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A photo illustration of Anastasia Synn that represents "the version of myself that I would love to see one day but we are not there yet."SEBASTIAN KONOPIX |
AS VEGAS — At a
biohacker conference convened here the other day, panelists took to the stage, settled into their chairs, and launched into their slide decks. Not Anastasia Synn.
With Frank Sinatra crooning “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” over the loudspeakers, Synn pulled out a giant needle and
twisted it deeper and deeper into her left forearm as the music played on. It was only after finishing her routine, capped off by loud applause from the crowd of biohackers, that Synn sat down for a fireside chat about her work as a “cyborg magician.”
Synn has 26 microchips and magnets implanted throughout her body. Unlike many biohackers who experiment purely out of personal interest, Synn does it for her magic career. These days, she’s doing less performing on stage and spending more time designing bodily implants for other magicians.
STAT sat down with Synn after her performance last weekend at “
Biohack the Planet” to learn more about her bodily implants, her medical precautions, and what it’s like to go through airport security.
You’re often described in interviews as a cyborg. What does that mean to you?
To me, a cyborg is anyone that wants to add technology or anything that isn’t already in their body to their body to achieve a new sense or a new ability.
So you have a total of 26 bodily implants, including microchips and magnets, and you’re getting a 27th one this afternoon.
Yes, and a 28th tomorrow. [A few days after this interview, Synn said she hadn’t yet installed implants No. 27 and 28. But, she said, “I suspect by the end of the month I’ll probably be up to 35.”]
What do you use these implants to do?