Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Semi-annual post! Q&A

Hello once again! While it's been quite a while since I updated, not a lot has changed, which is a good thing. I still get a lot of e-mails, and a lot of the questions seem to be recurring. So, it's time for another Q & A session!

Will you send me magnets? If not can you tell me where to get them?
No, sorry, I don't send out magnets anymore. I used stir discs from VP scientific, but I believe there are a number of options nowadays. I don't know of any off the top of my head, so put your Google skills to use.

Can you recommend a place to get a magnet implanted?
There are the usual suspects in the body mod world, but other than that I really don't know a good shop in your city or any particular way to tell the qualifications of the shops in your area. There are many good resources online for piercing / body modification / implants and how to go about finding someone qualified to do the procedure, so I  would recommend starting there.

Do the implants affect your day-to-day life? Do they prevent you from doing ordinary tasks?
They really don't affect my daily life. I still play guitar regularly, work on the car, weld, type, and so on. Though I have found I do need to take special care when metal working, as the steel splinters produced by cutting and grinding will find their way to the tip of my finger. While a metal splinter is no big deal to most fingers, I worry that the magnet will draw a shaving through the skin and compromise the coating. 

Have your implants lost sensitivity?
Nope, in fact, both implants seem to be increasingly sensitive.

How does the newer implant compare to the older one?
The newer implant is definitely not as sensitive as the older one. I think that this is for several reasons. The newer implant was professionally implanted by Brian Decker between skin layers, and it's almost as if it's too far from the nerves. It's also on my non-dominant hand on the opposite side of the finger, so it's likely I pay less attention to it since I've been using my right hand to explore fields for a lot longer. The older implant also is not as deep, so it's likely that the vibrations are more readily picked up.

Will you PLEASE send me a magnet? You MUST have spares!
No. Please stop asking me! I'm happy to talk about the implant and answer questions, but I won't even respond with a "no" if you e-mail me asking for one.

That's all for now! I'll try and update soon with some recent experiences, particularly metal working, as well as some awesome fields that I've found.

10 comments:

Dan Campbell said...

Cool. I do wish that there was more visible information about finding tatoo artists who are willing to 'go the extra mile', but I understand your position here.

Anyway, will stay tuned, keep us posted on the good stuff, the new experiences and reflections on your other-sensory experiences.

Connally K. said...

Hey Nathan,

I'm very interested in getting this done and I've read you whole blog. Thank you for making it and thank you for this recent update. It has definitely made me want one even more!
I'm right handed, I work with a lot of tools in the shop and I also play guitar just as you do. I was highly thinking about getting it in the same place as your second implant, then you said it wasn't as sensitive as the first since it was your non dominate hand(makes sense). I'm worried that if i get it in my right ring finger, opposite side from my thumb, i would either bump it too much, get it pinched,or something crazy that would hurt or mess it up.
Anyways, my question here is: Which hand would you recommend getting my implant in, if i were to go through with it?

-Thank you,
Connally

Connally K. said...

Hey Nathan,

I'm very interested in getting this done and I've read you whole blog. Thank you for making it and thank you for this recent update. It has definitely made me want one even more!
I'm right handed, I work with a lot of tools in the shop and I also play guitar just as you do. I was highly thinking about getting it in the same place as your second implant, then you said it wasn't as sensitive as the first since it was your non dominate hand(makes sense). I'm worried that if i get it in my right ring finger, opposite side from my thumb, i would either bump it too much, get it pinched,or something crazy that would hurt or mess it up.
Anyways, my question here is: Which hand would you recommend getting my implant in, if i were to go through with it?

-Thank you,
Connally

Rin said...

Hey Nathan,

thanks for your posts!

I got a magnetic implant myself, but it's only been six months, and I'm not really that sensitive (…yet). It took me until some weeks ago until I felt the hard drive of my macbook. I was wondering, do you actually use your implant for your job sometimes?

Keep the posts coming!

- Rin

Anonymous said...

I have 2 small magnets i pulled out of a set of in ear head phones and put a shrink wrap rubber coating the kind used for electrical and i wanted to implant it by myself. any advice

Unknown said...

Connally, I would honestly recommend placing it in the dominant hand, facing toward the thumb. I don't even think about it and press strings directly against it without discomfort.

Rin, I don't use it to do my job, but often use it at my job. I recently was amazed by the field coming from a large 5,000 V variable frequency drive... I could feel it from 10 feet away! I also got to feel the cable running a 15,000V compressor.. it was unreal.

Anonymous, if you aren't trolling, that's a terrible idea. Just like "grinders" coating things in hot glue for implantation, shrink wrap rubber won't provide a biocompatible, sealed covering for the magnet.

Anonymous said...

Hey Nathan


First off thank you for this blog it's been extremely helpful while I've been researching this ^_^

After almost a year of looking into this I decided to get my own mod done about a month back. While it was done brilliantly and has healed very well I unfortunately haven't noticed any sensation at all from EMF even when I've placed my finger right near/against what I'd assume to be strong sources.

I had the implant placed on the side of the tip of my ring finger of my left hand (I'm right handed). I'm thinking either the magnet is a little too weak (although I think I have the same magnet you got for your second implant) or it's simply not close enough to the nerves but I was wondering if you had any tips on how long to leave it before looking at getting it redone?

As side notes to others here just to add another persons experience, the process was quick and there was virtually no pain afterwards (I have access to local anesthetic so figured I may as well use that for the proceedure so I can only speak to recovery pain), at it's worst it was a similar feeling to that dull ache you get after you bend your finger nail back, very minor.

Also I passed through airport security shortly after having it and due to having too much metal on my clothes got a very very thorough scan with the wand and it didn't register the magnet so that shouldn't cause any unintended drama's for people looking at flying

Connally K. said...

Thank you for the response, Nathan!

I talked to my girlfriend about this whenever I was reading your blog through and she wants to get it done with me now! :D

So I have another question for you. If you don't have the knowledge to answer, then that's okay. What would be the advantage of getting the implant facing towards your thumb rather than away? Also, did you prefer the needle over the scalpel incision, or vise versa?

Thank you for your time and help!

Connally K. said...

Another Question ^_^ :

Can you feel the current going through headphone wires?
Like the one you plug into the computer or iphone/ipods? Or is it too weak to feel? I was recently working with fixing/making a pair of headphones and this would have been really helpful!

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I have question about visual effects of implantation. Have you got scar on your finger or magnet is invisible?