Additional Advances in Absolutely Essential Cosmetic Surgery

 VAIN BRAIN

   I told you recently about a young man who flew from France to Turkey to get a beard transplant, (see, "Beards Again".) Now you will learn about another one who flew from England to France to get the colour of his eyes changed. Most people simply buy coloured contact lenses if they want their eyes to match their outfit, but this chap wanted a more permanent solution so his eyes would match those of his puppy’s. As the saying goes, “You can’t make this stuff up,” and it is said a lot these days. The story from, perhaps a more trusted source:

"Changing Your Eye Color With Surgery Is Risky: They Did It Anyway, Advances in Cosmetic Surgery Let People Permanently Change Their Eye Color, and They Pay Thousands For a New Hue. Doctors Disagree On Whether It's Safe," Jiselle, Lee, The Washington Post, Dec. 30, 2024.

"Two days before he booked a March trip to Nice, France, to meet with an ophthalmologist, he adopted a puppy, Baby Bear.

The cryptocurrency investor thought matching Baby Bear’s eyes would make them “like father, like son.”

If this appeals to you, here is what is involved:

   "There are three common ways to permanently change eye color: iris implants, keratopigmentation and laser depigmentation. All three surgeries alter the appearance of the colored part of the eye known as the iris. Keratopigmentation uses a laser to create a tunnel in the cornea to fill with colored ink, blocking the iris. Laser depigmentation uses a laser to reveal a lighter pigment that lies naturally under the iris’s darker surface layer. An incision is required to insert an iris implant, a thin silicone sheet, between the sclera and cornea to block the iris."

Apparently the procedure is done elsewhere and is not uncommon, but I did find this demographic nugget surprising since it shows that not only young white guys make bad decisions.

   "At Alexander Movshovich’s Kerato New York eye center, at least 90 percent of clients have naturally dark-brown eyes. Of the more than 900 people he’s operated on, about 60 percent were Hispanic or Black, according to data he shared with The Washington Post in August.

What About A Tattoo? - For The Eye!

   I do confess to not paying too much attention to my appearance since my bad experience with the folks at the "Hair Club For Men", so I am generally unaware of the latest styles and cosmetic options. But, I have learned that if you are not happy with the three procedures above, there is another option that involves getting your eye tattooed. Since I have already covered tattoos in MM I will move on, but you can look at the entry for "Scleral Tattooing" in Wikipedia. 

   I should add that I am not recommending that you get your eye tattooed since you are sure to regret such a decision, even more than you do the one that led you to put that big picture on your calf. It is also the case that the American Academy of Ophthalmology does not approve of eye colour-changing procedures. 

The Bonus:
  You may recall seeing an eyeball earlier on MM and you will find it here: "University of the Unusual (3) - The Guinea Worm..."  If the words "guinea worm" seem familiar, that is because the late President Carter just died and The Carter Center worked to see that such worms were eradicated.

Beard Poll

I am not sure if it is true in other sports, but those playing golf are increasingly looking rather Rastafarian, or more correctly, like Sikhs. Very heavy and thick beards conceal the faces of many players. Often when they win, they are accompanied by women who are very attractive, although I realize it is risky to use such an adjective. The question under consideration is: "Are attractive women attracted because of the beards or the prize money?" 

At this point I was going to paste bearded images of various golfers next to their clean shaven ones and let you vote, but that is too time consuming. So do your own image searches of golfers such as the Canadians Graham DeLaet (pictured above) and Adam Hadwin, and some non-Canadian ones like John Rahm and Max Homa and see which you prefer. Some samples are offered below.

At some other point I was also going to speculate about the popularity of beards, but there is no need to do so. The Wikipedia entry about Beards covers just about everything. There is even one for Playoff Beards, which suggests that superstition is involved and you will learn from the bigger beard Wikipedia essay that religion is as well, which makes sense.

What I can offer is some older material which you will not be aware of and, from which, perhaps some new conclusions about facial hair can be drawn. Maybe it is more than a hipster fad. In any case it will be easier to get rid of beards than tattoos.

Pogonologia; or, A Philosophical and Historical Essay on Beards, Jacques Antoine Dulaure, (1786) 

“A man without a beard would be much less surprising now-a-days, than a bearded woman, which proves how unnatural our tastes and customs are.” 

Of fashion -- Of bearded chins -- Of some shaved chins -- Of bearded women -- That long beards are salutary -- Of false beards -- Of golden beards -- Of whiskers -- Of the beards of priests -- Of the people that wear beards -- Conclusion.

Beard Shaving, and the Common Use of the Razor, an Unnatural, Irrational, Unmanly, Ungodly and Fatal Fashion Among Christians, William Henry Henslowe (1847) 

From this book one even learns about the "Drag Issue."

“The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man; neither shall a Man put on a woman’s garment; for all they that do so are abomination to the Lord” Divine Law

And for those of you who prefer poetry:

Rhythmical Essays on the Beard Question, W. Carter, (1868)

PREFACE .

