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: Rob

  • What’s better than a pin-up girl?

    Written by

    Rob

    The answer is simple, a zombie pin-up girl!!

    zombie pin up

    Alright, so I realize the whole “zombies are cool” thing is getting a little overplayed in the media lately.  It seems every week there are at least 3 zombie walks across North America, a new zombie movie is released every other week, and everywhere you go someone is talking about the walking dead.

    I honestly think a bit of overexposure may be good for the genre.  And I’m not saying that because I think everyone should be prepared for the upcoming zombie apocalypse, but more that when something hits the point of over-saturation in the public eye, it has no choice but to fade away into obscurity for a time.  It is during this time that those who are really devoted to the idea get a chance to re-evaluate the subject matter, and work on it without scrutiny.  Think about the whole zombie phenomenon.  While the zombie movie has been around for decades, it really didn’t hit it’s first major peak until the late 70s and early 80s.  By the mid-80s zombie movies were everywhere and people were just sick of them, which led to the not being popular in the mainstream media.  Between the mid-80s and the early 00s, the zombie devotees were basically on the back-burner, never going away, but also never becoming popular.  During this time a new wave of creative minds got behind the zombie genre, which lead to it’s recent resurgence.  So yes, there may be a lot of crappy zombie movies/books out there, that lapse has also given us books like World War Z, and The Walking Dead, as well as films such as Zombieland.  I’m sure in the next few years interest will wane again, and it will fade into obscurity, and be replaced by some other popular fad, but until then we’re riding the wave of the undead which it hitting it’s crescendo this fall with AMC and Frank Darabont adapting The Walking Dead into a television series, which looks like it will probably out-do every zombie film/show that came before it.

    The same of course can apply to all popular trends. They will reach a point where the public tolerance will hit it’s limit, and then be replaced with something new.  While in obscurity, the artists, writers, whatever, have an opportunity to take what they love and refine it without restriction until it eventually becomes popular again.

    So, all that said, let’s take a look at this tattoo by Gonzofreelancer from the Pinup Tattoo gallery.  This tattoo is actually a perfect example of how something old has become fresh and new, while still holding true to its roots.  The pinup girl is a classic tattoo image, that for a time was exceedingly popular.  It never went away of course, but other trends emerged and pinups weren’t the first choice for people for a time.  So while the pinup girls themselves also faded away from the public eye, so did the tattoos of them.  During the time that they weren’t on the forefront of popular culture, those dedicated to them kept their images alive and worked to keep them modern, while maintaining their classical beauty.  Sure enough, as things changed, eventually what was now old, became new again, and the pinup girl (and the subsequent tattoos) became popular again.  Only this time it wasn’t just a simple picture of a girl in a swimsuit painted on a plane, now we have strong beautiful tattooed and pierced women, posing in all sorts of outfits, making the idea of a pinup girl fresh again.  The tattoos followed suit, with modern interpretations of old-school tattoos.

    So when looking at this great tattoo of the zombie pinup girl, you’re not only looking at a tattoo, but also the long legacies of tattoos, pinup girls, and zombies, merged together into a single image.

  • BME BBQs have a way of pulling you in

    Written by

    Rob

    The BME BBQ.  A time honored event in which the greatest minds of our generation come together to chat about the ails of the world, the possible solutions to all of life’s problems, all while enjoying the finest foods and beverages known to man.  Animals on the verge of extinction willingly give themselves up to be served to these individuals, while monks from an ancient sect pass out 200 year old wine to be sipped from glasses made of diamonds.  These monks, being both deaf and blind, and having taken a vow of silence are the only ones permitted to near these individuals as their discussions can alter the fabric of reality as we know it.

    Recently, at a secret gathering of these minds in Southern California, a small number of photographers managed to slip past the ring of security (a wall of 8 foot tall men, all the direct descendants of the vikings), and capture these images.  I’d like to ask for a brief moment of silence for these brave men and women, as once the images were transmitted out, a small tactical warhead was launched, killing them all instantly.

    Thanks to their sacrifice, we are able to now see what until this time was only a legend.  For security purposes, I need to place the images behind a click through, as the contents of them may shatter your entire world view.

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    socal2

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    So there is a slight chance I may have embellished the story just a little.  So while the vikings and the monks may not be there, there are a great bunch of people having a fun time in the park.

