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

  • Bad Boy Bill

    Written by

    Rob

    Earlier today Shannon brought up the fact that BME has seen quite a few video game tattoos in its time.  Sure enough, I go to check the galleries today and look what turned up…

    For IAM: gunsxofxsummer this tattoo by Andy Yoder of Ace of Spades in Asheville, NC, means a bit more than just a simple video game reference.

    I like to speak on many levels at once. The obvious “bite me” message, the “bite the bullet” message attributed to general tattoo/pain experiences, and lastly, a reminder to myself to stop riding the fence and bite the bullet and go to one side or the other.

  • High Nasallang

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Here’s another one of those extremely, extremely rare ultra-unusual piercings that always make my day when I wake up to seeing them. I can’t imagine how much force it must have taken to push the needle or punch through the big hunk of cartilage that makes up that portion of the nose — it’s a very imposing. The high nasallang piercing was done by Gabriele of Max Art in Italy (who I’m sure you know best from the SkinTunnel procedure), to accompany the existing nasallang and bridge piercings. Unfortunately it is unlikely that any more piercings between the bridge and the high nasallang could be done due to the anatomy, although they could be faked with microdermals.

    highnasalang

  • Modified World Video Update

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    This past Friday J.C. of Pangea Piercing just posted the latest The Modified World videocast show, this week talking about things like fossil, bone, horn, and amber body jewelry — organic body jewelry other than wood. As always, a wonderful introduction to and in-depth discussion of the subject from J.C.’s encyclopedic love of all things bodmod for the piercing geek — and always great “educated consumer” information as well, protecting you from the many scams floating about in what has become a multi-billion-dollar industry. It’s about nine minutes of meat (11:11 total), and this video gets into more depth than the wood jewelry one did and it was quite enjoyable — and a superb advertisement for Pangea’s enticing selection of jewelry.

    I’m just terrible about regularly promoting things, so I should mention that last week J.C. interviews and does some work for Alexis Brown of the band “Straight Line Stitch”. Fans of either The Modified World or Straight Line Stitch will enjoy this. Here’s the link: youtube.com/watch?v=ZYqyxrFzfwA, although if you only have time for one of these two, the one on jewelry above was more to my liking.

  • Pac-Man Microdermal Project

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    BME has seen no shortage of videogame tattoos, and even scarifcation inspired by videogames, but videogame piercings? Those are much more rare. When it comes to video games, even though he’s getting a little old and dated, you don’t get much more iconic than Pac-Man. The ol’ Pac-Man Maze Ass tattoo is one of the most forwarded and reposted tattoo images out there — we’ve seen people here tattooed head to foot with the yellow fellow, and even couples have gotten in on the fun together. There have even been Pac-man subdermal implants!

    There was an earlier microdermal project that was reminiscent of the cherry reward in the game, but this microdermal project is much more clear in its inspiration. It’s also nice and simple, fairly subtle and discrete, but enormous fun for those sharp-eyed enough to catch it. This happy customer (actually, Alex, an employee at the shop) was poked by head piercer Mel at Body Piercing by Tracy (bodypiercingbytracy.com) in Oceanside, California. As always, click to zoom in and take a better look.

    pacman-piercing

    PS. Don’t skip following the older ModBlog links in this entry — there’s some fun stuff there.

  • Look, ma, no hands!

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    As I’m talking about microdermals added to tattoos (like the googly eyes by Joeltron) in ways that actually make sense and add to the preexisting tattoo rather than just making it the laughing stock of your body’s ink neighborhood, I wanted to share a piece that jumped out of James Rajewski’s portfolio at me. James works at Infamous Ink (infamousinknc.com) in Charlotte, NC by the way. When I first saw this little project, I wondered what I was looking at because even though it’s just a normal microdermal with a decorative flat bead, the color choice almost makes it look like a tunnel going down into the body (bringing to mind Lukas Zpira’s inset transdermals). Too bad it’s not, you’d only have to make it about twice that size to create a holder for miniature watch components. Either way, this is another one of those nice but deliriously rare examples of a microdermal-tattoo combo that works well, in my opinion.

    whats-the-time

  • Robby Needs Your Help

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Neil Chakrabarti, whose name you certainly recognize, writes me with this sad note,

    So another one of our beloved members of the suspension community is in need of our help. Robby Seepersad, aka Ribble, is in the custody of the INS and is facing deportation to Trinidad. Robby moved to the US as a child and grew up in Queens where he applied for citizenship. Due to red tape after 9/11, Robby never received citizenship in the US, and in 2009, under extreme mental duress, plead guilty to false charges in NYC and went to jail for eight months. This past winter, Robby was in a car that hit some sleet and slid through an intersection in IL. When the police ran his name, Robby was turned over to the INS due to his previous wrongful imprisonment. Robby Seepersad might as well be my brother. He’s kind, hilarious, passionate about what he does, and is an amazing suspension practitioner and friend. Please help us raise money so his fiancée, Dede Nichols, can marry the love of her life before he is forced out of our country. Please visit http://www.gofundme.com/16qja0 and help save an American Dreamer.

