BME: Body Modification Ezine

A black-and-white photo of a person mid-air in a Superman-style body suspension pose, supported by multiple hooks in their back and legs, smiling joyfully toward the camera. They are suspended horizontally in a large indoor space with high ceilings and visible rigging. A group of onlookers—some seated, some standing—watch with expressions of admiration, amusement, and support. The atmosphere is lively and communal, capturing a moment of shared experience and transformation.

Tattoo, Piercing, and Body Modification News, Events, and Culture

  • John Waters, Eat Your Heart Out

    Written by

    Rob

    There are very few people that can successfully pull of a pencil ‘stache without attracting the attention of Chris Hanson.  Salvador Dali did it, Raoul Julia was able to do it occasionally, Prince became a sex symbol with his, and of course John Waters has been rocking his for decades.  Now when many of us were kids, especially those of us with dads who had a mustache, a pencil could easily transform into a mustache.  Just stick it under your nose and curl your top lip.  It was the memory of doing that as a kid that led IAM: Ominous Angus to get this finger tattoo.  To him it’s a reminder to never grow too old.

  • Hanya Skin Removal Backpiece Update

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Over five years ago I posted a photo of this incredible full-back hanya mask skin removal scarification by cross-spectrum body modification master Thorsten Sekira, then at Modified World in Munich, Germany, but now at Silver Studio (silverstudio.at) in Vienna, Austria. As is not surprising, the piece has healed evenly and without complication. Given the chaotic nature of the background, it’s impressive that it stands out as well as it does — and if you compare the picture posted in 2007 with these two pictures (posted a short while apart, as you can tell because the one on the right has additional tattooing), the wearer has been slowly filling in the background with ink, keeping the hanya mask as negative space so the scar will continue to grow more prominent as their body art evolves.

    thorstenscar1

    I’m only giving you a tiny glimpse into his large body of work, but another related scar that Thorsten did is this Kirin (a deer-like dragon for lack of a better introduction to its rich and complex mythology which you can search out for yourself), on untattooed skin this time, and using more traditional cutting rather than heavy-lined skin removal. In these photos it is of course healed, and again, you can see that it is nice and consistent, even though it’s on skin that experiences significant movement and abuse and can be quite difficult to get ideal results on.

    thorstenscar2

    As I mentioned, Thorsten is one of those guys that’s capable of anything — piercings, suspension, implants, ear reconstruction, scarification, and even tattooing. I say “even” tattooing because it’s not uncommon to find piercers who are into other mods, but most of the time there’s a real line between the tattoo world and the rest of the modification world. To be honest, it’s probably one of our biggest problems as a subculture. On that note I want to finish off with a silly little tattoo he poked — I’m sure it’s obvious, but this is German for “right” and “left”. For those forgetful, always-getting-lost sorts I suppose? Unfortunately it only works in sandals with carefully chosen strap designs. Oh, and I like the subtle typographical touch of slightly deviating the baseline of the text so as to make it look like it’s been shaken (or stomped) a bit out of place.

    thorstenfeet

  • Maegan Machine’s Resurrection

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Christy took this very intense picture of James Rajewski (of Infamous Ink in North Carolina) supporting his girfriend Maegan Machine as she suspends resurrection style. He writes, “So proud of my baby, letting go to resurrect herself from the ashes that once were, to become the butterfly leaving the cocoon… Gracious I was to be able to be the one to help this magic happen.” You can also watch the YouTube video below the picture.

    maegan-machine

  • Allen Falkner’s Falkner Suspension Tattoo

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    A case can be made that the most important person in the creation of the modern suspension is Allen Falkner (see his earlier 2008 interview here or download the MP3 of his audio interview from the BME/radio archives), now of suspension.org (and fadefast.com, his tattoo removal company). Ego-popping arguments aside, it is completely without debate that he has dedicated a significant percentage of his life to the art and science of skin, flesh hook, rope, and air, and he already wears a number of suspension-themed tattoos, and has for as long as I’ve known him. Most recently he’s added a beautiful realistic portrait of a woman doing a knee suspension — knee suspensions being a style that is generally credited to Allen’s invention, and some people go so far as to deservedly call this style of suspension a “Falkner suspension”. The tattoo isn’t complete yet, and is still having a background added, so I hope he doesn’t mind me jumping the gun and sharing it now. The work is being done by Jamie Mahood of Suffer City in Dallas.

