# Do it yourself trepanning **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 11, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-it-yourself-trepanning/294014 "2005-03-11T14:01:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-it-yourself-trepanning/294014/1 "2005-03-11T14:01:34Z")
You think your tongue piercing or clit-ring is radical? Well, you are wrong. Tattoos and piercings are so yesterday. Everybody and his grandma has got a piercing. No, trepanning is where the hip crown goes. You can even do it yourself with everyday utensils found in any well stocked kitchen. [http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/320/7235/602/c](http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/320/7235/602/c) This girl ran for parliament on a program of making trepanning freely available on the National Health. That’s so crazy she would have had my vote on a heartbeat. [http://www.noah.org/trepan/people\_with\_holes\_in\_their\_heads.html](http://www.noah.org/trepan/people_with_holes_in_their_heads.html) The International Trepanning Advocacy Group has a pretty neat homepage. [http://www.trepan.com/\_index.html](http://www.trepan.com/_index.html) Prehistoric trepanning kit [http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient\_inventions/hsc06b.htm](http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/hsc06b.htm) ummm? [http://www.trepanning.com/](http://www.trepanning.com/) ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-it-yourself-trepanning/294014/2 "2005-03-11T14:12:35Z")
I love these guys! I first read that article about ‘The People With Holes in Their Heads’ around 1989 (it was in a book called _Eccentric Lives and Peculiar Notions_). My favorite line described the steps Joey took as he prepared to trepan himself successfully: > [@](#): > > …he obtained some stouter needles, **took a tab of LSD to steady his nerves** and set to in earnest… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-it-yourself-trepanning/294014/3 "2005-03-11T14:54:27Z")
I need trephination like I need a Hole in my Head. Yeah, I know. But I _had_ to say it. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-it-yourself-trepanning/294014/4 "2005-03-11T15:00:15Z")
[The Master speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/020906.html) ---
**Author:** ![Alias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-it-yourself-trepanning/294014/5 "2005-03-11T15:47:09Z")
Not to go off topic, but how does one tend to a wound like that? There was a woman some time ago who did her own trepanning, wrapped a scarf around her head and went out to a nightclub. Wouldn’t it just bleed and bleed? Blahhhh! I’m giving myself the willies just thinking about it. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-it-yourself-trepanning/294014/6 "2005-03-11T16:04:43Z")
My sophomore US History class had to watch a video on trepanning and I’ve been fairly traumatized ever since (about three years.) _shudders_ ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-it-yourself-trepanning/294014/7 "2005-03-11T20:11:50Z")
> [@Alias](#): > > Not to go off topic, but how does one tend to a wound like that? There was a woman some time ago who did her own trepanning, wrapped a scarf around her head and went out to a nightclub. Wouldn’t it just bleed and bleed? Blahhhh! I’m giving myself the willies just thinking about it. :eek: I’ve always wondered - I mean, doesn’t the open wound lead to hideous infections? Does skin grow over the hole again? What actually happens afterwards? ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-it-yourself-trepanning/294014/8 "2005-03-11T20:52:05Z")
The demons escaping from the skull, maintaining a temperature of approximately, oh, Hell, tend to cauterize the wound and prevent infection. This is why it’s important to have oven mitts on when performing this operation. ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-it-yourself-trepanning/294014/9 "2005-03-11T21:27:36Z")
> [@The King of Soup](#): > > The demons escaping from the skull, maintaining a temperature of approximately, oh, Hell, tend to cauterize the wound and prevent infection. This is why it’s important to have oven mitts on when performing this operation. 😛 😛 😛 Laughing my ass off…