Photographer - fake an injection

[darkbignate]

I'm a photographer, and for an assignment, I want to fake a heroine injection, but obviously I don't want to make anyone inject heroine.

 

I want my subject to actually pierce the skin with the needle, but not inject anything, but if it slips, I don't want him to get sick.

 

what can I put in the needle that won't actually harm him if it is injected?

 

could I possibly get a saline, or something sterile from a doctor/hospital?

 

I want it to look real, so I want the needle to actually pierce the skin, I've gotten many suggestions against it though.

[iNow]

Heroine isn't injected subcutaneously, it's injected intravenously. That means it doesn't pierce the skin, it pierces the vein.

 

If your friend is willing, I see no reason you couldn't get an insulin syringe, put a tiny bit of saline and inject it, but you might be better off photoshopping it.

[Paralith]

I would go with a small amount of saline. You could probably get some from a biomedical research supplier, they usually offer sterilized versions of things.

 

In general, I'd have to add my voice to those suggesting you don't do this. I greatly dislike the idea of people who don't know what they're doing sticking needles into their own veins. If anything, see if you can get find a friendly nurse to help you out.

[Glider]

I would avoid using any invasive (skin piercing) technique at all.

 

Unless you know exactly what you're doing, sticking needles in people is a very bad idea, particularly if you're aiming for a vein, and if you knew what you were doing, you'd know that.

 

It's unlikely you'll get any qualified person to help you with it as it's medically unethical.

 

If you want to fake it, then fake it. Cut the last centimetre of the needle off. Pressing the stub against the skin will, in a photograph, look exactly the same as if you'd insterted the needle.

 

I say again: Attempting genuine venipuncture just for a photo is unethical and if you don't know what you're doing, it's a very bad idea! You have no idea of the damage you could do. DON'T DO IT.

[insane_alien]

Heroine isn't injected subcutaneously, it's injected intravenously. That means it doesn't pierce the skin, it pierces the vein.

 

that would be impressive if you could pierce a vein without piercing the skin. last time i had to get an injection into a vein it most definitely pierced the skin as well.

 

why not ask a diabetic to pose while taking their shot of insulin. real injection for a real purpose, you're just photographing it.

[Dak]

isn't insulin done sub-sutaniously, and not IV? i.e., it won't look the same in a close-up.

 

darkbignate, if you don't know what you're doing, you could give someone a heart-attack (air in veins), cause their vein to collapse, or give them an infection (gangrene if you mistake an artery for a vein, yadda yadda yadda). these are not abstract remote possibilities, they are likely (espc. infection) if you don't know what you're doing. and, anyway, saline is still only 'safe' if it's properly steralised and the right concentration of the right kinda salt (glucose would, iirc, be safer. i think skaggies cut heroine with it).

 

maybe if you go to a joke shop you could get a retracting syringe that looks like it's piercing skin and entering a vein. as for the injection, i don't know how you'd create the illusion of the chamber emptying of fluid? maybe drill a discrete hole through the plunger and block the needle off so that the liquid egresses through the plunger (just don't show the top of the plunger, and it'd look like you were actually injecting). for a long-shot, you could run a tube down the 'skaggies' thumb and arm that he's injecting with to collect the fluid. if you have lee-way on the colour of the fluid (don't know what colour heroine is), you could just use air and pretend it's a colourless liquid. or, use a soluble red-dye tablet wedged into the needle to create the impression of sucking up some blood into the chamber for the full effect, as the tablet dissolves and red-colour spreads up the chamber from the bottom.

 

if you're trying to learn special effects, then make the effort to actually make it a special effect and not a stupid effect (what with safety being a rather large aspect of SFX); if not, get someone else to rig it up for you.

[iNow]

that would be impressive if you could pierce a vein without piercing the skin. last time i had to get an injection into a vein it most definitely pierced the skin as well.

Son of a bitch. I do believe I feel like a bit of a tard now. Good point (pun intended).

 

why not ask a diabetic to pose while taking their shot of insulin. real injection for a real purpose, you're just photographing it.

Well, I am a diabetic, and we take insulin under the skin... like upper arm or thigh or stomach area, for example. Insulin injections try to avoid the veins completely. It's having this first hand knowledge that prompted my post regarding heroine going into the vein... after it's pierced the skin around that vein, of course.

 

 

I keep thinking of this kid injecting the vein at the wrong angle and causing his friend to bleed under the skin, or going in too far and having the needle exit the vein on the other side, or permanently damaging the vein with a tear, or injecting to a nerve, or... . That would be really nasty, and his friend could have some serious problems moving forward if a mistake occurred. Ewww...

[Phi for All]

If you want to fake it, then fake it. Cut the last centimetre of the needle off. Pressing the stub against the skin will, in a photograph, look exactly the same as if you'd insterted the needle.

Thank God for Glider! This was my first thought after reading the OP and I'm glad someone else mentioned it before I posted.

 

It's a still shot so why bother with doing it for real? It will look so real you couldn't tell the difference even from a moderate close-up.

[YT2095]

you Can get Theatrical Hypos, basically the needle is Solid (not a tube, so no Air bubble risk) and slides inside the Syringe with very little pressure, the Real magic is that the syringe Plunger and shaft is in fact Hollow! allowing what ever liquid to disappear inside it as the plunger is pressed along with the needle itself

 

you can get also get latex that with a little make-up (basic foundation found at any cosmetics shop) will look like the needle actually goes IN, in fact it can even be made to Hang there without support

 

and think this, no Real injection of Any sort is without risk! no, not even those done by trained medical experts when it`s Needed to save a life!

[John Cuthber]

The only people who could help you do this safely would be bound by professional ethics not to do so (with the arguable exception of a heroin user who is going to do it anyway).

 

A clipped needle would, as has been sugested, be a pretty good fake. Any remaining errors with the image could be photoshopped.

[Glider]

I keep thinking of this kid injecting the vein at the wrong angle and causing his friend to bleed under the skin, or going in too far and having the needle exit the vein on the other side, or permanently damaging the vein with a tear, or injecting to a nerve, or... . That would be really nasty, and his friend could have some serious problems moving forward if a mistake occurred. Ewww...

These are exactly the kind of things that newbie medics do.

 

Doctors don't really get a lot of practice at venipuncture which is why they tend to rely on trained phlebotomists to do it for them. Venipuncture is a skill and requires a lot of (supervised) practice to be able to do safely. There's also learning what to do if things go wrong.

 

For example, hitting an artery (which is easily done as in many people the brachial accessory artery runs directly under the antecubital vein) does not have to be catastrophic, as long as you know how to recognise that you've done it and what to do about it.

 

The same applies to hitting a nerve (the median nerve is the one at risk). If you know how to recognise that you have come too close to it, you can avoid doing permanent damage. If you don't then you're in trouble.

 

Even if you successfully hit the vein, and I've no reason to suppose you will other than by lucky accident, as many docors still have trouble doing this (it really is not as easy as it seems), then you still have to know what to do to avoid bleeding into the tissue risking severe abscess and/or phlebitis.

 

You can trust my word on this. I am a trained phlebotomist and worked as the senior phlebotomist on a Renal Transplant Unit in a London teaching hospital for four years whilst I was doing my PhD.

 

Please don't attempt venipuncture on anybody unless you know exactly what you're doing.