A project four years in the making, Lil Uzi Vertโs forehead diamond made its public debut earlier this month, inspiring a wave of memes and praise from many as a potential trendsetting move.
Given the location of the diamond, some fans have questioned the process behind itsย installation. Now, thanks toRolling Stone, we have a bit more insight on how this all came together for the Eternal Atake zeitgeist-shifter. At first, as Eliantte & Coโs Simon Babaevโspeaking on behalf of owner Eliott Eliantteโexplained, the team wasnโt sure if Uzi was serious about the forehead plans.
โWe didnโt think he was serious about it, but as he started making payments on the specific stone, he made it clear that he was very serious,โ Babaev told Jeff Ihaza on Monday.
As for the debated differences between a piece of this magnitude and, say, a diamond implanted elsewhere on the face, Babaev explained how itโs all just a matter of application variances.
โYeah, itโs as safe as any other piercing,โ he said. โAs long as you maintain it well and have good upkeep, itโs perfectly fine. We made sure that prior to getting anything done that Uzi brought someone in to consult on everything. We didnโt just do this randomly.โ
While most body modification pieces focus on stainless or surgical-grade steel, the application portion of Uziโs forehead diamond was done with precious metals. Per Babaev, the team engineered a specific mounting that clips and locks in place, complete with a โwhole mechanism involvedโ that sets it apart from a standard piercing.
Babaev added that this is โdefinitely the first timeโ something this extravagant has been brought to the Eliantte & Co team. He also joined those who have been pointing to Uziโs forehead diamond as a potential inspiration point for similar pieces in the future.
โUzi is definitely a trendsetter,โ he said.ย
In a voice note shared to Twitter last week, Uzi urged critics of the forehead diamond to โrelaxโ and pointed out that this is far from the first piercing heโs ever had done.
โItโs only a piercing, guys,โ he said. โI done had 10,000 piercings in my face. And when I had my piercing in my face last time, yโall was going in on me โฆ Relax. Thatโs why yโalls face donโt have nothing on it and thatโs why my face has everything I ever wanted to put on there.โ
Not long after that, Uzi and Grimes agreed to โget brain chipsโ together by 2022:
