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.

Transdermal Strip Removal

It’s certainly not unusual for transdermals to go bad (and I’ll even go so far as to propose that most will eventually fail and need removal), but this is definitely one of the most aggressive removals I’ve seen. That said, I have to admit that the stitched up version looks pretty happy in comparison to most mutli-transdermal removals. Procedure (but not the original transdermals) by Howie/Lunacobra.

I know I say this all the time, but seriously — any modification you get, be prepared to eventually remove it or worse. That doesn’t mean don’t do it… just understand the risks involved and decide whether it’s worth it for you… Nothing is guaranteed to last forever, and in fact, most things are guaranteed not to last forever.

Comments

127 responses to “Transdermal Strip Removal”

  1. satanycandle Avatar

    ouh so that’s how they remove it o_O

  2. Neejchee Avatar
    Neejchee

    Very nice Jake!

  3. Pearly Avatar
    Pearly

    Wouldn’t sewing a gap up like that cause a bit of a face lift?

    Oh and he should somehow make it into a braclet.

  4. Acidic6Tears Avatar

    That looks fucking bad ass!
    Must’ve hurt though to some extent…
    ^_^

  5. infernalmachine Avatar
    infernalmachine

    that removed skin bit looks like a belt… that said, i wonder why they opted to do it all at once and give the dude what looks like 50 stitches or more instead of doing them in installments…

  6. Amber Avatar

    Pearly – that’s exactly what he said he was thinking of doing! Tanning it and making a bracelet/cuff thing.

    His head looks super healthy now. “Agressive” obviously did him well 🙂

  7. Amber Avatar

    Ahem, and by “agressive”, I clearly mean “aggressive” 😀

  8. Amanda Avatar
    Amanda

    If I were him, I’d tell small children that I’d had a brain transplant! :p

  9. Malice Alice Avatar

    Impressive! The stitched up version does look a lot happier than the original. How old were those transdermals?

  10. kuroneko711 Avatar

    Wow, I’m thinking about transdermal work and I’ve always known the risk of removal being needed but its another thing to actually SEE the removal. Makes you really think whats worth it to you! I’m sure I’ll still follow through, but I’m glad this has made me think a little more on it as well.

    And along with Malice Alice, I would also like to know how old these word.

  11. jOELTRON Avatar

    @Pearly – Howie told me that Jake said his face felt quite tight. Similar to a face lift I guess.

    I love how it looks like a belt. 🙂

  12. Dagon Avatar
    Dagon

    Damn. That’s a badass stitched scar though.

  13. Whoa Avatar
    Whoa

    I don’t know.. that looks like taking it to the extremes.. and being overly dangerous.

  14. kevin Avatar
    kevin

    could they not have just removed the implants and stitch the skin instead of removing the whole piece?

  15. xunseenx Avatar

    that’s brutal.
    and #13, i wondered the same thing. who knew. but the implants looks pretty big on the bottom, not that much room between them, so maybe removing the whole strip was about the same, a little less drama.

  16. S Avatar
    S

    Brutal! That scar’s going to look mint.

    Was anaesthetic used?

  17. Liz Avatar
    Liz

    Is that all just fatty tissue it was lying in? I had no idea there was that much space between skin and skull.

  18. gretta Avatar

    thats gruesome.

  19. unquestioned_answers Avatar

    #3 i was thinking exactly the same thing :]

  20. HereKittyKitty Avatar
    HereKittyKitty

    Holy crap! It looks like removing a zipper from a piece of clothing! Intense isn’t the word…

    A mini-facelift, removed old transdermals, a cool scar and a potential bracelet! A winner all the way around =)

  21. silicun Avatar
    silicun

    The transdermals were about 2 years old, the few that were damaged were the ones that I tended to bump more often and began to show signs of rejection about six months ago, I believe through a combination of mechanical pressure and stress (it had been a tuff year). I decided to have them removed in a single strip mainly for the neatness and severity of the scar. The tightness lasted for about 2weeks after the procedure and was noticeable mainly when I laughed so mini face lift yes.

    jake

  22. Leroy Avatar

    Ouchy. Interesting pictures though.

    Hope it all heals up well.

  23. jeni Avatar

    The comments on this are gold.

  24. jay prince Avatar
    jay prince

    holy. shit.

  25. Annab Avatar
    Annab

    AAAAhahahaha, the very first thing I thought of was Herr Starr from “Preacher.”

