Post-Op
2021-2022
Completed over the course of 12 months “Post-Op” is a series of body prints that explores my first year following bariatric surgery. In 2021, at the age of 26, I was encouraged by my hepatologist to undergo a sleeve gastrectomy following acute liver failure caused by sudden and rapid fat infiltration of my liver cells (a rare side effect of the birth control pill I had been on). Due to the nature of my liver damage I was informed that a rapid drop of 20% of my body weight was the only effective treatment course, as a loss of this amount would force my liver to expell the excess fat which would allow for enough healing to prevent permanent damage. Failing to do this could cause my liver damage to progress to a point of requiring a liver transplant. Given both a history of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) as well as an eating disorder (ED) my doctor and I agreed that surgical intervention supervised by a therapist experienced in treating ED patients was the best course of action.
Due to the complexity and risks involved in this process I chose to record the experience in a series of stomach stamps as a personal commentary on the controversial procedure. Prior to the availability of GLP-1s bariatric surgery was often sold in the United States as a “magical cure to fatness”. Bariatric surgery is a procedure in which a person’s stomach is partially amputated or fully bypassed in order to drastically reduce one’s weight. Finding the experience fraught with unexpected challenges and harmful rhetoric I hope to use my experience to spark an honest discourse over the surgery’s effectiveness and ethics. And while the surgery was a success in saving my liver I now deal with permanent complications as a result of the operation.
There are 13 stamps in total, each made by painting black acrylic paint onto my bare stomach and pressing it against white paper. The first was taken 3 days following my operation to mark the start. Each of the remaining 12 stamps was taken in month-long intervals following the surgery, lasting until the final stamp taken on the 1 year anniversary of my surgery.
Personal and in-time thoughts on each stamp can be read on my Instagram.
