Inside the Bloody World of Illegal Plastic Surgery

There are plastic drawers housing Andy’s tools: scalpel blades; surgical sutures and suture needles; silver nitrate in the form of lunar caustic; bottles of the local anaesthetic lidocaine and syringes with which to inject it. There are also piercing needles and body jewellery—by trade, he’s a body piercer, and sometimes he’ll do piercings here, too—but he has no use for them tonight. He bought all of these items legally; being in possession of them is not against the law. What he plans to do with them, however, will make him a criminal. He knows this.