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

  • Double Ear Closure — Conch and Lobe

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    My old friend Quentin at Kalima (kalima.co.uk) is one of those body modification masters that’s been at it since caveman days, but doesn’t seek out media attention so he flies under most people’s radar. Anyway, he posted this beautifully done ear reconstruction that included the reversal of a large inner conch hole, and the first comment practically had me on the floor laughing — “Was tissue removed from the lobe to repair the conch?”

    The picture is misleading because Quentin did the lobe closure and the conch closure at the same time, so both are stitched up. I suppose it’s not a terribly unreasonable assumption if you’re a layperson that doesn’t have much experience with these procedures, but after laughing a bit, I was a little terrified that someone might see this and actually try and do a lobe reversal that way — which would almost certainly result in necrosis (you might as well stick in a piece of hamburger beef for all the good it’ll do). In any case, it’s not a big deal to remove cartilage from the inner conch and then close the skin over the void — in fact, this is quite commonly done by cosmetic surgeons, who often choose the inner conch to harvest cartilage for transplant in rhinoplasty (ie. nose job) procedures!

    Click to zoom in and take a close look at how perfectly this turned out.

  • Cartilage Surface Piercing

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    A friend forwarded me these pictures expressing concern after seeing them in someone else’s portfolio. I’m not going to out the person who did them (in part because it would involve shaming my family’s hometown), because I do agree this is not advisable. Anyone with a cartilage piercing knows how finicky even simple cartilage piercings can be to heal — how slow the process is, and how resistant the tissue can be to allowing a proper fistula to form. Surface piercing on the cartilage increases this risk exponentially, and is asking your body to do something it’s just not evolved to do. Simple rejection is the most likely, although it carries a strong risk of infection and permanent damage to the cartilage and ear structure. I’d urge a quick perusal of the BME wiki entries on Ear Collapse and Cartilage Swelling.

    That said, I have seen cartilage surface piercings heal before, so I can’t tell you that it’s impossible. Just risky. For that reason, I would urge that if someone actually does want to insist on having such a piercing done, that they need to be extremely aware of what’s going on with the piercing — personally my feeling is that this is the sort of piercing that should only be done by those with a ton of experience, or better yet, someone who works in the industry so their coworkers can help them clean and keep a close eye on it. Of course I hope the wearers got lucky and these piercings actually healed, but more realistically, I just hope they made it through this experience with a minimum of damage.

  • A Wizardess’s Body Modification

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    I wanted to share this great skin peel scarification by Howie (LunaCobra.net) — I just love the magical design, an absolutely beautiful aesthetic that I can’t wait to see healed. This my favorite facial scar in quite some time — and I see a lot of great work so that’s saying something big! I keep looking back at the picture as I write this, I’m completely sold on it.

    Now I also wanted to do some teasing and say that Howie may be in Toronto at the end of this month (October). It’s not confirmed yet, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. If you’d like procedures by him — be it scarification like you see here, ear pointing, implants, and much more, contact him via the normal channels. I’ll also say that I really think that if you’re considering eye tattoos, my strong advice is that if Howie is available to you, that’s who you go to. He’s been doing eye tattoos longer than anyone else out there and has more experience with this still highly experimental and arguably risky procedure. To be honest, it’s a little worrying how quickly this still experimental procedure has burst out onto the public — in some ways it would have been better if only Howie had done the procedure until it was “stable” and well understood. But we don’t live in a perfect world, and the more you tell someone to be patient, the more they want something.

    Anyway, Howie is currently touring, and like I said, I’m hoping we’ll see him here in Toronto soon, so get in touch via the web at Lunacobra.net, facebook at facebook.com/luna.cobra, or email [email protected]. Or get your procedures done by your prison cellmate. They’re your eyeballs to gamble after all!

  • Ana’s Permanent Puppets

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Speaking of whacky finger gag tattoos, you may remember all these viral pictures of people drawing little cartoon puppet characters on their fingers doing various acts — Ana Laco had Brane Doricic at Inkconnection Tattoo Parlour in Rijeka, Croatia tattoo this finger mugging on her. In addition to laughing, I’m actually quite in awe at how well the tattoo has held — on the left is the tattoo fresh, one hit, and on the right is the tattoo healed. As anyone that’s tattooed their fingertips knows, it is beyond impressive to get this much ink to stay on the first try!!!

  • White and Black Tattooing over Healed Blackwork

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    When I saw the healed tattoo on the right in the picture below, I actually thought it was fresh and commented on how much fresh white ink with black over blackwork looks “unreal”, like a sticker or a piece of body painting. To my surprise, the wearer informed me that it was not in fact fresh, but actually a week healed after being done by Gerhard Wiesbeck (timetravellingtattoo.com). You can see how much the colors have settled by comparing the fresh tattoo on the left — it’s more obvious in the white than in the black of course. In time the tones will lose a bit more contrast, but they won’t disappear — the biggest change happens in the first week.

    Check out ModBlog’s previous entries on this subject by following the “Tattooing Over Blackwork” tag — we’ve been showing you this technique for over five years now — and of course click the picture to zoom in and take a closer look.

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