A Japanese artist has been arrested after she took a selfie of her vagina, emailed it to 30 people, scanned it into a 3D printer, and the created a kayak out of it.

Megumi Igarashi has made a career out of using her vagina for her art, and her aim is to demystify Japan’s view of the female anatomy. However, her latest project saw her fall foul of Japanese obscenity laws, and she has since been arrested because she emailed the 3D image of her genitalia to 30 people.

42-year-old Igarashi had been looking to progress her career away from creating sculptures and art of vaginas that she had created with her hand. She recently took to her blog to write: “Mould by hand is not suitable for making large art pieces such as a door, a car, or a boat. I was wondering how I can make it possible, and then I finally found that 3D scanner can make it happen easily!”

She uploaded this post as a way of asking for money in order to buy the 3D scanner, which she then used to create more extravagant pieces of what she calls Manko, the crude Japanese slang word for vagina.

“A 3D scanner can be used to make a boat that I will [use to] go across the ocean,” she added. “But the problem is the technology and the cost. I cannot afford it nor use the scanner alone.” Igarashi then outlined her plan to her followers: “So here is my request for your support to make the world’s first 3D scanned vagina boat that goes beyond the seas.”

Clearly, Igarashi received the funds that she desired as one of the images above shows her swimming inside her kayak, however it’s now been reported that she is currently being held in a Tokyo prison because of the “obscene” email that she sent to her fans.

On her blog, Igarashi has previously written about the controversy of her work and she has insisted that she simply found it funny to “decorate” and make her vagina into a diorama. She added that she was surprised people got so upset at seeing her work or even hearing her say the word “Manko.”

“Manko and vagina, have been such a taboo in Japanese society,” she scribed. “Penis, on the other hand, has been used in illustrations and has become a part of pop culture. But vagina has never been so cute. Vagina has been though to be obscene because its been overly hidden; although it is just part of a woman’s body.”

[Image via Twitter]