Last week, Lil Uzi Vert took pity on the poor music bloggers of the world and had a $24 million diamond implanted right above his nose. At at a time when other rappers have gotten a bit, well, desperate to make content, Uzi decided to install some content permanently. Now, Rolling Stone has spoken to the prestigious jewelers of Eliantte & Co to learn how three years of planning came to a head.
“Everything started back in 2017,” according to Simon Babaev, who spoke on behalf of the company’s owner Eliott Eliantte. “Once he saw the stone, he really fell in love with it and said he’d think about what he wanted to do with it.”
When LUV finally hit on a plan for the diamond, there was some skepticism that he would follow through. “We didn’t think he was serious about it,” said Babaev, “but as he started making payments on the specific stone, he made it clear that he was very serious.”
Eliante & Co have experience with facial piercings, though not of this size. “In 2016, Young Thug had a diamond implanted on his face. He had a pear shape, like a teardrop, I believe. He had it on his face for a while, but then I think he lost it.”
Uzi’s commission required feats of engineering in order to keep the stone safe and secure, and it was made out of unusual materials. “In the body modification world, they usually do everything in stainless steel, or surgical-grade steel.,” Babaev said. “But in our case we did everything with precious metals. We engineered a specific mounting that clips and locks in place. There’s a whole mechanism involved, it’s not a standard piercing. A specific piece and part were both engineered with millimeter precision to get this put on him.”
Despite the proximity to the brain, as Babaev tells it, “it’s as safe as any other piercing.” He added, “As long as you maintain it well and have good upkeep, it’s perfectly fine. We made sure that prior to getting anything done that Uzi brought someone in to consult on everything. We didn’t just do this randomly.”
This might not be Uzi’s last cranial enhancement. On February 6th, he and Grimes had an exchange on Twitter where they planned to get Neuralink brain chips. Of course, nobody would care what LUV was up to if he wasn’t also releasing interesting music. Last year, he put out a collaborative mixtape with Future as well as Eternal Atake, one of our favorite albums of 2020.