Philadelphia-based, 26-year old, two-time Grammy nominee, US rapper Lil Uzi Vert, whose real name is Symere Bysil Woods and who has a special love for blings to boost his image, shocked millions of his followers on Instagram early February, when he displayed his latest fashion stunt, by posting images and video of him with a new forehead piercing, featuring a USD 24 million, marquise-shaped pink diamond, the most expensive color among fancy-colored diamonds in the world today. Vert’s Instagram video, captioned “Beauty is Pain” went viral garnering over 11 million views in a day.
Uzi first tweeted about acquiring the diamond from celebrity jeweler Elliot Eliantte on January 30, 2021, saying that he purchased the diamond, weighing between 10 to 11 carats in 2017, and has been paying millions in instalments for the last four years.
Uzi’s friend CEO Slow was the first to reveal the actual value of the diamond as USD 24 million, via an Instagram story he posted subsequently. This was followed immediately by Elliot Eliantte who posted an image on his instagram story, showing him holding up the stone to Uzi’s forehead, captioned, “It’s time.”
This was followed by another Instagram post by Elliot Eliantte, captioned “Lil Uzi Vert Activated, sharing a video of the singer-songwriter sporting the marquise-shaped pink diamond on his forehead, along with a matching pink-colored sweatshirt.
When Uzi’s inquisitive followers wanted to know why he embeded the priceless jewel on his forehead instead of mounting it on a ring, he replied, he replied, “If I lose the ring, yeah will make fun of me more than putting it in my forehead.”
To a question raised by a Twitter fan wheher his jewel was worth more than his cars, he replied, “Yes my Bugati can’t even pay for it,…….all my cars together plus home.”
Uzi told his twitter followers that the jewel is “10 almost 11 carats,” to which a fan replied, “more than USD 2 million per carat ?
Lil Uzi Vert is known to have a penchant for expensive watches, cars and designer clothes – but he says this diamond is by far his most expensive purchase.
Some fans and social media users commenting on the piercing said the diamond looked off center, while some others joked that the pink-colored gem is perhaps the Rapper’s homage to the 2006 film “Pink Panther.” Some compared his new forehead piercing to popular Marvel character Vision, whose body operated from the infinity stone embeded in the middle of his forehead.
Some fans were also curious to find out exactly how the large diamond was staying on Uzi’s face. Piercing experts opined that the diamond is likey attached to a dermal or surface piercing, which is executed by inserting a Titanium bar beneath the surface of the skin. However, images of the rapper, reveal that the pink diamond is not the first piece of jewelry mounted on his face. He appears to have several other nose, lip, ear and facial piercings, apart from tattoos on his face.
Uzi is not the only rapper to get gems mounted on the body. He is one of several current artists to get such a piercing. In June 2020 was reported to have shown off three gems embeded on her chest. However, her piercings were subsequently rejected by her body and unfortunately had to be removed.