The Complete Guide to Magnet Implants

maybe you're walking on the latest sci-fi movie or reading almost anything by Warren Ellis and you get thinking I wonder is biohacking actually a thing maybe you've seen the stories about people making night vision eyedrops and just wanted to know what that was all about so you googled biohacking however it happened it's now 2:00 in the morning and you're deep down an Internet rabbit hole and you've probably noticed a few things biohacking actually comes in three flavors the first are the people selling shakes supplements and shark oil the people who've discovered the best way to stay healthy is really just eat a sandwich exercise and go to sleep at a reasonable hour everything your mother told you but with more marketing behind it then there's the DIY bio crowd these are people making glow-in-the-dark beer and doing hardcore genetics research in home laboratories they are frequent contenders and I gem contests and have produced a variety of tools that are helping to get genetic engineering into the hands of more people than ever finally there are the grinders not to be confused with Grindr the name actually comes from a Warren Ellis comic dr. sleepless this group are the ones making custom implants and testing them out on themselves many of them hang out or at least got started on the bio hack Donny forums and that in fact that's where I got started a lot of the people there dream of being cyborgs one day so it comes as no surprise that they wanted a tangible way to take a step forwards towards that even if it's a small one enter what is basically everyone's entry to this weird and wonderful world magnet implants the idea here is pretty straight forward magnets in the presence of either an electromagnetic field or ferrous material move around if you implanted a magnet somewhere with lots of nerve endings you should be able to actually feel that motion brains are amazing things and are a lot more plastic than we give them credit for the idea was that if this magnet was there long enough your brain would learn to interpret these new signals like a new sense people set out to try it and see what would happen sure enough it works very well and over a year ago I made my first video about my first magnet implant however I've learned a lot since then and since I was getting a new magnet I thought it was time for an updated video let's talk about what makes this possible first off you can't just implant any old magnet the magnet is to be a neodymium rare-earth magnet rated at n 52 which is the strongest permanent magnet type on the market the actual material is highly sensitive to oxidation so magnets are typically coated in a layer of nickel to protect the material from error unfortunately nickel is highly reactive to body chemistry and would cause a nasty reaction if implanted as secondary coating is needed to make the magnets biocompatible there are a whole host of options and lots have been tried over the years the main characteristics of a good coating is that its bio safe strong and isn't easily damaged blasts without cracking and is as thin as possible some popular options include silicones like PDMS ceramics like titanium nitride metals usually gold and organic compounds like perylene or polyethylene all of these have their pros and cons silicon has the benefit of being able to be spray coated but the layers tend to be thick so the magnets are usually pretty bulky titanium nitride is great because it's extremely hard and very biocompatible but as plague magnet makers due to the difficulty of getting a perfect coating gold's cheap and many have taken to gold plating their magnets but this should really be avoided gold is too soft and the coating is easily damaged so it'll work the short term finally parylene requires specialized equipment to apply but is otherwise cheap to have made and unlike the other coatings it actually adheres to the surrounding tissue helping to hold the magnet in place the main issue is that it's rather delicate intends to crack after a year or two after being implanted so what to use well a multi-layer coating is really the way forward by layering titanium nitride and perylene you deal with the cracking problems of both materials and have extra layers for added safety for the truly paranoid look even throw in a layer of gold in them now where do you get one of these well our batch was custom ordered but many Magnum making companies will happily make a batch for you you need to be willing to buy in bulk other than that there are groups that sell coated magnets those supply varies wildly a quick further note of a magnet strategy anything less than n 50 you will have greatly diminished effects as was found out by those who implanted earlier generations magnets so only go for the n52 magnets anything else simply isn't worth the time okay so we have our magnets where can we put them well we really only have two good choices hands and ears of the two the former provides much more utility and is what will be covered in this video the reason somebody may choose to go for ears instead and specifically in the try guess the little flap of skin and cartilage in the middle of the year is that instead of feeling the electromagnetic fields you can hear them in some very specific circumstances in the hand the most common place to put the magnet is in the side of your non-dominant fourth finger the one next to your pinky this is the ideal place as there is a large amount of nerve endings but it's still out of the way and won't interfere with day to day function we'll go into more details about placement when we get to the procedure now the big question how do you actually get one of these implanted well you've got two options the first is to find a local piercer comfortable with the procedure this has the benefit of being done by a professional in