I’ve heard and seen people into the body modification scene, but I’ve never really heard of the saline inflation fad in Japan until coming across these photographs by Ryoichi ‘Keroppy’ Maeda in Bizarre Magazine.
Saline inflation what? Yeah, fans of body art can now slowly inject a saline solution under their skin to temporarily distort, balloon and mod parts of their bodies for fun. And it’s not just so you can walk around looking like a bagel has been embedded inside your forehead; apparently the experience of inflating oneself is a party in itself:
“Inflation isn’t painful, it’s more of a weird sensation – but it is the act of using the body and seeking another experience. It’s a bit tight. If your head gets really full, you feel a lot of pressure.”
Cool. Sign me up.
So what makes this saline inflation club so big in Japan? Bizarre believes that the Japanese naturally takes a subculture farther and more excessive than any other country. Maybe that’s true, in the sense that breaking away from such a dominant monoculture would require the extreme lifestyle. You can’t just give yourself a pink mohawk; you gotta INJECT YOURSELF WITH SALT WATER!
I’m curious to know if any of our readers have undergone a saline inflation themselves. I’ll be over in the corner recovering from looking at all these photographs. And why is that photographer’s nicknamed after a Sanrio character?
