Steve Haworth

In May, I talked to Steve about the possibility of doing a large piece on both of my arms. It was a basis of taking current designs, hearts, and making one large piece. It is a newer concept that required molding my arms and silicone glueing and carving 7 hearts for each arm. It was a couple of days work just to get the pieces set to implant.

Steve dislikes doing large work like this. Higher risk level then the smaller work. With me it was a matter of seperating 7 square inches of skin on each arm. I am running a higher risk of nerve damage, amongst other obvious issues. I have had 16 implants from Steve previously, so this was a next step for me evolvement. I would never recommend doing large pieces first time around.

The concept of custom work was limited so much before because it was a matter of creating a custom mold for the individual. It was time consuming and expensive but now it is beginning to look more pratical. This is still time consuming, however a few days versus a few months is a big difference.

This heart design Steve and I collaborated on was the first of it’s kind and hopefully we will be able to do more soon. Keep in mind this size of work had me laid up for 4 days in extreme pain. I was not liking life. The pain was worth the outcome because my design is beginning to come through and in 6 months will be fully showing. For now they look like random lumps on my arms.

Larger implants and custom work like this is still experimental. I have lost a little sensation over the implants, but I think it will come back. I haven’t had any complications with them, that weren’t foreseen, like being in a lot of pain, leaving the stitches in longer then usual, the trial and error of figuring out the compression bandages, etc. Hopefully this will open up a new world of custom work and larger implants.

Here are some before and current shot today