I love that you can see Marco’s tools in the background after his DIY thumb removal… It’s something I’ve always been interested in, but since the surgery on my leg I’ve been wanting to do a minor amputation more and more — my surgery caused some nerve damage so I have no feeling in part of my lower leg, and observing the different ways that my brain interprets it is just fascinating. I guess sometimes one is driven by fetishism, and sometimes by curiosity.
That said, I like having long opposable thumbs, so for me I think I’d go with a finger, probably the ring finger (I think Steve Haworth told me some time ago, when we were implanting the magnets, that if you’re going to mess with a finger, that’s the one to do because it’s the weakest, and even if you lose it completely it does not have a major impact on your ability to use your hand).
Comments
217 responses to “Chhhhhhop!”
I dig the idea of amputating a digit or two but I need pretty much all my fingers for guitar.
Django Reinhardt and Jerry Garcia managed to get by with “modified” hands.
You know, I don’t have any desire to cut off any of my body parts, but this kind of makes me happy, mostly because I know it made him happy to do it. His body, his choice, all of that.
Also, seems that back in #53, House_frau proved Godwin’s Law! ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_Law ).
82/ Good point, but maybe I’ll start another thing up by pointing out that most men who are circumcised had no say in the procedure. At least this person got to decide and control what happened to their body.
And, on a deeper note, the \n./ cracked my ass up!
Damn, that wiki link is screwy.
This one, maybe?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_Law
I can’t comprehend the closed-mindedness of all the people here posting that this person must be mentally ill.
It’s not your body, it’s theirs – so why speak out against it?
This bothered me quite a bit because the part of my body I like most are my hands…lol…but apart from that sillyness, what I really like to know is what makes up a radical decision like that.
there’s a fine line between mutilation and modification. the people who perform these procedures and alter their bodies in these extreme ways know how it’s going to affect their life. they’ve thought about the medical repercussions, as well as the sociological and usually it’s because they feel these strong urges their entire life that something is missing (or in this case, maybe NEEDED to be missing 🙂 because someone looking at it from the outside does or doesn’t agree with it doesn’t change the way it makes the person undergoing these changes feel. what’s plastic surgery? i would say that some of those extreme plastic makeover reality shows are a lot more “insane” than someone choosing to partially amputate a thumb. you tell me, who decides what’s mutilation and what’s modification? and who are we as outsiders to judge.
I’m amazed at how neat and clean the whole thing is…and the view into it. So interesting to see how things look sectioned…
It’s perfect in it’s newness. But the days following I’m sure it’s going to go thru an ugly period like most wounds do before they heal, and I’d especially be worried about any bacteria because it’s so open. I’m wondering about the pain, not so much in amputation but afterwards when it’s sore. And phantom pain.
Amputation is not for me, but I find it very interesting and I’d like to hear about (and see) the stages of healing.
Have you ever read the book “a prayer for owen meany” by john irving? a character gets out of being drafted to go to vietnam by amputating his trigger finger… so there’s an idea for y’all in case the powers that be decide to invade a few more countries.
y’know, i don’t have any tattoos or piercings or anything at all. i’m a medical student, conscious of hygiene, safety, functionality, and other people’s prejudices, and the closest I come to making a statement with my body is to keep a scruffy face, scraggly hair, and run around barefoot as much as humanly possible. The most extremely modified things on my body include the scar on my thumb from a drunken rooftop climbing accident, the graphite mark from where I accidentally stabbed the palm of my hand with a pencil in Mrs. King’s 4th grade geography class, and my super-thick calloused feet. So you might expect me to be pretty conservative when it comes to body modification. But y’know, I think this DIY thumb removal is really interesting and shows a lot of character (of some sort). I love looking at the anatomy of it. I think it’ll look awesome when it’s healed. It says a lot while being sublimely simple. One of the reasons that I don’t think I’ll ever get a tattoo is that there’s just no one image or piece of art that I feel so close to that I would want to wear the damn thing for the rest of my life. My scars, however – those each tell a story about where I’ve been. What story does this “scar” (i.e. shortened distal phalange) tell? Hmmm.
