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

  • BREAKING NEWS: Body Piercings Are Anti-Israel

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg

    This will kill you immediately.

    This is obviously a delicate subject, so it’s with some apprehension that I even broach the topic, but the evidence is overwhelming and it must be addressed: Body piercings — the piercings themselves — are actively attacking Israeli citizens. Crazy, right? “But how could a piece of perforated skin with a piece of jewelry in it harbor any sort of political or nationalistic bent?” you might ask, but the facts are irrefutable. Exhibit A: an Israeli soldier died this week from complications following an infected tongue piercing:

    A 19-year-old combat soldier who died at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center on Monday as a result of complications of a tongue piercing he had done in July was a rare case [Ed. Note: Or so they would have us believe], but oral piercings commonly cause infections, according to experts in the Israel Defense Forces and Tel Aviv University’s School of Dental Medicine. […]

    The victim of tongue piercing felt severe pain around his lips a week after undergoing the procedure. He went to the Emek Medical Center near his home in Afula and Bnei Zion Hospital in Haifa and was transferred to Rambam as his condition worsened.

    He developed a dozen infections in his brain that had begun in his mouth. First he was in the neurology department, but then the soldier was transferred to intensive care.

    And as if this transparent plot weren’t transparent enough, there’s this unconscionable attack on the children (THE CHILDREN):

    A 14-year-old boy who underwent a piercing in his nipple is hospitalized in Safed and facing surgery to repair damage from a serious infection, Ziv Hospital said on Thursday. […]

    It was not clear whether the high school pupil from the Galilee had received his parents’ permission in writing to undergo the piercing, which is required by law for anyone under the age of 16.

    Dr. Yuri Weiner, deputy head of pediatric intensive care at Ziv Hospital, said the boy previously had other parts of his body pierced with the insertion of a ring, but doing so in his nipple caused a serious infection in the lining of his chest and that he would need intensive antibiotic treatment and surgery, which is disfiguring.

    The moral of the story? Piercings are terrorist organizations that must be eradicated at all costs before they kill again. I am suspending posting on BME so that we can focus our attention on this urgent matter. Posts will resume immediately.

    Soldier’s tongue piercing causes fatal infection, Nipple piercing in 14-year-old boy leads to infection and surgery [Jerusalem Post]

  • Oh hey, Video Games!

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg

    Photo credit: Kotaku.com

    In their ongoing campaign to thoroughly dominate the literate gamer community, the good folks at Kotaku have been compiling readers’ game-related tattoos, with some pretty fabulous results, like the above. I’m just saying, if you can’t get on board with a Mega Man/Looney Tunes mash-up, you have no soul. OK, maybe a little one.

    In other video game tattoo news, you may have seen the following NHL 2K9 commercial in which a local idiot gets the moves for the game tattooed on his forearm, only to have the artist … oh, just watch it yourself. It is exactly as entertaining as you would expect a tattoo-related hockey video game commercial to be.

  • Incredibly Interesting, Vital and Important Celebrity Tattoo Round-Up

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg

    Photo credit: Hector Vallenilla / Pacific Coast News

    [People.com] In as much as you can deduce anything about celebrities from seeing them on television and through media coverage, Heidi Klum seems legitimately goofy enough to be genuinely likable. (I have no doubt that immediately after this gets posted, it’ll be revealed that she operates a concentration camp in her garage or poisoned the drinking water of a small town or eats veal or something.) Anyway, she’s just showed up in public recently sporting a new forearm tattoo (AHH SCANDAL) to commemorate her anniversary with her husband, Seal (AWW), which she explains as such:

    “My husband and I always get married every year,” said Klum. “It was our fourth wedding, and we wanted to have our names tattooed together. So it’s my husband’s name and our three children, their initials, in the [three] stars.”

    Tim Gunn was not available for comment, who claimed it was getting a little dusty in the back of his Towncar.

    [BestCelebGossip.com] You would think that when you make the decision to marry one of the dinks from Good Charlotte, you accept that ill-advised tattoos will be as unavoidable as soul-destroyingly-bad mall punk being blasted around the homestead. Well, Nicole Richie is taking a stand against the tattoo plans of whichever guy it is from Good Charlotte to whom she’s married!

    From the sounds of it, Joel has been considering getting another tattoo, but this is something she has put her foot down. Oddly enough, Joel wanted to have a tattoo of their six month old Harlow etched onto his tooth of all places, and Nicole reportedly lost her temper over the whole situation. He had said some time ago, promised even, that he wasn’t going to get any more tattoos, but when a friend suggested doing something out of the box, such as the tooth tattoo, he wanted to go for it.

    Umm … unless our friend Joel has some positively Barbaro-sized chompers, I’m not entirely sure how well this would have worked out even if he had been allowed.

