting, and all the other procedures generally accepted by the body modification community.

Ok, this is a pretty gory entry. I apologize for that. But I think it’s important to emphasize that when you do large scale scarification (or sometimes small scale), sometimes the keloid grows out of control and starts getting very uncomfortable, restricting mobility, and so on. This piece was only about a month old in the photos below (it was done by a “well known body modification artist” who’s gonna stay unnamed because that’s not the point of the entry) and the customer was quite unhappy and wanted it dealt with.

Samppa Von Cyborg and Lukas Zpira got together to help him as much as they could. They felt that all of it was cut too deep, and did their best to excise the tissue, although the centre keloid was not removed (I’m assuming it was adhered right to the cartilage at bottom of the sternum). Starting with some exploratory cuts:

Mostly off and looking very gory:

As you can see, quite a chasm of tissue was removed! Check out the fatty tissue below:

Once stitched up, I can’t imagine how relived and happy the customer must have been. It’s a pretty intense removal, and a lot to go through, but Lukas and Samppa did a nice job restoring him… Hopefully the removal doesn’t have similar keloiding issues (sometimes it’s a problem that snowballs).

Finally, the gross out shot of the removed tissue:

Please take scarification seriously!!!

Comments

1,136 responses to “When scarification goes bad”

  1. ELY M. Avatar

    I spoke to Brian Decker, he simply won’t do skin cutting procedure.

  2. ELY M. Avatar

    I spoke to Brian Decker, he simply won’t do skin cutting procedure.

  3. john dix Avatar
    john dix

    sucks

  4. john dix Avatar
    john dix

    sucks

  5. me Avatar
    me

    SHIT!>_<

  6. me Avatar
    me

    SHIT!>_<

  7. Jess Avatar
    Jess

    As a person who has been scarred against their wished with surgeries, I cannot understand why you would purposefully scar yourself if you had the option to not.
    He, at that seemingly older age, should have known he keloids and not to have been modded so damned heavily.

  8. Jess Avatar
    Jess

    As a person who has been scarred against their wished with surgeries, I cannot understand why you would purposefully scar yourself if you had the option to not.
    He, at that seemingly older age, should have known he keloids and not to have been modded so damned heavily.

  9. Glajorklinornamerlimorzika Avatar

    That looks like breakfast….

  10. Glajorklinornamerlimorzika Avatar

    That looks like breakfast….

  11. Brittany Avatar
    Brittany

    There’s no way that was sterile. Cutting him open like that in a non-sterile environment is highly dangerous. Was the area even cleaned before they operated? The area should have cleaned with iodine, right? And clearly it wasn’t because the iodine is brown and is obviously very visible.

  12. Brittany Avatar
    Brittany

    There’s no way that was sterile. Cutting him open like that in a non-sterile environment is highly dangerous. Was the area even cleaned before they operated? The area should have cleaned with iodine, right? And clearly it wasn’t because the iodine is brown and is obviously very visible.

  13. Phylwx Avatar
    Phylwx

    hahahahahaa looks like he got a dick growing in his tummy. I found this pretty enjoyable, thanks!

  14. Phylwx Avatar
    Phylwx

    hahahahahaa looks like he got a dick growing in his tummy. I found this pretty enjoyable, thanks!

  15. Christa Avatar
    Christa

    Just found this article today – and (didn’t read pas the 200th comment or so) am left with 1 HUGE question:

    why is there no “after” (1 month/ year) picture??

    I would love to see how this repair turned out…

  16. Christa Avatar
    Christa

    Just found this article today – and (didn’t read pas the 200th comment or so) am left with 1 HUGE question:

    why is there no “after” (1 month/ year) picture??

    I would love to see how this repair turned out…

  17. sfc Avatar
    sfc

    this is borderline illegal. more like a butcher shop. they’re practically cutting almost to the bone and organs.

    these weren’t even professional surgeons removing the scar tissue. just a slice and sew job. even by their own admittance, the reason why this occurred is because they cut too deeply the first time. I wouldn’t have went back to them, I would have went straight to a lawyer. This guy now has a scar that will look nothing like he expected, even fixing it and a full refund (which he didn’t get) wouldn’t come close to compensation.

    Those spots will be sore and ache for the rest of his life. even something as simple as a shirt would cause irritation (after its ‘healed’). even by just simply turning his torso to any given side or direction will irritate it. hell, even breathing probably will quite often.

    I bet when he came in to complain they talked him into fixing it because it would leave a ‘cool’ looking stitch scar instead, and I bet the moron fell for it. even the stitch job looks horrible, uneven, and amateurish at best.

    I’m appalled at the unprofessionalism. These people need to be put behind bars.

    You wanna know why the so called ‘artist’ didn’t want to be named? because he doesn’t want to lose business. because he knows he fucked up and got lucky enough to do it on a moron who kept quiet about it because he’s an idiot. There is no risk of this if someone didn’t fuck up and cut it all too deep.

    I would never get this done on myself, but if I did I wouldn’t want it done by a bunch of high school drop outs who took a few cheap courses in surgery. Just picture it like this…people are letting people essentially operate on them that have less training time than a rat in a maze.

  18. sfc Avatar
    sfc

    this is borderline illegal. more like a butcher shop. they’re practically cutting almost to the bone and organs.

    these weren’t even professional surgeons removing the scar tissue. just a slice and sew job. even by their own admittance, the reason why this occurred is because they cut too deeply the first time. I wouldn’t have went back to them, I would have went straight to a lawyer. This guy now has a scar that will look nothing like he expected, even fixing it and a full refund (which he didn’t get) wouldn’t come close to compensation.

    Those spots will be sore and ache for the rest of his life. even something as simple as a shirt would cause irritation (after its ‘healed’). even by just simply turning his torso to any given side or direction will irritate it. hell, even breathing probably will quite often.

