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

  • Much respect

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    The very first time I saw a pair of vertical lowbrets, I fell in love with those piercings.  At the time (around 2000, or 2001) there were only 4 people in the vertical lowbret gallery and I decided I needed to be amongst them. I proceeded to pierce my own vertical lowbrets at 10 gauge. That goes down in my memories as my most painful piercing experience of all time, which is why I was so impressed to see these 6 gauge vertical lowbrets!

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    These piercings were done by Wizzer at Body Electric Tattoo in Hollywood, CA.

    For some procedural shots as well as pictures of the finished product, keep on keeping on.

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  • Who needs hooks anyway?

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    To quote Allen Falkner:

    Hooks are such the Holy Grail of the suspension community.

    It seems like everyone is always trying to replace the standby fishing hooks commonly used by the suspension community with different alternatives.  One idea that was tossed around a bit was using cables rather than hooks.

    Obviously, using the cables in place of  hooks has many drawbacks and it is not something I would personally recommend doing. That being said, it does make for some spectacular photos such as this one.

    Edit: Apparently the first pic was featured previously here.

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    Suspensions by Dana Dinius -Zuul, and Daif Hahn.  Photos by Circle 23 Photography.

  • Ya know, when the shark bites…

    Written by

    Jen Savage

    This shark tattoo was inked by James Yocum out of Black Rat Tattoo in Las Cruces, New Mexico. See the victim after the jump.
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  • All the better to see you with my dear!

    Written by

    Lexci Million

    I love when people get ridiculous tattoos that make everyone ask “What the hell are you gonna do when you’re 80!?”

    This is no exception. I’d like to ask Matthew just what would possess him to tattoo hipster glasses on his face but really… who cares? It’s hilarious and it’s not my face!

  • BME Launch update

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    Rachel is working on getting the new site launched. Unfortunately, this morning the main BME computer had a drive failure, so now she is having to fix that before the launch can take place.

    In the mean time here is some info off of Rachel’s IAM page about the launch:

    Thanks to Jon for making the changes to SSO.BMEzine.com so that you can log in there and change your email address.

    As I’ve said a bunch of times, this will really help us when we’re importing accounts so that we don’t make multiple accounts for people. We’d like to start off with as few garbage/extra accounts as possible. So please help out by making sure all of your accounts have the same email address.

    Here are the places where you should update your email address:

    For your BME memberships (both free and paid as well as your paid IAM billing accounts) visit BME’s Billing/Account Management System

    For your IAM account, switch to edit mode and click the green edit button  next to USER.

    For your wordpress based accounts (ask.BME/Modblog), thewiki and BME411 go to SSO.BMEzine.com and after you log in, click my account and there will be text that says “Click here to change your email address”. You’ll have to enter in your new email address and then you’ll get an email with a link to confirm the change. Since the SSO manages your log in for all of those sites, you just need to make the change at the SSO.

    Last but not least, to update your BMEshop account,go to theBMEshop Login page. After you log in, at the bottom of that page there is a link that says “Update your profile”. Click that and update your email address from there.

    If I’m not mistaken, the first things that will get merged are BME and BMEshop (since that front end was launched a while ago but is running on it’s own account management system). This will make it so when you earn credits towards BMEshop under your account, it will be automatic and can be stored automatically! No more waiting for emails or filling out other stuff. Hooray!

    As always, please post any questions about the launch in the forum linked below.

    CT has to install some updates on IAM that require some reboots so that will happening later tonight. It should only mean a couple minutes of downtime though.

  • Rev. Matt, the man behind the ‘stache

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    This is Rev. Matt, he is a long time IAM member and an accomplished tattooist who works out of Seven Crowns Tattoo, in Toronto. I would have never known any of this if it wasn’t for his bitchin’ mustache though. How could I see a ‘stache like that, and not have to check out the persons page? I couldn’t, it’s just not possible.

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    Here’s one of my favorite pieces off his shops website.

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    For a few more pics of Rev. Matt’s work, keep on keeping on.

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  • There’s always room for one more…

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    …and  Rolf here will keep squeezing them in. I am starting to think I should move to Germany, with a customer like this my rent wouldn’t be late right now!

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    Piercings by  Andrea Venhaus, Deep Metal, Dortmund.

    To see the finished piercing and how happy it made him, keep on keeping on.

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  • Nom!

    Written by

    Jen Savage

    My dog once ate butter. Let’s just say, it didn’t end well. Luckily, this tattoo by Corey from Black Cat Tattoo does not produce the same results!
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  • The ninth hook

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    Mmmm, excuse me Tye, but why exactly is there a hook in your head?

    When I found out about suspensions, to the day that I did my first one, whenever I pictured myself being suspended I could feel the hooks in my body. Alone with that I could always feel a hook in my head. It’s just what I felt should have been done. And I wasn’t wrong at all. I love having head hooks when I suspend. If I do a suspension without one it feels odd, like I’m missing something.

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    When Tye is not hanging from hooks in his head he is running the piercing side of True Grit Tattoos in Burlington, ON.

    This suspension took place at the Rhode Island Suscon thrown by ROP and the Photo is courtesy of Phil’s photography website.

  • Living in both worlds…

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    Subcision is one of my oldest BME friends as well as being the second person I ever met into surgical genital modifications (the first being Shawn).  When I first got interested in subincisions there was not much information available aside from J’s old BME interview. Entering the world of surgical genital modification as a young hetersoexual male was quite unusual, and quite intimidating at the time. However,  Subcision and J were the two guys I could go to  with questions about the procedure and life after this modification, and they never once  made me feel uncomfortable.

    Since those conversations almost a decade ago, Subcision has not stop modifying his penis. Pretty much as soon as one mod heals (or sometimes before) he is going back into his penis with more piercing, tattooing or surgical mods. He is a prime example of someone who lives quite well in the “normal” world as a clean cut man in a tie while, unbeknownst to his colleagues, he is hiding quite the array of body mods under his clothes.

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    For more graphic pictures of his genital mods, keep on reading.

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    Subcision, like many people living between the “normal” world and the world of body modification, asked that no pictures of his face be used to retain some anonymity. However, IAM members are welcome to check out his page and see the man behind the mods.