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 the liver damage I was informed that a rapid drop of 20% of my body weight was determined to be the only effective treatment course, as a rapid drop of this amount would force my liver to expell the excess fat and heal itself enough to avoid serious 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.
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 journal and commentary on the controversial procedure. 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 hoped to use my experience to spark an honest discourse over the surgery’s effectiveness and ethics.
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.
