Collodion on the skin

[himself]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[jnanian]

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]

right... the cyanide.
foiled again.

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