More kinds of ear pointing body mods

[frameacloud]

Trigger warnings: Voluntary surgical body modification. Links to web-pages that include photos of the gross stages of the process.

Between the mid 1990s and 2007, body modification artists began making people’s ears pointed, like those of elves. At least eight people have now had this procedure, which involves cutting, folding, and sewing the ear cartilage to the desired shape.

I’m not sure when ear pointing started, or by whom. When I wrote the previous article on Otherkin News about ear pointing, the earliest I found was in 2007.¹ In an interview in 2012, Tye Olsen claimed he got his ears pointed in 2004, saying they were one of the first couple sets ever done. He doesn’t name the artist, apparently for legal reasons.² (Odd, I thought it was legally wise to always credit an artist for their work.) Tattoo artist Katzen the Tiger Lady³ is said to have gotten her ears pointed “in the mid 1990s” by body modification artist Steve Haworth.⁴ (Haworth is the Guinness World Records’ “most advanced body modification artist”⁵ who did much of the innovative surgery on the late Stalking Cat.) I haven’t seen any clear photos of Katzen’s ears, but another ear pointing is in Haworth’s gallery.⁶

The artists are still exploring new techniques for ear pointing. All methods result in smaller ears, because they only work with the cartilage that’s already there. The methods that had been used by body modification artists Russ Foxx, Steve Haworth, and Brian Decker, result in an ear with a flattened pocket inside the tip. Two new methods were recently created that result in different looking pointed ears than that. Brian Decker created a new method that makes an ear with a more natural looking helix running along the tip.⁷ Samppa Von Cyborg created an entirely different method of reshaping the entire ear, not only pointing the tip, but also removing the lobe.⁸

Please correct me if I have made any errors in the above, regarding crediting artists, or finding out who created a method.

I still haven’t heard of anybody in the otherkin or therianthrope communities who have gotten ear pointing surgery.

- O. Scribner


Sources

1. O. Scribner, “Ear-pointing surgery.” 2011-04-08. Otherkin News. http://otherkin-news.livejournal.com/7821.html

2. Shannon Larratt, “Video interview with Tye Olsen.” 2012-10-04. BME: Tattoo, Piercing and Body Modification News. http://news.bme.com/2012/10/04/video-interview-with-tye-olsen/ Or:
PangaeaPiercing, “Tye’s surgically modified pointed elf ears- THE MODIFIED WORLD.” 2012-09-28. http://youtu.be/1PNR7RJCYGk

3. Steve Gilbert, ed. “Enigma interview.” Based on interviews from 1996 and 1999. http://tattoos.com/enigma.html

4. Shannon Larratt, “Full ear reshaping by Samppa.” 2012-10-4. BME. http://news.bme.com/2012/10/04/full-ear-reshaping-by-samppa/

5. Steve Haworth. http://stevehaworth.com/main/

6. Steve Haworth's gallery. http://stevehaworth.com/main/?page_id=334

7. Shannon Larratt, “Refining the ear pointing procedure.” 2013-02-14. BME. http://news.bme.com/2013/02/14/refining-the-ear-pointing-procedure

8. Shannon Larratt, “Pointing versus shaping.” 2012-10-10. BME. http://news.bme.com/2012/10/10/pointing-versus-shaping/

Comments

[arethinn]

I've idly considered it now and again, but besides the fact that I don't know how it would go over at work (where I normally wear my hair up, so they'd be visible), I'm put off by the fact that it always seems to be done by body-mod types and not actual medical professionals. Piercing is one thing, but cosmetic surgery? I'm not so sure.

[of-salfarro.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the artist isn't credited because there is a legal liability involved.

[theplushfrog]

What I worry about is if it's prone to being infected post-healing because of the "pocket" created, which looks like it could be hard to clean.

Even though I'm not elfkin, I would be interested in something like this, actually. I had been thinking about something similar for awhile, but yeah I would honestly rather a medical professional did it than a professional piercing artist... Why not a plastic surgeon or something? I admit I haven't done a huge amount of research into that sort of body modification yet, as something like that isn't high on my list to do right away. I admit that the threat of smaller ears wouldn't bother me, since I have huge ears in the first place.

[(Anonymous)]

Well not sure if any one realizes this but because they aren't actual surgeons they can't give you any medication for the pain either. So you feel the whole thing as hey do it, I think its a pretty neat idea,(i would go for the shaping not the pointing because it looks more natural)i even feel like i may want it but I wouldn't do it because of chances of infection, pain and money.