What?

Extending the body’s senses and communication into the electromagnetic spectrum is awesome. I’ve had implanted in my body:

• a subdermal magnet, providing tactile perception of magnetic fields (implanted 2014; removed due to bioisolating coating failure in 2019). Read about and watch my self-implantation here.
• an NFC NTAG216 RFID chip, currently used to Rick Roll unsuspecting people who get their phones close to my hand. Read about and watch my self-implantation here.
• a T5577 proximity card emulator (HID, Indala, etc.), currently used to badge into elevators and doors at work. Watch my self-implantation on Facebook.
• a combination NTAG 216 and power-harvesting LED circuit that lights up when scanned, currently presenting a vCard contact file on scanning. Read about and see pitures of my self-implantation here.
• a SmartMX3 P71D321 secure element, capable of NFC communications and onboard compute via JavaCard applets, currently supplying multiple FIDO identities as well as performing onboard cryptography and key storage. Read more about my implantation, performed by a bodymod artist, here.

Why?

Broadly, the human body is safely compatible with a wide range of subdermal compute systems, with more being developed every year. Biohacking, or “grinding” as the more DIY contingent calls it, works to, among other things, extend our bodies’ capabilites and senses using technology. As someone whose life is built around technology, it just feels right that my body align with my passions to be radio-responsive and subject to some light hacking.

I’ve done most of my implantations myself, but only after extensive study of anatomy, infection control, aseptic technique, and tool proficiency. For my magnet implantation, my threshold of general medical knowledge needed before surgery was passing practice nursing licensing exams and taking online courses in hand anatomy. For all that, though, implantation of most mass-market implants is no more complex than a piercing, and indeed many piercers will happily assist. However, with the exception of my secure element implantation, which required advancing a half-centimeter-wide needle through five centimeters of subdermal layers (more pain than I was willing to keep my head clear for), they were all generally fairly simple to do along with a brave helping hand to aid in skin manipulation.

FAQ

No, I’m not crazy, to the best of my knowledge. Implanatations were accompanied by deep risk analysis, in-depth medical learning, and a LOT of reading peoples’ past experiences with implants.

Yes, it’s complicated to explain to doctors, and especially complicated to work a medical professoional out of the perspective than I am mentally unwell and into an understanding that these are real, intentional, and safe.

All the implants hurt at least a bit, except for my magnet insertion which I used local anesthesia for (but scalpelling into my own finger brought its own unique sense of discomfort). However, all but my secure element implantation hurt no more than a piercing.

No, I have no trouble at the airport or getting MRIs; the implants have less metal than a tooth filling. My magnet implant was not MRI safe, but didn’t set off metal detectors – in the VERY unlikely event I would be MRI’d while unconscious, I wore a medical alert necklace explaining my situation.

Yes, I felt all sorts of things around me when I had my magnet implant – my favorite was walking through a store’s anti-theft bars which oscillated at a powerful and low enough frequency to be felt exceptionally clearly. However, I could also feel motors spinning up when I was close and even a faint tickle from 60Hz wall-mains if an extension cord was under heavy load. My most annoying trick was abusing MacBook’s magnetic lid sensor to touch a spot on a coworker’s laptop and put it to sleep (done very sparingly haha). The most useful trick was extracting and holding small screws during laptop maintenance.