Founders
Shannon Larratt
Founder
Shannon Larratt (1973–2013) created BME as a home for those who chose to live and express themselves without limits. His vision built a community that changed lives, and his spirit continues to shape everything we do.
Rachel Larratt
Co-Founder
Rachel Larratt (1980–2022) helped shape BME with her strength, kindness, and unwavering commitment to the community. Her work behind the scenes kept BME alive through its most difficult times, and her impact will never be forgotten.
Core Maintainers
Nefarious Larratt
Nefarious is the daughter of Shannon and Rachel Larratt. Having grown up immersed in BME’s culture and legacy, she is now stepping forward to take ownership of the website and continue its evolution.
Erik Chevalier (iam: zombi)
Erik first encountered BME while looking for info on suspensions in 1996. He picked many arguments on the IAM forums and made life-long friends. He’s worked in film, games, publishing and tech but is now focusing on bodily autonomy, mutual aid and filmmaking.
Jonathon W. Marshall
Jonathon’s history with BME goes back to 2002, living and working side by side with Shannon and Rachel through years of growth and change. Now, he’s focused on honoring that legacy and helping guide BME into its next chapter.
Contributors
Canapin
FAQ
What happened to Shannon and Rachel?
After a long fight with tubular aggregate myopathy, Shannon ended his struggle on March 15th, 2013. Rachel was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis earlier in life. She passed away from natural causes on June 24th, 2022.
What happened to BME’s archive?
A catastrophic incident occurred resulting in the total loss of almost all data. We’ve recovered some content from personal backups and Archive.org.
Who owns BME?
BME is now under the control of Shannon and Rachel’s daughter, Nefarious.
Who is working on BME?
BME is being rebuilt and reshaped by a small group of core maintainers. We, alongside contributors and volunteers, are working together on a shared and unified strategy for a new BME.
What is BME’s goal?
BME’s goals were written by Shannon Larratt around 2002. Using this blueprint we aim to rebuild and reshape BME into a new content hub, community platform, and cultural leader in body modification.
- To let people know they’re not alone and to help them to understand who they are and what they’re going through.
- To provide a space allowing people to share their experiences with body modification and ethical manipulation.
- To encourage growth of body modification politically and commercially.
- To generate revenue and succeed as a traditional business, and to reinvest a part of this money in body-related projects.
- To educate the public about body modification and manipulation for the purposes of safety, history, culture, and good will.
- To, as much as possible, unify people interested in BM subjects.
- To never judge one BM activity as more “right” than another and NEVER succumb to public pressure to draw this line.
- To act as a media liaison to encourage positive mainstream portrayals of BM activities.
Where can I reconnect with members?
We are exploring options for a new community hub, but until we decide, please join our Mastodon instance at social.BME.com!
What if I have more questions?
Please contact us at [email protected] and we will do our best to answer your questions and update this page.
How can I help?
Just by being here and reading this you are already helping! But, there’s always more to do. Most of all, we need financial support. We cannot accept donations so the best way to support us financially is by supporting BMEshop.
The next best thing you can do right now is to let other people know that BME is back and please, come back again. We have more developments and ways you can help rebuild BME coming soon. Once we have a significant archive and platform built up we will look at reopening memberships and exclusive content streams.