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

  • I like my coffee like I like my…

    Written by

    Rob

    [Insert witty joke here]

    So let me share a fun fact with you.  I have never had any form of caffeine in my system.  Ever.

    It’s true, I’ve never had a cup of coffee, a sip of tea, or even a drink of cola.  It hasn’t been easy, let me tell you.  When I was teaching high school, there were days when I came close to cracking.  Granted there were also days that made me want to take up drinking booze too.

    So why people drink coffee is a small puzzle to me.  I get that caffeine is a stimulant, and in the morning a shot of it can really get you going.  What I don’t understand is the motivation behind the first cup.  Do we as a society have a permanent need for it?  Have decades of conditioning by older generations taught us that we need caffeine to get moving in the morning?  Or has this all been a product of an overzealous marketing scheme that has worked so well people have a hard time considering cutting it from their routines?

    Now coffee isn’t the only stimulant that we enjoy.  In fact, I’d wager to say that the modified community probably has more sources of stimulation that the rest of the world.  We’re in tune with our bodies, we know what we can and cannot do to stimulate ourselves (and I’m not talking about sex, although that is a factor to some).  Heck, for some the absence of stimulation can act as a stimulant to some.  So when we see people all over the world reaching for a pot of coffee in the morning, are they going for it because they’re addicted, or is it some primal urge for stimulation that humans possess, but most cannot express?  The modded community has learned a great deal about stimulation over the centuries, and can tap into that base need in many different ways, and can even express their desires openly.  Yet to the majority of people, those who haven’t tapped into a deeper form of self-awareness, is caffeine their way of coping?

    I suppose this is all just food for thought.  Which I guess exposes where I get my stimulation from.  I don’t need caffeine because as long as my mind is active and engaged, I don’t need that extra boost.

    The bottom line in all this is that no matter my thoughts towards caffeine, there are those out there that genuinely love the rush that it delivers.  I think it’s safe to assume that the submitter of this photo, Ouza, is one of the many who just loves the kick of a good cup of coffee.

    caffeine

    So I heard you like your coffee crisp?  Am I wrong?  How do you like your coffee?  And if you’re not a coffee drinker, where do you get stimulation fix from?

  • It’s Friday, I’m in love!

    Written by

    Rob

    Honestly.  I was shocked that nobody has said anything about my headlines this week.  I had this great idea last Sunday about using a Cure song for headlines, but I suppose I was the only one who thought it was a good idea.  Well, before I talk about the picture below, I’ll let Robert Smith and co. give you an earworm for the day.

    Now then, where was I?  Oh yes, it’s Friday, although I’m not presently in love.

    So where does that leave me?  Should I search high and low for the mythical “ONE”?  Or should I just sit and bide my time and wait for things to happen?  Or maybe a mix of both.

    You know, this whole love thing, it can really get blown out of proportion.  Stay with me here, this isn’t going to be a cynical attack on the concept of love.  I think that people may spend so much time either looking for love, or working to maintain their feelings of love towards an individual that they can lose sight of things that they may love but not even realize it.

    How often to you think about your family?  For some it’ll be more than others.  I’m sure at some point in your life (at least for the majority of people) they have had a family member love them unconditionally.  Of course things change over time, but those original feelings, can they really go away?  What about those of us with pets?  I know that I love my cat, and I know that as much of a brat as she is, she loves me right back.  Now of course some of you are thinking, “it’s an animal, how can you know if it loves you?”.  Well to you I pose this question, how do you know that anyone or thing loves you?

    And that’s the thing with love.  As much as the word gets tossed around, there never is a way to really tell exactly how another person is feeling.  It’s because of that, that I think the concept of being “in love” is such a tricky thing to define.  Songwriters and poets have grasped at the meaning of love for centuries.  Blood has even been spilled all in the name of love.  Yet at no point could any of these people really come up with a set answer.  Of course I don’t have the answers either.  Although I do have a theory.

    I thinking the state of being in love with another is more a statement of trust.  It is a state where you give yourself completely over to another without fear or hesitation.  I don’t want to add that you would do this with the hope of having the same feelings returned because to me that seems like it’s putting a condition on the state of being.  To truly and completely achieve the feeling of being in love, you have to surrender yourself physically, emotionally and spiritually to another.  You have to be willing to give up all that is you.  In situations where people are experiencing “true love”, that is when both people have given themselves up completely, without caring if the other truly feels the same way.

    I bring this all up not because I’m pining after someone, but because the following picture made me think of just what we would call unconditional love.  To me, this image has captured a moment where no matter what, you know that both people in the picture love each other totally and completely, without any doubts in their mind.

    baby

    I suppose I’m in a sappy mood today.  Tell me a sappy story about a time where you first felt you were in love with someone.

