Proving the human mind knows no bounds, they have taken to using their bodies as blank canvases for their creative imaginings. All in the name of body art and beauty.

Whether these trends are irreverent or just a smudge mad, you decide. Either way, we won't be jumping on these beauty bandwagons any time soon.

Bagel foreheads

This trend is 'huge' in Japan - literally.

People choose to - I repeat, choose to - have a saline solution injected into their forehead with a large needle. It takes two hours to hours for the drip to fill up the forehead and create the desired look; an enormous welt. The injecting practitioner then indents the bubble with their finger to achieve the appearance of a giant fleshy bagel. Or a donut - whatever takes your fancy.

The foodilicious look only lasts 16 to 24 hours, depending on how long it takes the body to absorb the saline, and was apparently inspired by the extreme body modification scene. It caused a stir last week when National Geographic released a feature on the practice, but Japanese photographer Ryoichi "Keroppy" Maeda has been documenting extreme body art scene for some 20 years and brought bagel-foreheading to Tokyo back in 2007.

As for its appeal, he told Vice Magazine: "Well, you know, people who like extreme body modification want to find their own way of doing things, and they're always looking for new ways to do that. The more progressive the scene gets, the more these people have to experiment and go their own way."

Yaeba

One woman's weird is another's wonderful and, to some, the 'snaggletooth' is the epitome of sexy. Yaeba, meaning 'double tooth,' is a procedure that turns your  pearly whites from perfect to pointy.

With the likes of Kirsten Dunst and various vampire slayers as pinup girls, some women in Japan pay up to $400 for the cosmetic dental procedure.

But, concerns have been raised about the motivation behind the practice.

"The gapped tooth is sort of preorthodontic or early development, and the naturally occurring yaeba is because of delayed baby teeth, or a mouth that's too small," Dr. Emilie Zaslow, an assistant professor of communication studies at Pace University in Manhattan told New York Times. "It's this kind of emphasis on youth and the sexualization of young girls."

Gyaru

Gyaru or 'gal', a popular Japanese street fashion, is au naturale on acid.

With a the passion for all things over the top and blinging, this 'girly-glam' trend is all about extreme dress-ups and make-up.

Gyaru gals have a penchant for plastered on makeup, lashings of fake tan, false lashes and either platinum-dyed hair or neon wigs, imitating dolls and cartoon characters. It's hard-core eye candy at its most surreal. Whether it's fashion fantastic or glamour gone garish is all in the eye of the beholder.

Face slimmer exercise mouthpiece

Try and get your mouth arond this one. The face slimmer exercise mouthpiece is just one of an impressive selection of seriously strange-looking cosmetic contraptions, on offer at the Japan trend shop.

For just US$82 and three minutes a day you too can have luscious looking lady lips. So they say.

The exerciser forces your mouth to work harder than normal thus tightening saggy skin as you say your vowels. Over and over again. Sounds like one giant jaw ache.

Breast-enhancing biscuits

You heard right. The F-Cup Cookie company claims if you eat just one or two of their biscuits a day your breasts will grow to a DD (or F cup in Japan). While we're just a tad dubious about their claims, it would stand to reason that if you eat cookies every day you may gain volume, not just around the breast area but all areas of the body.

Apparently each cookie contains 50 milligrams of the 'herbal breast enhancing' herb Pueraria Mirifica. Unsurprisingly, there is no evidence whatsoever that Pueraria Mirifica enlarges breasts, let alone does anything else. The US Federal Trade Commission says they will take action against any company that makes these unsubstantiated claims. This hasn't stopped F-cup cookies from selling out on the website.