BME: Body Modification Ezine

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Celebrating body modification culture since 1994.

Tag: Body Modification

  • More copied tattoos

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Copy someone’s tattoo, and you will get outed, and your peers will laugh at you next time you show your face at a convention. I realize copying of tattoos is going to happen, and there’s probably nothing that will entirely stop it, but it can’t happen in the shadows. You will be named as a plagiarist.


    Original by Cory Ferguson
    Rip off by King of Kings

    This dirtbag even has the gall to include the photo in his online portfolio — that is, he’s using it to advertise what a good “artist” he is. Cory designed the piece from scratch for a dear friend of his. It’s an original custom creation and it reflects Cory’s skills as an artist. The cheap copy on the right reflects only their ability to copy. It’s false advertising, and puts customers at risk by effectively lying to them about the actual qualification of the “artist”.

    I’d say King of Kings at least owes Cory Ferguson a royalty payment.

  • Tattoo Plagiarism

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Hey! Brandon Swartz of Inflictions in Covina, California, you owe Tim Kern (and Amina Munster) a serious apology. If this was 1989, your shop would be burned to the ground. Lucky for you, it’s 2005, and all you’ve lost is the respect of your peers.


    Original by Tim Kern
    Copy by Brandon Swartz

    Seriously, taking someone’s custom tattoo and copying it isn’t a compliment. It’s theft and abuse of something really personal, a kind of emotional rape that’s utterly unacceptable. Not cool at all.

    Previously: Pirate Tattoos

  • More Kanji Tattoo Mistakes

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Another roundup of poorly done kanji tattoos, caught by our friend Tian at Hanzi Smatter who runs an excellent blog on the subject of misused kanji.


    They think it means: “Sheep”
    Actual meaning: “Not yet, have not” (huh?)

    They think it means: “Woman with heart”
    Actual meaning: “Adequate loyalty” (with typo in “loyalty”)


    They think it means: “Moonlight”
    Actual meaning: “Moon”


    They think it means: “Pain, blood, sweat, tears”
    Actual meaning: Terrible writing; missing strokes and extra dots


    They think it means: “In loving memory of mother”
    Actual meaning: “Don’t forget” (nonchalant/low-priority use)


    They think it means: “Jujitsu”
    Actual meaning: Terrible writing; second character is wrong
    Tian adds: “This is a disgrace to the teachings of the Jujitsu martial art.”


    They think it means: “Empty Soul”
    Actual meaning: “Courageous Soul”  

    Want to see more? Add hanzismatter.com to your daily read.

    Thanks Tian!

  • Pirate Tattoos

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Today is “international talk like a pirate day“… Last year I recoded the IAM/BME community software interface to render people’s pages in pirate-talk. That didn’t go over too well with a few people who thought their pages had been hacked, so this year I’m just going to post a collection of some of the many pirate themed tattoos I’ve received over the years. I’ll start off with some classic pirate skulls:

    And some more, but with various pirate slogans:

    Moving on, you can never go wrong with pirate pin-ups:

    And finally, a few assorted pirate themed pieces:

    Arrrrr!

  • Facial Tattoos by Tattoo Joe

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    I’m really a big fan of the work (facial and otherwise) that “Tattoo Joe” out of Physcial Graffiti Ink in Bridgeport, Connecticut is doing (he’s the bottom right photo in this entry by the way — one of the few, if not only, Western tattoo artists I can think of with this type of facial work)… who’d have thought that Bridgeport, Connecticut was some sort of facial tattooing hub? Anyway, the world would be a more interesting — and I dare say better — place if more people went and got their faces tattooed.

    All tattoos by “Tattoo Joe”, Physical Graffiti, Bridgeport CT

    The application of neo-traditional Maori and Polynesian designs on Westerners of course raises cultural appropriation issues that there’s a great deal of debate on (ie. do we have the right to borry these motifs in the first place?), but my feeling is that body art is universal and belongs to everyone, and in this modern global culture, we are a lot better off embracing each others cultures and celebrating them than saying “this is off limits and only <insert race here> can do this” — or worse yet, relagating these things to the realm of some “noble savage”. Body art must live through all people of the world and of time, and is core to the human experience.

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