Maybe we should judge books by their cover?

"A popular admonition goes 'Don't judge a book by its cover.' Yet we do it all the time. We ascribe qualities of character to people based on their physical characteristics. And our language takes shape to reflect that attitude."

– Anu Garg, founder of
wordsmith.org

One of body modification’s core purposes is communication. Humans are of course communicating animals — in some ways the complexity and depth of our methods is our most unique and defining characteristics. So when we permanently inscribe a public message using our bodies, it is the most core and true way in which we can communicate, as we say “I feel so strongly about this that I will become it”.

I don’t think anyone would have any problem agreeing that the way you wear your hair and clothes and so on is a way of communicating who you are to the world. Even if a conscious effort is made “not to succumb to fashion”, that as well broadcasts a message. It’s inescapable. By looking a certain way we invite contact from some people, and also send a “stay away” message to others as we give them a brief but powerful visual introduction to who we are. Every culture in history has ascribed uniforms of style and appearance to themselves as a whole, to their subgroups and castes, and then of course to the individual.

It is impossible to escape this conversation without withdrawing totally from in-person human interaction. Humans are designed for content-rich multi-media communication — to illustrate, think how different it is when you read a movie script versus actually seeing it, where you can watch the way a person presents themselves, how they move, their tone, and so on. Everything we can observe, we interpret.

So when we modify our bodies in a way that’s visible to the public, we are communicating. Like it or not, we are sending a message. It is unavoidable.

The interesting thing about transmitting a message with body modification is that it’s a message that will almost certainly be misinterpreted; how can an unmodified mainstream be expected to understand something that’s totally alien to them? But maybe it’s like abstract art: a subconscious way of communicating? Body modification is the most guttural and carnal way we can communicate, even more so than the primal cries of a fresh baby.

Body modification doesn’t just seize control of the message; it changes the medium of transmission into the message. Marshall McLuhan of course wrote, “the medium is the message”, referring to the subliminal effects of the choice of medium both on the message and as the message. McLuhan believed that mass media would eventually bring us to a “global village” and the “spiritual form of information” would eventually transform all of “the human family [into] a single consciousness”. I have to wonder if the embracing of body modification — where humans transform themselves into the message itself — is a step toward that dream?

If a person walks around in public yelling while holding a sign with a drawing on it, can we reasonably say, “oh, maybe they just liked the way the sign looked and didn’t think about what it meant”? Of course not — I think we all agree that if someone runs around carrying a sign that they don’t understand that the person is being a bit of an idiot… So why should it be any different with body modification, where you become the sign?

There’s nothing wrong with judging a book by its cover when the author actually got to design it — a well designed cover should reflect the content of the book quite accurately. We, the modified, are in the privileged position of being willing to design our own covers, but we must take that privilege seriously. After all, what would you think of a book where the author had just done random scribbles that bore no relevance to the content, or did it poorly — or even worse, just copied the cover of someone else’s book?

The other thing to remember is that we, as books, have only one cover, and we keep it for life. The message we inscribe on it is permanent, so we must be secure in saying what we say today tomorrow and the day after as well. The messages we choose to become must be eternal truths, or at least ones that can be eternally cherished and valued.

Being aware of the above, how should we think about our body modification plans? How can we make our body modifications work for us, not against us?

As I see it, we have five primary considerations that should be taken into account for any body modification decisions:

1. Quality
If you get a tattoo of something you care about, what does it say when you don’t bother going to a qualified artist? After all, you are becoming the tattoo. It’s not just a sticker that you can throw away — it is you. By stating something poorly, even if the message is true, the fact that it’s poorly stated may become the primary message. This world of ours has been populated by a multitude of amazing and beautiful people, but only those that put in effort to speak clearly and eloquently rise and succeed.

2. Interpreted meaning
How others interpret your mod is of course of primary importance since it’s what will open or close minds and doors. At present the modified represent between one and ten percent of the Western population, depending on what demographic you are looking at, so most people seeing your mods will be seeing them as alien to their own existence. The meaning they draw from them is with minimal common ground. If you want to reach the mainstream with your message (to say you don’t is to advocate isolationism and separatism), the interpreted meaning either has to be clear to them, or at least provide a bridge so you can open a productive dialogue and reveal to them the true meaning.

3. True meaning
The actual meaning will only be clear to you and to people who take the time to get to know you well. Depending on how abstract your message is, it may also only be apparent to those who are also modified since there are things one learns on this path that are very difficult to put to words. Either way, it’s important to concisely define your goal, and ensure that you’re working toward it with clarity, and that your mods are expressing that goal — even if you’re simply saying “this is making me happy”.

4. Vibe
While the specifics of a mod define its literal meaning, there is also a larger “vibe” that’s created by both the subtleties and the overall look you’re building. At its simplest, let’s take a classic rose tattoo. What vibe (if any) does it put off when it’s on an ankle? What about a forearm? A shoulder? A neck? In the pubic region, peeking out from just above the belt-line? When a person first comes into the range our senses, our mind automatically “classifies” them. That’s not a bad thing; it’s what allows us to structure ourselves socially. Body modification of course allows you to seize control of that process — use it to your advantage.

5. Endurance
It’s important to ask yourself exactly what message you’ll be sending not just today, but for all time. Will the mod become “dated”? There’s nothing wrong with something screaming “I got this in 1985″, but if a mod is permanent, you must consider both whether the message will continue to carry relevance (maybe you’d have been better off with a N’Sync t-shirt than a tattoo?), and more importantly, will it change in meaning in the future?

Now don’t get me wrong — I believe that the primary consideration in any mod should be:

“Does it make me happy?”

…but as the metaphysical poet John Donne wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…” Few of us can escape our role in the larger universe where we must productively communicate with the beings around us. So we must always remember that our body modifications, so long as they fall on public skin of course, are not just for us — they are also broadcasting a message to outsiders.

And in return, we should feel free to judge others by the messages (or lack of messages) that they choose to transmit to us. We are the communicators. Complex communication is the tool we use to raise ourselves to being something other than animals. Remember that the next time you transform yourself into a message.

That message can help you achieve your goals, or it can hinder you. While we are to some extent bound by the prejudice and ignorance of the lowest common denominator, ultimately the power rests in our hands.

Good luck and keep on spreading your message,

Shannon Larratt

BMEzine.com

What the Modified can learn from Satan

“I shall tell you a great secret, my friend. Do not wait for the last judgment, it takes place every day.”

– Albert Camus

Anton LaVey, the late founder of the Church of Satan, a modern spiritual movement that preached self-determination and self-empowerment as well as a rejection of societal norms (including mass religion) and embracing individually defined ritual for personal gain, defined the fifth of nine “Satanic sins” that all free individuals should avoid as “Herd Conformity”, writing,

That’s obvious from a Satanic stance. It’s all right to conform to a person’s wishes, if it actually benefits you. But only fools follow along with the herd, letting an impersonal entity dictate to them.

Clearly “the modified” have rejected the herd. Unless massive changes happen in mainstream society, body modification by definition forces the individual to stand outside the herd, whether in secret or in public. Simply by taking that little step of putting a small piece of metal through your navel, or permanently etching a design under your skin, you become something other than faceless.

Not that stepping out of the herd guarantees success. While LaVey did call on his flock to practice discretion when it suited them — or, as my father once told me, “if you’re going to be a sociopath, you can be more effective if you don’t advertise the fact” — he also felt that there were times when it was important to be public about one’s allegiance. When asked how Satanists could achieve mainstream success and world domination, he replied,

We need to do things, not just huddle together like pigs to keep warm. That’s what will destroy Christianity’s stranglehold on evolution and progress. When Satanists make pioneering discoveries and achievements, objective authorities can’t point to Satan as the Father of all that’s worthless and detrimental to society. They can’t say, ‘Gee, I wish we could use this vaccine — it’s too bad you’re a Satanist.’ On the contrary — they will be forced to see and acknowledge the quality, productivity and superiority of Satanic thought.

Many famous people joined the Church of Satan at the time that LaVey wrote those words — Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, the Eagles, Tina Louise, Sammy Davis Jr, and a multitude of others who chose to remain anonymous — and similarly, many well known celebrities and other people of influence are members of BME and body modification enthusiasts. I wish I could list them here in a way that didn’t violate their right to privacy, but unfortunately body modification carries a higher stigma in the 2000′s than Satanism did in the 1970′s. As a result, the vast majority keep their interests a secret, even when they rise to positions of power that would be difficult to erode no matter what they pledged to publicly.

In any case, the modified should learn from that statement and follow its advice. The easiest way to disprove the theory that the modified are degenerate losers that’ll never amount to anything is by not only succeeding in life, but by being better than them at everything. Not only does the modern Western world test truth by measuring success, but more importantly, whoever wins gets to set the rules for the next round of the game… Right now there are many rules in place designed to keep us down; only by asserting ourselves and succeeding can we change those rules — whining isn’t going to change anything.

Satanists are superior people. To gain immortal perspective and power, you must actively practice isolation from the herd. Turn off the television set. It’s meant to program you to think like everyone else. Use it as a device for your own pleasure, but as with fire or electricity, be aware of the danger. Use your difference, your alienation, rather than be used by it. Know that it’s your differences that makes you powerful — you don’t want to lose them, or you lose your power.

Our biggest advantage may be that we, at least for a moment, were able to reject the shackles that enslave and imprison the herd — and if we could do it once, we can do it again. In order to exercise control over the herd and solidify their position the powerful (wealthy families, corporations, banks, governments, and so on) impose a way of living that is detrimental to achieving success and rising through the ranks. So what do we need to do?

1. Reject all things that enslave us. We know we don’t have to look like them… so why do we have to accept the rest of the self-imposed slavery?
2. Once you’ve chosen your path, do it well. Work hard. Do it as well as you can, and win, using those victories as the foundation for more.

But once you’ve achieved some modicum of success, how do you spread that influence universally? LaVey’s Satanism sought not only to liberate its members, but to liberate humanity, and it recognized that to do that it ultimately would be faced with destroying its philosophical nemesis, Christianity.

Choosing not to go to church isn’t enough. It’s not going to stop the brainwashing of millions of other people. There can be no room for this ecumenical attitude of, ‘Well, if God works for them and makes them happy, it won’t hurt me to let them go on believing it.’ But it does hurt you. When there are that many people in positions of authority thinking muddled, incoherent thoughts, it’s going to affect you. To completely overthrow mystically-oriented religions, Satanists choose active opposition. We don’t need to show any tolerance or good fellowship to these sheep now that we’re calling the shots. Have Christians ever shown Satanists any mercy?

In our case, we need to ensure that we do a few important things to get started:

1. If a job rejects us because of mods, or a business treats us badly, we need to stop giving them money, and we need to make sure that everyone we know does the same, and we need to make sure the business knows it. We need to ensure that we aren’t paying to be oppressed, and we need to ensure that our money feeds only those who value us and the freedoms we stand for. Put simply, don’t support those who would destroy you!
2. If someone, be it a parent, a friend, or a stranger reacts negatively to the modified, we should first try and correct their ignorance, but if they choose to embrace their stupidity, blacklist them. Cut them out of your life. Do them no favors, and accept none in return. If they are not willing to accept who you are as a free person, you should not accept them as your passive jailor. Even if they don’t discriminate against you per se (ie. the double standard of telling someone you love them while saying you hate who they are), as long as they support a system that does they are declaring themselves your enemy.
3. If we find ourselves in a position of hiring employees, we should do our best to hire qualified and modified people and ensure they do the job we give them well. Doing so will have a snowball effect; the more modified people the public sees, the more willing they are both to take that step themselves, the more comfortable they are around modified people, and the more likely they will be to hire modified people themselves. We need to make being a free individual “normal” and desirable.
4. The more success we reach personally, the more we should use that success to show the world not just that “Joe is a success”, but that “Joe the modified man is a success”. This is extremely important. We need modified doctors, lawyers, bankers, police, athletes, and more. If you’re modified, and people look up to you, use that to our advantage. When people imagine a stereotype of success, it should include individualistic (rather than conformist) behavior, including body modification.

Because I am a proponent of “friendly isolationism”, people often write me and say, “Shannon, why do you always have to be so ‘us-and-them’… wouldn’t it be better to build bridges instead?”

To me the idea of building a bridge is ludicrous. Why would a free person want to build a bridge to a slave colony? If anyone should be building bridges it’s them — to escape their boring prisons! The only reason to open a dialogue with the unmodified is to allow them the opportunity to take a step in the right direction — toward our way of life, a way of being that doesn’t place fearful boundaries on our bodies as defined by skin… a way of life that provides powerful tools that can guide a person to enlightenment.

Now, don’t get me wrong — I’m very aware that there are many paths up the mountain and that the view from the top is probably the same — certainly there are free and enlightened individuals that choose not to undertake body modification personally. I’m reminded of the scene in Once Were Warriors (a highly recommended movie that addresses the need to bring the values that allowed people to survive oppression and slavery into modern lives) when a facially tattooed Maori asks his younger brother why he doesn’t wear the traditional moko. “I wear mine on the inside”, he replies, and there’s certainly truth to that statement.

But it’s not that easy. Just because a person says “I choose not to be modified” does not mean that they actually made a choice. Hiding under your blankets at night because you are afraid of the dark is very different than loving the light. Their “choice” may well simply mean that they are afraid to step into a self-determined and self-responsible way of living.

Assertion: Body modification is the most accessible and safest “key” to unlocking the doors to personal freedom, individual affirmation, and spiritual enlightenment that I’ve ever seen. We, the modified, need to work hard to succeed in life, and through our actions ensure that this key is protected and can reach as many people as desire it.

Keep fighting,

Shannon Larratt

BMEzine.com

A Modified Man in the Air Force

“Don’t ever go in the army Trey. A black man don’t got no place in the army.”

– Furious Styles, Boyz N the Hood, 1991

As those of you who read the BME newsfeed know, earlier this year the US military amended its dress code regulations to clearly ban certain types of body modification. Specifically, this included banning what it called “mutilation” — implants, split tongues, stretched ears, and so on. For example, the following was added to the Navy’s regulations:

8. Mutilation. Intentional body mutilation, piercing, branding/intentional scarring that are excessive or eccentric are prohibited. Some examples are (1) a split or forked tongue; (2) foreign objects inserted under the skin to create a design or pattern; (3) enlarged or stretched out holes in the ears (other than a normal piercing); and (4) intentional scarring that appears on the neck, face or scalp.

What you may not know is that those regulations were passed as a retaliatory measure against a small number of people in the military who were involved with heavy body modifications on their own time. Even though these activities hurt neither their performance or their commitment to the military or their country, nor did they reflect poorly on the military, these individuals were forced to have dangerous and damaging surgery to “correct” their body modifications.

