Body modification is a broad category that covers anything from socially acceptable ear piercings to culturally mandated circumcisions, but there’s a small niche in this category that involves the most extreme manipulation of the human body. Some trendsetters treat their bodies like a work of art and some cultures are simply handing down tradition, but all of the following examples are shocking in their own way, so brace yourself. Here are 10 shockingly extreme body modifications that aren’t for the faint of heart (or stomach).

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Society has become used to seeing angsty teens with bad tattoos, but as society’s boundaries broaden, those who push against the limits continue to pave the way for the rest of us. Technological innovations now allow for the insertion of silicone based implants that won’t affect the body’s normal processes, but stand out in a way that would be hard to match with any tattoo. From horns to clovers, just about any shape can be slipped under the skin.

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Tongue splitting is incredibly painful and the resulting wound is in turns hideous and prone to infection. Once the tongue has healed, however, you’re left with something surreal: a tongue that works as two. Some find it hideous and disgusting, but nobody can deny it’s interesting to see such a mundane part of the human body transformed into something spectacular.

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When one thinks of piercing, the first object that comes to mind is not typically a stainless steel hook, but to some, it is. Suspension requires that several heavy duty hooks attached to wires are pierced through the skin. The biggest danger here is that not enough hooks will be used… resulting in a tear. Suspension looks grisly, but is apparently much less painful than you’d expect. It’s a staple for any dark underground show.

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Corset piercings are a unique twist on a typically benign adornment. A series of piercings are placed in two parallel rows down the back, side, or legs (or anywhere else you can think of), and a ribbon is woven back and forth to create a beautiful design. One can change the ribbon to suit the occasion, turning one’s body into an unusual and creative accessory.

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Scarification is still frequently used in Africa for decoration and to mark the passage into adulthood. Children have tribal designs cut into their faces, chests, and backs, in order to show they are man enough to withstand the pain without uttering a single noise. These marks help tribes identify friend or foe, and are considered aesthetically pleasing. The technique is slowly making its way across the globe, though scarification in the United States and Europe typically takes on a different aesthetic that involves more flat red scars, and less raised bumps.

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Kavadi is a structure held into place on a devotee’s body to venerate the Tamil god of war. There are several ways for believers to show their devoutness, from the mundane (carrying jugs of milk) to the more exotic (fire walking). Some choose a more extreme path and prepare for 48 days before their rites. These believers have over 100 metal spikes placed through their skin in a formation that allows the Kavadi structure to remain in place on their body.

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Just as some people have an innate desire to become the other sex, some have the seemingly random desire to become an amputee. These people are often straight-laced in every other facet of their lives, but cannot escape the need to have a limb removed. Since no doctor will perform a medically unnecessary amputation, most of these people have to take things into their own hands (and garage). When the need becomes uncontrollable, a tourniquet is tied around the limb, and once numbness sets in, they begin cutting. Afterwards, they’re left with a sense of relief that is not shared by friends and family.

(Images via paulnaidu and whappen)

Even the most common forms of body modification can be taken to their extremes. In a world where 2-4 ear piercings are the norm, and then, mostly on women, people love to push the limits by piercing anything and everything they can. Some choose to pierce uncommon areas, such as genitals, whereas some decide that more is better, and shoot for the moon. The most pierced woman has over 1,000 piercings on her face alone.

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Teeth decorations vary and span from inlaid jewels to teeth filed to points. Some like to sharpen teeth to look more like a vampire, while others show their wealth by having them all coated in gold. In Africa, some tribes file teeth into points, and knock out others, to show the participant has made the journey from childhood to adulthood. Just as in scarification, it’s important for the child to show no pain.

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What looks like disfigurement to some, is the height of beauty to others. Members of the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia judge beauty by the size of a female’s lip plug. Girls begin placing plugs into their lips at a young age and slowly increase the plug size until the lip is stretched to a surprising degree. Women have to be careful not to increase the plug sizes too quickly, as someone with a broken lip will never find a husband. It’s thought this tradition began as a way to avoid having women stolen during raids by other tribes, as their members would not find the modified women attractive.