    These pictures in particular come from the most recent SoCal BME BBQ.  From what I understand the SoCal guys and gals get together pretty often for things like this, as you can see in their own gallery on BME.

    Ever thought about hitting up a BBQ or other get together, but didn’t know where to find out when and where there might be one?  Well look no further, the IAM.BMEzine.com event listing is the best place to look for events going on near you.  Taking a quick look, it seems that on September 10th, the SoCal gang is getting together for another gathering, head on over to the listing to get all the details.

  • It’s the little things

    Written by

    Rob

    It seems like it was only yesterday that IAM: Efix had one of his scarification pieces featured here.  Oh wait, it was.  But it seems that Efix Roy wasn’t satisfied with uploading just one amazing piece this week.

    This tiny heart and anchor scarification done on Efix’s friend Genevieve’s fingers recently really stood out, simply because of the challenge of the piece.  While a lot of time we feature big bold scarification pieces, a lot of times the devil is in the details, and in a piece like this, all you have are the details.  With a small design, and a small surface to work with, I can only imagine how tricky it was to perform.

    As with pretty much every scar piece I feature, I really hope we get to see a healed version of this scar, as I would assume that finger scars are difficult to make stick.  I’m also curious as to if these are just the first two scars in what will eventually be a set of full knuckle scars.  Granted I was at a casino yesterday so when I saw the heart and anchor, I instantly thought of crowns, clubs, diamonds, and spades.

    efix heart and anchor

  • Nouveau Art

    Written by

    Rob

    If you’re unfamiliar with the works of C.R. Mackintosh, he’s definitely one artist you may want to look into.  As one of the forerunners of the Arts and Crafts movement, as well as a proponent of Art Nouveau, his designs, and those of his contemporaries are often only seen in galleries.  Often times you will see echoes of their works carried over into the 20th century, as many of the buildings that were designed by Mackintosh and the others are still standing today.

    This beautiful piece is one of Mackintosh’s paintings, which has been superbly reconstructed as a tattoo by the always brilliant Fabrizio Divari.

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    I’m sure the art history majors can do a much better job describing the intricacies of this piece better than I can, but from what I can see, this piece definitely captures the essence of Mackintosh’s work perfectly, while transferring it to the new medium of the skin.  With Nouveau’s principles buried in encompassing the totality of a structure, to see it transplanted onto a person takes that mentality one step forward.  The alteration and creation of the new self, by changing ones external self, embodies the philosophy so well.  If only there were artists of Fabrizio’s caliber during Mackintosh’s day, the Art Nouveau movement may have taken on an entirely new form.

  • Falling Angel

    Written by

    Rob

    The tattoo in this post has me stumped.  It comes from the religious and mythological tattoo gallery, and when I look at it, I see two different things, yet both have similar meanings.

    On one hand, I see a falling angel, which naturally evokes the tale of the Morning Star, Lucifer.  Depending on which version you’re familiar with, the Lucifer myth is often tied to ambition and downfall.  When Lucifer rebelled against heaven, taking on God and the angels loyal to her, his ambition led to him and his followers being thrown out of heaven, to spend eternity in hell.  The artists Bosch and Dore both have created images depicting the fall, which bear a similarity to the falling angel in the tattoo.

    On the other hand, I can see this being an image of Icarus, and not the happy little guy with a bow from the NES game.  Like the Lucifer story, Icarus tried to reach beyond his abilities which lead to his fall, and eventual death.  Only in this case, Icarus was ignoring his father’s words of warning about flying to close to the sun, and ended up having his wings melt.

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    So what do you think is being depicted?  Is this an angel falling from heaven, or someone who flew too close to the sun?  Or is it something else entirely?

  • Horiyoshi III, Kaname Ozuma, and the BME World Tour

    Written by

    Rob

    Hi everyone, I know many of you have been wondering what’s been going on with all the World Tour footage, so I’d like to share some of it with you today, as well as introduce you to a pair of artists that are true masters of their art.

    As you may have noticed, a few days ago I posted about a gallery showing of Horiyoshi III and Kaname Ozuma’s art at the Known Gallery in Los Angeles.  The show is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the works of these artists in North America, as their works are normally displayed back home in Japan.

