The grossest things musicians have done to their bodies – including hooks in the scalp

Some musicians live to shock the public and, over the years, the world’s biggest popstars and rock stars have certainly pulled out all the stops.

High-profile publicity stunts or moments of madness are usually enough to make people recoil in horror, but what about musicians who turn that madness on themselves?

Terrifying tattoos, painful piercings, and smashing glass bottles over their heads – you’d be hard pushed to find something the musicians in this list haven’t done.

Unbelievably, a rap star having a multi-million dollar diamond inserted into their forehead is not the queasiest thing you’ll find when reading the list below.

We’ve got punk musicians from the 1980s, rap stars who became rock stars in the 2010s, and one of the biggest names in hip hop and R&B today.

And all of them are 100% real – there are no rumours or urban myths to be found here! Prepare yourselves…

Lil Uzi Vert’s $24m forehead diamond

Lil Uzi Vert, 30, whose real name is Symere Woods, has been one of the biggest names in rap since the mid-2010s after a run of hugely successful singles.

Their big breakout hit, XO Tour Llif3, was a chart smash in America after they’d already teamed up with rap trio Migos for number one song Bad & Boujee.

Uzi, who confirmed their they/them pronouns in 2023, is no stranger to modifying their appearance, with numerous tattoos across their body and face – they’ve also changed their extreme hairstyles a few times.

But for a brief period in 2021, the rapper and singer revealed that they’d embedded an actual 10-carat pink diamond right in the middle of their forehead.

Despite the risk of infection, the diamond stayed in place for quite a while, but was apparently ‘ripped out’ by fans – it was said to be worth $24m (£19m).

Dave Draiman’s extravagant chin piercings

You know the KFC advert that’s been on TV this year, which shows you pictures of meal deals while a metal band shouts ‘Ooh wa-ah-ah-ah!’ over the top?

That guy screaming ‘Ooh wa-ah-ah-ah!’ is Dave Draiman, the frontman and lead songwriter of 1990s American alternative metal band Disturbed.

Known for their cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence, Disturbed topped the charts at the height of the alternative metal movement of the late 90s and early 2000s.

Around that time, Dave decided that getting two massive chin piercings would be the best way to promote himself and his band on the world stage.

In 2018,after having the piercings taken out, he explained to German magazine Duetsche Welle, that it felt ‘weird’ to still have them at the age of 45.

Cardi B’s neck and chest accessories

In 2020, rapper and singing superstar Cardi B could only say ‘I don’t even know why I’m agreeing to this’ as she got neck and chest piercings.

The 32-year-old WAP hitmaker, who was in her late 20s at the time, screamed in pain as she got the daring piercings put in at home.

She also had to tightly hold onto the hand of her husband Kiari Cephus, better known by his stage name Offset – the pair were married between 2017 and 2023.

However, she appeared happy with the results once the ordeal was over, showing them off on Instagram to her millions of followers.

Just a few months later, her body unfortunately began to reject the piercings, with videos showing that it was literally being pushed out.

‘This is how my piercing has been for the past four days, ugh, ow,’ she explained as images showed one of them hanging off her skin.

Chris Brown’s Mexican ‘sugar skull’

Chris Brown’s ‘sugar skull’ tattoo on his neck sparked quite a bit of controversy when he unveiled it to the public 12 years ago.

He got the tattoo in the summer of 2012, with the design inspired by the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead – also known Día de Muertos.

Many people immediately likened the tattoo to the image of Rihanna’s face after she was assaulted by the Forever singer in 2009.

However, the With You hitmaker and his team have repeatedly denied that speculation, insisting it’s just a sugar skull design and nothing more sinister.

Despite the denials, the tattoo continues to be a topic of discussion and speculation among fans and critics alike.

GG Allin’s glass scars

Born Jesus Christ Allin (yes, really), GG Allin’s old brother was unable to say the word ‘Jesus’ and simply called his younger sibling by the name of ‘Je-Je’.

Hence: GG Allin. Once he was grown up, Allin performed in a number of punk bands in the 1980s, shocking and horrifying crowds with his intense on-stage antics.

As well as deliberately cutting his scalp with glass on numerous occasions, he also defecated on-stage at many shows and threatened to take his own life in front of a crowd in 1989.

It was only being sent to prison that apparently stopped him – he was arrested and imprisoned for his antics numerous times during his short career.

Allin was left permanently physically scarred, and his life was eventually cut short at the age of 36 after a drug overdose – his bandmates took Polaroid photographs with his body before the ambulances arrived.

Dan Sur’s scalp hooks

In 2021, independent Mexican rapper Dan Sur made the decision to have metal hooks surgically embedded into his scalp so he could hang gold chains off his head.

In doing so, Dan became ‘the first rapper to have gold hair implanted in human history’ and gained a massive social media following as a result.

‘The truth is that I wanted to do something different because I see that everyone dyes their hair. I hope not everyone copies me now,’ Dan said in one of his social media videos at the time.

He continued: ‘I have it as a hook that is implanted in my head and that hook has hooks and they are all hooked in my skull, under my skin. This is my hair. Golden hair.’

Believe it or not, Dan stayed committed to his look and has kept the gold chain hair in the three years since the procedure – at this point you just have to say fair play to him.

Machine Gun Kelly’s ‘blackout’ body tattoo

In February 2024, musician Machine Gun Kelly shocked fans after revealing a ‘blackout’ body tattoo that covered his arms, shoulders, and chest.

The rapper-turned-singer, who already had several tattoos before his latest venture, unveiled the shocking body art on Instagram to his 9.1million followers.

With the exception of a big crucifix covering his torso, and symmetrical lines to break up the solid black look on his arms, his entire upper body was ‘blacked out’.

Machine Gun Kelly, whose real name is Colson Baker, said the tattoo was ‘for spiritual purposes only’ – he’s added more ink to it in the last 10 months.

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