The Art of Bleeding

Apparently this is on one of the fine “Songs in the Key of Z” collections of outsider music, but we only heard it last week.  Now you too can hear Buddy’s semi-musical retelling of  a visit to an overseas surgeon to remove an unnamed birthmark.  It’s in the form of a letter to his mom, [...]

An un-sedated patient reads a poem dedicated to the scalpel-wielding Dr. Angel Escurdero while under the influence of  ”Volitive Psychoanalgesia. The video posted on YouTube is linked to the Spanish doctor’s site where he promotes his own artsy approach to medicine and something he calls “noesitherapy,” or “healing by thinking”  (from the Greek word “noesis” for “thinking).

I don’t know what’s going on here, but it makes me very uncomfortable.

We created a Tumblr account recently and have been really digging the vintage medical scenes shared by Sutured Infection. Here’s a sample of what we’re crushing out on. We think you’ll understand. Some days your nerve feel numbered.   A hand exerciser. Equipment for studying the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Herbert List: “Instructive View into [...]

Q: What’s black and white, and red, and over? A: Our “Surgical Couture” series of posts. Couldn’t resist one last post after our friend Jason reminded us of those gorgeous red surgical gowns in Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers.

After our last post about dramatic surgical styles, it’s hard not to think of Alexis Carrel, the man who really put the “theater” in “operating theater.” As divine as vintage white surgical gowns might be, the diabolical black shrouds preferred by Dr. Carrel surely have them beat. Carrel, a French surgeon and Nobel Prize winner working [...]

Sure, contemporary blue or green surgical wear may be easier on the eye, but only the white wardrobe of yesteryear really moves us. So it was a great delight to discover the Flickr set of “Knuckles 45,” who obviously shares our appreciation for antique surgical styles. Savor for a moment these depictions of surgeons dressed [...]

Feedback 0n the recent face-transplant blog entry got us searching the topic a bit more, and we didn’t have to search long. Think this pretty much says it all: “Face Transplant Pictures Dot Com” (not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach obviously)  

Lisa Wood and her Swallowing Plates reminded us of the topic of swallowed indigestibles, but we still somehow missed National Hairball Day on April 27. To make up for this sad omission we feature the hairball in its most elevated state:  the bezoar. “Bezoars” are accretions of matter fibrous matter such as hair (in cats, [...]

Folded shamefully away in the quilt of American history is a bloody pair of scissors used by union calvaryman. Why? Well, turns out self-castration is unbecoming in an American hero. Just as Jack Ruby snuffed Lee Harvey Oswald before we had answers, Lincoln’s assassin was prematurely “executed” by a gunman with his own rogue sense [...]