    [ContactMusic.com] Megan Fox has a lot going for her. She’s easy to look at. She’s brash and doesn’t seem to possess a self-editing mechanism. She’s incapable of taking a picture in which she doesn’t look like she’s about three-and-a-half seconds away from blowing you. I mean really, what’s not to like? But the 22-year-old is also somewhat tattooed — especially for an up-and-coming actress — and doesn’t take kindly to people who find her ink trashy.

    “Everyone hates them because they’re closed-minded about tattoos. People who don’t like me, as far as fans go, always talk about how I’m trashy because I have tattoos. I find that insane! This is 2008, not 1950. Tattoos aren’t limited to sailors. I find them beautiful, so I’m going to keep doing it.”

    This isn’t anything new, though. In an interview when she was 19, she mentioned having a tattoo of her ex-boyfriend’s name “next to my pie,” which … well, it’s just plain awesome. You stay classy, Megan Fox.

  • Vote or Cry

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg


    Intrepid reader Jennifer sends in this scan of an ad from Seventeen magazine:

    See, I’m conflicted about things like this. On the one hand, there are a lot of positive things to consider here: Encouraging young people to vote is undeniably noble; realistic-looking piercings in ads are rare; a crying woman is a huge turn-on.

    On the other hand, I’M ON THE INTERNET AND EVERYTHING MAKES ME ANGRY AHHHHHH

  • Full Coverage: Links From All Over (Sept. 22, 2008)

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg

    Photo credit: Peter Parsons / The Chronicle Herald staff

    [The Chronicle Herald] As a rule, it’s probably best not to advocate tattoos as a means of winning a bet or a contest. Unless it’s a happy moment of serendipity in which a situation arises in which you were planning on getting a tattoo anyway — or, at least, that the situation inspires you to get a piece that you enjoy but may not have considered otherwise — the results will likely be dire. (I swear, that photo-realistic sleeve of Oprah horse-whipping the Pope in drag was for charity!) Luckily, JoAnn Harpell isn’t in the regretful camp: the Nova Scotia woman got a portrait of Elton John on her leg (right) in order to win a radio contest to see John in concert.

    “The only thing I wouldn’t have done (to get a ticket) would be to go to a scalper,” Ms. Harpell said.

    And she did try to get tickets when they first went on sale for the Halifax and Moncton concerts.

    “I cried like a baby when I didn’t get them,” she said. “I was very upset.”

    The serendipitous part is that Harpell was already moderately tattooed, and there are a few songs in Sir Elton’s catalogue that are incredibly meaningful for her — the lyrics of which were incorporated into the new piece. Sweet story, right? Surely the commenters visiting The Chronicle Herald’s Web site agree, right?

    “I can’t believe that anyone would go to those extremes to see an entertainer plus with 14 tattoos she is lucky she has a husband. I think she needs to take some of her money and see a psychiatrist.”

    “There are two things wrong with this story. First, that this woman will disfigure herself for a couple of tickets to see an aging pop star, and second, that C100 would sponsor such a thing. Unbelievable. Shows very bad judgement on both their parts. And the tattoo is very poorly done and looks nothing like Sir Elton. I felt really embarrassed for her, and really ticked off at C100 for their juvenile behaviour.”

    “C100 is a crazy radio station and this woman’s behavior fits right in. Me thinks you need to get a life…… “

    God damn it.

    [NOLA.com] In the latest edition of Tattoos v. School Board, the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board in New Orleans is seeking to ban “visible lewd and gang-related tattoos,” which doesn’t actually sound the like worst idea ever. Sure, it’s problematic because terms like “lewd” and “gang-related” are certainly open to interpretation: Is a traditional pin-up girl “lewd”? Should a tattoo referencing one’s neighborhood qualify as “gang-related”? And as well, some may suggest that prohibiting tattoos of any kind is some sort of violation, constitutional or otherwise. But at the same time … it’s high school. Banning tattoos and piercings is silly, but, as with any venue that relies on a sense of decorum to maintain some semblance of order, I can’t quite disagree with measures that might cut down on idiotic gang violence. As long as it’s not a single figurehead making the decisions — a committee of peers, perhaps?

    [NYPost.com] It seriously seems like there’s a tattoo-related story coming out of the Republican presidential campaign every other day, does it not? This is one is even more boring than usual, though. Meghan McCain was overheard talking to her editor about getting a new tattoo! She’s already got a blue star tattooed on her foot, and her editor has 11 tattoos of his own! McCain said she would wait, however, until after the election to get new work done, out of respect to her father, who, for five-and-a-half years in Vietnam, couldn’t get a tattoo.

    [Darragh Doyle] Cute story here about a guy admiring a Don Quixote tattoo from across a crowded pub. He approaches to the woman wearing the piece, who either doesn’t know the right story about where the design came from, or is purposely screwing with the narrator. Nice tattoo, as well.

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