Hey y’all,
Got the xG3 v1 in the mail recently and thinking about sticking into the knife edge of my left hand. I got a NExT in L0 and it was totally painless, went very smooth. Looking at some install videos for the knife edge part of the hand looks to be much tougher to get the needle in.
Could anyone shed some light about how that location is to install? Might just be the pre-poke jitters lol.
Don’t do it. @Satur9 and @tac0s can tell you, it’s too easy to install it too deep. There’s a lot of dense tissue there which makes the magnetic less effective and makes it super difficult to remove.
Hmm, where do you recommend the xG3 goes then? I’ve only really seen knife edge and finger installs (which I understand is “experimental” and not recommended for everyone).
Finger Xg3 is not recommended for anyone!
Knife edge is a hard install. i had people pass out from the pain.
Go get a trained piercer to do the job.
Also the v1 isnt the best lifter so if you aim for lifting i would go for a spot with thin skin.
I have a xg3 v2 in L2, not the best for sensing though
Yeah I was thinking of getting mine there.
not the best for sensing though
Do you mean that location or the xG3 v2?
Yeah, I have an xG3 in each knife edge. They were easily among my most painful installs. Mine are kinda deep, but not to the point of complication. I don’t regret them, but they’re not really great for either sensing⁺ or lifting.
⁺exception: the pinching pain when holding another strong magnet has some fun kink applications. If you’re into that… 
I had a xG3v1 (glassy) in my left hand knife edge for ~6 years. I loved it. It was very convenient for both lifting and sensing, that being said, I would not recommend the location.
At least in my case, the skin on the side of my hands there was extremely thick compared to common locations on the top of the hand (though, @Satur9 says I don’t have skin, I have hide…). This made it very difficult to gauge the depth and angle of the needle. My xG3v1 ended up at a decent depth, but I was no so lucky with the Spark in my right hand… Even with an extra set of hands helping to pinch/tent the skin, I had to apply a lot of force to get the needle to penetrate the skin. Given how much force I was applying, once it started to go in it went wayyyy too deep into my hand and was extremely painful (by far my most painful implant install out of 8, and maybe one of the most painful things I’ve subjected myself to). I didn’t faint, but I came very close to it.
The glass xG3v1’s were pulled from the store due to some failures, so I was worried about mine breaking, even more so because the knife edge sees a lot of impact/abuse.@Satur9 removed the xG3v1 for me at the end of October. I thought it would go quick, but it was easily 30+ minutes of rooting around in my hand with various implements to get it removed. We had initially planned on putting the replacement resin xG3v2 into the same pocket, but after going through that removal process we both decided that wasn’t a good idea and opted for the top of the hand instead. I certainly don’t want to go through that removal process again.
The Spark does work with a strong enough reader, but I don’t have much use for it anymore and have been trying to get it removed for around a year to no avail. I’ve talked to multiple GP’s, orthopedic surgeons, and specialist hand surgeons, all of whom have refused to remove the implant unless it was broken due to the risk. The implant is too deep to see and feel, though I have x-rays showing it’s location (posted somewhere in the x-ray thread).
Speaking from my experience, I would not recommend the knife edge due to difficult installs, removals, and risk of breaking from impact.
I recently did a p4.5-ish (knife edge but bordering on back of hand) rfid install, which wasn’t terrible pain-wise (I’ve done enough needle installs that I’m kind of used to it, but in comparative terms, more than a p0 but less than injecting lidocaine into a fingertip). However, the skin thickness is definitely a challenge, like people have said, and it’s a fine line between too deep and deep enough that it won’t get in the way in day-to-day life.
In terms of xG3 placement, I have a v2 in my forearm (anterior/radial, just proximal to/above where I wear a watch), which was a very easy install and is useful for lifting things, but doesn’t do much sensing.
