A mum is suing her son’s five BDSM boyfriends after he died from silicone genital injections
Jack Chapman, legally Tank Hafertepen, died after injecting dangerous silicone into his genitals. (TankHafertepen.com/Creative Commons)
The mother of Australian man Tank Hafertepen who died from silicone genital injections has sued her son’s five BDSM partners for wrongful death.
Tank, also known as Jack Chapman, was in a polyamorous master-slave relationship with the sixtet, being a submissive ‘pup’ while Dylan Hafertepen acted as the dominant ‘master’, the Daily Beast reported.
As part of the relationship, each pup had to follow Dylan’s orders.
To stay in the group, Jack, 29, legally changed his name to Tank six years into the relationship, altered his body shape and even moved countries to stay with the muscular, heavily-tattooed Dylan.
Tank’s mum Linda and her son, Ben Chapman, filed a lawsuit in King County, Washington, in September against Dylan Hafertepen, Daniel Balderas Hafertepen, Charles Osborn, Matthew Scott, and Philip Myers last month.
They allege wrongful death, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy against the group.
The Chapmans are seeking punitive damages and plan to contend provisions of a revised will that leaves Tank’s money with Dylan, not his family.
Tank Hafertepen bulked his body up with steroids and inflated his penis with silicone.
Dylan and Tank Hafertepen ran popular Tumblr accounts chronicling their sexual exploits over seven years, quickly emerging as personalities among the gay bear scene.
The five lived together with Tank in Seattle, Washington. In the area, Tank regularly volunteered with local organisations and was a mental health advocate.
With both Dylan and their online fan’s encouragement, each pup worked to beef up their bodies by eating multiple meals and lifting iron at the gym regularly as part of the ‘gainer’ culture – a fetish associated with the desire to enlarge your body, whether with muscle or with fat.
Dylan ordered Tank to use steroids to bulk up, the complaint stated.
However, Tank and the other pups, in pursuit of this, had been inflating their scrotums and penises with saline injections. They frequently acknowledged the risks of doing so on their blogs.
Moreover, Tank later swapped for silicone-based injections, a body modification both illegal and dangerous which proved lethal. This was allegedly on Dylan’s demand and started from 2014 until his death.
The injections, the Chapmans said, engorged Tank’s scrotum to the “size of a basketball”. Despite the alarming size, and even followers expressing their concern, Tank said that it is up to Dylan to decide “when enough is enough”.
Speaking to Buzzfeed last year, Dylan denied forcing Tank to get the injections: “This was his fetish. I did not make him inject silicone.
“On the contrary, I helped him get some removed.”
Dylan allegedly did not notify Tank’s family of their son’s death.
In October 2018, Chapman died of pulmonary embolism inducted by the injections. Dylan did not notify Jack’s family of the illness, hospitalisation, or death, according to the Chapmans’ complaint.
The parents were in the dark over their son’s death – who spent a week in hospital, partly in a coma. Dylan later presented himself as having legal authority over Jack’s remains, which were cremated, the complaint stated.
According to Dylan, Tank Hafertepen left “detailed instructions that his body be used to advance science, organs harvested for transplant, and his remains cremated without a service” he wrote on a memorial page.
Furthermore, Dylan initially suppressed news of Tank’s death to their followers – posting online as if Tank were still alive and then misstating his death. Fans then turned on him, blaming Dylan for Tank’s death.
The Chapmans alleged that Dylan and the pups coerced Tank through humiliation and manipulation, such as Dylan verbally degrading Tank and publicly castigating him for perceived violations of the relationship.
Dylan ‘imprisoned’ Tank, who moved countries and cut off his family for his ‘master’.
Rules and regulations in the relationship were stated in a contract Tank posted to his blog, which the complained references, showcasing the intense degree of control Dylan had.
As well as being in control of parts of Tank’s finances, he would also use lines such as: “A pup’s mind is the exclusive property of his master at all times.”
In showing his devotion to Dylan, Tank emigrated from Australia to the US and even got ‘Property of Master Dylan’ tattooed on his lower back. His mother alleged in the complaint that Dylan forced Tank to sever contact from his family.
While the pair were broken up, Tank had told pals Dylan psychologically and physically abused him, including subjecting himself to “physical imprisonment”, the complaint claimed.
Three weeks before death, Tank Hafertepen left his money to Dylan in a revised will.
A crux of the complaint is how Charles Osborn, one of the pups, was named executor of Tank’s will.
Just three weeks before his death, Tank drew up a will leaving everything to Dylan, including $200,000 from Tank’s father.
Tank intended to leave that money to his autistic brother, his mother claimed.
In June, Dylan claimed the money in an Australian court but has not yet received it, according to the family’s lawyer Joe Murphy.
“Tank had wanted the money to go towards our home together, but without Tank it’s a reminder of what I’ve lost,” Dylan previously said.
But Murphy said he and his client want to ensure that Tank’s alleged abuser does not benefit from his death.
“We filed this suit to bring some closure and resolution. One of the most important parts to her will be discovery. She wants to know what happened,” Murphy said.
“Why was she never called?”
He added: “They robbed her of her right to be his mother.”