BME had the opportunity to interview the airman that appears to have been the catalyst in this entire process. I’m keeping his identity anonymous here so as not to further endanger his chosen career. He is an IAM member though and I’d be glad to put other members in touch with him.

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BME: What made you decide to join the military?

As far back as I can remember I either wanted to be in the Army or fly in the Air Force. Around ten my uncle would give me Army stuff from work — he was a Supply Sgt. in the Army National Guard. At around sixteen I learned that my chances of flying were slim to none… That and the fact that I wanted to get out of my parents’ house as fast as I could influenced my decision to join the Army.

Right after my junior year of high school I signed up for the Army Guard and did basic training, and then I did my senior year of high school. That way I could get the discipline — the discipline that I needed to keep my life from going down the drain.

After two years in the Army Guard I decided that I was not far enough from home — I needed more distance from my roots, so I went into the Active Duty Air Force in August of 2000. As it stands now I am preparing to go to Guam and then fifteen months later I will be in Fairford, UK.

And what made you originally decide to get a tongue splitting?

I had always been interested in heavier body modifications, and the research I did about tongue splitting showed me that:

(a) It was a way to move forward spiritually. I believe that all body modifications are an expression of what your mind thinks your body is (or should be)… Something akin to aligning your inner image of yourself with the outer image.

(b) It was a reversible procedure (or so I thought).

(c) It was not against any current military regulations.

(d) There was very little chance of complications and it heals quickly.

(e) It was easily hidden.

How did you actually do the procedure?

The procedure was done three times in total. The first time, March 16th, 2002, it was done by a friend using scalpel. Another friend recut it for me on August 1st, and then again on Christmas Eve of 2002, to cut out the regrowth using a cautery pen.

Did your tongue splitting affect your effectiveness as an airman in any way?

In my opinion I don’t believe that it negatively affected me in any way. I took leave for the procedure. When I went back to work I was talking normally and the people that I work with never had a problem with it.

Was it apparent to others?

Unless I showed you that it was split or if you were looking hard in the right light for the split you couldn’t tell. If you were looking for it, it looked more like a crease in my tongue than a split… Plus at work I didn’t show it off. If someone asked me I would usually tell them that I was not comfortable with that subject in the work environment.

Anyway, most of my fellow airman just wanted to know the usual questions that all modified people get. “Did it hurt?” “Why did you do that?” “How much did that cost?”… Stuff like that. I think we’ve all gotten the same questions at one point or another. Once they got the answers to their questions they seemed to accept it. I’ve never heard a fellow airman that has talked to me complain about it.

How did your CO find out about it?

The day after I got it done I went and talked to a “friend” who was also on leave. I went by his dorm room to pick up some stuff I’d let him borrow. He asked me why I was talking funny, so I showed him and asked him not to tell anyone at work.

I wanted to explain my reasons to work on my own time, but the next day he went out of his way to go in to work and tell my shop chief… Then it was a matter of the news travelling up the chain of command.

How did they respond at first?

The way that the military responds to most things that they cannot figure out… they “up channel it”.

By the time I made it off leave — only five days — it was already at 9th Air Force Legal. I won’t say how far past that it went but it went a lot further than I think anyone thought it would. After about three months of trying to decide out what to do they came down and said that there was no legal recourse that they could find, but the matter was still open.

On January 1st, 2003, a new regulation went into effect, a broad regulation that bans, among other things, tongue splitting.

What options were presented to you?

I really had no options. I was given a direct order by my CO to reverse it. I was given about forty minutes notice of this meeting, and then was told that in five hours I was going in for an evaluation. Then four days later I had another evaluation, and then three days after that I had the surgery. The only options I had were obey, disobey, or fight it via legal, which would have meant losing my orders to Guam.

Why do you feel the military felt so strongly about this?

I think they thought that I was sticking my nose up at that them, like I was daring them to try and do something about it… But that was not my intention at all — I just did it for me.

Why did you choose to reverse the split, rather than say, quitting?

Ever since I joined the Air Force I have wanted to do my twenty years and retire at thirty-seven. I’d have lost everything I’ve worked toward. If I have to bend for some new regulations to fall into line and complete this goal of mine, then so be it.

How was the reversal procedure and the subsequent healing?

The procedure was about an hour long. It was done under general anesthesia so I don’t remember any of it.

They cut all of the skin from the inside of my tongue and stitched it up with twelve stitches. I was out of work for a week with far more extensive pain and swelling than when I had the split done.

Four days after the surgery I noticed that I had a large loss of feeling and taste in the front of my tongue. I brought this up at my first check-up, and was told that it would be weeks before I got feeling back. When I went back for my two-week check-up, I brought it up again. The doctor said that it could be months.

It’s now been two months and while there has been some improvement, there is still a large loss of feeling and taste. I can feel the mass of scar tissue in the front of my tongue. Even though I am classified as “fully healed” I still have problems with it.

That doesn’t sound very nice at all…

I also have a shorter tongue and less movement in the front part. I have throbbing pains that would be best described as “ghost pains”. I also catch myself trying to move it independently as if it was still split, since that’s how it is in my mind.

Not only that, but in my work environment I feel I’ve lost some trust in the system. Normally, whenever there’s a change in a regulation the people that it affects get grandfathered, which is how it was when new tattoo regulation came out — they didn’t force everyone to have emergency tattoo removals. I feel that because I was just a single airman the military didn’t take grandfathering my case seriously.

If you’d known the problems the reversal would cause you, would you still permit them to do the reversal procedure?

It would have made me take a step back and think harder as to whether or not I should fight the ruling or not… I guess it depends on if I get full function out of my tongue back. I am in the process of seeing what legal options I have if full function does not return.

Did anyone appear to “feel bad” about forcing you
to undergo this procedure? What about when they saw the
aftereffects?

As far as the people that out-rank me I’ve not had any sympathy for any of the pain or on the issue of the fairness of the order. I was forced to return to work six days after my surgery when I still had stitches and a substantial amount of pain. I had to just sit at work for three days because I was not allowed on the flight line because I had such a bad speech impediment that I couldn’t use a radio.

When I came in with stitches my supervisors said that it looked really “sick” and told me not to show them again. Now most of my supervisors say you can’t tell that I ever had it done — when I tell them that I can tell on account of having no feeling in my tongue they just dismiss it.

How did your fellow airmen react to the reversal?

Most of the people that know me or of my case thought it was wrong of the military to force me to reverse it. A few have had the attitude of “you should have known that this was coming when you first did this”, but they’re a very small minority.

I’ve also had a few that wanted to help me fight this, going so far as to start writing letters to the Air Force Times. Out of fear of backlash to my fellow airmen I asked them not to do that. Overall most people simply say that the military should have grandfathered me.

What would your advice for “the modified” also interested in a military career be?

I’ve never suggested someone should get into the military. It’s a personal choice. If you want to get into the military and don’t have any tattoos showing on your forearms or above the collarbone, then you’ll be welcomed as any non-modified person would. If you’re into piercings on the other hand, you’ll be ridiculed until you either take the piercings out or learn to deal with the ridicule.

Note that when I say “piercings” I mean those that can’t be seen; piercings below the neck. In the Air Force you can have holes in your lobes. You just can’t wear jewelry on base.

For people into the heavier side of body modifications I’d tell them to stay away from the military. If you get modified after you enter the military then you’ll be in violation of their rules and regulations. If you’re modified before the military they probably won’t let you into the service anyway.

All that said, do you personally support the military’s new regulations on body modifications?

I don’t see how I can support a regulation that was unfairly enforced on me. So personally, no, nor do I support them from a professional point of view. I was not treated fairly.

I believe that these regulations are too broad and too open to interpretation. Now anything that makes you look anything other than, as I say, “Christian Conservative”, can be considered violating a regulation. It’s up to the commander to decide whether or not it’s violation…

Does the military in general consider the bodies of its staff its “property” to surgically alter as it sees fit? That is, does this attitude manifest itself in other ways as well?

The military sees its personnel as government property. They can’t force you to get procedures, but on the other hand, the military is not forced to keep you either, nor are they forced to give you an honorable discharge if you decide not to get a procedure that they want you to get done.

Almost every person in the military is told that if you get a sunburn bad enough to stop you from wearing your uniform that it’s “destruction of government property”.

Do you know if this has affected others in the military?

Yes, it has… I talked to a fellow IAM member that is the Marines about this who had similar issues. Also, the new regulations forced an airman at my base to remove his 000 gauge plugs in his lobes so that they shrink back down. He never wore them on base though. Even though he did not break the regulation he had the same choice as to whether or not to fight as I did… And he made the same choice I did. He now has about a 6 gauge hole. So as to not get into trouble if someone sees him he wears a small mall-bought post in it.

Thank you for talking to us, and good luck in Guam.

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DAY ONE

DAY TWO

DAY SEVEN

DAY EIGHT

DAY 36

“The modified” are a fascinating cultural group. We span all religions and political leanings, and, unlike race, we actively choose this path. While some would argue that we are born into it, just as people are born into a sexual orientation, I would argue that all humans are born with the innate desire to self decorate and explore and enhance themselves and the world through body modification — most people are simply too repressed and afraid. In any case, before I get off track, on many levels we are a distinct cultural group and it’s important that we learn to think and act as such when we need to.

Farrakhan and other minority revolutionary leaders often refer to the military as “the white man’s army”. What I think is meant by that, on a more general level, is that the military exists to defend a certain mainstream status quo, rather than to protect the interests of minority and subcultural groups that don’t have massive representation in the governance of the nation. As such, these leaders hold that when minorities enter the military, they may be fighting to keep empowered a group that does not act in their best interests.

I can’t say whether “a black man has no place in the white man’s army”, but I can tell you with certainly that “a modified man has no place in the unmodified man’s army” — you don’t even have to take my word on it. It’s the law! They’ve illustrated through forcing this involuntary surgery to “make normal” the appearance of their staff that they’re willing to go to extreme lengths to destroy freedom of the body. That says to me that all modified people, and all people who care about the rights of the modified should seriously consider whether it is in their best interests to assist in a military-industrial complex that seeks to destroy us.

“Seeks to destroy us”…

It seems like a crazy statement, doesn’t it? But we’ve just watched one of our friends get a body modification that brought him closer to spiritual fulfillment and enriched his life… Then we watched the government step in and offer him two choices: (a) the end of his life as he knew it, or (b) surgical destruction of something he loved and had enhanced his life.

This isn’t the place for me to be making larger sweeping statements about the military — my pacifist attitudes on that subject are no secret to readers of my IAM page. However, I do need to point out that a nation’s military on some level must represent the will and the face of its people. What message is being sent by these acts and these regulations to the people of America, and, since America imposes its military might — and the culture it espouses — on the world, what message is being sent to the modified people of the world? What freedoms are being protected, and what freedoms are being trampled?

Think about it,

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

Joshua: Transdimensionally Modified

"...angels dressed in the prejudices of the twentieth century; avatars of another plane, speaking to us from truths beyond normal human understanding."

– L. Stanley Davis
A History of Transdimensional Abduction

After posting the pictures and experience of my forehead tattoo a few weeks ago (see “Does this mean I’m not getting that job at McDonalds?” in the tattoo section), I was quite surprised (and of course excited) to receive the following email:

Shannon,
"Long time listener, first time caller"... LOL... just saw your new tattoo and felt I should write you about a similar project I've been working on myself (and our mutual friend Lukas Zpira has been telling me to for ages). I've attached a few pictures and yes I will answer your questions!
Joshua

Suffice it to say that I most definitely had questions. I can’t confirm the validity of any of Joshua’s backstory of course, and he freely admits that it’s difficult to believe, but the mods speak for themselves. That said, while folks such as Katzen and The Enigma (who just released their album, check it out at HumanMarvels.com) are well known, there are many lesser known concept transformations such as the British performance artists who transformed themselves into witches and ghouls in the 1980′s or the “Belgian Furry Collective” who became werecreatures, or the many transformations by artists such as Steve Haworth in America, Emilio Gonzalez in Argentina, and Lukas Zpira in France.

Photos above, left to right: 1. Steve Haworth with Rex (more pictures of Rex and his procedures on Steve’s IAM page and in BME/extreme). 2. Demon (background) at the 2000 NIX tattoo convention (photo: Phil Barbosa). I’m sure I have better pictures of him; if anyone can find the URL please let me know so I can link it. 3. Julie Harrows, one of the British artists that used plastic surgery to permanently alter their appearance into various fairytale creatures.

That said, sometimes what’s more interesting than the modifications themselves are the motivations that brought the person to make such a radical change to their lives.

While he’s asked to remain anonymous for now, he has set up an IAM page at iam:Krill. Following is a transcript from the phone interview we did (Joshua is currently in Japan doing an art installation) along with some additional photos (thanks to Vanilla for transcribing it; as soon as the BMEradio server is up and running again I’ll post the MP3 file).

Shannon/BME: Thanks for talking to us about your remarkable transformation Joshua. Can you tell me a bit about what brought you to this decision?

Joshua: When I was about eleven years old I was living with my parents on the [US military] base near Helsinki, Finland. My father was a radar technician involved in early detection in the case of Soviet attack. One night I was woken up by a loud hum and a thumping noise. When I opened my eyes I saw bright balls of light surrounding me — it was so bright that everything was white.

Suddenly there was a sound like an electrical “pop” and the balls disappeared and when my eyes readjusted three dark figures were standing there. I don’t really know what happened to me, but a few moments later the lights flashed again and I found myself with them in another place, what I now know was their “ship”. I was never afraid; if anything I felt a strong sensation of euphoria the whole time. They told me that it wasn’t safe for me to stay with them — something about my human physiology being incompatible with the speed or way we were travelling at or something like that.

To allow me to be there safely they did a number of procedures; what they did was typical of what other abductees report so I won’t bore you with that; I’ll post the full story and details to my IAM page if people are interested.

My next memory was of waking up in my bed the next morning. The memory of my abduction was vivid, but my father had been telling me bedtime stories about “UFOs” they’d tracked recently (which I never took seriously) and I figured it was just a dream. When I went to the kitchen for breakfast my parents broke some horrible news to me — my Husky puppy Charlie had died that night. Like all kids, I was close to my pet, and to try and make me feel better my mother unveiled early the dirtbike I was to receive for my birthday two weeks early.

When I got back from playing my clothes were dirty and I brought them down to the laundry room where I was suddenly shocked back to reality — standing over the basket that Charlie had slept in was the same Grey creature that had taken me to his ship the night before. He was stroking the blanket that Charlie had been lying on when he died — I didn’t move — I was terrified that he might see me. I didn’t know what to do.

