BME: Body Modification Ezine

A black-and-white photo of a person mid-air in a Superman-style body suspension pose, supported by multiple hooks in their back and legs, smiling joyfully toward the camera. They are suspended horizontally in a large indoor space with high ceilings and visible rigging. A group of onlookers—some seated, some standing—watch with expressions of admiration, amusement, and support. The atmosphere is lively and communal, capturing a moment of shared experience and transformation.

Tattoo, Piercing, and Body Modification News, Events, and Culture

  • Gem-set Jewelry Experiment FAIL

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    You’ve all probably seen horror stories about rusty jewelry or “titanium” jewelry that turns out to be cheap steel that was painted, revealed with the colour peels off. But this jewelry comparison is more subtle, the difference not between high quality and garbage, but more like the difference between high quality and mid-range “meh” jewelry that might not instantly set off alarm bells. A.J. Goldman took some “expensive” jewelry and some cheap jewelry (not that either of these will break the bank) and put them both in a saline bath for the weekend. Both bars had the same sparkling clear stones when the experiment started. The saline should have basically zero effect on the jewelry, and thankfully it didn’t seem to alter or damage either bar (one being stainless and the other titanium), but what did happen is the gems in the cheaper jewelry turned dull and discolored. The most likely explanation is the cheap foil-backed “gems” they used, or even the epoxy used to set them, reacting to the saline. The quality jewelry uses gems that are held in place by the metal’s shape itself, so there is no foil backing or epoxy to discolour.

    gemproblem

    Feel free to distribute this picture

    Think about how long the jewelry is going to be in your body — and the fact that you’re getting the piercing to enhance your body. If you’re not willing to spend that extra $10 or $20 to do it right, is it really worth doing? What is it saying about what you think of your body when you put low-quality tarnished or dulled or discoloured crap in yourself? From my point of view, it is better to wait a little longer until you can afford top-notch jewelry, and wear something that will look beautiful for the life of the piercing. There is nothing worse than getting a body modification that you thought would be a thing of beauty, only to be betrayed by it because someone decided to cut-corners on the jewelry to save or make a few dollars.

  • Splattered

    Written by

    Rob

    To wrap up today’s look at the artists of Tattoo Temple, we have something by the shop’s founder, Joey Pang.  As I’ve mentioned in the past Joey has years of training in Chinese calligraphy under her belt, which she combines with her natural artistic flair to created works of art that you won’t be able to find anywhere else.  Every brush stroke is carefully considered both in terms of the character being depicted, as well as how it will fit on a person’s body.  While anyone can walk into a shop and get some form of Kanji flash off of a wall, when you go to Joey you know that what you’re getting will mean exactly what you want it to.

  • On Guard

    Written by

    Rob

    This pair of guardian lions was actually done by two Tattoo Temple artists.  Wang did the artwork and tattoo for the lions, while Joey did the calligraphy and tattooing for the script.

  • Take these broken wings and learn to fly

    Written by

    Rob

    Blackbird singing in the dead of night
    Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
    All your life
    You were only waiting for this moment to be free
    -The Beatles

    Jamie‘s take on a murder(?) of Irish blackbirds shows off just how diverse the artists of Tattoo Temple can be.  With just black ink, Jamie is able to create realistic birds mixed in with a spattering of “paint”.

  • Rolf’s new Cyber Cell jewelry from Samppa

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    A couple days ago Samppa Von Cyborg just installed this great classic Cyber Cell bar into “piercing and suspension celebrity and record holder” Rolf Buchholz. I say “classic” because Samppa made this jewelry way back in 2004, but has been saving it for something special — and when it comes to piercing, there are few as special as Rolf, and Samppa felt the time was perfect to do it for him as a gift. In addition to doing this piercing, he also implanted three hearts (I’m going to assume that this means heart-shaped implants, not three superhuman redundant hearts to make Rolf unkillable, although with Samppa you can never be sure) and a pair of strong magnets.

    rolfbar

    I should mention that Rolf is lucky to be alive — look what happened at the recent warehouse suspension hosted by Muffe Vulnuz. Rolf was nearly eaten!!! Thank God he’s alright, because it would have been a real shame for this community to lose such a remarkable character. Damn those giant suspendee-devouring nephilim that are always sniffing out blood and metal and rope.

