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: Rachel

  • BME will be right back!

    Written by

    Rachel

    BME suffered a hardware malfunction on Sunday, April 5th. This has caused a site wide outage. This affects BME and the “friends of BME” sites that are hosted in BME’s colo cabinet.

    While the hardware that needs to be replaced is fairly minor, it is a critical component of BME’s hosting environment and can’t function without it. It is also a specialty item that can’t be sourced locally. Due to closures and delays caused by COVID-19, what could normally be sourced in a few hours, will likely take several days.

    Please bear with us while we obsessively check the mail patiently wait for the replacement to arrive.

    Remember to wash your hands and practice social distancing!

    Find more information at CDC.gov! 

    (Update: In case you missed it, BME has been back up since April 10th!)

  • Cancer Fundraiser

    Written by

    Rachel

    If you live in the Huntington Beach area and you’re looking to get tattooed, check out the event below. Proceeds will be donated to help someone in their battle against cancer.

    fuckcancer

    Visit their website at http://www.hbtattoo.com.

  • Ari’s Fundraiser update!

    Written by

    Rachel

    Thank you. That’s what I needed to start this post with because there is nothing that can express my gratitude and what we’re feeling but THANK YOU is a good start.

    In one week we’ve managed to sell 86 t-shirts, raising enough money to put a dent in the medical bills. We’re going in for more tests this week and while I wish that Ari didn’t have to go through this, she has been handling it like a champ. Ari has had to swallow bottle after bottle of chalky, sour tasting barium, get poked and prodded and do all sorts of other unpleasant things but she is taking it in stride. She understands that there is a point behind it all and that point is to make her feel better. For those of you who know her, you know she isn’t a shy kid but she definitely is over having to go to the bathroom in the “poop hat” in order to collect samples for testing! The “poop hat” is a hat shaped plastic contraption that goes under the toilet lid in order to make it easier to collect certain specimens. She is ready to get rid of it!

    I explained to Ari that her Dad and I were selling t-shirts in order to raise some money. She knows all about fundraisers from school as they’ve done several this year. “That’s like what school does with their bake sales!” but when I showed her the orders that have come in for t-shirts she asked “these people don’t know me, why do they care if I’m sick or not?”. I explained that while a lot of you have met her in “real life”,  all of you have shared in her life over the past 9 years as well as during my pregnancy since it was all photographed and chronicled on both her Mom and Dad’s IAM pages. I explained to her that even though she isn’t old enough to be on BME herself, she is still a part of a community of friends who care for and support each other in times of need. She was absolutely blown away by it and I think it’s an amazing example to show a young child who is growing up in the digital age. The internet brought her parents together and is responsible for her existence and it’s also responsible for helping a little girl feel loved and cared about. Some people say that the internet is ruining our sense of community but to me, things like this show that it isn’t being ruined, it’s just changing the boundaries and dynamics as to what the word “community” actually means.

    I can’t express how much it means to me that everyone has come together to help us out. All I can say is thank you.

    I also wanted to give you guys an update since you’re helping us to pay a portion of the medical bills. Ari had several tests over the past few weeks. One of them indicated that a portion of her intestines (not sure if that’s the right anatomical word!) are restricting “gastric material”. That “material”  is coming back up as undigested food. So some food is getting through but the majority of it isn’t. This is why she hadn’t started showing signs of serious weight loss until last week when the vomiting got more severe. It made me think of people who have had bariatric surgery and since I’ve read several blogs from IAM members who have gone through it. I started giving her much smaller meals spaced through out the day or dinner being spaced out over several hours instead of at one sitting..

    We did a practice run over the 3 day weekend. I’ve managed to get it so that she hasn’t thrown up in three days, which is a lot better than we’d done over the past few weeks. She’ll be going to see a specialist once she’s back up in Canada but in the mean time the doctors are putting her on a medication that will hopefully kick start her intestines (again, sorry if that’s the wrong word!) and get food moving. The only thing that is troublesome is that she appears to have some kidney issues that we’re getting further testing on. They don’t know if it’s related to the endless vomiting but if not, then it may have been a blessing in disguise if she has a larger issue with her kidneys. I’m just hoping that we get an answer because not knowing what is wrong with your child is one of the worst feeling one can imagine.

    I’m going to be taking the shirts down on Wednesday so that I can get a clear number on the shirts that I need to have printed so if you would like a shirt, they’re linked below.

    Thank you all again!

  • Let’s all welcome our new ASK.BME Staff!

    Written by

    Rachel

    We recently put up a post to invite people to apply to for a staff position over at ASK.BME.  After combing through tons of responses, I selected a handful of professionals from the industry to help answer questions. They’ve already hit the ground running and between the four of them have answered almost 200 questions in the past week.

    Let’s all  give a warm welcome to BME’s new ASK Staff members, Joeltron, Kylie Garth, Ryan Mills and Cere Coichetti! They’re here to help answer your body modification questions. Some of them you may recognize as long time contributors to BME and Modblog as well as being IAM members. Some are definitely more controversial than others but active industry professionals, none the less!

    Feel free to send in some questions! To celebrate the addition of new ASK.BME, I’ve added 3 months to all IAM account expiration dates which should add 3 months to everyone’s accounts that are already active as well as making any expired IAM accounts accessible again!

    In addition to adding new ASK staff, we’ve been cranking along turning out new fixes and features to IAM as well as tweaking various pages so they’re more in line with the old IAM. More changes are coming and we’re hoping that by the end of the summer we’ll have all of the new things we’ve been busy working on behind the scenes completed! It’s been a huge project that has spanned several years but we’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you to everyone who has been patient and understanding while we work to bring BME up to par with the rest of the advances that the internet has seen come to light!