I thought he hadn’t seen me as he ran his hands over everything, and picked up some of Charlie’s hairs and held them between his long slender fingers. He turned his eyes and made contact with me, and suddenly we were one — I was flooded with a terrible feeling of guilt and grief and loss… I could feel what he felt, and we were one. I was him, I’d done this. I mean, I, Joshua, hadn’t done this, but in his attempt to communicate with me the night before, something had fatally injured Charlie.

And in a blink it was over again. I was totally drained emotionally — I reached out and touched the Grey, I guess to try and give him some comfort, but, with a pop and a hum he was replaced with a bright ball that shot through the basement wall and was gone. In a daze I put my clothes in the wash and contemplated the death. “We” weren’t sad so much because Charlie had died, but because we had killed him before he was “supposed” to die if that makes any sense…

Even though that was nearly fifteen years ago now, I’m still remembering new details from it and still learning to understand how it affected my life. Overnight I went from a boy who didn’t take anything very seriously and spent his days playing to a being who felt connected to all life around him…. I don’t think I really knew how to express this love and commitment and connection to the universe I felt.

Shannon: Ok… Wow… I don’t really know what to say. I can’t say that I’ve ever experienced anything with aliens, if that’s what you’re describing, but my experiences with the interconnectedness of all life are what have motivated most of my decisions over the past couple of years.

Joshua: I know — I didn’t write you because your tattoo looks like crop circles, I wrote you because I thought you’d be able to relate to the message that was shared with me.

Shannon: Did you tell anyone? What did your parents think? Your father must have been receptive at least?

Joshua: Oh no! It turns out he really was just joking when he told me those UFO stories… When I told them they assured me it had all been a dream. If it wasn’t so real, I’d believe them… But how do you prove an experience like this? For all I know there’s some kind of X-Files implant buried away in me somewhere, but it’s not like anyone’s going looking for stuff like that so I really have no idea. It was clear no one was about to believe me so I just bottled it up until, as is obvious, I couldn’t keep it inside any more.

Joshua with his cousin in front of the amateur radio telescope array his father had built in their back yard as a hobby project.

A day of hiking near their home in Finland, several months after Joshua’s “alien abduction”.

At home with his father enjoying Groscht, a Finnish desert similar to an America ice cream soda float, but made with whipped goat yogurt.

Shannon: Yes — let’s talk about how this experience actually made you want to start modifying your body.

Joshua: I never had another “encounter” or “abduction” since that day, but I feel like in the joining I had imprinted the Grey’s identity on myself on some level — much like how many Native Americans describe their relationship with their totem animal. When I thought of myself, I never was able to picture just Joshua again… I mean, I was still Joshua of course, but I was also that Grey being at the same time.

I think people have an “internal image” of who they are… When you close your eyes, you know where your arms are, where your heart is, where your mind is, what you look like, and all that. I had that, but it was overlaid with the Grey. Since that encounter I’ve not been able to think of myself as just human any more.

I know all of this must sound crazy, but what really drove me crazy was that what I saw in the mirror just wasn’t what I felt like inside… I had the wisdom to understand that it didn’t really matter, but it was just making me bonkers to be one person on the inside and another on the outside. I tried to lose as much weight as possible and tried not to exercise and did get my build as close as I could to the Grey’s, and it helped a lot, but I knew it was just a start.

Oh, at this point I was about eighteen and, other than a few tattooed buddies of my father’s, I had no contact with “body modification” or had any concept that this type of transformation was possible outside doctors. My father was transferred to Fort MacDill in Florida, which eventually brought me to enrolling in USF’s …

Shannon: Sorry — what’s USF?

Joshua: University of South Florida — I was accepted at their fine arts program, and to make a long story short I ended up in their art history exchange program in Paris [France] and met the amazing Lukas Zpira… I know he’s started to become quite well known in America at this point so I’m sure listeners know who I mean.

Anyway, after meeting Lukas and seeing the amazing work he’d done on others like the Brazillian Monkey Boy and Pierre [ed: Joshua is referring to a well known French full-body concept transformation client of Lukas’s that has been slowly “cyberneticizing” himself into robot form] who introduced us, I told him what I wanted him to do to me — although I have to admit that I never told him why. I hope he’s not too shocked when he listens to this. He told me he wasn’t really comfortable doing something this radical without a proper explanation, but after three years of calling him every two weeks, I guess he knew I was serious and wasn’t just asking him on a whim.

He told me he respected my individualism and we began to seriously plan the work and he helped me work with both him and a tattoo artist at a studio he owned at the time (I think he’s sold it since) to achieve what you’re seeing in the photos and what you’ll see in person this year when I visit you for ModCon.

I’ll continue with Joshua’s interview shortly, but since Lukas is on IAM as well, it was easy to do a brief interview about Joshua’s procedures with him. I’d like to include that now; Joshua and I didn’t really get too deep into the technical aspects.

Shannon: Thanks so much for talking to us again Lukas. Can you tell us about the day that Joshua first contacted you?

Lukas Zpira: Everyone always asks me when they see Joshua’s photos in my portfolio what I was thinking accepting him as a client, I mean, who wants to transform themselves into an alien, you know? But he is an artist, I understand what he seeks.

Shannon: How did he approach you?

Lukas: He knew Pierre. Pierre made the introduction and Joshua presented to me drawings he had made — the alien pictures like you see on the X-Files and what else. I had not done anything quite that extreme on an American (it’s not so uncommon here in France). But, a few years passed, and I understood he was serious so I accepted the task.

Shannon: Could you give me a run-down of the procedures?

Lukas: Some of what he wanted was not possible… changes to the orbit of the eyes, his jaw work reshaping… I used a mix of implants and surgical works to shift the shape of his face, and then with tattooing to pull it all together. The tattoos were not done by me personally.

On his mouth, he wanted it to be small and fine. I did this in two stages — I must say these aren’t things I’d offer to just anyone when I tour. All work such as this I do only in France with a plastic surgeon associate I met through Les Tour d’Avril [ed: A French implant manufacturing company that’s friendly to body artists]. First we excised triangular strips along the lip and pulled it “in” toward the mouth’s inside. The effect was thinned lips to almost nothing, and no “divet” under his nose. In the second part we cut away the edge skin of his mouth and stitched it together. There was scarring but we knew we would tattoo over it.

Shannon: Did this have any detrimental effects?

Lukas: It did change his voice, but only a small amount… But yes, it did. Before the surgery we super-glued his mouth edges shut to see what it would sound like. He is harder to understand. He accepted that. The musculature has not changed — we knew we could reverse it should he desire.

Shannon: And his ears?

Lukas: I cut them off. It was not hard.

Shannon: Um… OK. Simple enough I guess! Tell me about what you did to his nose.

Lukas: I am proud of what we did. I had done a similar mouth procedure on another customer, but at the time the nose work was the first. If you look at anatomy, you will see the nose is a jigsaw puzzle of cartilage with skin stretched over. We used Jesse’s [ed: Jesse Jarrel, a 3D implant designer that most will know better for his work with Steve Haworth of HTC, another pioneer of this type of transformation] 3D scanner at school to capture Joshua’s nasal structure and designed the piece on his computer system.

The whole thing is in my portfolio. If Joshua permits it you may post the pictures to BME. We pulled out all of the cartilage in his nose through an incision under the upper lip. This left us with some loose skin in the shape of a nose but with no structure, no support. Then we inserted the implant which we had made on the school’s polymer printer and pulled the skin tight over it.

It sounds mad, I know, but nose job surgery is so common that we had much to go by and it healed well. You can see this in his pictures… Also, we put in a few Teflon implants — that was first — and then tattooed over all of it in a light grey to unify and hide scarring.

Shannon: Wow… Is he the most modified individual you’ve ever worked on?

Lukas: I have travelled the world and done and seen many amazing transformations. I have done four other “alien” transformations (I think Melise has put some of them on our website), where the people wanted to be made into grey creatures, but it is true, Joshua is farther than anyone… But I am currently transforming a young woman into a Grey as well, very exactly the same. I have promised Joshua I will introduce them when he meets with me in Japan [ed: Lukas will be working in Japan shortly; check his IAM page for full tour details] — he is quite excited! I will take many photos of them both. I will also be in New York soon, and I can show people in my portfolio.

Shannon: Thanks for talking to us about this Lukas, and I hope we can have you back again soon to do a full interview about everything you’ve been doing these past years.

Lukas performing Joshua’s first procedure (the forehead augmentation procedure). Sorry about the pixelation — Joshua does not want his pre-surgery mouth or nose shown here, and the other folks in the procedure room need to be kept private. The full set will be added as soon as Lukas is able to scan them.

And now back to Joshua…

Shannon: Do you have more work planned for the future?

Joshua: There are a few things I’m not happy with; I’m not happy with my eyes. I want them to be bigger, and I want the orbits to be less pronounced… I do wear special scleral contacts to give it that illusion, and I hope one day to find an osteopathic surgeon who can help me with that… But I also don’t want to cripple myself in the process. I’m trying to make myself happy and complete, and if I’m “broken” in the process it sort of defeats the whole purpose.

I’m not a big fan of my jaw either… I want it to be more triangular. I’ve talked to a few oral surgeons and they’ve told me that there’s no way they could restructure my jaw and keep the dentition functional. So to do that I’d have to pull all my teeth and switch to custom dentures. As extreme as I may seem, I’m not crazy — that would be going too far I think.

Other than that I’d really like to lengthen my fingers… I fantasise about doing that trick they use to make models’ legs longer — they did it in that movie Gattaca as well. Basically you break the bones in numerous places, and set them slightly stretched. It’s very painful, but you end up with longer bones. I’ve been fiddling with a stretching apparatus, and I found a vet that said he’d help me with it, but in all honesty I’m really nervous about it. I don’t want to screw up my hands. [ed: BMEnews recently featured a link on this subject, click here to read it now]

Shannon: Maybe someone on IAM will have direct experience for you… I’ll be sure to include your IAM name with this interview so people can anonymously get in touch with you. I have to ask you though — why did you keep your hair? I’m sorry if this sounds insulting, but aren’t aliens supposed to be bald?

Joshua: (laughs) You’re not the first person to ask me that — I don’t “think I’m an alien” or anything goofy like that. I’m half way; a spiritual hybrid perhaps is the best way to put it. Anyway, I’ve had all kinds of different hairstyles over my life. I never really thought of my hair as being a part of me. More like a hat that’s glued to my head, you know?

I will admit though that I also think it’s a bit of a safety blanket… One day I’ll probably shave it all off. I did it once, but I just couldn’t go anywhere without people freaking out!

Shannon: Yeah, that’s true… I guess a hairdo is more of a fashion thing that “who you are” for most people. Let me ask you now, what’s life like as an alien?

Joshua: I’m not going to tell you it’s easy. Obviously I can’t — and don’t — go out in public very often, and when I do I usually cover up. I’m proud of what I look like, but you have to understand that I did it for me, not for anyone else and it makes me sad when people turn me into someone to laugh at.

Shannon: I’m sorry… and I know what you mean.

Joshua: The amazing thing though is that when I first had this experience I didn’t really know if I was alone or crazy, or if it was aliens, or if I’d met God, or what… and you have to admit, it’s hard to take alien conspiracy crap seriously. But then I started meeting people; I don’t know how we found each other, but I now have a small network of about forty people who’ve all had similar experiences and all were driven to change their bodies in similar — albeit less extreme ways… And now Lukas tells me he’s working on a young woman to an extent similar to my own. I’m very much looking forward to meeting her.

I’ve learned that the world is a very big place, and when you’re special, it’s very easy to feel alone… But the truth of it is that even though it may not always seem like it, this world is also full of special people, and with open hearts we can and do find each other. I have faith that with Love we can all live joyful lives and serve the universe in the way we’re meant to.

Shannon: Were your body modifications instrumental in your understanding of who you are?

Joshua: Yes, I think so. I’m not going to tell you there aren’t other ways I could have gone about this, but being able to tackle it all hands on and really live it, I was able to find my place in the world and as a result I feel both closer to myself, closer to the life around me, and of course closer to the Grey that started me on it all.

I know I’ve identified in my own internal rationalisation as an alien, but to be blunt, I really can’t tell you if that’s just a projection of having grown up around science fiction. It would be arrogant for me to say that we are the first generation to have this happen to us…. If I had been born four hundred years ago, would I have perceived him as an angel? I really don’t know… I know he was good.

I often try and explain it by quoting Barbarella: “An angel doesn’t make love… and angel is love.”

Shannon: Thank you so much for talking with us, and I look forward to seeing you in a few months. Is there any last message you’d like to leave for the readers of BME?

Joshua: Love each other. That’s all you have to do in life.

A drawing Joshua did of the “Grey” who he met as a child.

Well there you have it. I’m not sure if there’s really any commentary I can add to this… I feel like anything I write would pale next to both Joshua’s message and his remarkable transformation. Thanks again to Joshua for speaking to us, and thank you to Lukas Zpira for filling in the details.

When the interview is posted to BMEradio I’ll add the updated link here and mention it on my IAM page as well. Until next week, be good.

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

When does modification become mutilation?

"Every good artist paints what he is ... The strangeness will wear off and I think we will discover the deeper meanings in modern art."

– Jackson Pollock

I recently got the following question from a reporter in Seattle; variations on it are asked fairly regularly, and I think people tend to assume that their perception of “mutilation” (and just about everything else as well) is objective when it is in fact subjective. Anyway, the question:

Is there any point at which you would draw the line in body modification? To clarify, is there a line you wouldn’t cross and don’t feel others should either? A point at which you would say “Okay, that’s not modification. That’s mutilation.”

To me, the question seems strange. Let’s play Greek philosopher for a moment and imagine a dialogue between two people, Gerald and Charles, as they walk through an art gallery. They are in the abstract wing, looking at a series of Jackson Pollock paintings.

Gerald, the first man, points at The Key.

Gerald: Is that art?

Charles: Yes, I think so. It invokes feelings in me and has meaning. I like looking at it… But that one, Number 8, it’s just scribbling. It does nothing for me. It’s not art, and I’d never hang something like that in my home.

Gerald: Perhaps you simply are unable to understand it due to your own shortcomings and life experiences. I see meaning in it, and I enjoy looking at it. It is art, and I’d be honoured to have it decorating my living room.

Charles: If you believe it is art, and I believe it is not, and each of us can experientially confirm our belief, then who is right?

Gerald: We both are.