  • Little seahorse, swimming in a primal sea

    Written by

    Rob

    Sometimes I like to get introspective and thoughtful about the posts I make here.  Other times, I just like to post something that is just bright and cheery to liven up my day.

    Foxmommy23 uploaded these images of her feet and the seahorses on them to the nature and wildlife tattoo galleries.  From the description she provided, these are dedicated to her siblings, and I would assume the numbers are birthdates.

    seahorse

    There’s just something about these little guys that screams “CUTE!!!”.  I know, I’m a guy, I’m supposed to like beer and monster trucks and tattoos of skulls and daggers.  So what?  So much of our lives are taken up by living up to others expectations.  We need to perform as best we can at work, not because we love our jobs, but because that is what is expected of us.  In relationships there are times where we need to step up and do something we may not want or need to do, just so we can meet the expectations of our loved ones.

    Of course this doesn’t apply to everyone.  I love my job because I get to share with the ModBlog readers things they may not have thought about in a given day.  Sure I could just throw up a picture and say “Hey, look at this!”, but I think you guys and gals and others deserve more than that.  Sometimes doing something for yourself can become the most satisfying feeling possible.  Heck, looking at it from a mod standpoint, when we get modded we’re doing it for ourselves, and I’m willing to bet most of you get some degree of satisfaction by doing it.  So, go.  Be selfish for a day.  Treat yourself to something, or do something no matter the consequence.  Just do it for you.

    Think about it, when was the last time you went out an exceeded someone’s expectations just for yourself?.  You were given a task to do, and instead of just doing the basics, you went out and made it something that you love and something more than what could ever be asked of you.  That’s what I want you to do, do something for you!

    So, what are you thinking of doing?

  • The Body Image

    Written by

    Rob

    With a positive or healthy body image, a woman has a real perception of her size and shape. She also feels comfortable with her body. With a negative body image, a woman has a distorted perception of her shape and size, compares her body to others, and feels shame and anxiety about her body. Being unhappy with your body can affect how you think and feel about yourself as a person. A poor body image can lead to emotional distress, low self-esteem, unhealthy dieting habits, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. Developing a positive body image and a healthy mental attitude is crucial to a woman’s happiness and wellness.

    –Womenshealth.gov

    I had a conversation with an ex-gf last night.  We were out with a group of old friends, and someone handed us a picture of the two of us from when we were dating.  She looked pretty much the same, which is impressive as the picture was over 10 years old, while I looked substantially different.  Sure my head is shaved now, I have a beard, and I wasn’t even modded back then, but the thing I noticed most was my body.  I’m not an overweight guy, I’m a little on the big side of average, but nowhere close to being an unhealthy weight.  In my mind, I’ve always been roughly the same size.  It turns out, I’ve been wrong.  You see, in the picture I was a stick figure.  I started asking around, “was I really that skinny?”.  I was holding a photograph of myself, and I still couldn’t believe it.

    It really got me thinking about how we perceive ourselves by our body image, as well as how much we rely on others to judge us.  While I don’t want to get too deep into a discussion about eating disorders and the like, I did want to talk about how we, as people who go to great lengths to modify our bodies, feel about the judgments and stigmas that arise when discussing body types.

    We as a community are a very unique bunch.  We all do things to achieve what we perceive as the way we want our bodies to be.  We push the limits every day of what the human body can take in terms of modification.  We stretch, pull, poke, cut, and more, all in the goal of getting self satisfaction.

    So given all that, what makes us different from those with eating disorders?  I’m not trying to make any accusations here, I’m just throwing some ideas out there to discuss.  Think about it.  To a person who has a negative body image, like the quote above describes, they are not happy with the way their body appears.  These people will then go to extremes to try to force their bodies into how they believe it should appear.  Crash diets, excessive exercise, eating disorders, all of these are what people (and yes this goes for men as well as women) go through to change themselves.  The sad part of these behaviours is that often when the person reaches their initial “goal”, they will find something else wrong and continue the behaviour.

    So where does the fault lie?  Where do these people get the notion that they need to change themselves to fit a specific ideal?   This is where the line gets very blurry.  We as a community are continually changing ourselves.  Some more than others, and some even feel the need to continually change as they can never quite attain their goals.  Plus there are a number of modified people who also suffer from a negative body image, and do have the same problems that an unmodified person may have.  I think the answer may lie in the motivations.  With modifications we deviate from the “norm”.  What may be considered unacceptable in some places, is celebrated here.  We have bonds with each other where we can get together and discuss our progress.  We talk about new techniques, new ideas, ways to make our changes even better than we could imagine.  We have support.