All ephemeral, lasting a few weeks or maybe just a few hours, temporary street art installations are a colorful and engaging addition to ever-evolving urban settings. Some are so subtle that only the most observant of urban residents even notice them, like little sculptures of men in puddles; others are impossible to ignore, like 30-foot cardboard statues looming over the street. Some of these sculptural installations are officially commissioned while many more are stealthily assembled, guerrilla-style. Shocking, fun and often interactive, these 14 works bring art to the masses rather than cooping it up in museums.

Berlin Installation by Isaac Cordal

(image via: wooster collective)

You could easily pass by Isaac Cordal’s diminutive sculptures, which perch on electric outlets, telephone poles and bus stop benches. But if you’re observant enough to notice their presence, you’re pulled into a tiny world within the larger urban environment. This particular installation was noticed by an art lover in Berlin. Says Cordal, “Many of my sculptures I leave on the street, usually stuck on walls.  I don´t leave the sculptures on the street for people to take home. Street art is for everyone, not for just one person.  But ok, those people which have sculptures at home could at least send me a picture so I can see that the boys are well.”

900-Pound Box Man by Pablo Curutchet

(images via: design boom)

Whereas Cordal’s sculptures are subtle and small, this installation by Argentinian artist Pablo Curutchet is anything but. The 900-pound box man was installed in Boulevar san Juan and av. Marcelo T. Alvear, Córdoba, Argentina, in 2006 stood nearly 28 feet above street level and was constructed entirely out of cardboard boxes and tape. It took 11 people to mount it into place.

Human-Sized Pinscreen by Lulu Guinness

(image via: notcot)

Designer Lulu Guinness, known mostly for her handbags, created this fun ‘Be a Pinup!’ human-sized pinscreen in front of London’s St. John’s Gate in May. The interactive art installation let the public create full-sized body portraits by pressing up against 6,000 chromed capped aluminum pins in a black frame.

Segmented Street Sign Sculptures by Robbie Rowlands

(images via: robbierowlands.com.au)

These eye-catching segmented street sign sculptures are just the beginning of Melbourne-based Robbie Rowlands‘ collection of mind-bending works. Rowlands takes very precise slices of objects and even spaces (like cut-outs of floors and walls) and curls them up in various contortions. From doors and chairs to trees and water towers, Rowlands’ manipulations call to mind tightly controlled destruction.

Five Orange Spheres by Stuart Williams

(images via: behance)

For two and a half years in the 1980s, artist Stuart Williams took his five six-foot inflatable orange spheres around the world and photographed them in unlikely places, like the streets of France, New York City’s Central Park and an alpine village in Switzerland. The environmental artist is known for monumental installations including ‘Luminous Earth Grid’.

Pixel Pour 2.0 in New York City

(images via: laughingsquid)

Passersby photographed this fun sculptural installation on Mercer Street in New York City in January 2011, which features ‘pixelated’ water made of little blue and white boxes pouring out of a giant spigot. Deemed ‘Pixel Pour 2.0’, the sculpture is thought to be the work of (or at least inspired by) artist Kelly Goeller, who created the similar ‘Pixel Pour‘ in 2008.

Surreal Scenes by Mark Jenkins

(images via: xmarkjenkinsx.com)

Street artist Mark Jenkins is renowned for baffling and disturbing installations of headless, faceless human bodies as well as for his dreamy, diaphanous tape sculptures. The city is his canvas, and he paints it with utterly surreal scenes that are impossible to ignore. Whether playful, like the head-butting women, or disturbing, as in the ‘dead body’ festooned with balloons, Jenkins’ sculptures are often laced with social commentary such as the dehumanization of the homeless.

Cityscope by Marco Hemmerling

(images via: my modern met)

Literally a reflection of the city around it, Marco Hemmerling’s ‘Cityscope’ is a multi-faceted glass art installation that acts as an urban kaleidoscope, catching the light and displaying dream-like fragments of buildings. At night, the sculpture is illuminated from within, shining like a rainbow-colored crystal outside the railway station in Cologne, Germany.

