Body Modifications
Walter Easler, Human Pincushion
Nowadays, we are used to all kinds of piercings in daily life. But this fellow still merits a look.
This young man is literally "on pins and needles" but it doesn't seem to worry him in the least. He is Walter Easler, of Lorain, Ohio, and he is able to pierce his skin with impunity because of sensory anesthesia with which nature has endowed him. The pins and needles which penetrate his lips and cheeks do not cause him the slightest pain, and he recalls with amusement his father's perplexity when he was a lad as to how he could be punished since spankings could not be felt.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Aug 23, 2024 -
Comments (3)
Category: Body Modifications, Human Marvels, Twentieth Century, Pain, Self-inflicted and Otherwise
Tails for humans
Millions of years ago our ancestors had tails. Design student Cheng Chang believes that when humans start living in space they'll need tails again. So he built one.When our hands and feet are no longer suitable for the task of controlling our movement in zero gravity. we need a new form of body extension
More info: Royal College of Art
Posted By: Alex - Sun Apr 21, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Body Modifications, Space Travel
Ashkasha
Ashkasha from Lara Maltz on Vimeo.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Mar 26, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Body Modifications, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Surrealism, Stop-motion Animation, Psychedelic
The Fat Roller
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 04, 2024 -
Comments (3)
Category: Body Modifications, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1910s
Bust Cream or Food
If it doesn't enlarge your bust, you can serve it for dinner.Source: 1897 Sear Roebuck Catalogue
Posted By: Alex - Fri May 26, 2023 -
Comments (4)
Category: Body Modifications, Advertising, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, Nineteenth Century
Zoom!
Before it was videotelephone software, Zoom was a bustline enhancer.
Cosmopolitan - Feb 1957
Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 05, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Body Modifications, Patent Medicines, Nostrums and Snake Oil, 1950s
A Swishing Sound
A letter to the editor that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine (August 18, 1994):
Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 29, 2022 -
Comments (0)
Category: Body Modifications, Noises and Other Public Disturbances of the Peace
Secret Shoulder Straps
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Jan 09, 2022 -
Comments (2)
Category: Body Modifications, Fashion, Inventions, Nineteenth Century
Rejuvenique Facial Toning Mask
Still being made and sold! Get yours via the Amazon link below!
Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 04, 2022 -
Comments (3)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Body Modifications, Inventions, Technology, Twentieth Century, Twenty-first Century
Self-castration in early Christianity
Some ancient weirdness: The First Council of Nicaea, in 325 AD, was a meeting of Christian bishops in which they tried to establish the rules and doctrines that all Christians were supposed to follow. Wikipedia says:However, one of the lesser-known rules that the bishops enacted at the Council was to ban men who had castrated themselves from being in the clergy. Because, apparently, self-castration had become something of a fad among early Christians. Enough so that the bishops felt the need to put an official stop to the practice.
The historian Daniel Caner has examined this issue in his 1997 article "The practice and prohibition of self-castration in early Christianity".
Caner notes that the fad had its origin in a passage from the New Testament, Matthew 19:12, in which Jesus appears to endorse the practice of self-castration. As the passage reads in the King James translation:
Most interpreters of the Bible, ancient and modern, argue that when Jesus used the word 'eunuch' he meant it as a synonym for 'celibacy'. Apparently this was a common use of the term 'eunuch' in the ancient world.
Nevertheless, he used the term eunuch. So some early Christians decided the passage should be taken literally. In which case, Jesus seemed to be saying that, while self-castration was not appropriate for all men, for an elite few it was an ideal to strive for. Inspired by this passage, a number of men "took the sickle and cut off [their] private parts."
The most prominent Church father who was said to have castrated himself was Origen of Alexandria (c. 185 - c. 253). But Caner notes that there was an entire sect of early Christians, the Valesians, who embraced the practice. Wikipedia says that, in addition to castrating themselves, "They were notorious for forcibly castrating travelers whom they encountered and guests who visited them."
According to Caner, the more widely adopted Christianity became in the Roman empire, the more the Church tried to present itself as the upholder of mainstream values, and self-castration really didn't fit into that image. Therefore, "Radical manifestations of an ideal de-sexualization... became a 'heretical' threat to the orthodox community."
Posted By: Alex - Fri Jul 02, 2021 -
Comments (5)
Category: Body Modifications, Fads, Religion, Ancient Times, Genitals
| Who We Are |
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |