The scarification project - The aftercare

The Following Morning

The after care of scarification isn't easy, but it is necessary to ensure a good resulting scar and no infection. The painful and laborious after care is the reason I said I would never have any more scars done after my first scars in 2011. But I rarely listen to myself!

Day 01: The area is very sore and very stingy, showering is very painful, the hydrogen peroxide bubbles lots and stings like hell when applied. I took about 20 minutes in the shower gently applying the hydrogen peroxide and rinsing off with the shower head on the lowest pressure. Once out of the shower and padded dry, applying the Vaseline on the area is difficult as scar is very tender to the touch. I wrap my self up in cling films and have misfortune to have to go to work.

Day 02 and Day 03 are the same as Day 01, sore, tender and frustrating, I can't run, and I love running, but I love this scar and have to take care of it.

Wrapped up

Day 04 - A small break through the hydrogen peroxide is not longer stinging when I'm cleaning the area in the shower.

Day 05 - I can now rub the sugar along the wounds along with the hydrogen peroxide with out it really hurting.

Day 06 - Starting to feel  a lot more flexible, the tenderness is going too.

Day 07 - Feels like the scars are healing and no longer any discomfort.

Day 08 - Not very sore at all, and I can take the shower at full blast directly on scar.

Day 09 - Very little pain when cleaning now, however it is now feeling prickly and itchy.

After 1 week

Day 10 - Sooooo itchy had an extra lunch time shower just to relieve the frustration.

Day 11 - Having 3 or 4 showers a day to try and calm the itchiness, hardly any pain now when cleaning

Day 12 - The end is near, today is the final day that I have to Vaseline and wrap up in clings film after cleaning

After 12 days of cleaning, and wrapping in cling film I can finally rid myself of the cling film, I am still cleaning with hydrogen peroxide for another 7 days though.

19 days after the scars were done, I can finally stop cleaning s with hydrogen peroxide twice a day, and go go back to normal relaxing showers, although I have changed to a zero perfume, pH 5.5, natural balanced shower gel to avoid any irritations.

After 2 months

The scar is healing nicely now but does feel tight, so I'm regularly stretching by hanging off a chin up bar which is sore but only for a very short time. I'm also back running again which feels amazing. After 3 weeks I feel that the scars are healed, but still starting to raise up, the texture of the scars is incredible.

As I'm writing this blog it's 5 months since I had the work done and the redness is now starting to fade, to a pinky white colour. The scars I had done back in 2011 are still changing, they change colour and texture depending on how hydrated I am and how hot it is. It like having interactive tattoos. This work still has a lot of settling to do and will get lighter and lighter, over the next 6 or 7 months.

After 5 months

Again HUGE thanks to:
Iestyn from Divine Canvas - http://divine-canvas.com/
and
Quentin from Kalima Emporium - http://www.kalima.co.uk/

The scarification project - The big day

It was a pretty early start and a 3 hour drive down to the south coast. Kalima was pretty easy to find and when I got there Quentin was already making a Brew. I needed the coffee and cheeky couple of biscuits to calm my nerves and excitement. We were having a good old chat, when Iestyn must have smelt the Tea and joined us.

Iestyn showed me the design he had done and said that it would look better on my stomach, and it would also make it much easier for two people to work on this area. I loved the design as soon as I saw it. Geometric, intricate and slightly fractal, we played with positioning of the design Iestyn being the perfectionist want the design perfectly centrer on my body, but it turns out my belly button isn't perfectly central to my body. This looked a little odd, So we repositioned the design using my belly button as the centre of the design. Quentin was happy, Iestyn was happy, I was happy!

So I was shaved, cleaned and disinfected and then laid down on the padded bench.

"Ready?"

"Sure, lets go"

The guys spent about an hour with their scalpels cutting the skin along the outline of the design that had been printed on my stomach. It wasn't too painful, on the whole, but every now and again the scalpel would find a more sensitive area and give a real sting, but it was a short lived kick. To be honest the most painful part of the first hour was my arms going numb from having them above my head for so long. 

After a break for tea and biscuits they guys crack on with the scarification. They use a pain numbing gel as they will be cutting a little deeper and wider, the second time round the design. The gel stings like a bastard. This is by far the most painful part of the day. It is fire, it is acid, it is lemon juice in the eye... it is over! The pain goes as quickly as it came. After another cup of tea the anaesthetic has taken hold and the team get back to work. It is a very odd sensation to see two, heavily tattoo'd, scarified, branded, body mod'd men in surgical masks, wearing head torches, deeply concentrating, bent over, cutting into the skin of your stomach, and not feeling any sensation on pain.

The pain free cutting doesn't last forever, there are parts that are more sensitive and the cutting on occasions was very painful. Luckily Quentin has an incredibly wide and eclectic taste in music, focusing on the music and tapping my fingers on my chest helps distract me, and draw focus away from the pain. It took about 3 or 4 hours to complete the second phase of the work, with plenty of tea and biscuit breaks, when I was struggling to cope. When we finally finished they cleaned me up and as they were wrapping me up they notice a couple of lines they had missed on the second phase of cutting.

"No chance, Sorry, I'm done"
The relief of the job being finished was over whelming, it looking incredible, much bigger and bolder than I ever imagined. My bod was shaking from the all adrenalin surging through my body, and I just couldn't face getting back on the table. I confirmed with both Iestyn and Quentin that I was 100% happy with their work and was happy to have my moment of "no more" left as slight imperfection. And hey perfection is over rated anyway.

I got dressed had a very sugary coffee, a handful of biscuits and we stood around chatting about India and Nepal, I would have loved to stay and chat about these wonderful countries, but I had a long drive home, and an overwhelming desire to get home, see the family and get some sleep.

The photo above was taken by Iestyn after finishing the clean up, just before I was wrapped up in cling film.

It is impossible to put into words how professional, talented and dedicated to perfection these two gentleman are. I had spent a huge amount of time researching scarification before I had my first scars done in 2011, Iestyn's name came up over and over again, and when I saw that he was teaching others scarification, it soon became clear he was 'The Man' to go to. So it was a privilege to have him work on my second piece too. Quentin is an absolute gentleman, calm, methodical, and so focused on what the customer wants and needs, it kept me calm and assured at all times. Quentin's portfolio is so long, broad and very impressive so I had 100% confidence in his skills.

The scarification project - The decision

I had few small scars done back in 2011 and have followed Iestyn's work and when I saw this posted on Facebook:

I decided to drop Iestyn a message and offer up my leg for a scarification collaboration:

The next day he came back with a date only 6 weeks away, which was pretty cool: 

This will be the first time I have ever not designed my own work. I usually spend ages designing and tweaking the design before hand. So it was quite a new experience to hand my body over to Iestyn for him to be in complete control:

Iestyn was always in contact making sure everything was OK and if I needed any help getting down to the studio, which was a great help:

With only one day to go I was pretty nervous: