Brain Piercing (kind of)
Not really a body mod by choice, but more one of necessity. But still one that provokes funny reactions sometimes.

When I was 18, just as I was about to sit my A-Levels, I wound up in hospital as they finally discovered the reason I was having trouble doing such challenging things as standing up and talking without severe head pain and being violently ill, was not in fact migraines, but something more. Cue three and a half weeks of various things being done to my head in hospital to ease the pressure within. The first one basically involved doctors drilling a hole through my skull to drain out the fluid (I still wish there was a video I could watch of this). This didn't actually work, but has to this day (four years later) left me with a big dent on the right hand side of my head.

You can't see it, but you can sure as hell feel it, as one poor hairdresser found out as she cried out "Oh my God, have I just done that?" whilst washing my hair about a year afterwards. I also figured an interesting way to introduce myself in Fresher's Week would be to mention said dent in head, which didn't really result in people remembering my name, but did result in lots of people touching my head and going "oooh" or "ergh", and me getting weird looks.

The bit at the back of my head is kind of the piercing bit. It's a pipe which goes into my brain and runs down my neck and into my stomach (technically called a shunt), therefore keeping me alive, and as I have also discovered, preventing me getting hangover headaches (yay for bonus side effects). This also resulted in my insistance that people "feel the pipe that runs down my neck" in the bar. There's no wonder I get funny looks sometimes.

But, hey, I'm assured the staples in my head looked really cool before they were removed, apparently just like Frankenstein. And well, I'm still here, and with crazy scars to boot, so I can't complain.
(Picotee, Wed 6 Dec 2006, 16:24, Reply)