an environment that is likely very safe however it's usually illegal to administer things like lidocaine so you have to do the whole procedure while feeling everything and they often charge a pretty penny to perform the procedure on you alternatively you can do it yourself or have a friend do it if you trust them enough but know that that gets into weird legal gray area really quickly this way you can source lidocaine and numb everything so it hurts a lot less you need to be able to maintain sterile procedure and you'll need a buddy present in case something goes wrong honestly I prefer the self implant method as there's no way that I'd want to do this procedure without lidocaine but if you're going to self implant lidocaine is basically mandatory there are too many instances of people passing out from the pain while attempting this on themselves to be worth attempting without lidocaine sourcing lidocaine is usually made to seem really difficult but it's not depending on your country lidocaine may be available over-the-counter at the pharmacy finding a supplier is possible as well dangerous things currently carries a pain management kit which contains lidocaine and is ideal for this procedure if you aren't interested in making new friends okay that's enough background let's actually get to the procedure fair warning from this point on there will be graphic images blood and surgery if that makes you uncomfortable now's your chance to tap out and go watch Happy Tree Friends before we do anything we need to sterilize our tools and equipment we used an autoclave for this and wrapped our tools in a medical towel so that when it comes time for the procedure if we can just open it up and have a sterile field with sterile tools already inside if you don't have an autoclave and your own set of tools you can buy disposable scalpels that come pre sterilized and can just open them up when you're ready to start but only once you've established a sterile field also prepare your magnet by soaking it in chlorhexidine solution until you're ready to implant it you can't autoclave it because it will destroy the magnetic properties now it's time to scrub in using unscented antibacterial soap scrub your hands and arms up to the elbow be sure to be as thorough as possible cleaning between the fingers and under your nails if possible here we're even using a reverse osmosis filtered water for rinsing to reduce contamination further be sure not to touch anything and allow your hands to air dry then if you're doing the procedure yourself put on a pair of clean nitrile gloves and then spray your hands with rubbing alcohol to sterilize the gloves for our procedure we're having our friend who's in med school do the procedure so he's the only one who actually needs gloves if you want to get surgery gloves that's great but it's not critical we're just pricking the skin here not removing a kidney next we set up our sterile field for us this is as simple as opening our pre-made package some other important points including turning off any air ventilation in the area as air flow pushes bacteria around that can land on you while you're working and making sure the table you'll be working on is as clean as possible some people go to the extreme of scrubbing down the entire room but since you're not removing the Afra mention kidney this is overkill unless the room you'll be working in is particularly grimy to start the procedure the hand that the magnet is going in is first wiped down with chlorhexidine to sterilize it then we perform something called a digital block basically this means injecting lidocaine at the base of the finger to numb the rest of it to do this you first draw two milliliters of 2% sterile lidocaine solution into a two to three milliliter syringe with a 22 gauge needle attached then the needle can be inserted through the top of the finger off to the side you want the needle to go almost all the way to the bottom but not poked out then as you retract the needle injects 0.5 milliliters of lidocaine repeat this on the other side of the finger while doing this it's important to make sure that you don't hit bone veins or nerves once the injection is done it'll take five to ten minutes for the numbing to progress to toward the end of the finger once that's happened we inject another milliliter of lidocaine locally into the tip of the finger on the opposite side where the magnet is going this way everything is sufficiently numb so you don't get feeling back halfway through the procedure once things are numb it's time to add a tourniquet here we're using a hairband that we pre soaked in clear hex design to make sure that it's sterile you want it tight enough to stop blood flow but not enough to bruise you once it's on squeeze the finger to remove any remaining blood before we start cutting a few things to note about placement there's a lot going on in your finger and it's very important not to hit a nerve line or you risk losing feeling in your finger permanently so the incision must be made towards the pad of the finger a little over halfway between the pad and the fingernail you don't wanna go too far forward either as the magnet will interfere with the tip of your finger and there's lots of connective stuff there that you don't want to damage so right about here is where you want to start the incision the idea here is to use the scalpel to make a pocket that's large enough to fit the Magnum in but is only as wide as absolutely necessary the magnets will be using your three millimeters in diameter so a five millimeter incision is ideal you want the pocket to be deeper than you'd think because as the wound heals the magnet will be pushed back towards the entrance also the incision and pocket should only be subdermal this means deep enough that is below the layers of skin that shed and fall off but not so deep that you