Bagel Heads is a temporary body modification where saline is injected into the forehead and pressed into a doughnut ring, holding its shape for about 24 hours before the body absorbs the fluid[3].

Where did Bagel Heads come from?

Body modification enthusiast Jerome Abramovitch popularized the saline forehead technique in the early 2000s, showing it on Ripley's Believe It or Not! in February 2003[3].

What does Bagel Heads mean?

The name refers to the bagel-shaped ring the saline injection leaves in the forehead, a nickname first used by the alt-culture site BizarreMag in June 2009[2].

How do you use Bagel Heads?

It is a physical body modification rather than an image template. Practitioners visit professional piercing or tattoo studios for the saline drip and thumb press, and the look lasts about one night[2].

Is Bagel Heads still popular?

The trend peaked in September 2012 with wide coverage of the National Geographic Taboo segment on Japanese practitioners, including a BuzzFeed repost of the footage[1]. It hasn't drawn comparable mainstream coverage since that peak.

Bagel Heads

2003body modification trenddeclining

Published August 15, 2026

Bagel Heads is a body modification where saline is injected into the forehead to create a doughnut-shaped bulge that lasts about 24 hours2. The look was popularized by body-mod enthusiast Jerome Abramovitch in the early 2000s and drew wide mainstream attention in September 2012 after a National Geographic Taboo segment showed Japanese practitioners undergoing the procedure1.

body modification memes shock humor memes japanese internet memes body image memes reality tv origin memes

Overview

Bagel Heads describe both a body modification style and the people who wear it. A practitioner takes a saline drip into the forehead until enough fluid pools under the skin, then someone presses a thumb into the center of the swelling to shape it into a doughnut ring3. The effect fades within roughly 24 hours as the body absorbs the fluid, so the look is temporary rather than lasting2.

The procedure is done at professional piercing and tattoo studios and, according to practitioners, can bring headaches, infection, pressure sensations, and stretched skin2. Its shock value made the modification a natural fit for reality TV segments about extreme body practices1.

Origin & Background

Platform

Ripley's Believe It or Not! (TV) / National Geographic Taboo (viral spread)

Creator

Jerome Abramovitch

Date

2003

The saline forehead technique dates to the mid-1990s, but the person most associated with it is body modification enthusiast Jerome Abramovitch3. On February 5th, 2003, Abramovitch appeared on Ripley's Believe It or Not! as "the man with the inflatable forehead," injecting saline live on camera to raise a spherical dome. In July 2005, the blog BoingBoing ran a post called "Man inflates forehead for art" that pushed photos of Abramovitch across the early blogosphere.

The label bagelheads itself did not appear until June 2009, when the alt-culture site BizarreMag published a piece titled "Body Inflation" and used the nickname for the saline-forehead crowd2.

How It Spread

The trend moved to Japan through photographer Ryoichi Maeda, who first met Abramovitch at the 1999 Modcon body modification conference and later received Abramovitch's blessing to bring the procedure home. Vice published an interview with Maeda on June 17th, 2011, detailing the handoff, and the pop-culture blog Oh No They Didn't ran photos of Japanese practitioners that August.

The tipping point came on September 23rd, 2012, when National Geographic's Taboo aired an "Extreme Bodies" episode featuring a Japanese bagel head session. Within days the clip was everywhere: BuzzFeed reposted the Taboo footage on September 25th1, while Jezebel, the Daily Mail, The Huffington Post, Mashable, The Week, and Geekologie all ran their own writeups by September 27th.

Pushback started almost immediately. On September 29th, the Japan Times blog Japan Pulse published "Bagel Head Trend is a Big Distortion," quoting Japanese subculture writer La Carmina, who had helped with the Taboo segment but said the procedure was too expensive to count as a real trend at home3.

Frequently Asked Questions

References (3)