Melted Ice Cream Truck in Adelaide, Australia

(images via: wooster collective)

This mysterious melted ice cream truck showed up in the suburban streets of Adelaide in South Australia in 2006. Though the image has been passed around the internet with a big question mark in place of artist credit, it is in fact ‘Hot with the Chance of Late Storm’, the work of Australian art collective ‘Glue Society‘. It was created for the 2006 Sculpture by the Sea fair.

The Brooklyn Griffin by Giant Robots

(images via: leonard lee boggs)

A robotic-looking wooden griffin sculpture looms over a desolate industrial Williamsburg street in Brooklyn, crafted from  pallets and skateboard decks. Artists Jimmy Bumble and Leonard White, who work together under the name Giant Robots, had tried assembling similar robots guerrilla-style on Brooklyn rooftops without success – an earlier version was destroyed the the building’s owner – before finding a legal home for it. They plan to come back and build more along the same strip, on Waterbury Street between Meserole and Scholes Streets.

Urban Nests on Scaffolding in Madrid, by Luzinterruptus

(images via: luzinterruptus)

Spanish street art collective Luzinterruptus placed adorable little birds into the yellow spheres, installed on scaffolding joints to prevent injuries, that they had noticed on a street in Madrid. “For our installation Urban Nests, we only had to populate the balls with 130 colored birds, that we left looking into the street from their makeshift homes in the scaffolding and of course light them, to achieve a warm, cozy atmosphere throughout the scaffolded area, inviting one to remain and contemplate such an unusual habitat.”

Inflatable Animal Sculptures by Joshua Allen Harris

(images via: wooster collective)

Inflatable animal sculptures by Joshua Allen Harris come alive when placed above sewer grates on the streets of New York. Harris crafts the sculptures from plastic bags; when a train passes, air comes gushing out of the grate, causing the animals to ‘dance’.

Economy Ice Sculpture by Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese

(image via: gothamist)

The economic meltdown was illustrated in a very public and literal fashion by artists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese in 2008, on the 79th anniversary of the 1929 Black Tuesday stock market crash. The ice sculpture, which spelled out ‘ECONOMY’, was placed across from the New York State Supreme Court Building in Manhattan’s Foley Square and allowed to melt. Said Ligorano of ‘Main Street Meltdown’, “To see the word ‘economy’ melting down is representational of our extreme time.”

Murdered Phone Booth by Banksy

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Anonymous street artist Banksy might be best known for his two-dimensional stenciled paintings, but he’s actually a sculptor, too. ‘Murdered Phone Booth’, an unauthorized outdoor art installation which appeared in London’s SoHo Square in 2006, is just one of the famous artist/documentary director’s three-dimensional works. The British Telecom telephone booth was bent and pierced with a pick-axe. BT later jokingly offered to purchase it and place it in their lobby as a “stunning visual comment on BT’s transformation from an old-fashioned telecommunications company into a modern communications services provider.”

It’s happening all around the world: people are taking pictures of their friends awkwardly lying face-down in all sorts of unlikely places. On top of statues, in the middle of roads, in front of famous landmarks – absolutely anywhere you can conceivably fit a horizontal human body, you’ll find someone playing the bizarre game. The weirder the place and the more people looking on, the better. You may ask why, but the people behind The Lying Down Game would rather ask “Why not?”

Lying Down Game creators Gary Clarkson and Christian Langdon describe their creation as “Parkour…for those who can’t be arsed.” In other words, this is the lazy person’s urban navigation sport. There’s no dangerous jumping or athletic climbing required; just the ability to lie down and stop moving for a moment along with the bravery to tolerate people staring at you as if you are crazy.

