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: Suspension Conventions

  • Live From Oslo SusCon: Day Three, Plus A Roundtable Interview (Of Sorts)

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg


    Alexander Trowell is a body piercer and student nurse from Southport, U.K. He’ll be filing reports for us from the Oslo SusCon. Keep checking ModBlog for updates!

    14.30
    On this third (or fourth if you count Thursday) day of Oslo SusCon (OSC), the atmosphere is quite relaxed. The weather is good and the suspendees are still going strong. Here’s a list of the suspensions for Sunday:

    Christiane (2 point resurrection), Norway
    Bena (coma & 2 point suicide), Sweden
    Oscar (superman), Sweden
    Stein (angel), Norway
    Sanny (suicide/spinning beam), Germany
    Stephan (suicide/spinning beam), Germany
    Martin (suicide), Norway
    Lea (crucifix), Slovenia
    Kristin (lotus), Norway
    Ida (seated), Norway
    Becky (superman), US
    Angst (4 point suicide), Norway
    Nancy (6 point angel), US
    Tracie (chest), US
    Alice (knee), UK
    Havve (angel), Norway
    Stine (knees), Norway
    Tommy (knees), Norway
    Oddbjorn (single point chest), Norway
    Line-Therese (knees) Norway
    Lucky (2 point resurrection), Finland
    Jussi (metal), Finland
    Andreas (Angel), Norway
    Zumo (suicide/spinning beam), Italy
    Enrico (suicide/spinning beam), Italy
    Bastian (suicide w/rib hooks), Germany
    Morten (knees and ribs), Norway
    Alex (calf), UK/Norway
    Michele (suicide/spinning beam), Italy
    Daniel (suicide/spinning beam), Norway
    Ana (crucifix), Croatia
    Ninak (suicide), Norway

    For those with a keen eye for details, you’ll notice a few of us were able to hang twice this time around—a nice byproduct of the efficient team effort of the crew. By the way, this list may be somewhat wrong in terms of nationalities and such, so sincere apologies to anyone who has been mislabeled in any way shape or form..

    21.05
    In other news, we had our first fall today when Obbe did a one-point chest suspension. A tear occurred within a minute of his going up, and as Christiane noticed the formation of the tear and started lowering the rig, it was already too late. Being that he was on his way down anyways, Obbe managed to land solidly on both feet, and was repaired promptly with sutures by flesh-seamstress Christiane.

    Aside from this, the convention has been very incident-free. Well, incident-free, but not event free. So many beautiful suspensions, so many beautiful people. A friend of mine pulled me aside a little while back with a little secret to share, which I had no choice but to include here, purely for the sake of comedy. Integral to the story is that OSC opened its doors to the general public for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday. It was during this time our friend was doing a suspension of some variety. She really enjoyed going up…like, really enjoyed it. At some point, mid-air, she ended up climaxing—in my opinion, a hell of an advertisement for suspensions…

    I guess the bar is set for how much fun it’s possible to have while suspending, but I hope you all go forth and try to top it, although I struggle to see how that would go down.

    16.15
    It’s Monday, and my intention of interviewing Havve and Christiane came to a halt last night due to them being extremely busy all day. Nevertheless, I am sat with Ben & Alice from the UK, Muffe from Denmark and Bena from Sweden, so why not do an impromptu interview with them, right?

    Alexander Trowell: Guys, you all have a lot of experience with suspensions, and are all part of the standard OSC inventory at this point—how do you think this one has compared to previous versions?

    Bena: Since 2002, the convention has improved hugely. This time we have water running and stuff, you know? [Laughs]

    Alice: It’s been really accident-free. There are usually a few hiccups, but this one has been really good.

    AT: Have you got any particular memories from the SusCon, either from this year or previous ones?

    Bena: [Laughis] You remember being tea-bagged, right Alex?

    Alice: Yeah, and you remember me biting your ass so hard it left a huge mark?

    AT: I think it was pretty great watching Allen Falkner swing hard one year from a two-point suicide and his hook failing. He landed quite miraculously, and seemed quite unaffected by it.

    Alice: I think the tea-bagging effort has been really poor this year, so we all need to sharpen up for tonight!

    AT: There was no ass-suspensions this year. What happened, Bena?

    Bena: Ah, that’s so 2005, you know? Plus, my hemorrhoids… There were a lot of knee-suspensions this year, and a lot of angels. That seemed to be the theme this year.

    Alice: The two Italians on the spinning beam was a highlight though.

    Ben: Yeah, 20-kg weight difference and crazy spinning! [Laughs]

    AT: I am the worst reporter in the world, I can’t even think of any more questions to ask.

    Bena: I’m worse. I went to a tattoo convention with a press pass, and ended up taking 10 photos over a span of three days.

    Alice: Muffe, you haven’t said anything in this interview, how about some words?

    Muffe: Bollocks.

    I think that caps it off nicely. Now, it’s just a waiting game for the proper interview with Havve and Christiane, and, of course, the gang-bang.

    – Alex

    Tattoo Hollywood, BME’s first tattoo convention, is coming to Los Angeles from August 21-23, featuring contests, prizes and some of the best artists from around the world! Click here for more information.