    As many of you know, the world tour kicked off several months ago and the tour members have since returned.   Most of the tour was spent in Australia and New Zealand, with rescheduling occuring due to volcanic eruptions, political unrest in Thailand and Greece and ultimately a break had to happen because Rachel came down with pneumonia after recovering from a week long hospital stay in New Zealand. One she was given the OK to travel, she managed to hobble to Japan.  While there, the BME tour was fortunate enough to meet with Horiyoshi III and Kaname Ozuma.  This meeting resulted in individual interviews with both artists, but a joint interview was later filmed where they talk about their friendship as well as their inspirations for their art.  A special thank you goes out to Hiro Hara & Horiren for arranging the interview as well as filming and editing it, Kana Nozaki for translating and Will Carsola for adding the subtitles.


    KNOWN GALLERY presents OZUMA KANAME & HORIYOSHI III – IREZUMI BIJIN from Known Gallery on Vimeo.

    During the initial interview with Ozuma, Rachel had asked where Ozuma had shown his work. The last time Ozuma had a show in the US was back in the 70′s in San Francisco. She jokingly asked if he’d like to do a show in the states now and to her surprise,  he enthusiastically said yes! This meant she was going to bring an exhibit of Kaname Ozuma’s work to LA.  In support of his long time friend, Horiyoshi III contributed some of his work to be shown at the gallery.   The show will be running until September 18th, when sadly the art will be returning to Japan.  So if you do get a chance to go to LA, you won’t be disappointed. All of the work from Ozuma is available for sale. Ozuma has been painting tattoos on women longer than most tattooers have even been alive today. He is a traditionally trained Japanese portraiture artist and his work is absolutely stunning. He’s published several book over the past few decades. Any tattooer interested in Japanese style of tattooing may not know his name but they will definitely know his work. His books can generally be found on Ebay (as they’re fairly limited edition) although he does have a new book coming out soon. We’ll update you on the details for it when it is released.

    Some people have asked if the models are all tattooed or if Ozuma uses his imagination but the answer is that it’s both and so much more. Sometimes a model comes in and she has no tattoos at all. He will then use his imagination and paint whatever he envisions on her. Sometimes she is fully tattooed (by Horiyoshi III) and he paints her as is. One of the popular things to do in Japan though is that a couple will come in and commission a painting, the man has a full suit and the woman has none, Ozuma will then paint the mans tattoos onto the woman.  As a thank you present to Rachel for curating the show, Ozuma painted a a portrait of her. He included her sleeves, hand and neck tattoos but as Rachel doesn’t have anything tattooed on her back yet, he painted a beautiful Japanese mermaid that goes from her shoulders to her back.

    Ozuma

    If you aren’t familiar with either artist, here’s a little background information on them.

    Ozuma Kaname

    Born in Niigata, Japan in 1939, Ozuma Kaname began studying traditional Japanese painting under his uncle, artist Sakai Soushi, from a young age.  Moving to Tokyo at the age of 18, he trained as an art dealer while working  at a printing company. Afterwards, he moved on to the publishing industry  where he illustrated tattoos. The majority of his work continues to be  tattoo-related along with other traditional Japanese themes; and often  serves as a source of inspiration for master tattooist Horiyoshi III, whose  clients in turn, are often depicted in Ozuma’s paintings.

    Horiyoshi III

    Born Yoshihito Nakano in 1946, Horiyoshi III is the second tattooist to be bestowed the honorific title—the tattooist affixation “Hori” means engrave—in a line started by his master, the legendary tattoo artist Yoshitsugu Muramatsu, or Shodai Horiyoshi of Yokohama (Muramatsu went on to dub his son Horiyoshi II, and later Nakano was named Horiyoshi III).

    His images are classical Japanese woodblock print motifs such as the phoenix, dragon, snakes, tigers, samurai warriors, Buddhist gods to name a few as well as background images of waves, clouds and various flowers. Among Horiyoshi III’s published works are 36 Ghosts, 108 Heroes of the Suikoden, 100 Demons, and The Namakubi (severed heads), 100 Dragons and 58 Warriors. Horiyoshi?s artistic genius and generosity of spirit have had a defining impact on the world of tattooing, taking it to new levels in this new century.

    Work is still ongoing for the rest of the tour videos, but we thought we should share with you some of the material that will be featured in the tour updates.  This particular video is unique from the rest of the videos, as this is just a recording of two old friends reminiscing.  Expect the rest of the videos to feature proper interviews.

