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.

Tag: Body Modification

  • Start of a Guarani Tattoo Resurgence?

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    I just got this picture and email. I think maybe it is a sign that at least in little ways the world is becoming a better place, even if just one person at a time?

    This is me at Mahatma Tattoo studio, Rio de Janeiro-Brazil. This facial tattoo represents my Guarani heritage.

    I’d read that Maori tattoos were making a comeback among current generations in New Zealand, so I asked Robson whether his tattoo was part of a larger trend or not.

    No man, only me, I guess. All the guys were doing facial old school daggers or something... We do have a lot of people of indigenous descent here in Brazil, but the media doesn't show anything about our culture.

    These kids that are like, five, ten, fourteen years old, they stop me and ask "wow! are you an indian?" and I reply, "sure, just like you!" Most people here, especially in Rio, are a mix of Portuguese, Indian, and Black... and the Indian side I think is pretty cool.

  • Tattoo commentary

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Tattoos are — when they’re done right, in my opinion — an integral part of people’s lives, and have a meaning that’s tied to their self-chosen destiny.

    [This is] a tattoo in the honor of an album I heard a few years ago, called "The Ugly Organ." I took the album art, in this case, the jagged piano design, and pretty much photocopied it. The design credits go to Cursive. The album changed the way I heard music, and more importantly, changed the way I write music.

    I now run a record label, play in several bands and just released my tenth album. None of this would have been possible if I hadn't had heard "The Ugly Organ." The combination of dischord and cacophony along with melody and tender moments struck me in a special way. The lyrics, predominantly about the paradox that successful writers constantly must seek out pain in order to write about to continue to be successful writers, was a concept that I had been battling myself before I had heard the album.

    I devoted about 14 inches of my chest to this album, this work of art. It took about 5 hours, with four breaks, and the Subway I ate afterwards was the best in my life, if for no reason than I was no longer being tattooed across my chest. Those with chest work understand the pain, I'm sure. But, It was totally worth it. Tattooed by Matt at Evolved.

    - Evan

  • Blair at Pure

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    It’s my old friend Blair‘s birthday and he’s decided to take a week or two off of busy life in Toronto and relax in the slow moving city of New York, New York. While he’s there, he’ll be doing some guest work at Brian‘s PURE Body Arts in Brooklyn.

    If you don’t already know his name, Blair is not only a generally talented body piercer, scarification, and body modification practitioner, but he’s also one of the best traditional strike branding artists in the world with about a decade of experience in the medium… So if you’re in NYC and strike branding is something you’ve been looking fore, considering contacting him. He’s only there for the next week or so!

    You can see some more of his work at his website, byblair.com.

  • What’s cooler than being cool?

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Friends don’t let friends choose their own nicknames.

    [LINK via IAM:Mikesch.]

  • It does look cool…

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    BE (UK suspension team) has been playing with a new ultra-simple “hook/rig” design, with Wormy modeling it below. It looks super cool, but my take on it is that if you had any amount of motion (swinging around for example), it could shift out of place or perhaps even catastrophically slide entirely out as more weight is on one side than the other?

    I suppose some kind of safety knobs could be put in place on each side of the flesh penetration, but at that point you’d lose the visual simplicity. Seeing this picture has me thinking about a photoshoot in which the suspendee is “skewered” on rebar sticking horizontally out of a concrete wall… Someone please shoot it, I need that poster!

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