  • Live From Oslo Suscon 2009: Day Two

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg



    Rolf doing a coma suspension.

    Alexander Trowell is a body piercer and student nurse from Southport, U.K. He’ll be filing reports all weekend from the Oslo SusCon. Keep checking ModBlog for updates!

    14:20
    It’s a slightly wet Saturday. There’s a bit of Norwegian press here currently covering Ben and Ronnie who have just gone up on a spinning beam, and are pushing it harder than dead or alive. Meanwhile, Ron Garza is doing another seminar in the chill-out area, passing around a huge-ass skewer he brought.

    I thought I’d include a list of suspensions today, so as not to exclude anyone, and here it is, in typical Microsoft suspension template style, i.e. name, type of suspension and nationality. My biggest apologies if I miss anyone out – feel free to teabag me later as punishment. (I can tell you that teabagging is one of those dark secret rites that always seem to take place once the Jager and various other liquids have been broken into at the after-party, which itself seems to have gotten the nickname “The Gangbang” (for reasons I would be neutered and lobotomized for exposing). Come to Oslo SusCon—it’s a scene, man!)


    Ellen doing an angel suspension.

    Thursday
    Alan (coma), Norway
    Marte (2 point resurrection), Norway
    Fabian (2 point suicide/spinning beam), Sweden
    Marco (2 point suicide/spinning beam), Italy
    Bard (6 point resurrection), Norway


    Alice doing an angel suspension.

    Friday
    Ellen (6 point angel), Norway
    Rolf (coma), Germany
    Line Therese (suicide), Norway
    Andrea (crucifix), Italy
    Lari (suicide), Finland
    Alice (angel), UK


    Yours truly taking it from Ellen and Cere. Gotta do what you gotta do, right?

    Saturday
    Pirre (suicide), Sweden
    Christer (resurrection), Norway
    Mads (suicide), Norway
    Anita (superman), Norway
    Enrico (angel), Italy
    Daniel (lotus), Sweden
    Jesper (lotus > suicide), Sweden
    Anders (suicide), Sweden
    Emma (suicide), Sweden
    Saskia (resurrection), UK
    Hillary (seated), UK/US
    Zumo (2 point chest), Italy
    Lasse (suicide/chest), Norway
    Christoffer (suicide), Norway
    June (2 point suicide), Norway
    Klem (resurrection), France
    Julie (venus rising), France
    Enrico (resurrection), Italy
    Ronnie (2 point suicide/spinning beam), Norway
    Benoit (2 point suicide/spinning beam), UK/France
    Stine (2 point suicide), Norway
    Jonathan (2 point suicide), Netherland/US
    Rakel (seated), Norway
    Tommy (angel), Norway
    Ingunn (knee/suicide), Norway
    Marius (crucifiction), Norway
    Alex (2 point suicide), UK/Norway
    Stine (suicide/spinning beam), Norway
    Hilde (suicide/spinning beam), Norway
    Lasse (lotus), Norway
    Steve (performance), US
    Tracy (performance), US
    Saskia (resurrection), UK/Norway


    June doing a two-point suicide suspension.

    As you can tell, there is a lot going on here. According to Christiane, there are going to be around 70 suspensions this year, give or take a few. It does seem that crew meetings are more frequent and better organized this year, this being reflected in the convention running smoother than James Bond on Xanax. [Ed. note: Or should that be Ex-Lax?] A few new beautiful rigs have been brought in, and Industrial Strength‘s Jonathan has sponsored again this year, bringing some super-sharp needles to make the prep work that much less traumatic. Since I’m being a big fat name-dropper, I’ll mention that Pinpoint Piercing, The Manefisken Venue, Pain Solution and, of course, BME are all proud to sponsor the convention. Well, it’s time for me to dig into some of the vegetarian cuisine and recharge my batteries—more writing to come.


    Anita doing a superman suspension.

    17:56
    Just wrapped up a 2 point suicide myself, so I am feeling somewhat hormonal and unable to write anything that’ll be even remotely worth posting. It’s open to the public here at the moment, so I’m going to go mingle with some outsiders and have a coke I guess. More blogging tomorrow, or tonight if I feel ambitious!


    Lea doing a funky suicide/one knee combo suspension.

    Peace.

    – Alex

    Tattoo Hollywood, BME’s first tattoo convention, is coming to Los Angeles from August 21-23, featuring contests, prizes and some of the best artists from around the world! Click here for more information.

  • Live From Oslo SusCon 2009: Day One

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg


    Alexander Trowell is a body piercer and student nurse from Southport, U.K. He’ll be filing reports all weekend from the Oslo SusCon. Keep checking ModBlog for updates!

    So, after a morning of paying extortionate amounts of money for a boarding pass, arguing with airport security about the importance of sticking my toothpaste in a see through plastic-bag and then finally arriving on Norwegian soil (only to sit next to a person who was clearly intent on waging gaseous warfare on my tender nostrils for a couple of hours), I finally arrived at Oslo SusCon.

