BME: Body Modification Ezine

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Celebrating body modification culture since 1994.

Tag: Ritual

  • Hand-Poked Cremation Ashes Tattoo

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Former BME columnist Marisa Kakoulas at Needles and Sins just posted a fascinating article on a hand-poked cremation ashes tattoo done in a hand-poked dotwork style by Colin Dale of Skin & Bone in Copenhagen. Colin recently tattooed his friend Eric with Eric’s father’s ashes, mixed with soot to darken the ink, milled together in strong Vodka — apparently human ashes are very light and it helps to add an agent to make the tattoo more visible. Click the picture to visit Needles and Sins for the whole story.

    ash-tattoo

  • Taking flight for a good cause

    Written by

    Rob

    According to MrHardKor, around 300,000 geese are killed every year at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport for safety reasons.  When MrHardKor, an artist and taxidermist by trade, discovered that the geese were being killed and then destroyed, he knew he needed to step in.  Together with a group of like-minded individuals, he created “De Keuken van het Ongewenste Dier” (Kitchen of the Unwanted Animals).  The organization receives the geese from the licensed hunters, cleans them, and then serves them at events in and around Holland.

    The following pictures come from one event that the group catered.  It was the opening of an art fair entitled “Bacchus and Soul”, and they served smoked goose.  It was there that MrHardKor hooked himself up to a pair of goose wings and some balloons to serve the geese with style.

    Check out the Other Ritual Fun gallery for more photos from the event.

    BME is up for a small business grant and we need your support!!
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  • The Rituals We Have

    Written by

    Rob

    Right off the bat I’m putting the warning out there.  This post features SI cutting, so if that is triggering for you, don’t read it.  The images will be behind a clickthrough, so they can be easily skipped.

    Alright, with that all said, let’s get on with this post.  I wanted to post these two pictures as they have an interesting dichotomy.  While both are recognizable as SI photos, the two are very different.  Keep on reading to see what I mean.

    The first image is one a lot of people will instantly recognize.  A hand holding a blood covered razor blade, with drops of blood going down the drain in the background.  While we don’t see the cut, we know there must be one there.  The image is raw and simplistic.  The bare bones of SI laid out in a single frame.  It calls to mind all the other images we associate with ritual cutting.  The shallow cuts across the arm, leg or stomach; The faint scars of cuts from the past.

    And then we have the second photo.  In stark contrast the the brightly lit first photo, this one is in the dark, with only a sliver of light shining through.  Smoke hangs in the air with an ephemeral presence, while the woman below lies looking up.  On her arm are the marks from the razor, those tiny cuts repeated over and over again.  Why she cuts is unknown, but it is something deeply personal.  The photo is almost a violation, like the light, exposing her cutting and her secrets to the world.

    The photos, in a simple way, define the two sides of ritual cutting.  The raw action of the blade, coupled with the emotional release.

    Special thanks to ChaChuck for sending in these photos.

    If you’re looking for more information regarding self harm, this website can help.

  • Oh Brad

    Written by

    Rob

    I’ll admit it, Lucass is one of my favorite image submitters.  The reason:  he’s always up for doing something fun with his mods.  I asked him a while back to send in pictures from his trip to Europe, and got this photo of the Eiffel tower in response.  Recently his friend Brad had a birthday, and this is what Lucass did for him that day.

    Now that’s a dedicated friend.

  • A study in blood

    Written by

    Rob

    IAM:Meriken_Metals recently sent in a photo series entitled “Vitality”.  While there wasn’t a lot of description given, it appears that it combined play piercing with blood play to create a blood print of the results of the piercings.  Instead of using the traditional play piercing needles, he used long pieces of flexible metal to weave the piercings together.

    Head over to the ritual and play piercing gallery to see the rest of the photos.  Just a quick note, given the length of the wire, setting up a completely sterile environment would be difficult, so please don’t attempt to recreate this without first taking the proper safety precautions.

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