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

  • More tattoos that I like

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Kent Fazekas‘s parents just came to visit him from Indiana, and while in California not only did they each get a small tattoo, but he got their footprints tattooed (by JD at Outer Limits in Long Beach) on the bottom of his feet — “Hurt like none other, but I’d do it again”

    And I’ve seen lots of Orion tattoos and even piercings and scarifications before, but I kind of liked Bimbieus’s full body “anatomically correct” concept interpretation of the Orion constellation (done by Allen at Euphoria in Tallahassee, Florida) — although perhaps one could argue that the placement of Saiph and Rigel are too low (aren’t they — or at least Saiph — his knees)?

  • Youngest tattoo artist in the world?

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    OK, so he’s getting some help from his dad, but this is the youngest tattoo artist I’ve seen yet!

  • Always tip your artist.

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    From the “There has to be more to this story” department, several news sources have picked up on this sordid little nugget.

    A North Carolina resident was apparently scheduled to have a tattoo done by an acquaintance of his, yet inexplicably, a fight broke out between the two.

    This, however, was no ordinary donnybrook; the man seeking the tattoo ended up not only getting his ears cut off, but was also castrated with a butcher’s knife. Then, without even so much as an aftercare sheet, he was thrown into a car and instructed to leave.

    Thankfully, he’s recovering well in a Winston-Salem hospital, and his alleged attackers have since been charged.

    At press time, Mr. Blonde could not be reached for comment.

  • Sluts and nutters

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Here’s a collection of just some of the inner lip tattoos that people have sent me over the years. Got an inner lip tattoo? Sent it to me at [email protected].

  • A safer form of genital beading?

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Steve Haworth has been playing with a piercing-style method for implanting genital beads with a reduced level of trauma. Normally either a larger gauge incision has to be made and/or a taper has to be used to stretch the holes up to the size of the bead to place it under the skin. Using his “squishy” silicone beads, he reduces the incision size required to place a 1/4″ bead down to 8ga.


    The tools: A. a 1/4″ taper for comparison (this is what would normally be required to place the bead), B. a pusher rod which will later be used to push the bead into the skin, C. the bead reducer which will “inject” the bead, D. the 3/16 taper which leads the bead into the hole, and of course E. the silicone beads themselves.


    First the bead is placed in the reducer and then compressed down into its tip, squeezing it from round to a nearly cylindrical narrow form.


    The bead reducer is then attached to the 3/16 taper.


    The taper and reducer assembly is pushed into the fresh piercing (made with an 8ga needle for a 1/4″ bead, or a 10ga needle for a 3/16″ bead) behind the needle, and then release the taper, leaving the reducer in place.


    The pusher rod then pops the bead out of the reducer, leaving it under the skin and it expands to its normal 1/4″ form.

    Steve is talking about offering instruction in this method at his advanced beading seminars, and may be selling the tools and beads on his eBay store in the future. The only problem that I can foresee from this method is that so far silicone has had an unusually high materials reaction (ie. allergic response) in comparison to titanium, steel, and teflon beads. This reaction is not supported by the scientific literature on the subject, so it’s yet to be determined why silicone from Steve has seen these complications.

  • Play ballsy.

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    You’re Scott Spiezio. You’re divorced, you’re injured, and your .064 batting average is so pathetic that even the last-place Seattle Mariners have no spot for you on their roster anymore. Ostensibly, things are in the crapper. What do you do?

    Apparently, you get a tattoo.

    “It’s been a bad year,” Spiezio said in an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Jim Moore. “I said, ‘Hey, let’s have a little fun’ instead of being uptight. I guess I went a little bit crazy.”

    Forgoing the traditional “crazy athlete” route — such as developing a crippling drug addiction or failing to appear for a probation hearing — Spiezio instead celebrated his relationship with his new model-girlfriend by getting a large, seductive portrait of her tattooed on his upper arm.

    Wanting “the tattoo to look like a pin-up found on barracks walls from wars in the past,” he sought out the services of talented portrait artist Rich White [PORTFOLIO LINK] of Action Tattoo & Body Piercing in Auburn, Washington.

    You’re Scott Spiezio. You just got your first tattoo, you’ve got a beautiful girlfriend, you’ve got an indefinite amount of vacation-time, and you’re still getting paid over $3 million next year.

    I’d be smiling too.


    Spiezio with his new tattoo.

    Spiezio claims that he is saving his other bicep for a tattoo dedicated to his three children, and sources close to the athlete confirm that he is also currently consulting with friends to concoct a believable cover-story to tell future girlfriends about the pin-up on his arm once this relationship crashes and burns.

  • Rev. Aaron “Tattoo” Davis

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Damn Darn, what’s with all the religious posts recently? I just got an email from police officer and Christian preacher Aaron Davis showing me pictures of his new tribal work. Aaron just put out a book encouraging Christians not to judge others — including those with tattoos.

    Can’t say that I can entirely at all support his D.A.R.E. stance, but I suppose this trend in Christianity to embrace different ways of living is a good thing — certainly better than the extremism that’s brought us, oh, a couple thousand years of war!

  • Goofball Tattoos

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    I like tattoos that make me laugh. On the left are Solanum‘s mexillant tattoos (signifying his profound love for burritos), done by Brett at PURE (NYC), and on the right is John’s tattoo done at Delicious Ink in Rockford, IL — he would like everyone to know that he is “very afraid of spiders”. Maybe that’s not really funny in and of itself, but that someone would be so petrified that they’d put a WARNING: NO SPIDERS logo on their arm cracks me up.

  • Awww, isn’t that sweet!

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    As you probably know I have magnets inside my fingers, implanted courtesy of Steve Haworth (made by Jesse Jarrell and previously covered on BME). My magnets are mostly intended to be functional, to give me “magnetic vision“, but Steve and his partner Cookie recently opted for something far more romantic.

    Each one got two magnet implants done; one in the fingertip, and the other behind the knuckle, positioned so that if they are holding hands, the magnets draw toward each other, linking them. It’s yet to be determined whether there will be a noticeable sensation or not (the magnets are very small), but on a purely symbolic level I really love it!

    If you’re interested in something like this (or are an implant artist looking for silicone coated magnets), you can contact Steve via his website at stevehaworth.com.

  • Extreme Knitting

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    It’s always interesting to me what people choose to do while suspended (assuming they don’t just swing around or “do nothing” and zone out). I’ve seen a lot of people take out their cell phone and call friends, but many people choose to integrate things from their life — sing Opera, wear a beautiful dress, eat a great meal (seriously), play the saxaphone, and so on… Well, at the latest House of Wah suspensions in London (UK), IAM:namesofthedead tried extreme knitting:


    Photos by Joker

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