An Australian artist has a third ear on his arm. Stelarc, though, isn’t some magnificent mutant though. It didn’t happen by accident. He found a surgeon crazy enough to put it there.
Stelarc began his journey to crazy ear art all the way back in 1996 when he arrived at the idea, but it took another ten years before he found a surgeon willing to implant a false ear into his forearm. I can’t imagine why there weren’t more surgeons lining up for the opportunity to do something that would make their colleagues roll their eyes or point and laugh, but apparently it was just the one doc.
The extra ear was made from a scaffold of biocompatible material commonly used in plastic surgery. Stelarc originally thought of putting it behind one of his real ears, but chose to have it transplanted in the arm where the skin could stretch without requiring the prosthetic to be inflated…
Stelarc’s own tissue and blood vessels developed around the ear scaffold within six months. He says the arm ear is now permanently part of his body.”
Alright, so it’s not a legit ear and it doesn’t work but do you see what’s happening here? It’s possible to ADD body parts. Eventually, we’ll figure out how to add USEFUL parts like extra arms and legs and then those people will adapt to life with extra limbs and then that has to effect their offspring (because giraffes didn’t always have long necks) and in a couple decades people are going to be mutations and it’s going to rule and I’m going to the doctor to get lazers in my eyes.
[via GQ]