    yumyumyum

  • Half Sock Geometry

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Kenji Alucky (of Black Ink Power in Berlin) is doing a guest spot at the recently featured German tattoo studio Scratcher’s Paradise, which is of course staffed by anything but scratchers. This amazing geometric dotwork tattoo with a little mandala in the middle of it is quite stunning, especially because right now the toenails are temporarily discoloured from the tattoo ink staining them. I think I might take this as inspiration to start painting my toenails were this my foot.

    half-sock-by-kenji-alucky

  • Masaka and Korgano

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    This photo is of Marc (left) and Chandler (right) doing a spinning beam with Berlin’s Superfly Suspension and Kukulcan Rituals, but it reminds me of the eternal chase between the sun and the moon, the hunter and the hunted, always swapping back and forth. Nerd points to those who enjoyed the title of this entry as much as the picture. I know I enjoyed writing it. Either way though I love seeing the joy and laughing abandon in this suspension photo, both in Marc and Chandler, and in those watching.

    superfly-spinning-beam-chase

  • Tale of Two Fishies – Part 1

    Written by

    Rob

    Continuing with today’s Tattoo Temple marathon, we’ve got what’s Joey Pang is calling “Tale of Two Fishies – Part 1″.  Normally this is the part where I say you’ll see part 2 later on in the day, but it appears that part 2 isn’t finished just yet, so you’ll have to wait a while before you get to see it.  In the meantime you can enjoy part 1.  It’s worth noting that while you don’t see any of Joey’s signature calligraphy in the photo, her tattooing techniques still reflect her ability to transform a tattoo machine into a brush.

  • The Ambassadorial Value of Tattoos

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    You may remember a little while ago I posted a charming entry about Christopher doing Peace Corps (I’ll say it again — what’s stopping YOU from joining?) work in Namibia and how the rural kids went curious-crazy over his tattoos, something they’d never seen before to such a large and bright extent.

    After seeing that post, Aaron Brink wrote me about his own time over the last two summers spent in Burundi (an African country between DR Congo and Tanzania, just south of Rwanda). Like Christopher’s experience, the people there — and not just the kids — were completely enamored with his tattoos. Everywhere he went he had crowds of people following him and gathering around him trying to get a better look at his tattoos or to touch them. Not recognizing them as tattoos, and wondering if they were some sort of body paint or drawing, many people’s first response was to try and rub them off! These first pictures are from the village of Busiga.

    This actually gave him a fun way to break the ice with the kids from the “Homes of Hope Orphanage” — when they broke out the facepaints, the only thing the kids wanted was tattoos of their own on their legs!

    adam-burundi-facepaint-legpaint

    If you are able to watch Facebook videos, here’s a clip of kids:

    They got a kick out of his piercings as well — this cute little boy named Brian from the orphanage is trying to put a film canister into Aaron’s stretched lobe in this piercing. At this point it is probably more common to see young people in America with stretched lobes than in most parts of Africa, where the traditional body modification practices are limited to certain rural regions and older generations.

    adam-burundi-ear

    Finally, showing that body modification truly knows no boundaries, not just across illusory racial and cultural lines like the people Christopher and Aaron met in Namibia and Burundi respectively, but also across species lines! Aaron spent some time with a young chimpanzee named Tina at the “zoo”, and she as well was very curious about his tattoos!!! (In every single picture, it’s all she’s interested in or touching).

    adam-burundi-chimp

    AND P.S. Argh! Let me start by saying I feel like a DOPE because I captioned all these photos as being from “Adam” when they are from “Aaron”… and now I’ve gone and saved them and it’s too late at night to change them and still get the rest I need. My sincerest bleary-eyed and clumsy-fingered and calcium-riddled-brain apologies to Adam Aaron.

  • Nailed It

    Written by

    Rob

    Nail, from Nail’s Tattoo in Budapest, Hungary, nailed this Mongolian girl tattoo.  The realism in the portrait works brilliantly with the abstract red and black that surrounds the image.