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: Risks

  • Delayed Allergic Response?

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Last week I got this interesting letter and photos;

    "My tattoo is almost five years old, healed beautifully, hasn't been retouched, and held its colors amazingly well. I never had a problem with it, until September, when I got back from Burning Man. A week or so after I got back, the red outlining on the right side of my tattoo starting itching really bad and I was constantly scratching at it. The left side (both sides are identical) itched also, but not as badly, and didn't end up scarring. I'm still not sure why the reaction happened."

    So… what did ookumbubbleoo do take at Burning Man?

  • That doesn’t look fun…

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    This was later rebuilt, but what you see here is one of the more gnarly looking earlobe deaths that I’ve been sent… I don’t think I would have left the plug in that long, but at the same time, if it’s lost, it’s lost, and I appreciate someone taking the time to document the scenario…

  • The grossest picture I’ll ever post?

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    This horrific ear cheese build up is from a customer of James Wisiewski at Body Electric in Hollywood, CA that really needs to pay a little more attention to cleanliness. Seriously, this is the most vomit-inducing picture I think I’ve posted. So gross.

    EDIT/UPDATE: Highly recommended see also: Nasty, nasty clients

  • Implant Removal After 3 Years

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    I’ve mentioned before that one of the problems with semi-permanent procedures like implants is that you have the possibility of somewhat intense (especially if they’re DIY or otherwise professionally unassisted) corrective procedures years after the fact. These leg implants on Serpents, a series of 1″ Teflon half domes, were potentially implanted at the wrong depth. Either way, at three years in they were bruised, and finally seriously infected. Removal was required, with the procedure being a quick cut down to the implant, physical removal, and then sutured closure with a drain. There are more pictures and details in tonight’s BME/extreme update.

  • Transdermal Implant Removal

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Well, let’s see if this risks entry goes better than the last one where people’s heads exploded and we had hundreds of posts that many people will probably regret in the future when they reread them with a calmer head.

    After a heavy blow right on the implant, Bena decided it would be best to remove (DIY) the implant. Luckily it seems to have come out fairly easily.

    I know of another case where someone recieved a blow on a similarly placed transdermal implant, and things didn’t turn out as well. I asked the person to do an interview, but they decided against it, so I’ll try and recount the story as best I remember it. After receiving the blow, the surrounding tissue swelled and there were some signs of infection, but then it went down again, so the person paid it no more worry. Then, much later, they started getting severe headaches, and when they became unbearable, they went to the hospital. Doctors discovered that the infection had not gone away, but simply moved underneath the implant. It had eroded a quarter-sized hole in his forehead, and the doctors warned that had he waited a few more days to come in he could have dropped dead.

    I really want to extend thanks to people (and practitioners) who share their stories when things go wrong. I think for this community to grow safely, sharing what we know about the problems is in many ways more important than sharing what we know about performing procedures.

  • When scarification goes bad

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Update: First, the person in this procedure healed fine and is very happy. Second, I want to make it clear that while this procedure looks very intense, it’s probably less intense as a procedure than some large skin removal work, transscrotal piercings, implants, tongue splitting, and all the other procedures generally accepted by the body modification community.

    Ok, this is a pretty gory entry. I apologize for that. But I think it’s important to emphasize that when you do large scale scarification (or sometimes small scale), sometimes the keloid grows out of control and starts getting very uncomfortable, restricting mobility, and so on. This piece was only about a month old in the photos below (it was done by a “well known body modification artist” who’s gonna stay unnamed because that’s not the point of the entry) and the customer was quite unhappy and wanted it dealt with.

    Samppa Von Cyborg and Lukas Zpira got together to help him as much as they could. They felt that all of it was cut too deep, and did their best to excise the tissue, although the centre keloid was not removed (I’m assuming it was adhered right to the cartilage at bottom of the sternum). Starting with some exploratory cuts:

    Mostly off and looking very gory:

    As you can see, quite a chasm of tissue was removed! Check out the fatty tissue below:

    Once stitched up, I can’t imagine how relived and happy the customer must have been. It’s a pretty intense removal, and a lot to go through, but Lukas and Samppa did a nice job restoring him… Hopefully the removal doesn’t have similar keloiding issues (sometimes it’s a problem that snowballs).

    Finally, the gross out shot of the removed tissue:

    Please take scarification seriously!!!

  • The miracle of dermablend

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Personally I prefer Bronte without the makeup (and thus with her happy facial tattoos), but sometimes you have to go out and do things in disguise to use the invisible but still very real “whites” door instead of the “colored” door. Oh, and as a point of amusement, these are pictures she sent her dad in response to the “how are you going to get a job?” question.

  • What is that held in by? Hair?

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Quite a while ago (over two years ago actually), Kivaka sent me these shots of people who came into his shop with rejecting piercings, at least one of them completely unaware that there was even a problem!

  • Ouch.

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Kivaka sends in these very gross pictures of a scarring, swollen, and oozing Madonna piercing he had to remove. Now, on one hand it’s the fault of the person pictured, because they allowed the piercing to get so irritated. But on the other hand, it’s the fault of their employer, who forced (lest they be fired) them to take the piercing in and out every single day because of a “no piercings at work” policy.

    I’m loathed to tell private employers how to run their business, because I feel that they do have a right to dictate dress code down to the specifics. However, they need to realize that a “take your piercing out at work” way of thinking really isn’t limited to “work”. In the vast majority of cases, taking the piercing in and out constantly will destroy it… Thus these “work” policies also aggressively dictate how the employees dress on their off time.

  • Giant Keloid Removal

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    My friend Emilio Gonzalez of Mithos Tattoo in Caracas, Venezuela sends in this just massive keloid removal he did. I’m quite certain that person is very happy they walked into his studio!

    Anyway, I’m not really posting right now, I just wanted to quickly make sure that the main banner works (it will automatically change now on a daily basis). If you didn’t see, I also added a “most commented on” section for those that want to quickly jump to ModBlog‘s most debated entries. More tomorrow morning!

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