    I bet when he came in to complain they talked him into fixing it because it would leave a ‘cool’ looking stitch scar instead, and I bet the moron fell for it. even the stitch job looks horrible, uneven, and amateurish at best.

    I’m appalled at the unprofessionalism. These people need to be put behind bars.

    You wanna know why the so called ‘artist’ didn’t want to be named? because he doesn’t want to lose business. because he knows he fucked up and got lucky enough to do it on a moron who kept quiet about it because he’s an idiot. There is no risk of this if someone didn’t fuck up and cut it all too deep.

    I would never get this done on myself, but if I did I wouldn’t want it done by a bunch of high school drop outs who took a few cheap courses in surgery. Just picture it like this…people are letting people essentially operate on them that have less training time than a rat in a maze.

  19. martha Avatar
    martha

    sfc: those guys who removed the keloid, didn’t do the scarification. and stop talking bullshit as it seems that you don’t have any clue what you are talking about. it was far from bones and organs!! and this “victim” doesn’t have a keloid anymore and he’s happy. hopefully people like you stay away from body modification scene

  20. martha Avatar
    martha

    sfc: those guys who removed the keloid, didn’t do the scarification. and stop talking bullshit as it seems that you don’t have any clue what you are talking about. it was far from bones and organs!! and this “victim” doesn’t have a keloid anymore and he’s happy. hopefully people like you stay away from body modification scene

  21. Siren Avatar
    Siren

    While I am utterly disgusted by this and personally don’t find most scarification pieces in the least attractive…I am genuinely curious as to what the hell this piece was supposed to be prior to the scars becoming that keloid. Does anyone know what the design was by any chance?

  22. Siren Avatar
    Siren

    While I am utterly disgusted by this and personally don’t find most scarification pieces in the least attractive…I am genuinely curious as to what the hell this piece was supposed to be prior to the scars becoming that keloid. Does anyone know what the design was by any chance?

  23. GIBRAN MEXICO Avatar
    GIBRAN MEXICO

    THE SCARIFY IS THE VERY VERY HARD AN DIFFICULT ART ITS THE NEW OPEN POSIBILITIES FOR THE MODIFIERS BECAUSE ARE THE MOST AND MOST PEOPLE HAVE EXPERIMENT WHIT THE TECHNIC, SCALPELLING IS A DIFICULT PROCES WHEN NOT HAVE SINCE OF DE ART… OR THE BODY. THE HUMAN BODY ITS A WONDERFULL MACHINE BUT US HAVEN THE POWER OF MANIPULATE IN ALL EXPLENDOR…… NOMADA TOLUCA MEXICO ……FACEBOOK :GIBRAN ESPINOZA

  24. GIBRAN MEXICO Avatar
    GIBRAN MEXICO

    THE SCARIFY IS THE VERY VERY HARD AN DIFFICULT ART ITS THE NEW OPEN POSIBILITIES FOR THE MODIFIERS BECAUSE ARE THE MOST AND MOST PEOPLE HAVE EXPERIMENT WHIT THE TECHNIC, SCALPELLING IS A DIFICULT PROCES WHEN NOT HAVE SINCE OF DE ART… OR THE BODY. THE HUMAN BODY ITS A WONDERFULL MACHINE BUT US HAVEN THE POWER OF MANIPULATE IN ALL EXPLENDOR…… NOMADA TOLUCA MEXICO ……FACEBOOK :GIBRAN ESPINOZA

  25. Alison Avatar
    Alison

    I have an appointment to get some scarification done and was talking to my artist a few months before I created the appointment and she said that any cutting on the chest tends to get really built-up keloids that will eventually restrict mobility/become uncomfortable and that any good artist would not attempt a chest/stomach scarification…

  26. Alison Avatar
    Alison

    I have an appointment to get some scarification done and was talking to my artist a few months before I created the appointment and she said that any cutting on the chest tends to get really built-up keloids that will eventually restrict mobility/become uncomfortable and that any good artist would not attempt a chest/stomach scarification…

  27. Elmo Avatar
    Elmo

    Did the last shot make anyone else hungry?

  28. Elmo Avatar
    Elmo

    Did the last shot make anyone else hungry?

  29. ELY M. Avatar

    I know the time went fast and it been over 6 years since this article was written.
    I still remember this article… actually, It is one of my favorite articles that Shannon wrote.
    I have not even gotten some of my chest skins removed yet. I just gotten busy with my jobs and my hobbies.
    anyway, I wonder if there is any latest pictures of this man who got his scars removed.
    might Shannon should contact this man and get some latest pictures.

  30. ELY M. Avatar

    I know the time went fast and it been over 6 years since this article was written.
    I still remember this article… actually, It is one of my favorite articles that Shannon wrote.
    I have not even gotten some of my chest skins removed yet. I just gotten busy with my jobs and my hobbies.
    anyway, I wonder if there is any latest pictures of this man who got his scars removed.
    might Shannon should contact this man and get some latest pictures.

  31. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    Holy shit Im showing this to a guy wanting to get a big tribal scarication

  32. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    Holy shit Im showing this to a guy wanting to get a big tribal scarication

  33. yo Avatar
    yo

    Go to a doctor! holy cow!

  34. yo Avatar
    yo

    Go to a doctor! holy cow!

  35. Eden Avatar
    Eden

    Wow. I liked looking at the awesome gore but… Holy shit was he AWAKE during that? Wooow. That dude is cool. I feel sorry for him having to go through all that…

  36. Eden Avatar
    Eden

    Wow. I liked looking at the awesome gore but… Holy shit was he AWAKE during that? Wooow. That dude is cool. I feel sorry for him having to go through all that…

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