I’d like this amputation more if it were inadvertent. An accident with a buzz saw. An unfortunate encounter with a pit bull. A rampaging samurai. A stray bullet. Necrotizing fasciitis. It’d be kind of freaky (and almost certainly worthy of a psych consult, if I were in doctor mode) for someone to tell you “yes, I purposefully cut off my thumb.” That just prompts a huge, almost endless line of questions. But to say “yep – a rabid leprechaun took a chunk out of me,” why, that’s something that the kids and the whole family can gather round and laugh at and poke and feel good and weird and queasy about.
Please don’t y’all get all freaked out or offended or mean towards each other over this. Of all the crazy shit I’ve seen people doing to their bodies on this site, this thumb amputation has got to be among the safest. And if you look closely, you can still see the top of the thumbnail. He really didn’t cut off much. I’d guess 1/2 to 3/4 of a centimeter at most. That’s just the tip of the bone you see there. It’ll hurt like a monster for a while, but the functionality of his thumb’ll be just about the same as ever.
Hey Shannon – any chance you can coax some more pictures out of Marco, perhaps from several different angles and chronicling the healing process? Looking at this, I’m intruiged and I want to know more. Maybe I have too many toes after all.
peace y’all.
For every 1000 people who do something like this, 999 do it for really bad reasons. If you see a picture of some guy on the Internet who has done it, it’s safe to assume he’s one of the 999. Is it a stereotype? Sure. But most of the people you see walking down the street who look like women actually are. The same is true here.
Sure, there’s that one guy out there who has a perfectly fine reason to do it, but it’s absurd and simple minded to think that everyone who does something like this is just owning his body. There are more people out there who are making cries for help or just desperate for attention than there are who really hate their thumbs.
I was not aware of Godwin’s Law…this Godwin character must have been looking at these pages when he thought that one up 🙂
“Nazis George, Nazis!”
And the BME movie vid is beautiful. It’s also on youtube.com with about 15 comments so far if anyone’s interested in getting something going there. For better for worse.
Wow..
Did it say anywhere if he’s going to try to put it back or anything?
Wouldnt he be very handicapped by having no thumb?
Well, of course he might think its worth it, and, well, if it is to him then it obviously is, but most things would get very complicated when having no thumb, no?
I cannot believe that a do it yourself(DIY) precedure and picture can be done/taken without splater or mess?!
Thanks for your thoughts everyone.
BTW What is this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_Law
🙂
REAL
My dog is an amputee. That is all.
Just have to add my two cents on the whole right/wrong, normal/crazy arguments. Aren’t these questions that must first be answered on a personal level before they can be applied on a societal level? If they are even relevant beyond the personal (which I rarely believe to be true)?
That being said, congrat’s to Marco on the will to do it! Power over self for self.
P.S. And thanks to Shannon for trying to keep our minds open and wondering.
“Hi! This is ModBlog. This is not Bath & Body Works.”
Haha classic. Agreed don’t come to modblog to voice narrow minded opinions. Ignorance is a mental illness haha.
I’m glad I already had my forst coffee this morning…that’s pretty intense!!!
very clean cut, that’s one of the coolest things i’ve ever seen i think
Would it have killed you to blur this?
Amusingly, I’m reminded of a story from “Struwwelpeter”, a German children’s book full of cautionary tales with odd, frequently gruesome “morals”. The story I’m talking about is “Die Geschichte vom Daumenlutscher” (in English, “The Story of Little Suck-A-Thumb”), about a boy who sucks his thumbs compulsively. Eventually, his mother sends for the tailor to cut them off. 🙂
In German:
http://www.fln.vcu.edu/struwwel/daumen.html
In English:
http://www.fln.vcu.edu/struwwel/daumen_e.html
This book was also adapted into a musical, “Shockheaded Peter”, by the band The Tiger Lillies. Sadly, it’s no longer playing!
ANYWAY, tangent over… this creeped me out a bit but ultimately, very interesting to see what the inside of a thumb actually looks like… and he did a good job!
#100 – Yeah well the drummer from Def Leppard only has one arm, but that doesn’t mean they don’t suck too.
Well, I appreciate the post regardless of alot of the assholes above me. I am a bit intrigued by the lack of blood though. Is there any word on if he tied the thumb off first? I could kind of assume that from the picture.
I just ate a sandwich before looking at modblog. Now I feel sick.
That takes alot of courage, to cut of your own thumb. Props for that.
That’s one heck of a clean cut.
