awfulmodifications:

QUOTED DIRECTLY FROM SHANNON LARRATT ON FACEOOK.

In the first photos (1A and 1B), you can see the ear being cut and folded over at an extreme angle. I should add that these photos were taken not at a clean and contamination-controlled studio, but at someone’s house, without even a proper light. They just leaned their head on the window frame for illumination, with plenty of dirt and dust visible in the haphazard workspace that didn’t appear to even have been cleaned — the space is so contaminated as to make gloves almost pointless, to say nothing of the hilariously inappropriate paper towels being used as a DIY surgical drape.

In photo 2, taken on day one, it should already be obvious that the odds of success are very low. The ear has been folded at such a comically extreme angle that the pressure on the healing tissue and cartilage would have been enormous, to say nothing of the extremely unpleasant aesthetics of the new ear shape and how difficult it would be to keep clean if it actually did heal. By day five, photo 3, the ear is starting to tear open and is quite swollen — infection has set in, made worse by insufficient care on the part of the client. By the end of the first week, photo 4, the sutures have completely torn out and the ear is back to its original shape, minus the part that was cut out of course. However, at this point the infection is well established in the majority of the cartilage and parts of the ear are becoming necrotic. Cartilage infections spread quickly and are difficult to treat. Two days later, much of the ear was removed at the hospital.

There is no excuse for this happening. Yes, mistakes happen to the best of us at times. Yes, sometimes even the most qualified among us push things too far or in the wrong direction, and a procedure fails. But there is no excuse for behaving in an irresponsible and unprofessional manner. There is no excuse for working in an unsafe and unclean environment with inappropriate tools and supplies. There is no excuse for going to an unqualified practitioner. There is no excuse for not caring for your body and not listening to your body. There is just no excuse for any of this. The body modification community has spent almost twenty years obsessively sharing knowledge online and making it easily accessible to anyone who is interested. There are many channels for education both for practitioners and enthusiasts. No matter what corner of the world a person is in, there is no reason to be making such basic errors in judgement, and behaving with such irresponsibility and abject disrespect for the artform and for the body of the client.

To all of you that have told me “I know what I’m doing!” when it comes to home piercings/modifications, and that you don’t need to see a professional because you’re perfectly qualified to do it yourself, please read this. This may be an extreme case, but things can and do go horribly wrong even with the smallest of things. Treat your body with respect, go to a professional.