I don’t even know what to say about this one, except that it seemed like the perfect story to blog about during the week of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and holiest day of the year. Interestingly, it is the Japanese, not the Jews, who have gone gaga over this body modification trend patterned after the popular Jew food.
Apparently, the “bagel head” is a growing trend among the Japanese underground body modification community. A “bagel head” is exactly what you might imagine it to be – a bizarre body modification that makes a person look like there is a bagel lodged underneath the skin of their forehead.
This rather grotesque look is created by injecting 400 cc’s of saline into your forehead and then pressing on the center of the swollen region with a thumb to simulate the bagel hole. The entire procedure takes about 2 hours to complete, mainly because the saline is administered slowly through an IV drip.
Just to put this in perspective, 400 cc’s of saline is about the average size filling for a breast implant. Approximately 35% of patients get 300-400 cc breast implants and 25% of patients get 400-500 cc breast implants. So our bagel head people are pretty much hitting the breast implant sweet spot here. Imagine stuffing a whole breast implant in your forehead. Pretty gross if you ask me.
Fortunately, the saline solution used for this procedure does not last anywhere near as long as a dermal filler would. The silly looking bagel in your forehead will disappear in about 16-24 hours as the saline gets absorbed by your body. Had this procedure been performed using a dermal filler, you’d be stuck with this stupid look for months.
Underground Trend has been Gaining Steam for Years
It appears that this trend has been brewing for quite some time now. It was brought to Japan by Ryoichi “Keroppy” Maeda, a photographer and journalist who discovered the look at a body modification convention in 1999. It was at this convention where he met the “bagel head” creator, Jerome Abramovitch (sounds like the Jews had their hand in this after all, eh?).
Keroppy and Jerome kept in touch in the years that followed. In 2003, Keroppy had his first “bagel head” injections under the guidance of Jerome. Jerome then gave him permission to bring the trend to Japan.
Keroppy set up a team in Tokyo to administer “bagel head” injections for others. Their operation has been running since 2007, and the look has been growing in popularity ever since.
The Rise of Saline Parties
About twice a year, Keroppy will host “saline parties” where throngs of “bagel heads” come to congregate for the evening. For one night, these saline parties allow the “bagel heads” to revel in their freakishness and compare bagel holes. Of course, if you frequent Japanese clubs and fetish parties, you may run across a few “bagel heads” from time to time. I guess for some of these people, twice a year just isn’t enough time spent looking ridiculous.
While the forehead is the primary location for these saline injections, they can be administered on any part of the body. In fact, some people have even undergone “scrotal infusions.” I’m assuming this gives them a “bagel penis.” I would imagine that sex is out of the question until these scrotal infusions wear off.
I know beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and every culture has its own standards of beauty. In that regard, my comments here may come off as somewhat ethnocentric. If so, I apologize to anyone I have offended by making fun of this body modification craze. But to be perfectly honest, I’m grateful this trend hasn’t caught on in the United States. I would have a hard time taking someone seriously if they had a bagel in their forehead. I suppose the Jew in me would have a hard time resisting the urge to offer the person some lox and cream cheese.
If you live in the Phoenix, Arizona area and are interested in saline injections for a reason other than to look like a giant bagel, please contact Dr. Paul Angelchik today to schedule your initial consultation.