In taking upon myself the responsibility of writing this small book on the BEARD QUESTION , I beg to say it is not done ignorantly . For nearly sixty years I have laboured to remove the grim vestiges of barbarity from the human face divine . I cannot be accused of selfishness , for at an early age I wrote a direction for personal or self - shaving , so that no man , however poor , could have an excuse for wearing his beard , except in idleness , or groveling animal conceit . As a question of health , I maintain that men had better health fifty years ago than at the present beard - growing period . They were noble - looking , fine specimens of humanity . At that time all had clean , well - shaven faces . It is only within the last twenty years that the cry has been raised about a clean shave destroying health , which , from nearly sixty years ' practice , I know to be a mistake . When the mental grandeur of the face is enveloped in the rude untutored animalism of savage life , health is destroyed . Instances have come under my notice of persons dying , young and old , So covered up with animal filth that you could scarce see that they had a mouth . I never knew a man suffer in health through shaving ; the practice is conducive to health ; it leaves him free to enjoy the blessings of heaven unencumbered ; and he has an exquisite pleasure when he can take the fresh air without the annoyance of a mass of grim hair interfering with his breathing organs . It may be inferred that health is promoted by a clean shave from the fact that , when disease came into the faces of the Jews , Moses ordered them to cut the beard and shave the face , that they might be cured . It is admitted that prevention is better than cure ; and in order to keep the face free from disease , shave , wash , and be clean . It is a lamentable fact that some medical men , to accommodate the whims of their patients , recommended some to wear beards ; and others , reckless of consequences ….

The Poems follow:

Note: All of the above books are in the public domain so don't buy the ones offered on Amazon, etc.

For the bonus, see William Empson's "neck beard"

and read my earlier post about him.

The University of the Unusual (4)

Anthropodermic Bibliopegy

Three books bound in human skin. Photo from Fugitive Leaves(the blog of the Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia)

  Those of you who bothered to read the fine print above will realize that the subject of this post is a touchy and somewhat sensitive one: books bound in human skin. A few years ago when some of them were found in the stacks at Harvard, I was going to discuss 'anthropodermic bibliopegy', as one of my unusual subjects, but never got around to it. Now that you know what this particular type of leather-bound book binding is called you can quickly learn all about it in the Wikipedia entry. There is also a very good resource devoted specifically to the subject. So I will simply provide the very basics and the essential sources. Then I will switch to a related subject which is even more unusual; it has to do with tattoos.
   Books bound in human skin do exist. There have been a large number of books discovered in libraries and private collections that contain the inscription, 'bound in human skin", but most of them were not. A new technique - Peptide Mass Fingerprinting - makes it easier and less expensive to determine whether the tome is bound in human, cow, goat or pig.
   There are many reasons why pages are held together in such a manner and you will learn all about them by examining the sources provided. Often they relate to the medical profession and one author notes that “Scratching the surface of the history of any real human-skin book usually reveals a doctor was the one wielding the knife.” The largest collection so far confirmed is found in the Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

Tattoo Preservation

   In some cases books were bound in the skin of a loved one, or at the request of the owner of the skin to be used. What if you wanted to leave behind, when you died, all of the fine art etched on your body. Could you do so? That is not an unreasonable question to be asked since we now see many more people wearing tattoos than reading books, and it was recently asked by a tattoo artist in Saskatoon. The short answer to it is "Yes".

   The heavily tattooed gentleman from Saskatchewan died recently and requested that his wife save the art. She agreed and the Cleveland company - Save My Ink Forever - did so. The process is a complicated one and your mortician may have reservations, but I will provide the information you need.

Sources:

For the books:

The book image is found in: "The Skin She Lived In: Anthropodermic Books in the Historical Medical Library," Beth Lander, Fugitive Leaves, Oct. 1, 2015.

For a thorough account see: "In the Flesh? Anthropodermic Bibliopegy Verification and Its Implications," Jacob Gordon, RBM: A Journal of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Cultural Heritage, Vol. 17, No.2, Fall, 2016. A copy is available here. 

The site dedicated to the subject is The Anthropodermic Book Project. 

The quote about doctors is from: "A Book By Its Cover: The Strange History of Books Bound in Human Skin," Megan Rosenbloom, Lapham's Quarterly, Oct. 19, 2016. Ms Rosenbloom is involved in the Book Project noted above.

For the tattoos:

"Dead Saskatoon Tattoo Artist's Skin Removed, Preserved to Honour His Work," The Canadian Press, Nov. 14, 2018.
"Kyle Sherwood, the company’s chief operating officer, went to Saskatoon to surgically excise Wenzel’s skin from 70 per cent of his entire body and preserve it with a special formula in a frame.
The entire job will cost about $80,000 and take about three months.
Cheryl Wenzel was in the room with Sherwood when he began removing the skin. I was able to point out which tattoos (Chris) wanted.”

"Saskatoon Widow Has Her Husband's Tattoos- And the Skin They're On- Preserved," Guy Quenneville, CBC News, Nov. 15, 2018. [The tattoo image above is Mr. Wenzel and it is from this article.]

For an update: "We're Back Together: Honouring His Dying Wishes, Wife Preserves Husband's Tattoos," Bryan Eneas, CBC News, April 15, 2019.

If you want to learn more about the process, it is described by the company: Save My Ink Forever. 

Postscript:

I indicated that it was the books at Harvard that I first read about. The subject was approached there with some humour. One article about it has the title "The Skinny on the Harvard Collection" and another has the words "caveat lector" in the web address: See: "The Science of Anthropodermic Binding."
While reading a recent book review about The Millionaire and the Bard (NYT May 22, 2015 I noticed this example of the use of the skin from calves:“There are many beautiful books in the world. The contemporary British collector Alfred Henry Huth, who possessed a First Folio that Folger coveted, also owned a ravishing “Book of Hours” illuminated in the late 15th century by the Flemish master Simon Marmion. Fashioned from the creamiest of vellum — parchment made from the skins of calves, in this case probably stillborn calves, whose skins were the smoothest and whitest of all — the luminous, one-of-a-kind Huth “Hours” looks like a possession fit for a prince of exquisite taste and limitless wealth.”

For other samples in this blog under the category of the university of the unusual see: The Guinea Worm and The Ingestion of Foreign Objects.