Some things may really be defined only in the eye of the beholder. After all, some people don’t like chocolate. Some people do. Does that mean that we can definitively answer the question of “does chocolate taste good?” with a yes or a no? Of course not — the clear answer is “it depends on who’s eating it.”

Looking at it coldly, almost any change made to the body, even simple earrings, is mutilation. It is also modification. In this context the words mean effectively the same thing, one simply appends a condemnation of the act. Given that the interpretation of the modification (that is, “does it make me happy? has it improved my life?”) is up to the subject, I feel it is unreasonable for anyone to attach the label “mutilation” as long as they can answer those two questions affirmatively.

I posted this same question to the members of the iam.bmezine.com community, and on the whole the answer was an overwhelming “whatever makes you happy”:

“I think it all comes down to intent. If somebody wants to modify their body in a certain way and that’s what they want, who is to say that it is wrong? I don’t think it would be considered mutilation if they want it.”

– communist

“The only line is the one that the individual draws personally. Hopefully anyone getting serious, extensive modifications has thought deeply about it and reflected within themselves. If they don’t feel the line has been crossed personally, there is no line. Hopefully, my line is not someone else’s line.“

– mal

“One man’s treasure is another man’s junk! As long as you are making decisions for yourself and not forcing them on others, anything goes. Everyone needs to follow their own hearts and minds in their pursuits, but one also needs to accept responsibility for one’s actions, and the consequences, positive or otherwise.”

– biggbiceps

“To give an example, I would never consider amputation for myself, but I admire people who see that as a form of art and expression. I can appreciate their reasons behind it, and I don’t consider it to be mutilation for them, even though it would be if I did it.”

– flightless_faerie

“I think the line is different for every person. I’m sure that I’ve done and continue to do a lot of things that most people would never do, but at the same time I wouldn’t cut my foot off… But mabye Joe would — that’s up to him and if he wants to do it, more power to him. It’s just not something I would do. Draw your own damn lines!”

– kenduddly

“If what you do benefits you in positive manner spiritually and mentally and you are prepared for the implications, there isn’t a line. When I am branded, I am spiritually and mentally affected in a positive manner — I feel this within myself. Whatever others might think of my decision is unrelated to that truth. I do not feel I can draw lines for others, but I know my own personal limits. Knowing what is positive and negative for me; that is what matters.”

– Elysiat

That said, a number of people did point out that it was possible for a person to hurt themselves; that sometimes, even when a person desires something, their reasoning may be ultimately self destructive — that is, sacrificing one’s life to defend one’s family might be “good”, but sacrificing one’s life because someone called you “ugly” is not. Many readers recounted their own experiences with self-harm.

“I have ‘mods’ (scars) that were a result of what, at the time, was definitely mutilation… But, since then, I have begun to experiment with scarification and branding as a form of art and beauty, not as something to express all my hurt. I think it’s all highly personal, and up to each individual to decide… not for someone else to impose upon another person.”

– flightless_faerie

“It depends entirely on your motivation. If you are cutting yourself out of self-hate or loathing then it’s clearly harmful. If the motivations are positive then it’s a different story. Everyone has their own ‘line’ and we have no right to judge others based on what their line might be. Just because an act is physically harmful, doesn’t mean the result is.”

– punkass

“When I was younger I was a self-cutter, and by no means was I attempting to modify my body. I was dealing with anger and frustration in the only way I knew how. Now I have many different mods that were painful to get, but were in no way related to emotional problems.”

– siogrrrl

“It’s mutilation when the modification is done by an individual not in a sound state of mind… That is, incapable of understanding the full physical and/or social implications of the modification.”

– newaddict

A couple people pointed out that the line between self-harm and self-improvement may not lie only in the self. If a person chooses modifications that cripple them, even if the mods themselves make them happy, they may still place a burden on society. For example, does a self-amputee have the right to demand that their community pays for their prosthetics? Does a person who tattoos their face have the right to demand that if they are no longer “hireable” that the state provide them financial assistance?

“I think once they burden society around them it is going too far, but I don’t think it is ‘burdening society’ if some people just don’t like it.”

– outsider

“I draw the line with whatever won’t get me fired from work.”

– gorelord

My feeling is that if a modification is going to change the way you interact with society, that should of course be taken into consideration. We have the right to put extra burdens on ourselves, but not on others. Just because you like a body modification doesn’t mean that you have the right to take more from society than you put in.

All that said, I think Tankgirl gave perhaps the most relevant response:

I think a better question would be why do people in society in general think some of what we do is mutilation rather then modification?

It’s true — one really does have to wonder why some people are unable or unwilling to believe that different people might have different desires. After all, unless one takes the hardline stance that all mods are wrong (earrings and circumcision included), the hypocrisy should be clear. The pathology that goes into that closed-mindedness would be far more fascinating a study!

In any case, I hope it’s obvious that everyone has the right to define their own line and their own limits. How do you know for yourself when you’ve gone “far enough”? Since I keep bringing him up, I will use Jackson Pollock one last time. When he was asked how he knew when a painting was complete (they took a long time, sometimes years, to complete), he answered,

"How do you know when you're finished making love?"

My official answer to the initial question? “If a body modification activity makes the person who gets it happy, or it empowers or improves their life in some way, I will do everything I can to both help facilitate that process and defend their rights to enjoy life with it. That said, body modification is a serious and permanent act, and should not be taken lightly. The easiest way to be ‘mutilated’ is by acting without foresight. A person who enters body modification with a clear head and a clear heart will never be mutilated.”

So try not to mutilate yourself,

Shannon Larratt

BMEzine.com

PS. Shout-out to York University, Class of ’95 Bachelor of Fine Arts program… of course, I dropped out after a year to do my own thing!

My Doctor, My Jailor?

"...clinicians' increasing liability for the violent actions of their patients has forced evaluators to err on the side of commitment..."

– Robert D. Miller, M.D., Ph.D.

on unjustified psychiatric commitment

A number of years ago a business partner of mine was having trouble sleeping. He informed his doctor of this, telling him that because of this insomnia he was always tired. His doctor asked him what he would do if he got too tired while driving, and my business partner told him that if he ever felt he was too tired to drive he would pull over and have a nap. They talked a little more about solutions, and he went home.

---

We live in the “preemptive age”. Think another nation might attack you in the future? Make up a flimsy case and attack them first, before facing the risk of their attack on you. Think someone might be a danger to themselves? Lock them up, before they can hurt themselves — do yourself a favor, if you don’t, and they do hurt themselves, you could be sued!

---

Three days later there was a registered letter from the Ontario government. When he opened it, he was informed that his driver’s license had been revoked and that he would need to undergo observation at a sleep clinic. When he called to make an appointment he found out that not only would he have to wait nine months, but that there was no appeals process. So, nine months later, at which point his insomnia had already passed, they hooked him up to the machines, had him take a nap, and “promptly” returned his license to him.

Maybe you’re saying that it’s better that the doctors “played it safe” and suspended his basic rights and privileges — after all, he might have posed a risk to other drivers if it turned out he had a severe sleeping disorder.

The fact is, we can play the “better safe than sorry” game endlessly. What are you willing to sacrifice for safety? It’s very easy when we’re talking about someone else’s freedoms being taken away. The safest society is the one that is the least free, and with free society comes both responsibility and danger.

Many readers of this site have faced medical and legal harassment because of their body modification decisions. Some have been jailed, others incarcerated in psychiatric institutes, and others have been sued by ex-wives claiming their body modification was a form of abuse. In a small percentage of those cases, the aggressors have turned out to be correct, but in the vast majority it was baseless accusation built on inaccurate stereotypes. A witch hunt.

Treating people with body modifications as a danger to themselves or others for that reason alone is no better than calling for the incarceration of all members of a specific race because statistically they may be slightly more prone to be found guilty of criminal behaviour.

The letter on the right recounts some recent experiences had by a friend of mine, pictured below.

There’s got to be a million young people who’d love to “have her look”. There’s nothing wrong with it, and it’s a healthy expression of who she is.

To make a long story short, she went to the doctor because of some minor depression and insomnia — how many of us haven’t suffered from this from time to time? It’s so common it’s practically considered normal. The doctor treated her well, until he asked her to roll up her sleeve for a blood pressure check, revealing her tattoos.

Upon seeing her professionally done and long-since healed tattoos, coupled with a missing finger joint (which was lost in an accident long before, which was in her chart, along with the fact that she was seeking a prosthesis for it — most young people enamoured with amputation do not seek prosthetic correction), he classed her a “significant risk to herself” and imprisoned her involuntarily for an indefinite period of time.

Luckily her ordeal was over six hours later as other doctors did not share the bigoted views of the first.

The fact is, once you fall into the “psychiatric care” system, it can be very difficult to get out, and all it takes to get there in the first place is the subjective opinion of a doctor that’s known you for all of fifteen minutes.

Not only that, but this doctor’s views were based on not just his own personal hatred of tattooed people and women with short hair, but by a television show — I can only assume that he was referring to TLC’s Skin Skulptors, which told the story of several older voluntary amputees. In each of their cases, the end result was the same: “I was depressed my whole life, but now I’m happy. I can’t tell you why I am this way, but I can tell you this is the best decision I ever made.”

Since when is choosing an unusual path to happiness, one that doesn’t hurt anyone else, a crime punishable by psychiatric imprisonment?

To tell a similar story from my own life, long before starting BME I’d had an encounter with doctors who’d never come in contact with stretched piercings. For that and other reasons they told my parents that they wanted to hold me for three days to make sure I wasn’t a danger to myself (I absolutely fail to see how well healed and cared for piercings are indicative of anything but someone who takes care of their body). At the end of it they decided that they were expressions of schizophrenia, and prescribed me massive doses of a dopamine-level altering anti-psychotic drug.

WRONG.

I’m not schizophrenic — a fact that would be later confirmed by more experienced doctors. It wasn’t the first time I’d been misdiagnosed. When I first revealed my body modifications to my parents, they took me to a psychiatrist who told them I had “delusions of grandeur” because I’d told the doctor that I was a computer programmer — and even though he could have easily confirmed that fact with my employer, he instead wrote it off with his own pre-conceived notion: “you’re far too young to understand how to program, let alone do it successfully”.

Then, in the drugged haze that I was in, I was thrown into a larger institution. The first doctor to see me stripped me down to “examine me”, and at the time I had a nipple piercing. The doctor told me that my nipple piercing was indicative of “gender disorders and transsexualism” and ordered a series of humiliating genetic tests and examinations to find out if I was actually male or not.

When their tests came back showing me to be totally normal, they instead put me on more anti-psychotics (even though they’d already discarded the “schizophrenic” claim), and as I was beginning to become agitated at being held prisoner, they added a pile of tranquillisers to my daily dose. I had no choice but to take these drugs — across the floor of the Clarke Institute that I was in was the “long term” ward, where they still used shock therapy. I was told that if I didn’t take the drugs that they’d force me to undergo shock treatment instead.

Now, I’d signed up for this “voluntarily”, so I thought, “Why don’t I just check myself out. I don’t need this.”

Unfortunately, when I went to do so, they confirmed that I was in on a voluntary form, but that if I sought to leave, they would immediately be switched over to an involuntary form. It took me a full month of jumping through their hoops before I was able to leave, and by the time I did, my head was so messed up from the drugs they were over-prescribing me that it wasn’t long before I took too many of them (the drugs they’d given me) and returned, post-overdose.

My luck turned though as I was transferred to a new doctor who realized there was nothing wrong with me at all. At this point my only problem was that I was on a pile of drugs I never should have been on. I spent thirty days in a locked ward under armed guard as they weaned me off the drugs.

As those drugs began to wear off, I desperately needed to express “me”. I coloured my hair green in the psyche ward bathroom with some dye that a friend smuggled in for me, and I began to re-stretch my piercings. Eventually I was free again, happy to be me, but having learned an ominous lesson about what happens to people who don’t conform.

I don’t know what advice I can give you on this subject. Normally I might say “escalate it”, but there’s no guarantee that won’t make the problem dramatically worse. I don’t want to say “isolate yourself” and try not to have contact with doctors either since we know that won’t make anything better. I’ll certainly warn you to avoid falling into their traps. It’s not easy to free yourself once you’re caught.

It’s a long battle still. We’ve made incredible strides in assuring the mainstream acceptability of body modification, but we’ve made them very quickly, and there are still an enormous amount of people who doubt the validity of our actions. All I can suggest is try and conduct yourself politely and think of yourself as an ambassador.

After all, if this really is bigotry drawn on stereotypes — “modified people are bad/crazy/dangerous” — then it’s in all our best interest to change those stereotypes through our actions, so maybe one day the stereotype will flip to “modified people are so nice!”

Maybe we’ll eventually grow out of judging books by their covers.

For now, let’s just try not to burn books based on their covers.

Thank you,

Shannon Larratt

BMEzine.com

High-tech implants: The future of body modification?

"If God made anything better, he kept it for himself."

– William Gibson, Neuromancer

Cyberpunk sci-fi fetishists and scientists of questionable skill have long held that “the future of body modification” is implantable technology. Some of you may have recently seen Professor Kevin Warwick appearing alongside myself on TLC’s Skin Sculptors documentary. On that show, Professor Warwick, often falsely held up as the “first human to host a microchip” (after having a PetNet-type passive chip implanted), showcased a series of barely functioning technological parlour tricks such as clapping his hands to try and make lights turn on and off. While many scientists hold that Warwick’s experiments are meritless, amateur, and misleading, Warwick predicts that they will have enormous medical and social applications and will revolutionise the way we interface with technology.

Ultimately we are discussing the addition of gadgets such as implantable watches, identification systems, and input/output devices. I will ignore the more common “correction” of handicaps using similar technologies (cochlear implants, prosthetic devices, and so on), since I don’t believe they could reasonably be classed as voluntary body modification and seek to bring normal rather than augmented functioning.

I think most of us have entertained notions of implanting a timepiece or PDA device under our skin — just think how convenient it would be, not to mention cool! Or what if we had an ID chip so our computer would only respond to our touch, or our house would automatically turn the lights on for us as we entered. Those are just the tip of the iceberg — we can come up with “neat” gadgets indefinitely … but that’s the core problem — do we want something that’s going to be “neat” for fifteen minutes, or do we want something that will permanently enrich our lives?

We are tool using creatures; we are not walking tools. As we grow as a species, we enhance our tool set, but our core being remains relatively unchanged. As we create new tools, we discard our old ones as they no longer meet our expanding needs. We do not have that luxury with our bodies, which we discard only once, as we leave this world.

