Pictures courtesy of Ryoichi “Keroppy” Maeda
This summer VICE magazine was documenting a new trend what they have started calling Bagel Heads. This new BM sub-culture uses saline drips to make temporary bulges under their skin.
So you’re the man responsible for bringing it to the masses. How does the whole process work?
It’s quite easy – we use medical saline solution and using infusion we pump it into the forehead for about two hours, or until it’s ready.Two hours! Fucking hell. How long does it last?
Just one night. The body absorbs it over time so by the next morning it just goes back to normal. We enjoy being freaks for the night, ha ha.
Does the skin ever start to sag?
No. Everyone I know who has done it, no matter how many times, their skin has gone back to exactly how it was before.
Now it might be tempting to look at this new trend and say God Damn! Japan is weird but you have to keep in mind the numbers. Look at Tokyo, the greater Tokyo region has over 30 million people all within at most a 2hr train ride. 30 million is about the same population as the entire nation of Canada! I know people in Canada are doing this but they’re spread out over a huge area and can’t hang out with each other and maintain this trend. Where as in Tokyo these people CAN hang out and do. This applies to all the weird sub-groups of Japan especially those that are in Japan’s HUGE urban centers. It’s a numbers game.
This is something I talked about for concerning how there is a perception that Japanese women are obsessed with foreign guys. Back to the Canadian example: If .01% of the population is obsessed with Japanese guys it doesn’t mean much because they’re spread out all over Canada. But in Japan or even in Tokyo .01% of the population is thousands of people which means there are a lot of women hanging out at a small selection of bars that foreigners also hang out … number game man, numbers game.
UPDATE: Sept 2012 National Geographic did a special on the Japanese Bagel Head:
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Gaijinass 
I am pretty lay back about what people want to do their bodies, but I have just 1 question re this…What’s the bloody point?
I’m bored, I think I’ll just jack this saline drip into my forehead. I GOTTA believe eventually something has to give, and then it’s called a jelly donut head, you know, for the red oooooze coming from your exploded head.
” . . . new BM sub-culture . . . ”
Those damn conformist Japanese! I assume this BM is short for Bowel Movement? I guess it’s fine as long as they aren’t holding up banks or stepping on kittens as well.
Some days I think Tokyo looks more like Weimar Berlin than Japan. No wonder the “Cabaret” revival is doing well.
Alex,
Our cat ate a house plant once that made her yak for several days on end. She was horribly dehydrated so the vet subcutaneously pumped her full of saline to fill her back up. Imagine a cat as a brahman bull and you get the picture. It worked, but I kind of doubt that too many medical professionals would approve of doing this to one’s forehead on a regular basis.
That’s one of the ugliest chicks I’ve ever seen in my life. Holy shit. Not shocking….just fucking butt ass ugly nasty
Sort of makes me remember the line about the bulldog eating custard…would rather look at the butt end.. couldn’t be any worse. Good make up for Halloween though!
Looking at them makes you want to pop it.
Hey just had an idea. How about we use them for a snuff zombie movie… exploding saline bag heads.
They should apply fake tanner on top. Toasted bagels.
I wanna touch it! @_@ (more appropriately I want to kinda push on it to see if it’s squishy or hard).
I had to be hospitalized once and my hand did that because they missed my vein for the iv drip. It hurt so I didn’t touch it.
Gross. Thanks for the comment.
why heads? .. why not boobs??? or, anywhere else but head….
These guys seem to think getting a donuts in your lip is a great idea: