BME: Body Modification Ezine

A tattooed person suspends from hooks, laying flat, one leg higher than the other. Their head is back, and they seem to be smiling, dark hair dangling like an anime character.

Celebrating body modification culture since 1994.

Author: Shannon Larratt

  • Can you ever be “too clean”?

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    At what point is addressing sterile field control overkill? I mean, on one hand it’s never a bad thing per se, but in a cost-competitive world, lines have to be drawn somewhere or you’ll lose money providing protections that are redundant. Should one always strive to be better? Or does one reach a level of risk mitigation where no reasonable improvement is left to be had, and it’s better to move on to other areas?

    I’m really blown away (in a good way) by the level of concern Ronaldo “Piercer Snoopy” Sampaio of Sao Paulo, Brazil (piercer-snoopy.blogspot.com) pays to even “basic” procedures like navel piercings, wearing full surgical gowns and a mask in addition to the industry standard gloves. We all accept that gloves are needed. This is not so much to avoid skin-on-skin contact between the piercer and their client, but because changing gloves is the easiest way to control cross-contamination. Oversimplifying the matter, the primary purpose of gloves is to provide a barrier between clients (even though they’re rarely in the room at the same time), to stop transmission of blood-borne diseases from one client to the next. Gowns, hair nets, and masks on the other hand primarily provide a barrier between the piercer and client. In addition to these protections, in some cases this studio does the procedure through a “window” in a surgical drape. In addition to creating psychological clarity by isolating the procedure from the rest of the environment, this minimizes the risk of pulling any bacteria from the surface of the client’s skin into the wound.

    On one hand, all of these protections reduce the chance of infection and related complications as well as projecting an air of professionalism. But on the other hand, humans have been piercing each other with dirty sticks in caves for perhaps the last hundred thousand years. What do you think? Where do you draw the line for acceptable minimum standards? What do you expect of a top-notch shop? Is there a level where you begin questioning the allocation of resources? Do different procedures have different rules? No matter where you think the line should be drawn, I hope you agree it’s wonderful that people are working at such a high standard to even allow such questions to be asked!

    super-snoopy

  • Do we need a body mods in comics wiki?

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Something that’s been on my very long list of “I should do this” projects has been some sort of comprehensive wiki of tattoos and body modification in comics and graphic novels (and another one for film and television might be great as well now that I think about it — assuming it doesn’t already exist). Perhaps it would be a nice subset addendum to the BME wiki (wiki.bme.com). I’d love to see it cover everything from casual references to stories that build their central plot around body modification. A la Niven’s sex “what-if” sex conundrum Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex, can Superman even get inked? Perhaps with a Kryptonite tattoo needle?

    In any case, the “Body Mods in Comics Wiki” project came to mind again this afternoon as I re-read Alan Moore’s Hypothetical Lizard and saw the character “Book”, whose skin is covered in swirling spiraling patterns that are actually lines of text — a motif I’m surprised I’ve never seen explored this effectively in reality.

    hypothetical-lizard

    I was also recently prodded when Rafa changed his avatar to a picture of Spider Jerusalem, one of the greatest heaily tattooed comic book characters of all time, the “plausible dystopia” version of Hunter S. Thompson from Warren Ellis‘s brilliant epic 60-issue Transmetropolitan series (also available as a ten volume collection). Click the picture (and you can do this with the Mek and Skin Graft images too) to actually read the little excerpt, but trust me, everything I’m mentioning in this post is worth the purchase — especially this.

    transmetropolitan

    Speaking of Warren Ellis (the author of Transmetropolitan), it’s quite common to see body modification in his stories, and in the past he’s linked to ModBlog’s more “upsetting” entries. Also in Transmetropolitan is “Fred Christ”, leader of a “Transient” cult, a sort of transhumanist cyberpunk Church of Body Modification with a little inter-species fun thrown in for good measure. After Transmetropolitan wrapped up its print run, Ellis further explored these ideas in a short three-issue story — which I can not recommend highly enough — called MEK, as in “Massive Enhancement Culture” or body modification beyond simple aesthetics. I admit that I secretly (not any more I suppose) pretend that I was the inspiration for the main character who leans the MEK movement, because I feel like if you played a “who said this” quote game it would be easy for people to guess wrong — Lepht might also fit the role well. In any case, Mek is perhaps the best body modification themed comics, although it got unfortunately mixed reviews from the critics when it was released and is now out of print — although it’s not hard to find it used at inexpensive prices.

    mek

    Another comic that’s got body modification as a central theme is Rick Veitch’s surreal masterpiece Can’t Get No, in which a failed businessman — failed, amusingly, because his permanent marker company was sued to death over the graffiti its product makes possible — wakes up one day covered in head-to-toe tattoos, drawn on with those very markers by cackling women as he lies passed out drunk. The comic showing us his psychedelic nightmare of a journey through post-9/11 America (the attacks taking place not long after his marked affliction).

    cant-get-no

    More obviously — and a much more traditional comic — I’m also thinking of Skin Graft: The Adventures of a Tattooed Man a four-part horror thriller in which explores ideas like the the souls of a serial killer’s victims becoming consumed by the tattoos he wears — admittedly an overdone idea, but effectively tackled by writer Jerry Prosser — and sacred tattoos gifted by a master or teacher that give the wearer power.

    skin-graft

    There are many, many more examples, enough I feel to justify a wiki, not just blog posts.