I agree with coment 65.
But beyond that, shannon, The little part of me that loves playing traditional middle eastern style drumming cringed when you said to hell with the ring finger. My left ring finger is the most important finger in my “ka”!
Reminds me of the April fools day on BME ages ago with the twins doing the supposed amputation and re-attachment. Amputation always seems to get people worked up…
I cant cut a carrot that cleanly… impressive.
I suppose this is alright as far as it offers pleasure and happiness to the one doing it. Something makes me think the pleasure is short lived. And, who knows, he might find uses for his thumb in later life that he didn’t know existed. Needless to say I’d never do it. I like things of beauty and this is not one of them. To me.
Typical. Absolutely typical. This is the first – and LAST – time I ever eat my dinner whilst checking modblog. You’d think I’d know better by now…
Also, imagine the fun if Shannon announced that there was a bit of photoshopping involved after all…. hehe
hmmm….I read some medical instructions once and everytime it comes to amputation they stress the necessity of leaving a flap of skin attached.
You need this extra skin to sew the wound, so the stretching of the remaining skin will not impair movement (even the DIY-Yakuza sees this point…).
The only way this wound could heal quite safely is by cauterizing it….
DIY or not, I believe this amptation was performed without a trace of medical hindthought.
It´s a clumsy job and I really hope it heals without infection and will form a usable stump.
BUT SEEK PROFESSIONAL TREATMENT! That wound is bound ruin your whole Hand!
ah sorry for that orthographic Kamikaze…
for unknown reasons I find this picture somehow less offensive than all the girls that have to get naked to show their piercings or tattoos that could easily be seen with clothes on. apart from this, the rest of his thumb reminds me off a piece of fatty sausage (I didn’t find a proper translation for “mettwürstchen”).
Oops. the link in my last post has a typo and takes you to some typo ad site…
BigAL has a point – my mum had her leg amputated below the knee a few years ago, and i remember part of the procedure was to leave a flap of skin that was folded over to protect the bone. Ineresting to see how it heals.
I’ve seen a ton of naked amputations where no real wound closure was done due to there being no flap. Absolutely some people did have problems, but it was not the norm.
I’d also say that the vast majority of DIY ampuations are not closed. That said, it’s not particularly hard to find doctors willing to do it electively if they think you’re not a nutter and won’t get them in trouble.
Maybe he’s a creationist and this is his stand against evolution…
is that the jig he used in the upper right hand corner of the picture? goddamn…
I agree with BigAL above, I hope this person sought treatment after the event. I watched my fathers leg become infected pre and post amputation, it’s no joke.
House_frau (not an ironic name, I’m assuming – you do know that it connotes things other than homemaker, right?)
I do want kids. I’m an extremely maternal person, and extremely competent at looking after children. I’m just aware that it’s a selfish decision, and that childbirth, no matter how sophisticated medical technologies, sometimes causes death.
Of course having children is selfish! No-one’s forcing people to add to an already excessive world population.
The ethos at the moment is that people should be congratulated simply for producing them – no, congratulations should come when the child grows up into an intelligent, mature adult thanks to the parents’ influence.
There’s nothing wrong with selfish decisions that hurt no-one, despite those decisions being painful and sometimes unpleasant. That was my point.
I was also just trying to demonstrate that perhaps, in 30 years’ time, modification will be as acceptable among reasonable people as homosexuality.
Finally, why is “mentally ill” a perjorative term? Why is true mental illness – bipolar disorder, schizophrenia etc. any more harmful than nasty, judgemental attitudes? I’m sure the latter have caused more misery around the world than the former. Prejudiced people commit far more murders than schizophrenics…
Also, make a list of the world’s most intelligent, creative, innovative people. A much larger proportion than average are or were mentally ill.
I’d like a world filled with insane people with IQs over 180, please, rather than one filled with “ordinary” people unable to look past their own personal preferences and see a larger picture.
Em, you have no point. A responsible mother doing everything in her power to keep herself and her baby healthy cannot be called selfish JUST because things can happen that are out of her hands and of the medical community’s. For the same reason, doctors shouldn’t perform surgeries etc.There’s an amount of hazard in everything. It would be more accurate to say it’s selfish of some people in certain circumstances.
