A Brazilian tattoo artist has undergone surgery to resemble an orc from The Lord of the Rings: He now has horns, a split tongue, and has surgically removed his nose. He says most people would look similar. He wants to be different to stand out from the crowd.
Trigger warning: There are 2 Instagram posts embedded in the article. The images may disturb some readers.
Who is the man who wants to look like an orc? The man is named Fernando Franco de Oliveira. He owns a tattoo studio in southern Brazil.
In an interview, he says: He is the main attraction of his studio. People who see him on the street take pictures with him. They find him interesting (via ctvnews.ca).
“Most people look the same. I wanted to be different”
Why is he doing this? De Oliveira says:
“Everyone – that is, most people in the world – look the same. They are all the same. And I wanted to be different. I wanted to stand out.”
What surgeries has he undergone? The changes to his body began more than 15 years ago.
In 2006, de Oliveira started tattooing his body from head to toe: dragons, clowns, dogs, and other motifs. He was so heavily tattooed that he made it into a record book in 2014 as the “most tattooed person in Brazil.”
Today, he calls these 8 tattoo years the “most painful experience he ever had – by far.”
Other body modifications quickly followed:
- He elongated his earlobes
- Injected ink into his eyes to turn them black
- Added horns to his skull
- Replaced his teeth with a vampire set
- Split his tongue
Eventually, he covered his tattoos by dyeing his body blue and had his ears reshaped to resemble those of an orc from “The Lord of the Rings”.
That was the most difficult change: De Oliveira says the most drastic change to his body was the removal of his nose. He had it removed in March and it took months for the wound to heal. He removed his nose to look particularly frightening.
The nose still causes him pain. When he showers, a lot of water runs through the nose.
Many who see him would consider him a satanist, he says. But that is not the case. He carries God in his heart.
Is he done now? No, he plans to have his jaw surgically narrowed. He also wants to remove skin and add more horns to his skull.
Body modifications or “BodyMod” are a controversial topic. According to a report by Deutschlandfunk, there are various reasons why people undergo such body modifications:
- Aesthetic value
- Sexual value
- Spiritual reasons
- To experience (or change) an awareness of one’s limits
- Shock effects
Medical professionals point out that there is a risk of unintended consequences with any body modification.
“Standing out at any cost” as a phenomenon has always existed in human history. With social media, this phenomenon continues to increase:
A young influencer turns out to be a 50-year-old man: “Nobody wants to see the old uncle”
