The 'bagel head': Japan's strange new beauty trend
Tattoos too passé? A hardcore new body-modification trend plants a lumpy welt right in the middle of the forehead
The video: Insufficiently fulfilled by tattoos and piercings, Japanese body-art fans are taking things to another level with a bizarre practice called "bagel heading." As demonstrated on a new National Geographic show called Taboo (take a look below), a bagel-head artist gives a willing participant the look by pumping 400 cc of saline into his forehead until a large welt forms — then presses a finger into the lump to create a bagel hole-like dent. Unlike other forms of body modification, the procedure isn't permanent; the face bagel deflates in about a day as the body absorbs the saline. "People who like extreme body modification want to find their own way of doing things, and they're always looking for new ways to do that," Keroppy, a Japanese body modification artist, told Vice back in 2009. "The more progressive the scene gets, the more these people have to experiment and go their own way."
The reaction: First it was horn implants and eyeball tattoos, says Australia's Herald Sun. But this? It's a "hole" new trend. And, "oh boy, is it a lunch-ruiner," says Carmel Lobello at Death and Taxes. I'm not sure if one person getting paid to have the procedure done on television constitutes a trend, but it really does look like "bagels are bursting out of your brain." It's an intriguingly empty gesture, says Tracie Egan Morrissey at Jezebel, "There's no point to the whole thing, other than to wear a skin bagel." Watch it below:
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The Pentagon faces an uncertain future with Trump
Talking Point The president-elect has nominated conservative commentator Pete Hegseth to lead the Defense Department
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
This is what you should know about State Department travel advisories and warnings
In Depth Stay safe on your international adventures
By Catherine Garcia, The Week US Published
-
'All Tyson-Paul promised was spectacle and, in the end, that's all we got'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published