    I was very pleased to see that I was not alone in having made the trip an annual tradition. Familiar face after familiar face kept popping up in front of me as I made my way into the solid epicenter that was the eating quarters. After getting some much-needed grub and a hasty cigarette/coffee, it was time for the official introduction to the weekend. I say “official” because I know many of the crew, volunteers and participants have been busy making all the cogs fit together since Thursday—big thanks to you all! In fact, word on the proverbial streets of the SusCon is they already managed to fit in five suspensions yesterday; my suspicion is they’re planning to gradually make it an all-year event, stretching the time-frame and participant numbers just a touch every year. Havve started the introduction in his usual informal comedic fashion: Warning us to watch out for whatever may be worth watching out for, to be nice to each other, and to treat the venue with respect. A sort of support group round of introductions to crew and participants alike was quickly ventured, and I’m sure I remember at least five per cent of who’s hanging when and from what part of their lovely inked bodies. (Not a bad job at all if you ask me.) Next, it was time for Ron Garza to present an interesting lecture on suspension culture before the action was set to kick off. I don’t even know where to begin quoting and paraphrasing it—though, to be fair, I couldn’t do it justice, so I won’t even go there.

    I realize I’m not a very good reporter so far, because frankly I am not 100 per cent on whether it was six or eight people that went up today—hell, it could have been 12 and I’d be none the wiser. But the people all seemed to enjoy them and there were even one or two first-timers, at least one of which seemed to enjoy it lots!

    An awesome new rig was tested out by a couple of folks, and it made for some pretty pictures that I’ll try to submit tomorrow. So all in all, a smashing start to a weekend that carries great potential which I’m sure it will smash!

    It’s bedtime now—need to be bright and shiny and whatnot for the morning. Please pardon the tongue-in-cheek approach to this first entry; tomorrow I’ll take it a bit more seriously and get my facts right…

    – Alex

    Tattoo Hollywood, BME’s first tattoo convention, is coming to Los Angeles from August 21-23, featuring contests, prizes and some of the best artists from around the world! Click here for more information.

  • And Here Is Your Dallas SusCon Photo Update

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg


    Hey, it’s SusCon weekend in steamy Dallas, Texas, and while I couldn’t be there, lots of friends were, so let’s look at some photos of the festivities, yes? First of all, as we mentioned previously, Allen Falkner turned 40 yesterday, and what you see up there (in a picture by Angela Poon) is a project coming to fruition after three years in the making: Three years ago, BME’s own Phil Barbosa had that oversized portrait made and orchestrated having it sent all over the world with various travelers, picking up signatures at every stop, with the intention of surprising Allen with it on his fortieth birthday. And hot holy damn, it all worked! I haven’t received an official report about his reaction, but I can only assume that he has not stopped crying, seeing as he is old and infirm now. (Kidding!)

    Take a peek after the jump for some more good stuff.

    Oh, these photos are courtesy of Brian, who, as you can see, is up to his old tricks, molesting every young man that isn’t nailed down. Thanks Brian!

    Earlier in the week, I mentioned that the ihung team would be building an even bigger PVC-pipe suspension dome than this one, and hey, there are Scot and Mikey, testing the structural integrity of the revamped version.

    And there it is in all its glory. That is goddamn awesome.

    It appears that, left to their own devices, the SusCon attendees quickly formed roving gangs. I believe this crew of outcasts prefer to be called “The Yellow-Jacket Boys.”

    You may have noticed little ads on the side of the page over the last little while advertising a freak show/performance/etc. for Allen’s birthday and to kick off the SusCon, and this, of course, comes from that show. Here is Havve, who is one of the greatest performers around, offering a sober discussion on how the Norwegian banking system differs from the failing American model.

    And here is a scary dinosaur of some sort, caught in one of Allen’s patented dinosaur traps. He will be thrown on a barbecue later on today, and devoured by everyone in attendance.

    Check back soon for more updates!

  • BME Podcast #1: Allen Falkner Talks Suspension

    Written by

    Jordan Ginsberg


    Holy crap, it worked! Welcome, friends, to the inaugural BME Podcast. Isn’t this exciting? We figured it was time to revive the old BME Radio format and spruce it up a bit with all sorts of Web 2.0 nonsense, and so here we are. As I mention on the show, this is very much still in the experimental stages, so any and all feedback is very much appreciated, both in terms of the sound quality and technical aspects, as well as guests you’d like to hear and topics and issues you’d like to be discussed. If things go well, you could be hearing a whole lot more of my deep and manly timbre.

    On today’s podcast, our guest is Allen Falkner, who joins us to discuss the upcoming SusCon he’s organizing, Nevada’s current attempt to ban suspension, the six-hour suspension Chris Glunt just performed, and more. (Also, visit him at Fade Fast for all your tattoo removal needs!)

    Stream or download the show below:

    [podcast]https://www.bme.com/wp-content/uploads/bme-podcast-20090304-01.mp3[/podcast]

    Right-click and “Save Target/Link As” to download the .mp3 directly

    * * *

    Music featured:

    Capital H – Global Food Shortage
    Drive-By Truckers – Where the Devil Don’t Stay
    The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound

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