How many of you reading this are still using the computer they were using twenty years ago? The fact is, bleeding edge technology (which is what implantable technology would be) becomes obsolete very quickly and ceases to be desirable — short of removing and replacing it every three years, a human being who has chosen to augment themselves with implantable technology will quickly become an obsolete human — yesterday’s model — a fate no self-respecting futurist ever wants to face.

Let’s assume briefly that we have reached a point where technology is relatively static in terms of the device that we seek to implant. Now we have to ask the larger question: why bother? After all, these gadgets could just as easily be wearable, with projects such as Isa Gordon and Jesse Jarrell’s Psymbiote being excellent examples. What is the advantage to the device being implanted? Once implanted, we can’t upgrade it, we can’t swap it out, and we’ve done physical damage to the area, weakening our core physical form. In addition, implantation requires a power source that is containably non-toxic and can be recharged without direct contact. It would be utterly unreasonable and ill-informed to presume that an implantable power source can compete with one that is external (as has been consistently illustrated in the world of artificial organs).

As far as simpler passive identification devices, again we must ask ourselves what the advantage is. After all, it is just as easy to place the RFID chips into clothing or jewelry … But that ignores the larger issue that identification devices serve not to augment us, but to augment the technology surrounding us (that is, having an implanted ID chip makes it easier for computers to detect us, but offers no enhanced sense to us in return). In addition, as computer technology becomes more powerful, their ability to recognise us will grow. Building fingerprint identification systems into keyboards is already being done, and speech and visual identification systems become more accurate every day. The only advantage to implantable identification technology is that it is difficult to remove. So I propose that any future person with an implanted ID is either walking around with yesterday’s tech, or is a criminal that has had this unpleasant fate forced upon them.

These things are very fun to think about, and make glorious storytelling elements a la Neuromancer, but the fact is that the future of human/technology interconnection is wearable. Yes, one day in the distant future we may (and probably will) reach a point where we have a “port” — perhaps a plug on our spine that acts as a communications hub between the technological word and our wetware innards. However, that’s a long way away, and ultimately we’re just talking about a communications medium rather than a body modification. Taking it to greater extremes, these transhumanist ideals eventually lead us to the end of the human being as we replace ourselves with machines that may or may not carry on with human souls … and that’s an entirely different debate.

We will definitely have some tough questions to face regarding technology over the next fifty years as the “intelligence” of machines first meets, and then surpasses our own. It is my belief that in order to survive that difficult time in our evolution, we need to really cherish being human.

Part of what makes body modification attractive to people is first that it recognises and glorifies the human biology, and then allows us to seize control over our physical form and mold it to our desires where we can revel in a personal utopia of our own creation. A fancy piece of technology, above or below the skin, does not glorify the body. A subincision does. A stretched piercing does. A fit body from years of exercise does. Let’s face it: as megalomanically superior as it may make you feel, driving a Ferrari does not make you feel like you can run fast.

Now, genetic engineering on the other hand…

Carpe corpus!

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

"I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind."

– John DiefenbakerCanadian Bill of Rights, July 1, 1960

 

On the BME newsfeed: Order to remove piercings sparks student outrage

Last Monday at Denis Morris High School, in St. Catharines (Ontario, Canada, not far from where BME is published), an announcement came over the PA system. Students were informed that if they did not by February 4th remove their body piercings they would face expulsion and would not be graduating with their class. The school insists they are justified in this action as a small group of parents and politicians quietly wrote these rules almost a year ago (“and rules are rules!”). The school’s Principal, Maurice Charboneau, illustrating himself as a hateful man with little respect for education or civil rights in general, stands by the arbitrary rule, holding that students that don’t look the way that he wants have no right to an education at his school.

I’d considered that maybe I should write a letter trying to talk to him on his level, but after reading it again I decided that it probably wouldn’t help anyone:

Principal Maurice Charbonneau,

I recently read that your school plans on enforcing a ban on body piercings. I can’t thank you enough. It just disgusts me to see those people, and to think that our school system allows it to flourish is simply revolting. I look forward to the day when all students graduating Canadian schools aspire to the principles of the modern world: conformity, team spirit, blonde hair, blue eyes, and a sincere love for our savior the Lord Jesus Christ.

I read an interview with a student at your school, Matthew McKay, a demon-possessed 17 year old with the misguided notion that he’s anything but a perverted sinner that deserves the eternal flames of hell as long as that iron bar penetrates his flesh. It just makes me sick to my stomach to think that young people think they have a right to express themselves like that. This is Canada, not some dark-skinned nation of tribal people waiting to get wiped out by alcohol and missionaries. What’s next, cannibalism?

In any case, good going on your school’s rules. Let’s hope that your brave stance on this matter sends a strong message to these people: Canada has no patience for these deviants and individualists. We need to be clear: take out your sick freaky piercings (of course they can keep the ear piercings that God intended) or suffer the consequences. These kids need to realize that civil rights are only for people who behave in a civilized manner.

Sincerely,

Jospeh Haitryd
Leviticus 15:19

 

Of course, I’m not known for my blind hatred and I would never attempt to twist a religion preaching love into words of hate. I can’t pretend to be Joseph Haitryd with a straight face — I’m just not that messed up. Below is the actual letter that I’ve sent both to Mr. Charbonneau and his colleges, as well as to the media. Anyone wishing to quote it, plagiarise it, or use parts of it for their own purposes is more than welcome to. Revolution!

Principal Maurice Charbonneau,

I recently read that your school had chosen to pass, and now enforce, a ban on body piercings. As a person with piercings and tattoos who graduated from an Ontario school (PECI in Picton) with an average in the 90s and went on to university on a scholarship and then became a successful entrepreneur, I am very disturbed to find out that if I was a student now rather than then, I would not even have the right to graduate.

As an expert on the subject, let me begin by touching on some of the more common misguided reasons that schools choose to ban body piercings:

“Those are the rules. We decided on them last year.”

A small panel of individuals has no right dictate rules that run contrary to the laws of the land, simply because of their own closed-minded prejudices. Schools are there to educate, not to dictate by force the misguided and old-fashioned social notions of special interest groups. What if they’d chosen to ban any Christians that chose to wear crosses? Would we even be having this debate? Of course not, because we understand that publicly funded schools have a duty to adhere to the laws of the land, and when they choose to violate those laws in the interests of the students, they must provide exceptional justification.

Canadian law says that at age sixteen, a person’s ownership of their body transfers from the parent to the individual. Perhaps before the age of sixteen a school could make the argument that it is acting in loco parentis (although this seems a hard argument to make in the absence of clear parental consent), but it is absolutely clear that at age sixteen or higher, a school enforcing these rules is acting contrary to Canadian law.

“Health Concerns.”

The simple fact is that the health risks of piercings are virtually non-existent. Going simply by statistics, taking part in a high school gym program is quite literally hundreds of thousands of times more dangerous than body piercing, and taking the bus to school is perhaps millions of times as dangerous.

“Cleanliness.”

That’s just silly. It’s not hard to keep clean. As long as a student practices the basic hygiene that all non-stinking humans practice, cleanliness is not an issue. This line of reasoning makes no more sense than old testament laws which restricted access to menstruating women.

“It’s wrong.”

This usually boils down to some variation on “if God wanted us to have piercings, we’d have been born with them.” Ignoring the fact that piercings are in fact quite common in the Bible, and that there are no Biblical laws against them, the basic reasoning doesn’t make sense. After all, how often have you heard people say, “if God wanted us to eat cooked food, he’d have installed a furnace in our throats”?

“It distracts other students and damages the educational process.”

We’re talking in part about teen boys. Are they distracted by a kid with a piercing? Sure, for about ten minutes. They’re a lot more likely to be significantly distracted by pretty female classmates — and I have heard nothing about a plan to make the attractive wear bags over their heads. Realize that by punishing the pierced student rather than the student with the distraction problem we are not attacking the problem, but instead strengthening it. The end result would be a nation of victims that has zero ability to behave with any level of self control.

“School needs to prepare people for the tough real world.”

I find it quite disturbing that schools would state that because discrimination based on personal expression goes on in the real world, it should be given a trial-run in order to teach kids a lesson. The fact is that body piercing is legal for young people. Any difficulties it causes are due to societal bigotry. Using this line of thinking, since minorities and women statistically earn less than white males, should we automatically dock their marks by 20% in order to “teach them about the real world”?

“Pierced kids are troubled kids.”

This one I’d like to address in a little more depth since while the statement does have an element of truth, its application is misguided.

The simple truth is that you have two kinds of students with body piercings: good students, and troubled students. I hope we can agree that it is wrong to punish good students for the actions of “bad” students — to do so would not only adopt a “guilty until proven innocent” policy, but adopt it without the possibility of a trial. I would hope that good students with piercings aren’t a concern, and I must point out a fundamental flaw in your logic on troubled students with piercings: Piercings, at their core, are a tool that young people use to communicate.

A piercing may simply say “hey, I’m me”, or even just be an emulation of something they saw on TV. The vast majority of times it’s a healthy part of growing up and being human. In a worst case scenario, it may be a form of rebellion or an indicator of a deeper problem (abusive parents, date rape, depression, and so on), just like some young people cut themselves in order to say “look at me — I’m feeling pain — please help me.”

By treating the piercing as the problem, rather than the symptom, you punish good students who are using piercing to express themselves in healthy ways. In addition, you tell troubled students that if they attempt to communicate their problems, they will be punished for it, pushing them towards drugs, alcohol, sex, and other genuinely risky behavior.

That said, I would like to briefly touch on a larger issue associated with banning body piercing for students. We have to ask ourselves, what fundamental message are we sending to students when we tell them that asserting control over their own bodies (which they in theory do have the legal right to do) is a sin so heinous that it should result in being banned from the education system that their parents’ taxes are paying for?

Simple: we tell them that they are the property of a government that has no respect for their opinions and personal rights. We tell them that expression and independence are negative traits, and that Canada does not believe in any rights of expression. Let me remind you that it is pioneers, entrepreneurs, and people with vision and the courage to go places and do things that hadn’t been done before that made this country great (need I do the clichéd and remind you about a rebellious long-haired fellow named Jesus Christ?). It is very disheartening to see those people slapped in the face with such closed-minded rules.

I’ve only touched on the very tip of things, but I hope you understand what I’m telling you. As the preeminent researcher on the subject, having interviewed tens of thousands of individuals and documented their experiences and thoughts, I would be glad to offer any assistance in drafting a more sensible and fair set of rules. My end goal is the same as what I hope yours is: to make sure students leave the school system as productive, effective, and happy members of society.

Sincerely,

Shannon Larratt
Publisher, BME: Body Modification Ezine
Tweed, Ontario

 

Body modification is here to stay — it might have been a “fad” or a “trend” fifty thousand years ago, but history has shown it to be the longest lasting and most universal form of personal expression. Chase students away from body piercings by force, and you have two end results: unhappy students, and then, tattooed students. And, short of banning tattooed people from receiving an education at all, that’s not a “problem” that can be solved with such rules.

I know a nearly infinite stream of successful happy people with piercings and tattoos. I don’t know anyone who has been hurt by someone else’s body modification choices; it is a personal act. We are in theory a nation of free individuals, and in order to protect that freedom, we must protect people’s right to express themselves. Like it or not, that includes body piercing. Polls have consistently shown that graduating students in Western society value two things: individual rights and freedoms, and service to one’s community. These are good people. It is in Canada’s best interest to nurture them, not punish them, for being who they want to be.

Do you really want to live in Joseph Haitryd’s world?

Keep on truckin’,

Shannon Larratt

BMEzine.com

Niagara Catholic District Schoolboard
427 Rice Road,
Welland, ON
L3C 7C1
phone: (905) 735-0240 fax: (905) 734-8828
[email protected]

Denis Morris Catholic High School
40 Glen Morris Dr.
St. Catharines
L2T 2M9
(905) 684-8731

Should Todd Bertrang Go To Jail?

"The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or to impede their efforts to obtain it."

– John Stuart Mill

As many of you know, body modification artist Todd Bertrang was arrested under charges of practising medicine without a license via “Operation Safe Medicine” in December for performing female genital cutting and other unusual procedures. Even though the procedures were all consensual, and Todd Bertrang has one of the highest customer satisfaction levels in this community, the state medical board investigators referred to the people getting the procedures as “victims” and called the procedures “illegal and disfiguring”*.

Let’s be honest for a minute about the world of underground extreme body modification: it’s a dangerous and unregulated industry which contains many shady characters, as well as many gems who are genuinely improving the lives of thousands of people. I’m not writing this column to tell you that I think Todd Bertrang is one of those gems, nor am I writing this to tell you the opposite. Todd is very up front about who he is and what he does, so there’s no deception going on, and readers can make up their mind for themselves.

But there’s a larger issue at stake: Do we as free individuals have the right to dictate what happens to our bodies? Do we as free individuals have the right to choose who will alter our bodies, or may we only do so with the approval of state-licensed “experts”?

People seek out Todd Bertrang over other practitioners (including doctors) because he is one of the few people experienced in and willing to perform radical female cutting including clitorodectomies (removal of part or all of the clitoris – and before you freak out, yes, sex is still a lot of fun afterwards) – these are not procedures generally offered by the “official” medical community in America. So not only are they telling Todd that he can’t do the procedure, but they are also telling us, as “free” individuals, that we may not have the procedure done by anyone!

Todd Bertrang’s first court date is January 21st in downtown Los Angeles at 8:30AM. Anyone wishing to go and show their support should go to the courthouses at 210 W. Temple Street Div #30 at that time.

To quote Shawn Porter’s comments on the subject,

Regardless of your feelings about Todd personally (I'm quite fond of the old pervert) his arrest brings with it a wakeup call that people ARE paying attention to what we're doing "underground" these days. Mark my words: this will not be the last arrest of a modification artist (Ask Alva and Steve T.).... so if you want to show up and lend Todd some support, I'm sure he'll welcome you.

And he’s right – they know perfectly well Todd isn’t practising medicine, and if they win this they will systematically eliminate any private practitioner not willing to pay their dues. Was Todd offering body modification services? Definitely. Advanced sexual services and counselling? Definitely. But he was not offering medical treatment in any AMA-traditional definition of the word.

I know a lot of people have issues with Todd. He comes from a different background than many of the younger generation of cutters and piercers, and I think they have difficulty understanding why he sees the world the way he does. On that note, I’d like to let Todd speak for himself. Several years ago I interviewed him for BMEradio. A transcript of that interview follows this column.

Todd can be reached via his website at www.toddbertrang.com or on IAM as (obviously) “Todd Bertrang“.

Thank you, and good luck,

Shannon Larratt

BMEzine.com

* You have to love how it’s “disfigurement” when we do it, but if the person doing it has paid their fees to the government to get a doctor’s certificate, it then becomes “cosmetic surgery”.