I think having my middle finger pierced (transfingering) made me a lot more aware of what fingers you catually end up using the most. I agree if i did it again i’d do the ring finger since it was the least used and easy to keep out of the way.
Yeah well the drummer from Def Leppard only has one arm, but that doesn’t mean they don’t suck too.
Yeah, ’cause Def Leppard are so totally in the same league as Django Reinhardt.
Whatta maroon.
thats so awesome! first time i’ve gasped at something on modblog in a long time. this rules.
ok. no dinner today.
Okay….this has nothing to do with the modification, but I don’t understand how people…human beings can be so naive about overpopulation.
I direct you to The Population Bomb and/or The Population Explosion by Paul R. Ehrlich.
I also direct you to any of the Ishmael books by Daniel Quinn.
I also direct you to look out your window. Look around you…You honestly think there is no population problem? You’re fooling yourself.
…ay…I suppose that’s okay. We’re all going to die soon anyway….at least I hope.
EWWWWW *queasy*
*sighs* I pity the ignorant and I also pity the sheep.
What “Marco” did, “Marco” did on hiw OWN accord…Be there mental issues or not.
When will the prejudice views stop? Are we not suppose to be trying to work towards a better future?
I work in an environment where literally everytime I pull up ModBlog they say: “Do you GET that?”
The point is not whether I “GET” it or not. The point is that ModBlog/BMEZINE is here to DOCUMENT any and all forms of Modification, whatever it may be.
Personally I DON’T “get it”…But its not up to me to “get it” nor is it up to any of you. The only person that has to “get it” and “live with it” is this individual named “Marco”. All we really need to do is respect his wishes. So if he wants to cut some digits off, it has ABSOLUTELY ZERO IMPACT ON OUR LIVES.
So why must we CONSTANTLY be forced/compelled to constantly attack/pre-judge someone, for having different thoughts/feelings/emotions/views?
If we cannot stop with this bullshit, we’re NEVER going to evolve into the next level of human social evolution.
I opted to take this road, rather than RIP APART every fuckin ignorant post that has been put up on this comment section.
Because if I attempted that, it’d take the better part of my day.
I will say the ONLY thing “surgical cleanliess” about this image is the precise nature of the cutting. Everything else in this picture is CLEARLY not “surgical” related.
As I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen wood, as well as the other objects in the picture. It’s a “dirty” DIY surgical procedure through and true. As if this was a proper surgical procedure, the backdrop would be IMMENSELY different.
You definetley need thumbs to play the Wii.
Wow, I’m pretty impressed of how clean the cut is…
This inspires me to some physical studies!
In 2004, in nearby lost two fingers during an accident. The surgeon just wanted to cut them off and i argued about 20 minutes with him until he just let me keep my stuff.
Looking back in wich fears i’ve been during this argumentation, i feel very disturbed by looking at this photograph.
But also, i feel great respect on someone who just has the control to his body and mind to do something like this.
Me for my part, i like getting tattooed, but this one impressed me!
as a journalism student, i’d take two bullets apiece for free speech and open discussion, but i gotta say… i think the comment function on modblog is 95% a waste of time, and shannon, i think you should disable it.
yes, i realize the irony of expressing that sentiment in a comment, but there it is.
if there were nothing but discussions on here about the processes, techniques, where people could find more info about the procedure, etc., that would be excellent. unfortunately, a solid majority of the comments i see on here are either a) some variation on the theme of “wow, i’m really open-minded and support your right to modify yourself!”, or b) “that’s crap. that’s stupid. why’d you do that.” the first is pretty benign, but generally useless; the second one completely ruins the whole experience. the people who contribute to this site don’t need to be criticized as mentally unstable by a bunch of strangers who just want to get up on their moral soapbox and have an intellectual pissing contest. especially not about something they can’t change. do you think marco is gonna go back and reattach his thumb because people think it’s icky? probably not. do you think he might look at the site and be offended that people are saying he’s mentally unstable? most likely. so why the hell bother? you’re not doing him any favors, and you’re not gonna change anybody else’s mind either.
and why give people a forum to trash other people’s mods if it’s hardly being used for anything constructive? shut down the comment feature.
I injured my leg a few years ago and it’s been painful ever since. Every now and again I get a urge to just chop it off and have a pirate style peg leg; and seeing these on Modblog make me happy that I’m not alone in thinking things like this.