Collodion on the skin

himself · May 14, 2012

mornin' all,

now before I get to my idea this will have to be taken with quite a large portion of salt and a little imagination - so, some background reading to begin...

ignoring the fact that this is linked from foxnews - it can also be seen on the daily mail and torygraph in the Uk too (odd that it seems to be mostly right leaning publications, anyway) - is this possible? has this man coloured himself blue by, well, turning himself into a human collodion plate?

so to my idea and assuming it's true from here on out.

would it be possible to refine this and make photo tattoos?
if the silver can settle in the skin and then react to light to change colour, would it be possible to coat someone in collodion, expose them, develop and fix them, or is the fact that he's been doing it for decades responsible for the colour change rather than a one off coating...

I understand that it wouldn't be very good for the skin with the chemicals involved, but I'm more interested in if it's possible rather than safe, healthy, advisable blah blah blah.

so what say you?

mark · May 14, 2012

That guy is weird. His "treatment" turned him blue. one would think he would stop the "treatment". Nope. He just uses less.

As for your question, how would you fix out the unexposed silver?

himself · May 14, 2012

mark said:
That guy is weird. His "treatment" turned him blue. one would think he would stop the "treatment". Nope. He just uses less.
As for your question, how would you fix out the unexposed silver?

you have to love his dedication, right.

I have no idea, I imagine that the collodion wouldn't "sink in" straight away, so fix like normal and then it would seep in already fixed...
or something, you know, this was never a fully formed plan

Allen Friday · May 14, 2012

I'll play:

The man turned blue due to his ingesting the chemicals--a systemic event. Coating yourself with a collodion emulsion and exposing it would be topical--the emulsion would be on top of the skin. One good scrubbing and the emulsion would be lost down the drain.

This kind of reminds me of the people who tape negatives on their skin and then go lay out in the sun for an afternoon. They get an image (sun tan) on their skin. No need to fix. But, as the skin grows and repairs itself, the image fades. Although, I remember one girl who put a Playboy Bunny sticker on her breast and spent the day at the beach. That night, she had a nice little white bunny for all to see. It got my attention. But then, I am always interested in new photographic techniques.

himself · May 14, 2012

Allen Friday said:
I'll play:

The man turned blue due to his ingesting the chemicals--a systemic event. Coating yourself with a collodion emulsion and exposing it would be topical--the emulsion would be on top of the skin. One good scrubbing and the emulsion would be lost down the drain.

[...]

that's true enough and would be right in reality, but this guy is blue, so I'm inclined to believe him over my own senses - he claims it's the putting it on his skin that turned him blue...

so a non-starter then?

Allen Friday · May 14, 2012

From the article: "Looking for relief, Karason drank the concoction and rubbed it on his skin — something the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not recommend."

And: "When he was asked if he's still drinking the colloidal silver, he said yes, but much less."

himself · May 14, 2012

in another article he claims that it was rubbing it in his skin, rather than drinking it, that turned him blue - which is why he keeps drinking it.

anyway, so I know it didn't work for him, but can it work?

Mainecoonmaniac · May 14, 2012

NuSkin ought to make a photographer's version. Now you can make your cut a work of art!

removed account4 · May 14, 2012

back in the 1980s when i was teaching myself dry plate work
i used to buy quarts of flexible collodion from the pharmacy.
yeah i know it is the wrong kind of collodion ( it has camphor and stuff in it )
but just the same ... it is collodion and out of the bottle it does the same sort
of thing that collodion spiked with iodide and bromine ( hope i got those chemicals right )
anyhow, i coated plates with it and had a bunch of fun ...
from my own experience, i wouldn't want to pour collodion on my skin.
it burns ...
even though it was used regularly to coat wounds in the us civil war,
and is a component part of nu skin, and even nail polishes i wouldn't do it ...

if you want an image on your skin, do what avedon did when he was a kid ... tape a negative
to your skin, and go out in the sun ...
way less dangerous than coating your skin with explosives laced in chemicals that you later
have to soak in cyanide ...

good luck!
john

himself · May 14, 2012

right... the cyanide.
foiled again.

this really isn't going to work is it, how very sad.

Allen Friday · May 14, 2012

He is drinking/rubbing colloidal silver, which causes him to turn blue. Perhaps we should think outside the box and think about drinking/rubbing something else. How about sodium chloroplatinate? Instead of blue, it might turn you a nice, dark shade of brown. Gold toner might give a nice pink tone to the skin, especially in the highlights.

himself · May 14, 2012

Allen Friday said:
He is drinking/rubbing colloidal silver, which causes him to turn blue. Perhaps we should think outside the box and think about drinking/rubbing something else. How about sodium chloroplatinate? Instead of blue, it might turn you a nice, dark shade of brown. Gold toner might give a nice pink tone to the skin, especially in the highlights.

Mainecoonmaniac · May 14, 2012

I'm currently have filed a patent for a "Dermatype". It involves large format negatives taped to any part of your body and lying down on a tanning bed for an hour. Red heads should reduce their exposure time by 1/2.

Please inquire about licensing my technology

himself · May 14, 2012

oooh that sounds kewl...

removed account4 · May 14, 2012

Mainecoonmaniac said:
I'm currently have filed a patent for a "Dermatype". It involves large format negatives taped to any part of your body and lying down on a tanning bed for an hour. Red heads should reduce their exposure time by 1/2.

Please inquire about licensing my technology

you are a little late ...
see post 9

Mainecoonmaniac · May 14, 2012

Oh well....less money to cure my GAS.

E. von Hoegh · May 14, 2012

Wasn't there a thread in the lounge about argyria?

smieglitz · May 14, 2012

The guy is using collodial silver, not collodion. Collodion is gun cotton dissolved in ether and alcohol. A colloid is a suspension of one substance in another, like milkfat in water, aka milk. This is in contrast to something that is dissolved by a solvent like table salt in water.

Silver is an antibacterial agent and a lot of folks believe drinking collodial silver has health benefits. That practice leads to argyria and the symptomatic blue skin.

Collodion on the skin

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