Feel brave enough to participate? The rules are simple, according to the creators: “1) The more public the better.  2) The more people involved the better. Please be aware that the palms of your hands must be flat against your side and the tips of your toes pointing at the ground. Just as if you were standing, but vertically challenged. FACE DOWN!“

The game has been around as a Facebook group since 2006, but the meme really reached its peak in the summer of 2009. Mainstream media picked up on the story and the game was featured by news outlets around the world. After the attention, participation soared and the submitted pictures grew more and more outrageous. The game was at the center of a few controversies as people were caught lying down at work and in some rather unwise places, but lying down enthusiasts continued to play.

Aside from being a silly thing to do to amuse yourself, the Lying Down Game strikes us as a brilliant public art project. Seen separately, these photos suggest thousands of weird people all willing to do something a little crazy. But taken together, the photos of people all around the world lying face down in odd locations looks a lot like collective performance art. It helps that they all seem to be having fun while lying down.

The Facebook page for the group is still going strong after all this time, and it has now reached well over 100,000 members. Want to play? Be prepared for some stares and the occasional “Are you alright?” – and don’t forget to bring a friend with a camera to capture the ridiculous places you find to lie down in.

Do you ever feel like you’re adrift on a sea of corporate branding, intrusive advertising and omnipresent logos? Advertising has become so ubiquitous that we’re now seeing high schools and Little League teams sporting the logos of companies big and small. French animation collective H5 took on the disturbingly ever-present corporate branding phenomenon in this short called “Logorama.” Warning to sensitive readers: the film contains a lot of profanity along with some violence and a little cartoon nudity.

Logorama from Marc Altshuler – Human Music on Vimeo.

The film features an alternate-reality Los Angeles where absolutely everything – people, buildings, cars – is made up of logos. The directors could have simply shown us 15 minutes of animated logos and we would have still been impressed, but they instead take us through an epic crime story with a surprising ending. Part of the fun is watching it over and over and spotting new things every single time. The film is positively stuffed with brands, mascots and logos that will make you alternately laugh and cringe.

H5, the studio behind the project, consists of François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain. Their exceptionally well-produced short was introduced at Cannes in 2009 and opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It also took home a 2010 Academy Award in the category of animated short. It’s not hard to see why the film has won such popularity and admiration: it is a biting satire on the brand-obsessed modern America with a fair amount of humor thrown in.

What could be more personal and human than a cast of your head – made from your own frozen blood? The human body has been used as a canvas for all sorts of art, but perhaps more interesting and rare is the use of human body parts as artistic media, from sculptures made of hair, bones and fingernail parings to plasticized corpses in dynamic poses. These 12 artists have made human body art that is often controversial and sometimes surprisingly poignant.

Marc Quinn

(images via: art news blog)

If you’re going to do a self-portrait, why not go all out and make a sculpture out of your own frozen blood? That’s what sculptor Marc Quinn has done – every five years since 1991 – using a mold of his head and a whopping 9.5 pints of blood drawn over a period of five months. Quinn’s 2006 version of ‘Self’ was purchased by the UK’s National Portrait Gallery for over $465,000.

Andrew Krasnow

(images via: the independent)

It’s been called horrific and gruesome, but is Andrew Krasnow’s controversial skin art really a sensitive reflection on human cruelty? The artist creates flags, lampshades, boots and other everyday items from the skin of people who donated their bodies to medical science. Krasnow says that each piece is a statement on America’s ethics. “The objective was to express my concerns about the war and that it would not be conducted in a way that was moral and ethical,” he said. “Since that question wasn’t permitted in a museum, the work became more complex, with all the inherent contradictions of what it means to be an American or, for that matter, to be human.”

Gunther Von Hagens

(images via: body worlds)

Perhaps no artist using actual human flesh as his chosen medium has gained such renown as Gunther Von Hagens, the man behind the “Body Worlds” exhibition of plasticized human corpses. But for all the outcry regarding Von Hagens’ supposedly “disrespectful” usage of human bodies, there’s just as much fascination. Von Hagens invented plastination, the method of replacing water and fat in human tissue with certain plastics, preserving them for study.

