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

  • Power Button Hand Implant (and more)

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    You may have seen this multi-level power icon implant before (designed and fabricated by Max Yampolskiy), but I wanted to post an updated picture of it as it’s now well over a year old and looking just gorgeous — the stepped height of the design is incredibly effective. In the bottom photo, which is actually an older picture, you can also see the implant design and the complex base that Max creates, intended to maximize both the detail level and the adhesion of the implant.

    max-power1t max-power2t

    max-power3

    And I must confess a mini-crush on the model as well, who has a plethora of intense modifications and rare, advanced piercings including subclavicals and vertical lowbrets. Although I don’t know of anyone ever having serious complications from them, I can’t tell you that subclavicals are safe or recommended on any level, but wow, I just love them… One of the most hardcore piercings that exist.

    While I’m mentioning Max’s implant designs (he both performs them and retails them to other artists), another one that I like quite a lot and is similar on a design level is this “Iron Man” chest implant, four months old in this photo. There’s a good chance that in time the centre indent may pull down and become defined and that the middle circle (of the three) will start to show, but you can already see nice definition in the rest of it.

    max-ironman

    PS. You may also remember the space invaders implants that Max did.

  • Owl Scarification

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    An absolutely beautiful owl scarification design well into its healing, done by Brendan Russell (facebook.com/brendan.russell.35) of Tribal Urge in Newcastle, NSW. I like the design because it’s quite complex, but at the same time, its simple shapes and repeating patterns keep it visually clean and strong from a graphic design point of view, which should give it a long life even as the scar fades over time.

    owly

  • Diamond Tattoo Fail

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Not that there aren’t lots of smart tattooists, but let’s be honest — tattooing has never been a field that demands high intellectual standards as a basis for entry. And I get that it’s not always easy to visualize a three dimensional object and represent it in a simplified stylized form in two dimensions… but come on… is it really asking that much that people have some basic understanding of how a diamond is shaped before tattooing it? Unless I’m missing out on the caption and this is some kind of new Rubik’s cube half way through a twist or something.

    thats no diamond

  • Geometric Butterfly Backpiece

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    I was looking at this backpiece — still in progress I should mention — by Cameron Sterwart (facebook.com/cammystewart) and the way that a lot of artists adept in geometric work are starting to explore mixing different fields of geometry, often but not always in identifiable shapes like these butterflies and got to thinking that there’s a lot of kinship between the art of tattooing and the art of quiltmaking. Not just on a surface level either — you can also see it even more profoundly when you look at the history of quiltmaking and the way that artform evolved and changed over time. Although perhaps that is true for all artforms — it’s just more obvious in these cases because some of the technical restrictions make it more visually obvious. In anycase, more amazing work by Cammy.

    cammy-butterflies

  • Decapitated Monroe Scarification

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Another characteristically precise scarification by Brian Decker (purebodyarts.com) — an image that I’ve seen tattooed regularly but never scarred — a Decapitated Monroe, done on KC Jones at Inkaholics Anonymous. I should mention that Brian will be one of many brilliant artists at the International Scarification Convention in London, England in May if you want to make an appointment, and below the scar are a few of Brian’s US tour dates — Perkasie, Des Moines, and Dallas — showing a collection of his implant work, many of which you’ve seen here in the past. Contact PBA by email at [email protected] to make an appointment.

    pba-monroe

    pba-tour

Latest Tattoo, Piercing, and Body Modification News