Shannon Larratt: Welcome back everyone, I’m Shannon Larratt and you’re listening to the 16th broadcast of BMEradio. Today’s show may be a little bit more discoordinated than usual cause we’re doing this interview across time zones, so it’s real late here and I’ve got coffee in one hand and a beer in the other hand. So, probably not a healthy thing. Anyway, the person we’re speaking with today is probably generated more online hate mail than any other body modification artist but at the same time almost everyone that’s had work done by him swears by him and never goes to a mainstream piercer again. His techniques involve almost exclusively large gauges and the majority of his procedures use a scalpel far more than a needle. His aftercare is radically different than what you’d be told by either your piercer or your doctor and to top it all off, his opinions are exclusionary and if you don’t do it his way you’re probably not doing it right. Todd Bertrang, thanks for talking to us today.

Todd Bertrang: That was quite an intro Shannon.

SL: It was.

TB: I was trying not to giggle on the other end. [laugh]

SL: [laugh]

TB: Oh boy, I hadn’t quite the idea I had that kind of reputation there [laugh].

SL: Well if you have anything it’s a reputation. Todd, the first thing I want to ask you about is piercing technique. Why go big?

TB: Well, the right size is not necessarily big. It’s the right size for the right body part. When you’re dealing in below the neck areas you’re generally dealing in an area that moves more such as the navel, in an area that swells and expands and contracts considerably with heat, cold, and sexual arousals such as your nipples and your genital region. When you’re dealing in a thin gauge such as a 14 gauge (ga), you put it in your earlobe or your eyebrow well hey, that’s just fine. But these areas do not do that. When you have a thin gauge in these areas it tends to be like a dull knife in the skin and continually cuts the skin area building up massive scar tissue which becomes hardened and then continually cuts over time and causes loss of sensation, migration, rejection, all kinds of serious problems such as a permanent pathway for all types of infectious diseases to get into the body. It’s really bad for you to start with the wrong thing in the wrong area. The difference here of opinion is if you have a thin gauge and you heal in a inappropriate manner, most people consider that if they have a ring in their thing it would be a good piercing. And that is not my opinion. A ring in your thing means that you have a ring in your thing and that’s it. It doesn’t make it good, it doesn’t make it bad.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: But it can be done generally better than putting, shall we say a 14 ga in your nipple for example, much better, with much better results. Doesn’t mean that the 14 ga is wrong it means that you, why go buy a Model T when you can go buy a Ferrari? You know? Why do that?

SL: Well, I think that some people would say that they like the look of the 14 ga.

TB: Sure. But some people do it just for looks.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: I agree most of these people who do it for looks have absolutely no concept of how good it can feel with the proper gauge and healing techniques. That is saying, “Well, gee I really want to make love to my boyfriend but um, is this supposed to feel good?”

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: “What’s an orgasm?” [laugh] And there’s people out there like that. I mean really really bad. I went to the Ink Slingers Ball here recently last year and these girls wanted to show me what kind of genital piercings could be done and this girl was thirty some years old, had kids, and had no concept what a hood was or what inner labia was. And Ellen Thompson [AVN magazine] was with me and she saw, “Wait a minute here. You’re like thirty something years old and you’ve got children and you don’t even know what labia is? You’ve never heard this word?” She was just aghast at this girl. And she had no concept.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Okay? And you’re dealing in the same thing if someone has education, takes the time to educate someone about heir body and what can be done and why and what the differences are, they won’t get a 14 ga in their nipple. The problem is, it’s going to take two or three hours to sit there and educate the person what and why and what’s going on and you’re dealing in a profit ratio of thirty plus percent for a 14 ga ring in your nipple as opposed to maybe doubling or tripling your money on a 6 ga ring, if you invest thousands of dollars to have them done properly, which most manufacturers don’t make 6 ga correctly.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: When Silver Anchor was in business literally I’d spend three to ten thousand dollars an order. Okay, and I don’t have the volume that most of these people do. That’s a lot of money. Okay, and I invest that to have my stuff done right and I would still only get my price down to six, 6 ga to twelve dollars a ring, whereas you can buy a 14 ga for a buck.

SL: Yeah. [affirmative noise] I think part of the other thing is, and this is even more the case in Europe that there’s this sort of denial that even genital piercing is a sexual thing.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: I think there are a lot of piercers who don’t want to admit, you know they want you to believe that it’s a, that it’s just decoration.

TB: Last I heard I heard in England it’s illegal to get pierced for a sexual reason. You can pierce anything, until you say it’s illegal or something.

SL: It certainly was. It may not be now but it certainly was at one point.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: And that point where you know those were the rules, that’s when piercing sort of defined itself.

TB: Right.

SL: Anyway, I was going to ask you more about this later, but since we’ve moved into it now.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: I want to talk a bit about the overlap between piercing and sexuality. That’s actually how you learned how to pierce.

TB: Yes, it, when I saw my first piercing, which, if anybody’s read my interview from Gauntlet years ago it was a tremendous emotional, mental, sexual response. And this was, I mean I was 18 years old, and 18 years old and anything new and wild and wow, I mean your hormones are in full swing but at the time you just didn’t see this and this girl was very beautiful and she had her nose pierced of all things and it didn’t even, hadn’t even occurred to me that you could pierce anything besides your ear which was common, if you were a girl, at the time but I mean you didn’t see anything else. It was right here in LA, and I was just like, ‘Oh my god, this is just incredible.’ I must have followed her around the store with my mouth hanging open it was just, it struck me that, that tremendous. And when I finally went out and got pierced which took me, there was several things, it took me so long, one, the relationship I was in six years ago was just, couldn’t deal with it, but society at the time, if you were male and you had a piercing you were considered gay and there’s historical reason for this. Jim Ward, the owner of The Gauntlet was gay, a leather gay, and he was very very heterophobic and literally kept piercings in the closet for many years because of that. Because he didn’t want the straight people to get pierced. He didn’t like them at all. And when he did his first clit piercing, the girl literally had to sit there and show him what a clitoris was, he had no concept at all of what a clitoris was. And the, an interesting aside to Gauntlet, and I want to bring this up right now, my techniques which would make me so controversial are anything but gauntlet techniques. And everybody that is following literally what Gauntlet has developed. Jim Ward was a good businessman. He was the biggest and the best, he was backed by a millionaire, Doug Malloy, which is why he succeeded when everybody else at the time failed, because there were other small people around, but they didn’t have the money, they didn’t have the backing…

SL: Well I think I want to interject that too…

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: And I think that a lot of people forget that, that you know Gauntlet was the first business and you know there’s this mythology that at the time there were you know seven people in North America involved in piercing but that’s a load of crap right. There were…

TB: Gauntlet was the only store exclusively devoted to piercing, so I mean there’s the odd ear gun mall or tattooist doing the ear gun piercing in the store.

SL: What I’m saying is back then even though there weren’t you know piercing studios on every corner like there are now, there were still tens of thousands of people practicing piercing in their homes.

TB: Yeah there was people piercing in their homes.

SL: And I think that it was, it didn’t have you know the tribal sort of overtures that a lot of that it has now or any of that it was all in the sexual arena.

TB: It was entirely, piercing, even Gauntlet came from a sexual arena.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: It was all leather gay. It was all wild intense sex.

SL: [affirmative noise] But it wasn’t…

TB: Piercing came from an entirely sexual arena it hasn’t gone to what’s not sexual until recently when people consider you know all the young teeny-boppers who are afraid to admit that, “Gee I get my tongue pierced because I might give my boyfriend head tonight.”

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: You know, they’re too afraid to admit that, “Gee I wanna get fucked.”

SL: And it’s not just…

TB: I mean, they’re young kids, they’re immature young kids that do it, because they saw their buddy do it.

SL: And it’s not just, it’s not even just weird sex too, I mean I think piercing adds to even just vanilla sex.

TB: [affirmative noise] Oh yeah, it has nothing to do with any type of specific sex but it did come from a very heavy SM environment. Which was Gauntlet’s roots.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: And Gauntlet was created to cater to the leather gay SM environment this was the entire purpose of Gauntlet in its conception.

SL: Yeah, anyway I want to talk a bit more about this, but we’re going to take a quick music break, this is, my doctor just told me I’m not allowed to eat any more chocolate so…

TB: [laugh]

SL: This is some live Shonen Knife who does like chocolate.

     (song plays)

SL: Todd we were talking on the break about how even, even just facial piercing is a kind of sexual behavior.

TB: It is. Totally.

SL: How’s that?

TB: Whenever you change your body whatsoever, or lack of change, having dreadlocks for example, I don’t wash my hair and I twist it around and round and round and it’s dirty and smelly, whatever you do, whatever you do, I don’t care what it is, you wear a suit, you wear nothing, you paint your body, you cut your hair, you shave your head, anything you do to it to change it’s look will cause your self and your personality to be perceived differently by those around you.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Which is causing a sexual attraction with those around you within a certain parameter based upon your perception of your self of those who you want to attract.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Piercing does this even more so than anything else you can do because it’s a statement, it’s a poke in the eye, “Look at me, look at my shiny thing in my body!” And draws attention to that. And how anybody can say that piercing is a non-sexual thing is literally wearing blinders about what sexuality is all about and what people do. Why does a girl wear a miniskirt, why does she wear makeup, why does she wear perfume, why does she spend thousands of dollars on nice clothes? Because she thinks she’s ugly? Cause she doesn’t want somebody to come up and ask her out? Cause she doesn’t want to feel good about herself? Or because she’s doing it because she feels good about her sexuality and wants to be sexual? You have two choices here.

SL: No, I…

TB: A or B.

SL: Anyway we, you were, we were talking about how you actually learned how to pierce and a lot of it was, it was a period in your life where you were I guess promiscuous and you know you experimented with piercing with your girlfriends and…

Sanctuary by Todd Bertrang Looking at the door She did not know what was in store Trembling with fear She felt that HE was near Locked in bracelets Her neck in a collar She knew she could be sold for a dollar Timidly knocking Kneeling down, she felt the floor against her stockings Butterflies in her stomach With her labia so incredibly swollen She knew it was time for her virginity to be stolen A fresh brand on her thigh Combined, her slavery, her innermost thoughts, Newly healed piercings All those things made her so incredibly high Abruptly she started When she heard the name she had been given called The doorway parted She tried so hard not to be appalled By the looks of the furs At the base of the bed In the dungeon of her Master Knowing what he was after A pan was prepared That later she may be fed From his hand if she was found pleasing Now she knew, there would be no teasing But she must fulfill every wish, every desire Commanded of her Brought forth gently by her hair Made to kneel The collar on her neck chained to the floor The foot of the bed Next to her the pan Where, perhaps, later she may be fed Swiftly put upon her back Legs spread Her engorged labia weighted down By her newly healed piercings Creating even more wetness Then she had dared dream She felt her body steam As he spread her lips She moaned As his tongue and the stud he wore Gently massaged her swollen vulva Moaning then screaming in ecstasy She knew herself owned And what she truly was A slave Thank you Master she said

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: And through that, through that you learned what piercings worked sexually, how they worked…

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: And all of that…

TB: Through that I learned size, gauge, placement, diameter, I came up with a lot of the theories that I use today. I took a lot of time to develop those theories because of lack of tools, because of lack of proper jewellery and so forth. I literally had to front the money for a company to start so that I could get the jewellery in 8 ga made in half-inch diameter. It didn’t exist at the time unless you wanted to spend a hundred dollars a ring.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Like, which obviously I couldn’t afford that, it was too much.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: [cough] Back, the, it’s a, for a younger person in their twenties or their teens it’s really a myth of the sexual revolution and free love of the hippie days and all this sort of thing but the reality is until roughly 1990 if you were in the heterosexual crowd in a big city and you went out to a club and you wanted to go home and sleep with someone you literally went home and you met someone and you fucked them. It was that simple. It was that easy. You met someone on the street corner, they stuck their thumb out and within an hour you were in bed. And this was normal. This is what everybody did. No condom, no protection, no worry about AIDS, no worry about disease, and they did it for years, I never got anything. And at the time I was going out to clubs in Hollywood and if I wanted a girl to have a piercing, well guess who got to pierce her? They didn’t have them.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: You didn’t see people a lot in Hollywood with pierced anything. I mean, I was in the thick of the club scene in Hollywood and I had little 14 ga nipple rings and I had crowds around me because I had my nipples pierced. You didn’t see it. They were like, “Oh my god look at that guy.” And today this is common but it wasn’t then. But today, the other side of the coin is you don’t go out and just meet someone and hop in bed in an hour, that’s uncommon, it’s really rare.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Things have changed, society has changed. But that’s literally what I’d do, I’d go out and I’d go to clubs and I’d meet a girl and I’d bring her home and shave her pussy and pierce her nipples and if I liked her and she hung out and we went out again I’d pierce her pussy and if I liked her and hung out again and I’d pierce a few other things.

SL: [laugh]

TB: But, the I kept in touch with the vast majority of these girls and so it taught me a lot. It taught me a lot, a lot. Because when you, when you’re dealing in, let’s say I was in a massive volume store and I was doing twenty-thirty thousand piercings a year, well first off I wouldn’t have a chance to talk to these people, I’d just poke a hole and send them on their way and here’s your little paragraph of instructions.

SL: And more importantly you wouldn’t have a chance to fuck them afterwards.

TB: Well, regardless of whether you fuck them or not you don’t have the opportunity to actually sit down, and in a intimate environment see what’s really happening with their body and what’s working.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Regardless of whether you actually stuck something inside them you got to see…

SL: Well obviously that’s what I mean, you got to see how it works.

TB: Exactly. Exactly. I got to see what is working and why. What is working on my body getting them off, why is it working, what’s working on their body and all their different shapes and sizes and why?

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: In this very very intense sexual arena.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: And that gives me an insight that I don’t know that anybody else has. At all.

SL: You know, I think you’re probably right. The few promiscuous piercers I can think of are gay.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: And that’s a whole different set of issues I’m sure.

TB: Yes, it’s a whole different set of issues, and while I’m not gay, I’ve still had plenty of anal sex which works very similar so I have, I have insights into all types of sexuality from the straight to the bisexual to the gay set because of the amount of women I’ve been with and the amount of different types of sex I’ve had so…

SL: [affirmative noise] Well let me ask, is it, I mean now that you’re doing this as a business a bit is it sometimes difficult, do the lines blur between client and girlfriend? Or…is it…

TB: When you have enough sexual experience.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: You can tell if someone wants to be approached or not, okay, when you’re a young male and you’re 18 or 20 years old you don’t know whether this girl wants you to ask her out. What you do is ask them all out or you don’t get laid okay?

