In 2017, Anastasia Sinn had been practicing magic for a decade when she made a decision that would eventually put her in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Canadian citizen living in California decided to have an implant in her body – a small magnetic chip in the ring finger of her left hand.
Just six years later, she officially became the person with the most technological implants in her body – 52 in total.
Although she is a unique record holder, she is part of a whole global community of “biohackers” – who make body modifications using technology to make life easier.
Speaking from her home in the mountains of California, the sexy performer told MailOnline that her daughter played a huge role in completing the first task.
Anastasia Sin got her name in the Guinness Book of World Records as the person with the largest number of technological implants in the body – a total of 52 implants. Here, Ms. Sen pushes a needle through her arm during the 2016 Amazing Magic Live concert in Las Vegas.
Small object functions include opening locks, finding magnetic objects, and even running shortcuts on a smartphone. This X-ray of her arm shows the locations of some of them including a heart-shaped locket containing her late husband's ashes
“She came to me when she was probably 16 and said, 'I want to get this microchip. There's a girl who's a gamer online and she can unlock her computer with her microchip so no one else can get into it.'
“So I said, ‘Listen, I don’t know if it’s safe or not, so how about I get it and we’ll see how it goes,’ because I thought it was cool when you told me about it.”
About a year after she purchased her first implant, it was already inserted into her left hand, along with an NFC chip.
“I was afraid of it, and I'm not going to lie – I saw it sitting in the package on my desk and thought, ‘What if it causes cancer?’ I didn't know enough about it.
She and two friends set them up while sitting at her home's dining room table — an event that turned into something of a “transplant party.”
“My daughter saw the movie but she didn’t get one, of course.”
As she puts it, Anastasia “fell down the rabbit hole” of biohacking after reading about “pioneers” such as British engineer Professor Kevin Warwick, whom she describes as a “modern father.”
Another of her inspirations includes Tim Cannon, founder of a Pittsburgh company called Grindhouse Wetware, which makes implantable devices designed to “augment human abilities and senses.”
Anastasia Sen, magician, stunt performer and bio-hacker, performs a terrifying fire-eating performance while in the bathroom. She had been practicing magic for a decade before realizing that implants could be part of her performances
Ms. Sen's first two inserts — a magnet and an NFC chip in her left hand — were actually fairly recent, in August 2017.
Among Grindhouse Wetware's devices is the “Bottlenose,” which uses implanted hand magnets to transmit information to the user through haptic feedback along nerves.
“With your eyes blindfolded and a sensor on your wrist, you could put your hand toward objects on the table and know which object was because of the sensors that were vibrating with haptic feedback,” Anastasia said.
“I immediately thought the applications of magic with something like this were amazing.”
In a relatively short time – just six years – Anastasia went from having no implants to a record 52.
The small objects' functions include opening locks with a wave of the hand, finding magnetic objects, and even running shortcuts on a smartphone.
“The one thing I like about my implants is that you can't see any of them—you don't know where they are.
“So you won't think I'm this tough, cultivated person.”
Although she never planned on becoming “the person with the most organ transplants”, she admits that her latest procedure was performed 11 times simultaneously, partly to secure the record.
As the saying goes, records are meant to be broken, and she doesn't seem exactly protected about her Guinness title.
“Honestly, I'm looking forward to meeting the person who broke my record, it's a must.”
Sen said: “I can officially declare that I am the most technologically intelligent human being in the world!” Since it was the first time, they had to create a new standard category.
Not only do her implants make life easier and allow her to perform magic tricks, they memorialize her late husband, The Amazing Jonathan, who died in February 2022 of heart failure.
Dubbed the “Freddy Krueger of comedy”, he was known for his gory tricks including appearing to swallow his eyeballs and twisting his tongue.
Anastasia now has part of his ashes inside a heart-shaped locket implanted in her arm, while the NFC chip in her hand tells Jonathan's favorite joke when scanned.
But one of Anastasia's most expensive chips is the NFC-scannable microchip that initiates a call to his phone.
“I don’t think I would ever change that,” she said.
Anastasia has ideas for more inserts, including an NFC scanner in her leg and NFC tags inside playing cards.
In poker, she would be able to pass the cards along her leg to read them with her eyes closed without the other players knowing.
In 2014, Anastasia Sen married the amazing Jonathan, who describes himself as the “Freddy Krueger of comedy” for his use of gory and brutal stunts.
But one thing they won't go into is implanting a battery, largely because of the risk of it exploding or catching fire.
“A lot of people I know who use these battery devices still have them and they haven't exploded, which is great.
“However, I am not willing to take this risk.
“I don't have anything with an implanted battery and I think it will stay that way.”
(tags for translation) Daily Mail