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

  • Arm Muppets

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    The top tattoo in this pair, the dragon, was done by Steve Hartnoll ages ago but recently popped up with a mild case of viral-photo-itis. It’s a little awkward aesthetically, but it’s definitely the sort of funny gag tattoo that makes you a hit with your nephews. When I mentioned this picture, my friend Piloy (piloy.com) showed me the bottom photo of the Ganesha tattoo, pictures of a guy he met with a placement that to me feels a little less awkward — although it does it at the cost of having a slight disconnect between the two parts of the image, unlike the tattoo, which is practically a muppet grafted onto the wearer’s shoulder.

  • Great corset piercing, or GREATEST corset piercing?

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Yes, GREATEST, I agree completely. The corset piercing to end all corset piercings — the Homer Simpson corset piercing, a masterpiece of lacing, needles, and hilarity by First Blood‘s Joeltron (firstblood.com.au, joeltron.com). By all means, zoom in nice and big.

  • Pick your nose, and your nose will pick you…

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    You thought the “you keep making that face and it’ll stay that way” was serious? There are far worse things that can happen. Ever wonder about the nitty-gritty of how Japanese criminals that mess up make up to their Yakuza bosses? Now you know.

  • A Red and Black Geometric Dance

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    It’s common these days to see geometric tattoo projects that use multiple patterns puzzle-fit up against each other, but I really like the way that this works when those patterns are done in different colors — red and black in this case — to push them onto different layers visually. It both strengthens each individual piece of geometry, and helps them work together as well. Vincent Hoquet (note his new URL of beautifulfreaktattoo.com) has been featured regularly on ModBlog, and while it’s getting a little dated now I want to remind you that I did a lengthy interview with him in 2008 that you can read here.

  • Stapleface

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    You know I was thinking that with all the oohing and ahhing and freaking out over eyeball tattoos, we sometimes forget another modification which is almost equally rare and unusual, and far less likely to blind you — flesh staples. First invented by Samppa Von Cyborg in the late 1990s as an improvement on pocketing technologies, the technology is now mature and mass-produced flat-bar staples are available from Samppa (voncyb.org). This particular example was done by the folks at Calm Body Modification (calmbodymod.com) in Stockholm. In addition to the sideburn staple, I also very much like the unique microdermal placement.

    Edit/update — I wanted to add a longer shot to put it into context.

Latest Tattoo, Piercing, and Body Modification News