The New Men’s Trend That’s So Extreme It Sounds Like Parody, Until You See The ER Visits

The first thing the hospital staff want to know is what happened. The second is why nobody called earlier. The man on the bed has an answer to both, and it involves a bag of saline, a store-bought needle, and a subreddit with close to ten thousand weekly visitors telling him this was normal.

He is a “ballmaxxer,” the latest and least expected branch of the looksmaxxing movement, in which young men pursue physical dominance over other men with steroids, surgery and, in the most extreme cases, a hammer to the jaw. This branch skipped the face entirely.

The procedure is done at home, by the men themselves, with no medical supervision. The effect wears off within days, which means doing it again. And again.

Doctors who have treated the results describe what the fluid does to the tissue in terms that make the ER visit sound like the easy part. The men themselves say they already know the risks. What they are competing for, by their own account, is not what you would guess.