Francois Robert

(images via: francois robert)

Francois Robert’s fascination with human bones started with an unusual discovery: an articulated human skeleton hidden inside a presumably empty locker that he purchased. Realizing the potential for artistic expression, Robert traded in the wired skeleton for a disarticulated one so that he could arrange the parts into shapes and designs. Since then, he has created a haunting photo series called ‘Stop the Violence’ that uses the stark-white bones on a black background to illuminate the inhumanity of war.

Anthony-Noel Kelly

(images via: anthony-noelkelly.com)

British artist Anthony-Noel Kelly followed in the footsteps of many artists before him, including Michelangelo, when he closely studied human body parts for his work. But unlike those artists, Kelly illegally smuggled human remains from the Royal College of Surgeons and used them to cast sculptures in plaster and silver paint. Kelly was found guilty of this unusual crime in 1998 and spend nine months in jail. The sculptures can still be seen on his website, anthony-noelkelly.com.

Kai-hung Fung

(images via: the daily mail)

CT scans are typically only interesting to health care practitioners and the patients whose bodies they portray on film, but artist Kai-hung Fung manipulates them into stunning artistic images. Lungs, arteries, vocal chords and ear canals are just a few of the body parts that Fung – a radiologist himself – has scanned into a computer, intensifying the color but otherwise not manipulating them in any way.

Linda Jones

(images via: wcax)

How would you feel if a relative of yours took bits of your hair, stitches from an injury, even catheters and other medical equipment and used it to build a creepy “family photo album?” Artist Linda Jones of Vermont turned such objects into an exhibition at Burlington’s Firehouse Gallery, shaping layers of wax, x-rays, teeth and even bits of flesh into abstract art. Of the show’s content and theme, gallery Curator Chris Thompson remarked, “Why do we simultaneously want to preserve life, modify our bodies, extend life, but at the same time, find the actual act of it very disturbing?”

Tim Hawkinson

(images via: flying out of this world)

Tiny and delicate, almost diaphanous, this little bird skeleton at first seems remarkable simply because it is so well preserved despite the fragility of bird bones. But those aren’t bones at all – they’re the fingernail clippings of the artist, Tim Hawkinson, carefully arranged into the 2-inch-tall sculpture.

Wieki Somers

(images via: herald sun)

Seemingly carved from concrete, the sculptures of Wieki Somers look weighty and hyper-realistic despite their lack of color. But these everyday objects, placed on beds of what looks like sand, are more organic than they appear – they’re made from human ashes. Somers uses donated remains and a 3D industrial printer to create art that questions our attachment to inanimate objects. “We may offer Grandpa a second life as a useful rocking chair or even as a vacuum cleaner or a toaster,” she told the Herald Sun. “Would we then become more attached to these products?”

Kim Do

(images via: oddity central)

You (probably) don’t mind wearing a sweater made from the wool of a sheep, so why not wear a dress made from human hair? Kim Do of Vietnam created this bizarre masterpiece from 1 million meters of human hair gathered from 54 different people, dyed and sewn together, with lighter brown hair creating the shape of a dragon on the front. It even comes with a matching hat, perched on the model’s head like a matted bouffant.

Huang Xin

(images via: the telegraph)

If a dress made from human hair wasn’t quite strange enough, another artist paid tribute to U.S. President Barack Obama with a sculpture made from – yes – hair. Hairdresser Huang Xin celebrated Obama’s visit to China  by molding a mini hairy Obama sculpture using hot glue and tons of dyed hair.

Kittiwat Unarrom

(images via: inventorspot)

The lone mention on this list that isn’t made from actual human body parts gains a spot merely because the realism of this work is so shocking. Thai artist Kittiwat Unarrom has disgusted and intrigued many a passer-by with his “human body parts” on display, butcher-style, hanging from hooks and laid out like choice cuts of meat. The thing is, Unarrom’s works aren’t actually the spoils of a serial killer, or garnered from human donors. They’re actually made from bread, but you would never guess by looking at it – which is why they make such great gag gifts.