  • The Big 2-0!

    Written by

    Rob

    Ladies and Gentlemen and everyone in between, I’d like to present to you, hailing from Quebec City, in his twentieth appearance on ModBlog, IAM’s own Efix!

    I’d say a round of applause is in order, not only for this being his 20th feature, but also for making such an incredible scar of the Ashtamangala, the 8 Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism.  I could go on about the spiritual meanings of each of the symbols, but I think I’d rather just take a look at the scar, and congratulate Efix on reaching this milestone.  You can see even more of his work over in his own scarification gallery.  As for the owner of the scar, the only thing I know is that according to Efix, he is “one tuff motherfucker”.

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    Disclaimer:  Efix may have been featured more than 20 times, I’m just going by his count on his IAM page.

  • The Boy with Nails in His Eyes

    Written by

    Rob

    The Boy with Nails in his Eyes
    put up his aluminium tree.
    It looked pretty strange
    because he couldn’t really see.

    –Tim Burton – “The Boy with Nails in His Eyes”

    If you’re not familiar with Tim Burton’s book “The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories”, I’d recommend going out to a bookstore to pick it up.  It’s a short collection of poems written by Tim himself back in 1997 with the illustrations done by him as well.  As you can see, The Boy with Nails in His Eyes was the image used for the top half of the tattoo pictured below, as for the bottom half, you can see what I believe is the top of The Pin Cushion Queen’s head on the left, but I’m at a loss as to where the images on the lower right are from.  I’m sure a more astute Tim Burton fan can fill us in.  The only information I have on the image is that it was uploaded anonymously with the title “Droogie“.  So please, when you’re uploading an image, remember to add some details so I can give proper credit if I post it.

    tim burton

  • The eyes have it

    Written by

    Rob

    “Ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi”  (The face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter)

    –Cicero (rough translation)

    We’ve all heard the phrase “The eyes are the window to the soul” in some variation, yet what does it really mean?  Have you ever looked into someone’s eyes and were able to know everything about a person in an instant?  The concept of love at first sight is often linked with the soul quote.  People claim they knew they were soulmates the moment their eyes connected.

    It is true that our eyes are probably one of our more expressive features.  With a single look a person can convey pretty much every emotion possible, just ask Tyra Banks how important “smiling with your eyes” can be.  Which could be the reason behind the quote.  Or is it something more?  An eye is like a fingerprint, or at least that’s what every spy movie that uses a retinal scanner tells me.  With so much detail and nuance stored within the eye, is there some form of unknown code that we can unconsciously translate?  Who we are as a person is somehow imprinted into the structure of our eyes, and no matter what we do physically with our eyes, there is a truth that cannot be hidden from others?

    What do you think it is?  While you ponder that, check out this eye tattoo that Questionable uploaded.

    eye

    I like that it is incomplete so you can really see the steps the artist is taking to put the eye together.  It makes you wonder what part of the wearer’s soul this third eye is revealing.

    Questionable also uploaded an image of an incredible Nyarlathotep tattoo, that you should check out as well.

  • Go big or go home

    Written by

    Rob

    Bigger is better right?  At least that’s what the media has been telling us all for years now.  Now granted that may just be a North American thing where people believe your success in life can be measured by the size of your bank account.  The “whoever dies with the most toys wins” mentality.  Now of course there’s always the other thing that “bigger is better” can be applied to, which is of course the size of your piercings.  User  Everhardnumdick is one guy who doesn’t shy away from a big piercing, as you can see in this picture of his septum piercing.

    septum

    Now this is clearly a case where bigger is pretty awesome.  As for better, well that’s entirely subjective, but I’m pretty sure that the owner of the nose is happy with how it looks.

    As for you, do you think bigger is better?  The whole need to acquire wealth and possessions, to own the biggest things?  Are these things that are meaningful to you, or do you think that this mentality is a product of generations of successful marketing?  Companies wanting to make more money so they make you believe that if you own their product you will be better in some way, only to have another company say the same thing about their product which is slightly bigger.

    Who am I kidding, of course you expected to see some form of genitals in a post about things being better if they’re bigger.  Well it turns out his septum isn’t the only thing that Everhardnumdick has stretched.  Keep on reading to see what else he has made bigger.

    foreskin

    You can check out a side view of this foreskin stretching over in the gallery.

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