    falknertattoo

  • Broken Heart or High Voltage Heart

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Matias Tafel of Argentina’s Rata Body Art (ratabodyartstudio.com.ar), a long-time friend of BME, today showed me one of his latest pieces of implant art, a well-defined “broken heart” on the back of the hand. The break is nicely defined, but to me it looks much more like a lightning bolt, and I have to admit that I like the idea of a high voltage heart more than a broken heart anyway. Maybe the wearer can change their mind about what it means to suit their mood.

    rata-heart

    He did another heart implant a while back that I want to share with you, this little heart implanted underneath a heart tattoo tucked away behind the client’s ear. I gotta say though, I wish I had never seen the “gout spider tattoo” because now that’s all I can think of any time I see an implant with a red tattoo over it.

    rata-ear-heart

  • Palm Tattoo Healing

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Both Rob and I have regularly covered the work of British tattoo artist Ferank Manseed ([email protected]) here on BME, enjoying his hand-poked machine-free tattooing. Today he touched up one of the geometric palm tattoos that we featured in the past that had less than perfect healing — even with the best technique, palm tattoos can be unpredictable. I’ve seen some people’s last perfectly on the first try, and other people’s skin never seems to be able to accept the ink. This is due to the fact that the palm has especially think and calloused temporary skin — the artist needs to punch through this layer to make it last and place the ink in the stable layer, without going so deep that the ink spreads, or is absorbed and removed by the body. Since going too deep can leave a permanent blown out tattoo, and not going deep enough just falls out, many artists choose to err on the side to too light. Next to the bottom of the foot, the inner surface of the hand — palm and fingers — is the most difficult anatomy to produce a good tattoo on. Anyway, Ferank shared with us photos of this palm tattoo. From left to right (and you can zoom in to this), these photos show the tattoo fresh, then how it healed after this first session, and finally mid-session on the touch-up.

    EDIT/UPDATE: I should add two notes to this entry. First of all, the middle picture was taken eight weeks after the first one. Second, and this is perhaps most important, the client was a fellow tattoo artist, and thus has to both wear tight gloves and work with their hands every day, which greatly complicates healing.

    palm-healing

  • Mustache Piercing

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    If it were not for his very modern looking glasses, I might be doing my best right now to convince you that Peter Csirmaz got his piercings in the late 1800s or something. Unfortunately I’m just not that good at photoshopping… Zoom in if you can’t tell by the pixels.

    in-the-olden-days-of-piercing-yore

  • Pulled Together

    Written by

    Rob

    When it comes to body modification related activities, one of the most intimate would have to be a pulling between two people.  The transference of energy, coupled with the trust and reliance one has with their partner, make pulls like this remarkable.  Below we have Andru and his wife sharing a moment out on the Oregon coast.  The pull was facilitated by Eduardo Chavarria and it was the couple’s first pull together.

  • So happy together

    Written by

    Rob

    Me and you and you and me
    No matter how they throw the hooks, it has to be
    The only one for me is you, and you for me
    So happy together

    I can’t see me lovin’ nobody but you
    For all my life
    When you’re with me, baby the skies’ll be blue
    For all my life

    Here’s Oxi and Supa sharing a moment during their tandem suspension at the Kaptive8 Suspension Krew playground.

  • Black and Grey Biomech Facial Work

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Most of the facial tattoos that I see these days are geometric or some type of neotribal or art tattooing. I do also see some bright colourful biomech — you know, the stuff with big heavy outlines, extraterrestrial psychedelia, and graffiti-like saturation — but Bec’s stands out from the crowd because it’s black and white (to be clear, it’s not just the photo — the tattoo itself is beautifully grey-shaded) and still very feminine. Waves of HR Giger alien machinery weaving through her skin, across the side of her head and on her neck. Love it. You can find her at Cherry’s Tattoos in Hornchurch, UK. As always, click to zoom.

    bec-cherry

    On account of being dropped on my head as a baby I’ve never trusted my ability to recognize faces, but the combination of Bec’s tattoo and facial structure is really reminding me of the facial implant on Star Trek’s Seven of Nine… Are you with me on this or am I living in my own fantasy world again?

    ds9