If you thought Japans extreme fad culture would stop short of people injecting saline into their foreheads to make it look like they have bagels implanted under their skin, you were wrong. Being a “bagel head” is, indeed, currently in vogue in Tokyo.
The bizarre body modification procedure, which was highlighted in a Sept. 23 episode of “Taboo,” a show on the National Geographic Channel, involves injecting about 13.5 ounces 400 milliliters of saline into a persons forehead to form a huge welt, then pressing a thumb into the welt to create an indent. The process takes two hours, and the trendy swelling goes down in under a day.
I’d be worried that if people did this repeatedly you might actually, indeed, stretch the skin beyond its normal elasticity, and this could cause permanent laxity,” says Omar Ibrahimi, a dermatologist at the Connecticut Skin Institute and visiting assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
In other words, bagel heads could become deflated-bagel heads: a fashion mishap in anybody’s book.