    Our New ASK.BME Staff

    Joeltron – Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
    http://www.joeltron.com

    Why hello there! I’m Joeltron – a professional body modification artist based in Sydney Australia. I personally have a number of visible implants, my eyeball tattooed, multiple stretched piercings, my tongue bifurcated, scarification and various other heavy modifications – so I understand the feeling of being on the sharp end of a needle and feel that it helps when understanding how one of my clients feel.

    I have been professionally piercing since 2002 and opened my own Custom Tattoo & Piercing studio First Blood (Darlinghurst) in 2010 where I am the head body piercer and work with some truly amazing internationally renowned artists.

    At my studio, we only pierce with g23 internal thread titanium jewellery and educate all of our clients to benefits of good quality materials and practitioners. Our shop is a huge advocate for APP.

    I have always been into modifications, reading up on procedures and old/new methods since I was very young. I started working in a Piercing studio at the age of 18 where I began to soak up more knowledge and loved helping people. I started piercing professionally a short period after that and still love my job every single day!

    Studio: FirstBlood.com.au – 77 William Street, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010 Australia
    Mobile: 0403 1337 77 (SMS Only)
    IAM: https://www.bme.com/iam/joeltron
    Email: [email protected]
    Personal: http://joeltron.com
    Facebook: http://facebook.joeltron.com
    Google+: http://plus.joeltron.com
    Tumblr: http://tumblr.joeltron.com

    Kylie Garth – Sydney, NSW, Australia
    https://www.bme.com/iam/kylie/

    My name is Kylie Garth. I am a professional body piercer and was born in New Zealand,I currently live and work in Sydney Australia at a studio called First Blood.

    I have been piercing for 5 years and love my job very much. I love doing ear work,genital and anything heavy gauge.

    I have had over 60 piercings and a few heavier modifications my favorites are my cheeks, double philtrum, 0g conchs and my tongue bifurcation.

    I am constantly learning and expanding my skills to better myself

    Studio Website: http://www.FirstBlood.com.au
    Email: [email protected]

    Ryan Mills – Dallas, TX
    https://www.bme.com/iam/feengerz/

    I started piercing over a decade ago in Salt Lake City, Utah. After my apprenticeship ended and I put in my time at my shop, I moved to Las Vegas to work on the strip. During my years in Vegas I toured with Ozzfest during the summer as their piercer. After growing tired of Las Vegas, I moved back to Salt Lake City. I have worked in several states over the years including Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California. Most recently I have come to call Texas my home. I am a freehand piercer and am constantly striving to expand my body modification capabilities. My true passion is branding and scarification. I practice both strike and thermal cautery branding along with scalpel scarification.

    I am currently manager and head modification artist at Eastside Tattoo and Piercing Studio in Dallas, Tx.

    Studio Website: http://www.dallaseastsidetattoo.com
    Email: [email protected]

    Cere Coichetti – New York, NY
    https://www.bme.com/iam/cere/

    Cere is a long time contributor to BME as well as an extremely controversial member of IAM. He’s considered by many to be an instrumental member of the suspension community and is known internationally for his facilitation of suspensions to those in need. Cere is a long time member of Rites of Passage.

    Cere is a character that people seem to either love with a passion that drives them to allow him to tattoo them or people hate him so much that they boycott IAM. Cere will drop everything at the drop of the hat to fly across the country to help a friend in need, whether it’s a personal favor or to help them get off the ground and up into the air.

    Regardless of if you love him or hate him, Cere will always be there for you.

  • ,

    Hey Saturday, How You Doin’?

    Written by

    Rachel

    Phew! I’m covered in a variety of inks from printing t-shirts all night. I’ve been taking breaks between making mock ups of tshirts,  fixing old artwork so that it can be printed again and printing the t-shirts themselves.  It’s just been one thing after another but I’m having fun. The only thing I am longing for right now would be a heated workshop!

    If you hadn’t noticed, here are even more designs added to the shop since the last time Rob posted about it. Can you believe it? No.. Didn’t think so! I was going to add them all here but I figured I’ll just put the link right HERE and you can go and look at the 100+ designs that I’ve added in the last week.

    Now here is the fun part. I’m losing my second wind and I’m definitely going to crash but I wanted to give myself a little joy before I go to bed (that does not sound like how I meant it to sound..) and the easiest way to do that is to GIVE AWAY FREE STUFF! Yep, that’s right!

    I’m going to put together 5 “surprise packages” for BMEshop orders that come in today. This is how it’s going to work. There will be a “surprise pack” for the first orders placed on the shop for the following amounts:

    1. $20
    2. $50
    3. $75
    4. $100
    5. $200

    Make sense to you? It seems pretty clear to me but I”m the one that thought it up. Say two people placed orders on the shop. One was for $21.00 and the other was for $25.00. The first of those two orders, since they’re both over $20, would be the one that got the “surprise pack”. If we had people place orders for $25, $78, $90, $100 and $200, the person who placed their order first between the $78 and $90 dollar order would win the spot for the $75 order while the second person would get the prize for the $50 dollar or since technically they’re above $50 but they weren’t the first person to place the order for the $75 spot. Did that clear things up or is it even more confusing now? Either way, get shopping over on BMEshop and I’ll make it worth your while. The “surprise packs” will definitely NOT disappoint. Did I mention that they will be relative to the number that you win do the higher the dollar amount that you win for, the better the surprise!

    I love giving stuff away! Hope you all have a great weekend!

    Always Use Lube

    Always Use Lube

    Piercers do it with their gloves on.

    Piercers do it with their gloves on.

    Barbell Rides: The first one is always free.

    Barbell Rides: The first one is always free.

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