    Over the years I’ve dated a couple people who were so-called “illegal aliens” in Canada — part of Rachel’s current medical dilemma (which is a big part of the reason that BME struggles at times) is my fault for never having properly dealt with her citizenship issues while we were married. I was one myself for a while in Philadephia when I was dating an American. I can not imagine how much more horrific this experience would have been if myself and the people involved didn’t have a home country we knew to go back to. I can’t imagine how much worse it would be if I was facing losing the love of my life rather than just running away from a broken relationship. I can’t imagine how much worse it would be if the country I was being exiled from was the only home I’d ever really known. Well, Robby doesn’t have to imagine any of that. He knows it all too intimately.

    Let me share a few pictures.

    From left to right, (1) Robby, Neil, and other groomsmen at Arwen’s wedding. (2) Robby and his fiancée, Dede Nichols. (3) The first time Neil met Robby, 12/6/09. (4) The back to stomach pull Robby and Neil did after Arwen’s funeral in Long Island on 10/22/11 — his fiancée, Dede, is in the pic as well doing Robby’s bio.

    If there is anything you donate it would help. You can do so at http://www.gofundme.com/16qja0. As always, I would not post something like this, asking you to help if I wasn’t willing to help myself. I don’t just post every request for help people ask me to post. I only post them if I believe in them, and if I believe that donating will actually help.

  • YOU’LL NEVER ESCAPE SAN ANTONIO!

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    WHAT!?!? YOU’RE TELLING ME THIRDEYEPERCEPTION FLESHSUSPENSION USES JOE AMATO RIGS??? NOW I’LL NEVER ESCAPE!!! CAN’T HURT TO TRY THOUGH!

    yikes

  • Googly Eyes FTW

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    I’d say 100% of the time when I see microdermals added to the eyes of a tattoo, it transforms the tattoo from something potentially tough looking into something hilariously goofy. I’d say 99% of the time, that is not at all the intended consequence, and the wearer is blissfully unaware that they’re a little silly looking. The wonderful thing about this example, pierced by old BME friend Joeltron of First Blood (firstblood.com.au) and tattooed by Naepier “Kooky and Spooky” Jenkins (naepier.com), is that for once the whole thing works — and works so well — and is actually supposed to be in that wonderful self-aware 1%.

    Click for the big uncropped version.

    joeltron-vs-tattoo

  • Inverted Forehead Pull

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    I’ve posted some beautiful tripod beach suspensions from the 8th Italian Suscon, but it was such an incredible gathering of talented and inspired individuals that I’m sure you know, even if you haven’t done much gallery browsing, that there were many amazing suspensions that happened.

    One that really stood out to me was Alice Tancredi and a recent but dear friend, Martini Col Bivio, did together. There are two main ways to do a multi-person suspension (not including lifts) — tandem suspension, where one person hangs from another, or a suspended pulling, where people suspend separately, and are then connected by separate flesh hooks and ropes. This is what Alice and her friend did. They both did an inverted seated suspension, already an unusual setup, and then connected to each other with a forehead pull. I’ve done forehead pulls, so I was able to relate to the unique experience they offer — you can really get pulled into the other person’s psyche and even though you’re in public, it can become a very private event.

    invertedforeheadpull-big-2

    invertedforeheadpull-big-1

  • Tattoo healing failure, fixed

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    David Newman-Stump, owner and artist at Skeleton Crew Tattoo (skeletoncrewtattoo.com) in Columbus, IN, sent me in some photos to help out in my mission to show people what they should expect from tattoo healing (mostly brought on by this entry). The previous post I made showed color tattoo healing, but this one is black and grey shading.

    The picture on the left is how the tattoo healed after being done by a generally talented and respected artist with a solid clientele. Fresh it probably looked great — I imagine quite similar to how it appears in the middle photo. Unfortunately tit didn’t heal well, and the client was left with an undefined, faded ghostly tattoo. Thankfully there was nothing wrong with the fundamental shape of the tattoo so it wasn’t terribly challenging for David to go over the tattoo and put the ink in properly. However, if I left you with just his fresh tattoo, not only would I be misleading you about what a tattoo looks like, but you’d also have no way of knowing that the same thing didn’t happen again. So four months later — completely healed — the picture on the right was taken. Now, it is true that a tattoo will continue to degrade from sun damage and skin aging over the lifetime of the wearer, 90% of the change happens in the first month, so this client can be secure in the joy that their tattoo has been successfully repaired.

    You should definitely click and zoom to take a better look at the details.

    portraitset-small