Apparently it's not as bad as you'd think. I can't recall her name right now, but Michael Pollan talks about a British socialite that trepanated her own skull i

Apparently it's not as bad as you'd think. I can't recall her name right now, but Michael Pollan talks about a British socialite that trepanated her own skull in his book 'How to change your mind'. Apparently she did that and went straight to a party, and she's alive to this day. I think there's even a video of her doing it online. The body's amazing at recovering from all kinds of stuff.