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: I get a lot of flack for this because I go into BME chat and I try to explain to people, it’s like this is like going to a bar, I’m off here, I’m not working, and I might flirt with every girl in there but I’m flirting, this isn’t real, this is cyber here, one. This is what we’re doing, we’re in here to chat, flirt, have a good time. It’s not like they’re in front of me and their clothes are off.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: One and two, in a real live situation, you can look at someone if you have enough sexual experience and you can tell right away whether they want to fuck you or not and you have the option to pick up on that and decide whether you want them or not. But if you approach someone with the sexual experience I have you already whether they want you to.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: So I don’t…

SL: Yeah.

TB: Of ‘Gee should I ask this girl out and what’s she gonna say?’

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Ever.

SL: I mean, I think you know that one of the things that people accuse you of is sort of you know being on the prowl for young girls to, you know to modify in the chat rooms and things like that. How would you respond to people saying that?

TB: Well, it’s exactly what I was saying, it’s not, I’m off, they’re not walking into my house, they’re not walking into my studio okay?

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: I’m off, this is my off time. I’m out having fun. What, just because I’m a piercer, if I go to a club, okay regardless of the fact whether I’m a piercer or not, if I’m going out to a club to meet girls and get laid what am I gonna do? I’m going to flirt with them, I’m hopefully going to talk about my piercings, whether they want some, because if they don’t want any, why do I want to take them home?

SL: Yeah.

TB: Okay, if they’re not into piercing, I don’t even want to know their name.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: I just crossed them out. If they can’t talk about my piercings and I can’t ask them about theirs, they’re done, off to the next one. That’s in a club social environment where you’re going to go out and trying to get laid.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: But these people that are accusing me of that, they’ve never met me, they haven’t walked into my studio, they haven’t been pierced by me, okay? You don’t do that in a commercial environment.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Okay. And like I said, if, when the average person is accusing me of this, is in their mid twenties or younger, they didn’t live through the sexual revolution, they haven’t had hundreds and hundreds of sexual partners, which from their standpoint that’s just like, “Oh my god you’re kidding me you’re lying.” It didn’t happen. Where I’m standing from it’s like, that’s all I had, most of my friends had thousands. [laugh]

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: It was just a different lifestyle. Hell, I’m 37, I’m at the bottom rung of these. Most of my friends are 45-50 years old and they did it for a whole decade prior to me getting old enough to do it and they had thousands of partners. It was nothing.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: It was just really common, but if you have enough sexual experience you could look at someone and you could read their body language and you know, literally, you know if you could walk up to them stick your tongue down their throat and your hands down their pants and have them like it. Right then and there.

SL: But like you said, this is a different generation, these are, you know like you said 16-25 year old kids that just don’t have that experience and don’t know how to deal with this sort of thing.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: So, you know who knows maybe it’s not, I mean, if it, may be appropriate in one environment but not necessarily in this one. Either way, this is, I didn’t want to really get into this in the interview.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: It doesn’t really, who cares right?

TB: [laugh]

SL: Anyway, what I do want to talk to you a bit about after this song is a bit about your aftercare cause you use, I don’t know what the best word for it is, certainly a more organic aftercare than most sort of chemical ridden people are…

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: Recommending…anyway we’re going to continue on that Japanese pop trend, this is Robo Shop Mania — Smile and Shine.

     (song plays)

SL: Alright Todd tell me, someone gets a say someone gets a PA [Prince Albert] from you what’s the aftercare you recommend?

TB: Depends on the gauge, what people don’t realize, they hear about this large gauge stuff and this and that the thicker you go the more intense it is. Cause you are causing more tissue damage so you really have to get your aftercare together. You can’t just go, “Oh do salt soaks.” “Oh use saline.” You know, you really have to know what you’re doing. And the more tissue damage you cause the more intensity it is and you really have to have the next level of intense aftercare just right to make it heal or you’re going to have a problem, a really big problem. So depending upon the person’s maturity level, what type of sexual response they want to achieve, what type of aftercare that I think they’re willing to do, and I sit there and explain the differences between an 8 and a 6 and a 4 and a 2 ga and what they’re really going to have to do to heal it and so forth, and literally, a 2 ga PA I can heal those on someone who’s healthy who doesn’t drink who actually eats red meat and doesn’t do drugs in 2 weeks. Done. But it’s a very intense 2 weeks. And somebody has got to be willing to deal with the intensity. They can’t just get this and go back to work and pretend nothing has happened.

SL: So what do they do?

TB: They’ve had very intense minor surgery. That they did.

SL: So what do they do?

TB: Say if we’re doing a 2 ga this is a scalpel procedure. It’s going to bleed.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: And I use three herbs for healing, which are antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, one’s a very good anti-bruising agent and I also use another herb that will slow and finally stop the blood loss. It’s not an instant, you put it on you have to soak it, soak it and finally it will stop the blood loss, so they’re going to be sticking their dick in a cup of these herbs for a good hour or two if it finally stops the blood. Depending upon how healthy they are, how much stress they’re under, how much sleep they’ve got, all this contributes when you’re dealing with a large gauge piercing, what you’re going to be able to experience or not they can expect to be sitting in the bathroom with this cup, with their dick in this cup for at least an hour and up to 3 or 4 hours, and then it will seep for about 24 hours which I’d rather sit with my dick in a cup than having a big baggie of blood the next day. It’s much better. It’ll seep for the next day or two and if their dick gets really large upon erection which some really swell, is then they’re going to have that nice big baggie of blood around their dick the next day if they get an evening erection.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: In the middle of the night. But…

SL: So what…

TB: Well they have, they have showers, they have a special herb that they put on…

SL: Todd, let me interrupt here.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: The special herbs, can you say what they are or is this Todd’s magic formula that you don’t want to give out?

TB: Well, the main herbs are on the site, they’re lavender, red clover and arnica, arnica is the anti-bruising agent they’re all anti-inflammatory antibiotics.

SL: All fairly well known ones, yeah people can look them up on any number of sites, if they want to learn more about them.

TB: Right. The other herb is an Aztec herb called Quatrolatte and this herb if overused is extremely dangerous, but it’s extremely potent which is why I don’t have it on my site because you can overuse it very easily you can over dry yourself.

SL: What happens?

TB: Right.

SL: It dries out the tissue if you use too much.

TB: It can dry out the tissue and cause a major problem.

SL: Same as alcohol or…

TB: Well…

SL: I mean, same drying effect.

TB: It has a drying effect. It doesn’t have the crystallization effect alcohol will for lack of a better term. It, to give you an idea, let’s say someone has a bleeding ulcer, well contemporary medical science says, “Well we have to cut this out. And re-sew your stomach lining it’s the only way we can heal it.” Well, literally Quatrolatte will dry it up and cure it and heal it.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Quatrolatte is strong enough to where, let’s say you have a 3rd degree burn and just doing soaks with just this herb and peeling off the dead tissue as it dries daily, I’d say a third degree burn on your hand all you’re going to have by the time you’re done healing it is a slight discoloration.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: It’s that potent, but you have to know how to use the herb. You can really injure someone if you don’t know what you’re doing. And most people, they don’t know. So that’s why I didn’t put it up on the site.

SL: Where did you figure out how to use it?

TB: My girl Ophie who I’ve been with for 8 years her uncle was renowned Mexican herbalist who people fly in from all over the world and specifically mention I gave you of the hand burning, her aunt used that on her cousin and that was the result when she was a little girl.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: From just that herb.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: And when I met her I had a little bit of a subincision, and the next time I did a cutting, and she mentioned that herb and we brought it out and we tried it and I tend to experiment around on my own body before I use it on other people so I get the whole feeling of what exactly I’m doing. And that’s exactly how I learned to use the herb is on my penis.

SL: It’s definitely the best way to learn doing stuff on yourself.

TB: Right, yeah. I’m absolutely in amazement when people go, “Oh I’m a piercer” and they’ve got two or three piercings. Like, well no, you’re someone who pretends to be a piercer who pokes holes in people and takes money. That they have no comprehension of what they’re doing.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: That’s my opinion of those people.

SL: Well I know a lot of my understanding of the way piercing works is just by having had tons of piercings and you know, knowing how they’ve all healed differently and having treated them differently and you know seeing the different results.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: Anyway, the next thing I want to ask you Todd is this is probably something you’ve gotten an awful lot of online flack about and you know when I’ve mentioned to people, you know I’m interviewing Todd Bertrang is there anything you want to ask him everyone said, ask him about his autoclave. Um, so tell me Todd what’s up with your autoclave?

TB: Well, I actually happen to have one. [laugh]

SL: But you don’t always use it?

TB: No. Piercers have this thing thinking that they have medical training. They don’t. Usually. Anybody that truly has medical training knows that there are chemical sterilization processes. Anybody who has medical training has heard of what they call an endoscope, what an endoscope is, is a camera that they can use to put down your arteries to see whether they’re clogged or not an endoscope is not autoclavable. There is nothing more infectious, or capable of being infected easier with more damaging results than your arteries or your heart. Period end of story. But if they can put an endoscopes in Wavocide and use it just fine but, ‘Oh my god we can’t put a piercing needle in it.’ They have no concept of what they’re doing at all.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: They scare me that they’re so ignorant of true medical terminology, medical science to say this is a must. Okay. The reason why they said it was a must is because the APP said it’s a must and the APP said it’s a must because an autoclave at the time cost forty-five hundred bucks. And Gauntlet didn’t want all these little piercing stores popping up doing piercings and they thought they could control it like that.

SL: Cause you buy a jug of Wavocide for forty bucks.

TB: Bingo. And be sterile.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Okay? Wavocide is perfectly sterile when used properly.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: This stuff is wonderful, when it doesn’t work anymore it turns colour you can see it’s not going to work.

SL: Yeah, no it’s true I’ve used Wavocide as well, I agree with you. You know and I think that brings up the point that is interesting that a lot of piercers they don’t really, they never really concentrate on understanding what they’re doing they, piercing for them is sort of a rules based system you know. And that’s why…

TB: [affirmative noise] Yeah, well you know the same with doctors, they go to medical school…

SL: Yeah.

TB: They get their PhD and all they know about is what they read. And piercers do the same thing, which is absolutely pathetic. There’s no concept for any room of improvement and any experimentation any true understanding of the process of what they’re actually doing to someone. And here they’re altering someone’s life.

SL: Well I think it would be alright if you’re a carpenter or something that’s a very established field you know where we’ve done ten thousand years of research but…

TB: Right.

SL: You know piercing in the west is a new field you know. I think people who are piercing need to be on their toes and need to really know what they’re doing and need to, need to always be learning and I think a lot of them aren’t.

TB: I’d say that 99.999% of them are not, or learn to a degree and they’re done.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: And the other side to the coin is there’s two ways to make money in this business. Okay? Put up with the fact you’re not, or you get to a point where all you do is production piercing. You’re in and out, you’re gone and it’s good enough to create a hole and a ring and see ya.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Because if you can’t do it that way you’re not going to make any money. There are people who make a hundred grand a year or better in this pierce, in this business but that’s the only way they’re doing it. They’re in and out the smallest as possible, okay, we can’t give them the next size up if we can get them the smallest one because then we don’t get that next size stretch.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Okay? And if their happy with your work they’re going to come back to you and get your jewellery, you get 70% back of everything you do and it takes this $30 piercing and by the time they come back and they stretch and every time they come back and they get something else or their buddy does and over the course of a year it turns this $30 piercing into two-thousand bucks.

SL: Sure, you’re selling them subscriptions instead of a single magazine.

TB: Exactly. And that’s what makes money. But unfortunately, as far as what the piercee is considered what it could be it’s absolutely detrimental to the piercee.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: I mean it’s fine if they want a 14 ga eyebrow but if they want a really good sexual piercing or if they want something really good otherwise, I mean a lot of the people don’t want a 14 ga labret they want an 8 ga labret. But they go in and, “Oh no no we have to start like this and stretch it up” because it makes them money. That’s all it’s about.

SL: Let me ask you Todd, what’s the difference, say someone gets a 12 ga PA…

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: And over the period of a year stretches it up to 2 ga, how is that, how is the end result different from a…

TB: It’s quite a bit different.

SL: Alright.

TB: Depending on how they healed it. Having had a 12 ga PA and stretched it out myself, assuming they even get good placement which most people who start at 12 ga won’t place them properly. Let’s assume they get good placement what happens is, because it’s thinner, you’re creating a much denser area of scar tissue. It’s much harder to stretch. The denser area of scar tissue is much less sensitive. So they just desensitized their dick. Why had they, did you use, get desensitized, a piercing for sensation and do it in such a way that it desensitizes the area that you put it in. That’s pretty stupid.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Okay, that’s what it does. You, you will lose anywhere from 30-100% of your sensation from starting from small in that given area.

SL: Well I don’t think that’s true for everyone though.

TB: For 80% of the people.

SL: Well I don’t know if I’d agree with that number but…

TB: That’s going, based upon statistical average based upon my 12 years of experience from what I’ve seen. Who’ve I pierced and who I’ve come in contact with.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: To give you an example, I, now I didn’t have sex with these two people, I took them at their word. I’ve talked to two girls who swear up and down that prior to getting their nipples pierced at 14 ga they became breast orgasmic. Prior to getting their nipples pierced they weren’t.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Okay? At 6 or 4 ga, you’re dealing in 80% or better are going to be able to have breast orgasms from those piercings done and healed properly at that time. But you’re not going to get that when you pierce at a 14 ga and stretch it out.

SL: [affirmative noise] Well I will tell you I’ve got a few e-mails in the last month of girls writing me you know asking whether it was normal for you know their nipple piercings to eliminate feeling in their nipples. These are regular 14 ga nipples.

TB: It’s very very common.

SL: So I…

TB: Especially over time, especially over a couple of years.

SL: You know we can…

TB: Because the scar tissue continually builds up because it’s continually expanding and contracting and cutting that and I would say somewhere between 30-50% lose partial to complete sensation in a piercing done thinner than 8 ga in the nipples.

SL: Yeah, I think we could…

TB: Conservatively.

SL: Yeah I think we could argue about those percentages but I’ll say even if it’s one in fifty there’s, it’s a, even that one in fifty is a solid argument for why not do it bigger.

TB: In my opinion even if it’s one in a thousand, it’s too much.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Too many.

SL: [affirmative noise] Because…yeah, you know you’re right, even you know obviously a whole different set of play is available in an 8 ga or larger piercing than in a, you know…

TB: Yeah, I mean why…

SL: Even if you’re into light, you know just light play, it’s really easy to accidentally give that piercing a solid tug you know and you can do damage.

