Celebrating body modification culture since 1994.
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Slow and steady wins the race. And while Brian may not be the fastest racing snail, he does make the coolest looking ones. By the looks of the photo I’d say this is one of his cutting and burning combo pieces, with the cuts for the lines and branding for the shading.
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Those of you familiar with Jainism will recognize this symbol right away. For those that don’t, the palm with the wheel signifies Ahimsa, one of the main principles of Jainism. It essentially is a symbol meaning to do no harm to any other living creature. Seeing it in this form is interesting, as the creation of this involved not only cutting but branding as well, both of which are pretty harmful. So who better than a minister then to create this piece. Richard Effin Ivey is a minister with the Church of Body Modification, and part of his personal beliefs is using modification for spiritual growth and harmony. Richard serves as a conduit, bringing his faith and skill into his work so that the owner of this scar will take away something that will be with him forever in body, mind, and spirit.
Richard works at Warlock’s Tattoo in Raleigh, NC.
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Be it cutting or burning, Brian has scarification down to a science. This recent cutting of his shows exactly why he is a master of both. It should be noted that Brian has had this design planned out for over 6 years, and only recently found someone to put it on.
With his skilled hand he was able to carve this image out of flesh, only to follow it up by branding sections to create shading. It’s exquisite and really shows why Brian is one of the finest scarification artists working today.
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Today’s other follow-up is brought to you by the letters B and D. Over the past couple of years, Brian Decker has been experimenting with combining scarification with branding. Following the initial cutting, he’ll go over parts of it with a hyfrecator, as a form of shading or accent. Below you can see how successful this technique has been. The scar/brand was done over a year ago, and the results are remarkable.
Be sure to check out Brian’s BME Portfolio Gallery to see more of his scarifications and brandings.
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Earlier today we saw how Supa got the brands on his face. While the heated scalpel is one method, another is where an electro-cautery tool is used to create the brand. You may have seen them in your doctor’s office as they’re normally used to burn off moles and cauterize small wounds. When applied to the skin for extended periods of time, you end up with a brand that looks a lot like this Welsh Dragon by Quentin from Kalima Emporium, located in Sussex, UK.
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Last week we got a look at Supa’s amazing facial brandings. Today we’ll see just how Anti from the Kaptive8 Suspension Krew set about creating those designs on Supa’s skull. There are many ways to perform a branding, and each way can heal differently even on the same person. I want to say that this is a strike branding, but because he’s heating up a scalpel, it looks like he’s cutting the designs into the flesh and cauterizing the wound at the same time, whereas a strike branding involves the hot object being placed on the skin. No matter what you call it though, it’s going to hurt.
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I did a quick search for Supa in the archives and didn’t turn up any results, which is a shame because we’ve all been missing out on taking a look at the incredible brandings that he has on his head.
Supa is a member of Kaptive8 Suspension Crew who just opened up a BME Gallery of their own, so we should be seeing a lot more from Supa and the rest of the crew. Anti, Supa’s teammate from Kaptive8 did the brandings.
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While I’m sure some of you might be expecting a video game related post with that headline, the fallout I’m referring to is happening on ChrisB‘s arm.
As Chris’ branding heals, the ink that was branded over will fall out, leaving a nice negative space flower on his arm. As many of you with brandings know, they hurt, a lot. So who was it that got to torture Chris? None other than Brian Decker. Which of course brings us back to the title, as Brian and Chris both work and live in New York City. You can see more of Brian’s work in his BME portfolio gallery.
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Last week Sean posted a fantastic collaborative scarification piece by Christiano Aeilli and Lewis Dodd. Going back through the galleries another scar by Christiano alone caught my eye.
I’ve been seeing a lot of artists blend together cutting and branding in their scarification pieces, but most of the time the branding is used as a form of shading. Here Christiano is using the branding to create a pattern in the scar that will heal differently than the cutting portion, ideally leaving the final scar with a nice degree of contrast between the two sections. Keep an eye on Christiano’s gallery, and hopefully we’ll see a follow-up of this piece.
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It seems that Brian Decker guy has been busy again. Here’s his latest scar/brand piece.
It’s mostly a scar piece, but Brian finishes his work up with some branding which gives the scar a different texture, making it appear to be shaded. You can see more of Brian’s work in his BME Portfolio Gallery.