    Yet when it comes to issues of weight and body image, things become slightly different.  To discuss one’s modifications with other modified people is the norm in our community, to someone suffering from an eating disorder, talking to someone about it can be the hardest thing in the world to do.  To talk to someone means that you first must accept that you have a problem, but then you have to do the unthinkable, which is go to someone and say out loud that you have a problem with your self-image and you need help.  There is no stigma in our community towards getting modified, yet for some reason when a person chooses to alter their body shape, or suffers from an eating disorder, there is still a negative stigma attached.

    When you look at someone who is overweight or obese, your first thought probably is “they should lose some weight”.  Yet to many people they feel that they themselves must lose weight, even if by society’s standards they aren’t overweight or obese.  There have been many studies and books written talking about how over time the media and society have crafted what would be considered the ideal standard, which to many people is an unrealistic standard.  We’re now in a world where more and more people are doing drastically unhealthy things just to meet this falsified standard.

    Which brings me back to us.  Do we as a community hold a double standard when it comes to body types?  We’re a global community that willingly welcomes people with open arms, regardless of what they look like in terms of their mods.  Yet when we discuss body type and body image, do some of us forget how we’re all here because we are taking control of our bodies, which means accepting the way we look?  The reason I’m asking these questions stems from an older ModBlog post that was brought to my attention.  Last December IAM: Botexty submitted an image of her newest tattoo.  She just sent in a healed image which I want to share with you now.

    flattery

    Going back and looking over the comments, you’ll find a mixed bag of reactions.  Some discuss the tattoo, others compliment her on her ass, and some do the exact opposite.  And while most of those people were chastised, I found it a little upsetting that readers of ModBlog, who are some of the most open-minded people I have had to privilege to know, can possess the capacity to judge a person simply on their body shape.  Isn’t that part of the reason we’re all here.  This community is built as a safe haven for those sick of being judged out in the world.  A place where they can be who they want to be without fear of negative comments about their bodies.

    I pose this question to you now ModBlog readers?  Are we truly an accepting community, one that ignores the “faults” in others, or are we just a microcosm of the larger world where we have members that find it acceptable to pass negative judgement on a person’s body, while expecting approval for their own body?

  • Son of a bitch, I’m sick of these dolphins.

    Written by

    Rob

    Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go on an overnight drunk, and in 10 days I’m going to set out to find the shark that ate my friend and destroy it. Anyone who wants to tag along is more than welcome.

    – Steve Zissou – The Life Aquatic

    zissou

    Oh Bill Murray.  Is there anything you do that isn’t brilliant?  (For the record I choose to believe the Garfield movie doesn’t exist).

    Seriously.  I grew up with Bill on the big screen on a regular basis.  I was a bit too young to catch his SNL stint, but by the time Ghostbusters came out, I was 6 and ready to see it.  I can remember being terrified by the scene in the NY public library, laughing at slimer and Rick Moranis, and thinking Dick getting melted marshmallow dumped on him was the greatest thing ever.  Of course it wasn’t until I was older that I was able to go back and watch Ghostbusters and truly appreciate the brilliance that went into making the film.  Seriously, go back and just watch Bill.  Every line is delivered perfectly.  I highly doubt any actor could have pulled that role off as perfectly as he did.

    Of course, as time went on, Bill’s star began to fade.  By the 90s most of his films are forgettable, with maybe the exception of Groundhog Day and Rushmore.  Speaking of Rushmore, I’d say that was when he rose like a phoenix out of the ashes of his career.  Somehow Wes Anderson was able to reach back in time and yank the Bill Murray from 1984 and place him in the body of Bill Murray 1998.  Since then, he’s had a string of brilliant films where he’s been able to showcase his ability to act, as well as his comedic skills.  If you have any doubt about it, go watch Zombieland.

    Now as strong as my appreciation for Bill is, IAM: fist_intheair definitely has me beat.  Nikko Hurtado from Hesperia, CA. did this piece on him recently, and I was floored when I saw it.

    Regardless of your current feelings towards Bill, you must have some fond memory of at least one of his performances.  Was it his turn as Ernie McCracken in Kingpin?  Or maybe you’re a bit older and prefer him in Meatballs (fun fact:  I went to the camp across the lake from Camp White Pine outside Haliburton, ON, where Meatballs was filmed).  Obviously fist_intheair prefers Steve Zissou, so what was/is your favorite Bill role?

Latest Tattoo, Piercing, and Body Modification News