TB: Yeah, real easily. Look at it this way. If the girl doesn’t like to have, or the guy like to have a dull knife stuck inside them and get off that way, then why are they putting a dull knife in their nipple why are they putting a dull knife inside of their penis or labia. Because that’s what it is.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: It’s the same thickness.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Don’t you want something that feels good like a finger? You gotta go thicker then.

SL: That’s a good point. That’s a good point. Do you want a dull knife or do you want a finger.

TB: [affirmative noise] Yeah, what feels good to your body?

SL: [affirmative noise] Anyway I want to take another break…

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: When we come back Todd I want to talk about some of the heavier procedures that you’re, that you advocate being female circumcision, sub, and a number of other things. Anyway, this is Creature of Habit by Swearing at Motorist.

     (song plays)

SL: Alright we’re back. Todd, one of the, let’s start with female circumcision, let me ask you first, what is that?

TB: Female circumcision is one of several things. The circumcise literally means to remove around, but it doesn’t say around what. That’s the actual meaning of the word. In the female it could be remove around the vulva, anything in the vulva area you can remove partial or complete the hood, the inner labia, the outer labia if you wanted to, generally it means anything to do with the hood or the inner labia in most contexts. Some people will include the removal of the clitoris itself in that context, but that’s incorrect, that’s a clitorodectomy.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: The anti-female circumcision groups try to persuade the gullible that female circumcision is truly labial occlusion which is actually really rare but what labial occlusion is they remove the inner labia, the hood, the external clitoris and almost all of the outer labia and sew up the remainder leaving a very small menstrual and urinary opening.

SL: Essentially it’s a total genital amputation.

TB: Essentially yeah, external genital amputation. And they try to call it female circumcision and that’s not true at all. Female circumcision in it’s true sense like I said is partial or complete removal of the hood and or the inner labia or any portion thereof.

SL: And I think that you know people especially in this scene don’t realize how incredibly common it is. Last week, Mc, not last week about a month ago, McLean’s which is Canada’s equivalent to Time magazine had a cover article on female circumcision as done by plastic surgeons here on women in the west and spoke very positively about it.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: I think Cosmo has done the same as have any number of other magazines I mean this isn’t, you know this isn’t a far out thing, I mean a lot of people, even a lot of real legitimate doctors have stood behind this.

TB: There are very legitimate reasons to have it done. First off you’re, why does a girl get a boob job or a breast reduction? Enhancement or reduction, because they’re not comfortable with how their body’s are shaped, they want to be shaped like this. They like it. Why shouldn’t someone have power over how their genitals look or respond. We’re under the illusion that because it’s down there on a woman’s body it automatically feels good. Well this is simply not true. Inner labia or hood can actually feel better than the clitoris but they can also feel very bad to touch. Or they could actually feel nothing at all. So if something is feeling bad to touch down there or doesn’t feel a thing why do you want it on your body, you don’t. And you’re better off to remove it or if you don’t like the way it looks, it grosses you out, everyone has a different shape of what they want to look like, and we as adults should have the right to choose that and in the United States there are some places that do offer it as labiaplasty, most of them are not very good even plastic surgeons they absolutely suck, they’re horrible. They’re very expensive and most of them won’t touch you for fear of medical malpractice lawsuits. They are afraid they’ll lose their medical license. It’s a very very touchy subject here in the US, it’s really really scary because some, then I’ve known girls who’ve actually taken matters into their own hands and cut it off with scissors and stuff like this and have tremendous problems from it. But done right it can be a very very enhancing procedure, and can actually cause tremendous increase in sexual sensation.

SL: [affirmative noise] Now the footage that I’ve seen it’s a very bloody procedure when you’re talking about the deeper removals that are fairly complete.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: Is it a dangerous procedure?

TB: Anytime you’re dealing with a loss of blood you’re dealing with a potential shock. And when you’re dealing with potential shock you’re dealing with potential death. What most people don’t understand I, while we’re speaking of this it boggles my mind I do not know of, personally, any place I’ve ever been that does piercings, that does tattoos that has a refrigerator with some orange juice and some cookies and some bananas on hand for when people have a blood sugar reaction. They didn’t even ask them if they’ve eaten. They don’t. It goes right over their head. And then people pass out on the floor and think, “Oh gee it was so painful.” It had nothing to do with the pain, they didn’t eat and they didn’t take care of their self and they think it’s like when they get their haircut and have a blood sugar reaction and pass out. It has nothing to do with pain, it has to do with blood sugar reaction and if you I mean you could go into epileptic shock and seizure and death from this and people just don’t, don’t take care of business, and it’s really really sad. But shock is very very easy to prevent it’s a matter of having enough blood sugar in your systems when the brain reacts to this injury it reaches for its food which is blood sugar. So it can assimilate the new reactions that it’s having, “Oh my god somebody’s’ cutting my pussy. Oh my god somebody’s cutting my dick. Oh my god this is happening to me.” And you don’t go into shock. It’s quite simple.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: You have enough blankets on hand, if you’re doing something major you really want to have an IV drip on hand, depending on what you’re doing but anybody that does any type of body mod that doesn’t have something as simple as orange juice and bananas on hand shouldn’t be in the business.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: And that’s almost everybody out there.

SL: [affirmative noise] Like we mentioned before, most piercers work in a pretty clinical and impersonal environment if I remember the, some of the photos of the procedures that we’re talking about here, you know there’s a couple naked girls, there’s a bed, there’s some ropes, um what sort of situation are these procedures done in?

TB: They’re done in a home studio. Right in a bed.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: What’s the difference in a hospital bed or the bed in your house? It’s a bed…

SL: Yeah.

TB: A bed’s a bed’s a bed.

SL: What I’m asking too is it, is it a scene? Is it, what, you know what relationship is there? I mean is it?

TB: Most people come here because they don’t want to be in a clinical environment where they’re seeking, they have enough intelligence to realize, see there’s more to piercing than what the average piercing store is offering and they travel from all over the world for this different type of feature.

SL: Yeah, it’s true.

TB: They spend thousands of dollars to get here for a hundred dollar piercing.

SL: [affirmative noise] No, it’s true as much as…

TB: Which has a lot to do with what everybody else is doing, if I’m getting all these people from all over the world spending thousands of dollars to come here to get a hundred dollar piercing…

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: I mean that’s pretty pathetic on everybody else’s end. Cause they’re so primitive. But good for me bad for them I guess. But…

SL: Yeah, no its…

TB: Piercings as mentioned to me are sexual. Do I want to have sex in a doctor’s office? Well probably not unless you’re really into the medical aspect and that turns you on. You’re probably not going to get turned on by this real clinical thing. Most people want to have their piercings, in my experience, be a very intimate memorable and sexual experience to them. It has nothing to do with whether they’re having sex with me, I’m just the mode of how they achieve this inner sexual experience.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: Okay? I’m just the, the doctor of the moment that allows it to happen for them. And they’d much rather be in that type of environment. I’ve been requested to do many types of SM scenes with piercings and that sort of thing with ropes and flogging and all that and it’s really not that uncommon. As we mentioned earlier, this is where piercings came from. The leather gay SM movement. It’s where it came from, what it’s all about.

SL: Let me ask you, do you think it’s healthier to do a piercing in that type of environment. Healthier on a psychological level?

TB: Absolutely, tremendously, it’s tremendously freeing. It means you appreciate what you’re doing.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: It means that you are doing it for yourself for your innermost gain, not because my buddy got it and I thought it was cool.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: It’s, it’s important to you.

SL: Right.

TB: It’s real.

SL: Right. Alright, I’ll ask you next about subincision. Subincision I guess is sort of a, certainly a male…

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: Anlagen to circumcision, or splitting of the hood.

TB: In some aspects yeah.

SL: Now, first you did that on yourself and we’ve all read the various experiences on BME and in the PFIQ article.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: Now, when I’ve seen the footage that you, of yours that you’ve done, it doesn’t look like they’re marked it’s just a quick cut it and they seem to turn out perfectly, is, what’s the procedure like? Is it simple? Is it you know, or is there more to it that I’m not seeing?

TB: Well, it’s simple for me but it’s, if you have an 8 year old who’s a musical prodigy, she or he will sit down and go, “Well it’s really easy why can’t you do it?” It’s simple for me but that doesn’t mean it’s simple for someone else.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: As you mentioned on the answer page of BME, there’s a line that go down the body, that separates everything, all you’ve got to do is follow the line. It’s either on center or off center, but it gives you a line.

SL: So you don’t have to draw a line cause it’s already there.

TB: Bingo.

SL: [laugh] Good enough.

TB: [laugh]

SL: Yeah, I guess that’s true. I want to ask you, you’ve had a couple funny procedures come to you. One of them is this strip circumcision.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: Tell me about, what was that and why did the guy want it done?

TB: Well, he was very erotisized, it took me forever to get this guy to tell me this, but he was very erotisized about the concept of having a scar on his penis from his first sexual experience, cause the girl was licking his newly circumcised penis as a teenager and orgasming from it. And that was, he was almost 70 years old and evidently this had stuck in his mind as the best or one of the best sexual experiences he’d had and he wanted to recreate this by having the scar on his penis. And that was his whole concept, literally scarification of the penis.

SL: And…

TB: It was quite interesting I thought.

SL: [affirmative noise] And he was an older guy.

TB: He was almost 70 years old, he was like 67 years old when he came here.

SL: [affirmative noise] And you’ve had, well I don’t even know how much I want to talk about her cause it will just result in this slew of e-mails to both me and you but some of your, you know this I think that 70 year old guy was you know real solid and sane, but not all your clients have been quite so easy to deal with.

TB: No. I’ve had a few people be rather on the very definite end of insane, to where you wonder how they were even let out of the funny farm. And that particular person you’re alluding to actually hasn’t been the only one. That one just got very deep under my skin shall we say. But there’s, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s a very significant amount of people which the medical professionals have only seen the very worse end of this that are into modification of the body that aren’t quite all there in their head. Which is really scary, to me, or really sad. And yeah, I certainly got a loo loo for one of those.

SL: [affirmative noise] Now you had, you were fairly deeply involved with at least this one.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: Do you think that sort of your eagerness to do these procedures, and maybe, maybe because of your own sexual excitement attached to them sort of sometimes makes you miss some of the other person’s problems and maybe blinds you to a reason why maybe you shouldn’t be working on them?

TB: That hits very close to the truth. Let me give an analogy in your own life. Let’s go back to where you got your first computer and were first getting into mods and now today you’ve got zillions of subscriptions you’re it as far as on the Internet if anybody wants to do anything with piercings your it. You are it Shannon.

SL: [affirmative noise] Yeah.

TB: And have been it for a long time. But let’s just say back then when you had this inkling of an idea, okay someone spelled out, “Gee if you do this for me I can do that for you and make you do that tomorrow.”

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: You’d want that to happen.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: And you’d believe their story. If it sounded reasonable. And that’s exactly what happened with this girl.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: She gave me a story that I wanted to believe in, that sounded reasonable to me and because I’m open to other types of cultural things and other types of sexuality I gave her the benefit of the, of the doubt.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: And it didn’t occur to me that someone would invent literally their entire life story, their friends, their family everything in detail.

SL: Yeah, I’m hoping that at least a few of the people who are listening to this know who we are talking about or else this is just a big in joke, so we won’t get, I don’t think we’ll go into it anymore.

TB: Right.

SL: Anyway I’m going to play one more song, and when we come back I want to talk to Todd about some of his new plans which are for some of you, will hopefully be very exciting and maybe you can do some fun stuff with Todd. Anyway this is Fred Lane, this just got re-released on CD, this is absolute insanity, this is The Man with The Fold Back Ears.

     (song plays)

SL: Alright that was some crazy stuff we just listened to. Anyway, you know there are porn stars with nipple piercings there are porn stars with a hood piercing, but there’s not really, there’s not really much of a pierced porn market. There’s O-Pearl and that whole Creative Art Collective or something like that.

TB: In Germany, near Frankfurt.

SL: Somewhere in Europe you know but that’s a very specific type of fetishy pornography.

TB: [affirmative noise]

SL: Now Todd you’ve invested a lot of money in a new sort of both business and personal venture. You want to tell us a bit about that and maybe how some of the people listening if they’re so inclined can get involved in it?

TB: [affirmative noise] Well I have had the idea for quite a few years now to start doing pierced pornos. Which the pornography market first off they don’t want their girls pierced that much. They’ll put up with a couple of little things and it takes under normal techniques, years to obtain any type of amount of and gauge and thousands and thousands of dollars, because most people don’t have it, and in fact I was trying to do this earlier and it finally dawned on me that the only way I’m going to be able to do this is to literally do the modifications free and bring girls out and let them live in my estate that I just bought, I just bought a 3 acre estate with a very very large house and pool and whatnot and we’ll be remodeling it making it extremely large but so I’m going to be bringing girls from all over the world at my expense to stay for three months at my estate with free mods, but they have to have sex with me and other girls and other guys on film.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: And we’ll be videoing this and hopefully marketing this which it will take some time to get out but I think that’s the only way to get really intense mods, I don’t know of anybody else who can literally sit and do 20-30-40 pussy rings or dick rings at one sitting and heal them in fuckable in three weeks besides myself.

SL: [affirmative noise]

TB: They don’t have the techniques, and people I tell them that and they can’t even believe I’m doing one 6 ga ring in three weeks and healing it. But that’s what I can do. And so if you’re cute and you’re female, or if you’re a guy let me know.

SL: They can contact you through www.toddbertrang.com there’ll be a link obviously with this as well so they can just click over onto it. And I guess what they should, what should e-mail you a picture of themselves.

TB: Yup e-mail me tell me their interests, it’s going to be extreme, I don’t want one or two piercings, you want a hood piercing that’s not enough.

SL: This is a lifestyle change you better be into it and…

TB: Yeah you better be into it you’re going to walk away with 20-50 piercings or a circumcision some radical stuff.

SL: [affirmative noise] And if you’re into it it’d be a lot of fun.

TB: And if you’re female, you’ll be living on my estate for three months and you better be ready to prove to me that you’re not a nut like the one I got [laugh].

SL: [laugh]

TB: Before, I don’t need that again.

SL: Alright well Todd, I want to thank you for talking to us today, I want to thank you for sort of bravely standing forward and saying what you know piercing is really about to you and I think to an awful lot of other people and I hope the movie project goes well and I wish you the best of luck on Todd and thanks for talking to us.

TB: Thanks I hope to be back again one day.

SL: Excellent

     (song plays)

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