hit muscle or tendon striking that depth balance can be tricky and is often where people fail if the pocket is so shallow that you can see the blade through the skin it's probably too shallow also especially when making the initial incision try not to shred the opening as this will make it much harder to heal properly once the pocket is ready take the magnet out of the clear hexa Dinah and dab it dry on some sterile gauze you may be wondering at how we're able to handle the magnet without getting stuck to the tools normally this is a problem but since this procedure is something we do a lot we've invested in a pair of titanium forceps which aren't ferromagnetic a pair of plastic forceps also works but are really only good for single use for the actual insertion of the magnet I found that it's easier to use your hands to grab the magnet and get it into the incision and then use the forceps to push it in all the way this lessens the likelihood of scratching and damaging the coating with the forceps while you're fiddling around with it and trying to get it into the incision if the magnet doesn't fit you may need to widen your incision slightly once it's in is time to close up again there's lots of options if you're comfortable tying a stitch with one hand or if you've got a friend doing the procedure for you you can use 7-0 non silk sutures be sure to only use sutures made of materials like nylon that don't wick or you'll have a much higher risk of infection one issue with sutures is that the needles are usually ferrous so there's a chance of the magnet getting stuck on the needle without you noticing and it getting lost in the trash this happens more often than you might expect even right professionals alternatively a steri-strip can be used to hold things together and that's what we ended up going with another alternative is some cyanoacrylate superglue which is what i used for the first time I did this procedure if you're going to use superglue make sure that the wound is held closed before you apply the glue or you're just gluing it over if you're using sutures or steri-strips it's helpful to put a small amount of triple antibiotic polysporin on either before putting on the bandage over the suture or before applying the steri-strip once you're all sealed and bandage the tourniquet can be removed by cutting it off congratulations you've just completed your first magnet implant but the work isn't over aftercare is one of the most important steps if you want the implant to take first the site must stay dry and clean for at least a week if you use steri-strips it's best to keep them on for a week but if it's getting uncomfortable you can take it off after three days to give it a bit of error gently clean it with a bit of alcohol and replace it with a new steri-strip after five days I switch to a butterfly closure for a few days to let it get a little more air while still providing compression if you used stitch it can come out after five days after that it's best to keep it covered with a band-aid and continue to keep it dry for another four to five days other than keeping it clean and dry the healing process is pretty straightforward if you notice an infection you may need to Lance and drain it or more likely the magnet will have to come out but beyond that it should heal nicely if done properly once the initial wound heals it's still important to be careful with it the initial month or so is critical to proper healing and being too aggressive will cause it to a reject and that's it as I mentioned after a few weeks you'll start to gain more and more sensitivity and you'll get more used to what things feel like the first moment when it finally clicked in my brain was the first time when I went to grab a metal chair and felt a tug as sensitivity increases you'll be able to feel more than just ferrous metal eventually you'll start to feel a vibration in response to rapidly changing electromagnetic fields like the ones that radiate from the transformer in your microwave or a powerline with sufficient current running through it so if you're considering getting a magnet implant I hope that if nothing else this video was informative I try to include as much of the knowledge that's been generated over the years as possible so that this conserve is the go-to guide for this procedure hopefully with this video in hand we'll have less people trying to treat an infected magnet with a poultice of pizza dough or coating their magnets and sugru for those on the fence about magnets if you're within your means I'd suggest getting one if you can spare the time to heal properly while biohacking in this way isn't really my focus right now it will always be an important part of my life if for no other reason that it forces you to ask questions and look for answers in ways that are truly unique to the field if you like this video you may enjoy some of my other bio hacking videos specifically my demonstration of the RFID chip implant procedure and my experimentation with transdermal coatings as always if you've enjoyed this video and want to see more be sure to subscribe and leave a rating I post new videos every other Monday so be sure to check back for that or consider clicking the bell to get email alerts when a new video goes up that's all for now and I'll see you next time

Channel: The Thought Emporium

Views: 1,910,364

Keywords: biohacking, biology, surgery, surgical, magnet, implant, tin, TiN, pdms, silicone, parylene c, parylene, dangerousthings, titanium nitride, polyethylene, scalpel, lidocain, lidocaine, digital block, subdermal, implantation, hand, finger, piercing, suture, stitches, steristrip, superglue, cyanoacrylate, sterile procedure, sterile field, sterile, autoclave, medical, medicine, antibiotics

Id: 3aVwvJn7vpo

Length: 14min 39sec (879 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 04 2017