    And finally while I’m on this subject — and I think there may be a space in such a wiki for this sort of general trivia — I have to throw out a plug for artist Jacen Burrows. If I see him credited as the artist in a comic I always take the time to check it out. Before becoming a star in the comic world — you may know him from projects like Alan Moore’s Necronomicon or the notorious, over-the-top perverse and violent Crossed series — he was a tattoo artist. I suspect he’s not the only tattoo artist that has worked in both industries, because in many ways the demands are similar, namely, producing copious amounts of custom art on brutally short deadlines for demanding clients that need you to inject your unique artistic vision into a scene without betraying their original literary concept. Neither one is an easy life, but both bring great joy.

    What do you think? Would you like to see this? And perhaps more importantly, would you be willing to help?

  • Hey boom-boom! Zygzag lives!

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Got a great tip from a friend who was watching a overflowing-with-fun video (that even reminds me of some of the big BMEfests of yore in a way) of Woodstock 2012 by Ostro and Cam-L, held at the start of August in Kostrzyn nad Odrą, Poland, and at 0:24 who should make a brief appearance but one of my piercing heroes, Zygzag, aka Fishmaul, the fellow who in the past wore the remarkable stretched cheek piercings — if you don’t know who I’m talking about, you must go read my original entry on it here — www.bme.com/2008/02/24/fishmaul-fishmouth-zygzag-cheek-stretching/ — as it’s one of the most remarkable (and most divisive love-it-or-hate-it) things I’ve ever posted. It looks like he’s looking about the same as the last time I saw him — his good ol’ grimey self — and isn’t currently wearing jewelry in those big holes (and nylon thread in many of the little ones). Here are some relevant screencaps.

    zygzag

    Click to double the size of that image. Wish I could get you better photos and an interview, but it’s not like he’s a guy that’s easy to get in touch with from Canada over the Internet. If someone reading this is a friend and can help out, you’d make me very happy and I’d be thrilled to publish any photos or information you can provide.

    Finally, If you’d like to enjoy the whole music video, here you go.

  • Sakrosankt Wood-Chassis Tattoo Machines

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    As a “devout atheist” and ardent science-minded skeptic, I don’t buy into the spiritual concept of energy. I do however strongly subscribe to the verifiable fact that ritual has a profound psychosomatic effect, so whether or not there is a metaphysical truth to spiritual theories, utilizing them can still add a great deal of value to someone’s life, especially in the context of ritual-friendly activities like body modification. That said, I read with great interest Patrick Hüttlinger‘s work developing a line of hand-carved wood-chassis rotary tattoo machines based on sacred geometry and theories of spiritual energy vibration — how do you literally encode Om into a tattoo tool and by extension the art it creates?

    sacrosant-wood-machine-1

    sacrosant-wood-machine-2

    Zoom in the second picture for detail view

    I asked Patrick the obvious question — how do you sterilize or disinfect a tattoo machine that is constructed in part out of porous organic materials — especially when we’re talking about the tube enclosure, which can’t easily be bagged and will almost certainly come in contact with biohazardous fluids? He explained that all the wood was treated with laquer and it shouldn’t absorb any more liquid than metal (which is to say, none), and the motor cover is epoxy resin. While the pieces can’t be autoclaved, standard hard surface chemical disinfectants are appropriate.

    Finally, I can’t really write an entry about Patrick Hüttlinger without showing you some of the amazing tattoos he’s created — and I think these tattoos give some great context to the creative energy that went into creating the beautiful tattoo machines. I especially like the pieces where he mixes geometry and dotwork with traditional tattoo styles.

    Find Patrick and these machines at sakrosankt.com by the way.

  • To show teeth or not to show teeth

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Everybody has seen fun pictures of people showing off their teeth through the holes of immense labrets. Now, that’s a great goofy trick if you’re happy with your megalabret and are pleased to pop it back in after the gag photo is snapped, but it’s not so great if you wish you didn’t have that gaping hole in your lip. To refresh your memory as to what I’m talking about, here’s a funny picture of Jared Karnes showing what he does “when people are already being overly dramatic about it” — although most of the time if he’s not wearing jewelry you can barely see the hole, as you can see from the subtle slit on the left side of the image.

    labret-showoff

    Luckily closing these big labrets is not a complex matter as long as the lip has not been stretched dramatically (which would make it more like the reconstruction of a stretched lobe and would almost certainly require a complicated surgery). Here’s one done by Roni Lachowicz, showing the “before” photo, a picture a week later after the stitches were removed, and a fully healed photo a few months later. Since many people naturally have a scar in that location without ever having had a piercing (can someone explain to me why?), it’s unlikely to make much of an impression, especially if hidden under facial hair. Zoom it of course (and most of the other images too).

    labret-closure

    Speaking of Roni, it’s been a little while since I’ve posted one of the industry’s most striking individuals, so let me give you some eye candy. If memory serves, her eye tattoos are self done, which always impresses the hell out of me. Which reminds me that I should mention that my eye hurts a lot today. I have a bad headache, brought on by central apnea most likely, but it’s manifesting with a great deal of eye pain. I don’t know if it’s real or psychosomatic, but it’s something worth being aware of — real or not, people considering eye tattoos should be aware that even five years later, it can still ache badly from time to time!

    xronix-1t xronix-2t

    And finally — and I know I have really started to drift away from my original subject — I wanted to share one more piece of Roni’s recent work, a great looking tiny little star implant on the flat of the ear. It’s about two weeks old in this photo, so you can see a bit of dry skin over the incision. If this picture was taken even a few days later, you’d have no idea how this implant was inserted, because the incision is so nicely tucked underneath the fold of the helix.

    ear-implant-xronix

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