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: Shannon Larratt

  • Pretty Girl Deficit No More

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Wait, have I been focusing too much on real content and too little on weekend pinups? Before I wander off into the wilderness to drink moonshine with wolves crash into slumber because I’ve had a long day running around the museum with my daughter and her friends, let me quickly post Danielle’s cut here spinal tattoo — quite fresh as you can obviously see from the tape “scars” — to help make up for that a little.

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    I also wanted to share Jennifer from France’s pretty DIY “Captain Lou” piercing. Last time I posted a piercing of this type is wasn’t very well received, but Jennifer’s is much daintier. It’s fresh here, and I don’t know if it’s lasted, but I have seen these ultra-small gauge surface rings last for many years in the past (hi Sandrine!).

    jennifer-loves-captain-lou-albano.jpg

  • Mods Require Education

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    So I was thinking about the recent post about job discrimination with body modification, as well as reflecting on the inspirational interview with Alvar from last year… it’s been my observation that the higher quality the job is and the better you have to be at it, the less relevant your body modifications become. On “low end” jobs it seems employers are much more able to get away with judging a person for petty things like earrings — but in the kind of job that I believe most exceptional people aspire to, one is generally judged more on ones frontal lobe than one’s 1″ lobe..

    Anyway, so I was really pleased to see Kiowa from Missouri’s graduation photos proudly showing his stretched piercings, and wanted to use it as an excuse to (a) if you want to be free to live your life publicly modified, performing well academically is a great start, and (b) the BME 2008 scholarship application is available.

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  • Self-Cutting Meets Self-Scarification

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    So my first thought was, “wow, that’s a really great quality skin removal given that it’s DIY with a Swiss Army knife”… My second thought was, “YOU’RE CUTTING TOO DEEP! YOU’RE CUTTING TOO DEEP!”

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  • Psycho Cyborgs – Birmingham 2007

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Nik was in Birmingham, UK doing some work for Tattoo Nation UK when he shot these photos at a Psycho Cyborgs stage show. As soon as the final steps required to update the site are taken you’ll see tons more from Nik in the Psycho Cyborgs gallery on BME — until then, a few more continue after the break, and I think Roo is working with Sammpa to get some high quality video of their show up here as well soon.

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  • Dermal Anchor Artwork

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    My friend Sean Dowdell from Club Tattoo is holding a few dermal anchor seminars (click for a flyer), so let me share with you two gorgeous dermal anchor projects he’s done (the angel wings one I’ve actually posted before, but this is a much nicer photo). First, this Om is really something, in terms of really characterizing the level of “art” that these can bring to what’s traditionally more of a “craft”:

    om-dermal-anchor.jpg

    As is this metal angel… Hopefully Caitlin and I can make it out to see him at the Maritime Tattoo Festival in Halifax this May, which is one of his seminar destinations along with Baltimore, Mesa, Philly, and Long Beach.

    dermal-anchor-wings.jpg

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