    Jesse Custer sliced his skull up top so he’d always look like the gigantic dick that he was 🙂

    Observe:
    http://www.fumettidicarta.it/DIZIONARIO_FUMETTI/P_PREACHER/herr_starr.jpg

    Now, this definitely isn’t to say that the young man above is going to look like a penis for the rest of his life, but the connection in my head is just killing me now. Eheheheh.

  26. Verno Avatar

    With consideration to the image posted above this one in mind………….”Holy Fucking Christ”

  27. alice Avatar

    holy crap >_

  28. alice Avatar

    thats some intense shit… i would NEVER EVER have a procedure like this executed outside of a hospital.

  29. Em Avatar
    Em

    The doctors would probably then get you locked up for getting the transdermals in the first place – and I wouldn’t risk that!

    And a facelift into the bargain!

  30. Em Avatar
    Em

    Oh and yes, not ones like Moddoctor – but most of ‘em

  31. ÈMþRê§§ Avatar
    ÈMþRê§§

    I bet the sales of transdermals take a plummet this weekend.
    Thats some intense removal work. I hope it heals up real well for him & I the pain wasnt to bad also. (:

  32. Yom Avatar
    Yom

    Those pictures where one of the transdermals is still in there makes me just think he’s a robot with metal coming out of his head. Kind of like terminator when he’s doing the self-repairs.

  33. Matt Volatile Avatar

    Ummm…. surely that’s waaaaayyyy more brutal a procedure than was necessary?

    Look at all the healthy tissue that’s been removed! Why couldn’t he just have removed each individual implant separately?

  34. Reema Avatar
    Reema

    So, are the bacteria that were present at the site of the infection all safely contained within the flesh that was removed, or was it necessary for him to take some kind of oral antibiotic?

  35. Derek Avatar
    Derek

    I think you’re making an assumption that there was an infection in the first place. While the implants are obviously quite irritated and starting to reject (at least a few), that doesn’t automatically translate into an infection.

  36. Reema Avatar
    Reema

    Ah, okay. The original implants do look infected to me, but I don’t have a very good eye for determining infection versus irritation, so I’ll concede the point and rescind the question.

    In the hypothetical event that something like that were to get infected, though, what could the consequences be? I mean, how deep could the infection penetrate? (Morbid curiosity.)

  37. Reema Avatar
    Reema

    (Possibly, watching House has made me such a hypochondriac that I am now a hypochondriac on behalf of other people.)

  38. RuinsOfDecay Avatar

    thats pretty brutal haha

  39. H Avatar
    H

    From what I gather there are issues with removing each implant individually, in terms of scarring at least.

  40. kuroneko711 Avatar

    To answer people’s questions, you cant just remove the implants, what happens with transdermals is the skin forms around it, pretty much making it a part of your skin. You do have to cut in that far and that much to get them out.

  41. yttrx Avatar

    Alright…crappy removal job, crappy implant to begin with. We know who took it out (I’m so surprised)…

    And of course, we’ll never know who the fuck put it in.

    And if you ever wanted to know why transdermal implants are STILL so dangerous after all these years, you need look no further than the fact that the industry has an internal protection mechanism—shitty practitioners are protected by all of their collegues, whether they’re liked or not. And who ultimately suffers?

    You people. Hooray.

  42. Jordan Avatar

    And for his next trick, he’ll remove a hand implant by cutting the arm off at the elbow! This is terrible.

  43. Caroline June Avatar
    Caroline June

    That is a thick bit of skin…

  44. Emily Avatar
    Emily

    seriously, OW!!

    but what an awesome scar thats going to leave!

  45. Wonderland Avatar

    Christ o_O I hope the skin is sewn edge to edge and not folded over at all, or you may get some cysts from ingrown hairs in there. Unless all the folicles by the removal area were damaged by that..pretty brutal procedure.

  46. stainless Avatar

    #41 You can just remove the implants, there is absolutely no need to take out all the tissue around them. I’ve done many transdermal removals, and they never require cutting off any skin. Simply opening the skin up and cutting the scar tissue that has grown through the pieces enough to make it let go of the implants and pull them out. This was total overkill and there was no real reason to remove that much tissue, or most likely any tissue.

  47. Shannon Larratt Avatar

    I suspect that the healed product of this transdermal removal will look SIGNIFICANTLY better than most that I’ve seen, assuming there are no complications like it opening up.

  48. stainless Avatar

    There are pictures on _Stigmata_’s page of where I took our a transdermal in the center of his forhead, in the center of his solid blackwork tattoo, and the scar is almost invisible, and he hasn’t had it tattooed over or anything.

  49. Shannon Larratt Avatar

    Steve — Shoot them to me at [email protected] when you get a chance and I’ll post it so people can see alternate removal options and results.

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