BME: Body Modification Ezine

A tattooed person suspends from hooks, laying flat, one leg higher than the other. Their head is back, and they seem to be smiling, dark hair dangling like an anime character.

Celebrating body modification culture since 1994.

Author: Jordan Ginsberg

  • A 486 is a Terrible Thing to Waste

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg


    This BSD vs. Linux war has gone on long enough! Who in their right mind could look up at that image of utmost depravity and violation and not realize that this feud has reached unacceptable levels of mascot rape? (It was suggested to me, however, that perhaps this was a moment of reconciliation, rather than forced entry. The look on the penguin’s face is hard to read, I’ll admit.)

    And because this isn’t a a geeky enough tattoo, the wearer says that “the artist did this to me for a hacked copy of Photoshop.” He added, “What a legend. BSD lives!”

  • We Respond Before We Know How to Speak the Language

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg


    I admit it, alright? If I go more than a few days without posting a gorgeous cutting by Iestyn of Diamond Jacks Tattoo and Piercing in London (MORE), I can’t sleep. I get the cold sweats. It’s a bad scene. So believe me when I say, this is as much for me as it is for you.

    And with that, we bid another day adieu. Sleep well, ModBlog.

    See more in “Skin Removal Scarification“ (Scarification)

  • Full Coverage: Links From All Over (Nov. 13, 2008)

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg

    Gilbert Arenas’s new Obama tattoo (Photo credit: Dan Hellie / NBC Washington)

    [DC Sports Bog] Update! We mentioned the other day that the NBA’s Gilbert Arenas (who once actually gave himself the nickname, “the Black President”) had cast off his indecision and jumped in head-first into his support for Obama with a hand tattoo, the photographic evidence of which can now be seen above. Arenas told the photographer he got the tattoo so that, among other reasons, he can look at his hand during games and see the words “We Believe.” This is the same reason I got “Delicious Nachos” tattooed on my hands — everyone needs a pick-me-up sometimes, right? Oh, delicious nachos. I’m feeling better already.

    Photo credit: Retna

    [TMZ] I can’t describe how dirty I feel linking to TMZ and Fox News. Nonetheless, it’s worth it to get the details on a story this goddamn insane. Basically, Stephen Baldwin just got the initials “HM” tattooed on him for “Hannah Montana.” Strange enough? Well hot holy damn, try this next graf on for size:

    The idea reportedly stems back to a dare that Cyrus made last year. The two became friends after meeting at the White House, when Cyrus told Baldwin that he could appear on her Disney show “Hannah Montana” – of which his daughters are huge fans – if he would get a tattoo, TMZ said.

    Stephen Baldwin and Miley Cyrus, who are friends (!), met at the White House, and while there, took the time to hash out a tattoo-related dare. This actually happened. In real life. Head asplode.

    [Somatechnics] Calling all academics who didn’t leave the site in disgust after the previous two vacuous celebrity stories! The good folks at the Somatechnics Research Centre at Macquarie University in New South Wales, Australia, have put out a call for papers to be presented at next year’s fifth Somatechnics conference. Rather than absolutely mangling the description with my layman’s terms, here’s the deal for those unfamiliar:

    “Somatechnics” is a recently coined term used to highlight the inextricability of soma and techné, of the body (as a culturally intelligible construct) and the techniques (dispositifs and ‘hard technologies’) in and through which bodies are formed and transformed. This term, then, supplants the logic of the ‘and’, indicating that technés are not something we add to or apply to the body, but rather, are the means in and through which bodies are constituted, positioned, and lived. As such, the term reflects contemporary understandings of the body as the incarnation or materialization of historically and culturally specific discourses and practices.

    Possible topics:
    • Somatechnologies of the self (‘non-mainstream’ body modification, body sculpting, performance, fashion, drug use, ‘self-mutilation’, religious practice, etc)
    • medical somatechnologies (cosmetic, reproductive, imaging, corrective, sex (re)assignment, implantation, enhancement, bio-techs, public health initiatives, etc)
    • somatechnics of law
    • somatechnologies of gender, sexuality, race, class, etc
    • somatechnologies of normalcy and pathology
    • somatechnics of war
    • somatechnologies of the post-human (cyborgs, nanotechnology, virtuality, etc)
    • soma-ethics

    A number of IAM members have spoken at this conference in the past and, by all accounts, it’s a fascinating and exciting project to be a part of. For those interested, abstracts are due in by November 30, 2008.

  • The World Goes Backwards

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg


    Sure, IAM: blockedintersection may be bored during a slow day at the piercing shop at which he works — “Thank you, George Bush and the economy” — but look on the bright side: While others cry tears of boredom, you are crying tears of m.-f.-in’ diamonds. (Or Zirconia, I guess.) So … cheer up? I guess?

    And with that, let’s call it a day, ModBlog. Oh, and if you haven’t read it yet, I implore you to spend some time reading Ferg’s incredible article from earlier this afternoon. If you read only one intensely personal account of a Westerner being granted unimaginable access to an Indigenous community this year, make it this one.

  • Because it Has a Song

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg


    When I first saw this picture, I thought, Hey, nice tattoo. A little nondescript, but interesting nonetheless, the texture in particular. Then I read the description and realized holy god that is not a tattoo, it’s an electrocautery brand, and probably covers more surface area than other one I’ve seen. (Then again, I don’t get out much.) Very impressive, at any rate.

    (Brand by Robert Curiel in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico.)

    See more in “Misc. Modern Branding“ (Scarification)

Latest Tattoo, Piercing, and Body Modification News