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.

Category: Features

  • The Arrest of Todd Bertrang [The Publisher’s Ring]

    INITIAL NOTE: Please understand that I am unaware of any of the facts surrounding Todd Bertrang’s arrest other than what has been reported in the media. I have not discussed this case with Todd nor am I privy to any knowledge of this alleged crime or any other alleged crimes. I offer this as general commentary only.


    The Arrest of Todd Bertrang


    The more restrictions and prohibitions in the world, the poorer people get.

    – Lao Tzu

      
    UPDATE 01/11/04: Authorities have admitted that they have absolutely no evidence that Todd has ever done these procedures on minors, other than his willingness to play along with their ridiculous fabrication (which included paying him a preposterous $8,000 for the imaginary procedure on the imaginary clients).

    Additionally, they have admitted that this whole thing is based on complaints filed by “a woman who said she believed that Bertrang had performed a circumcision on a 10 or 11 year old girl”. Given how many times I’ve heard people in the BME chat room that he’s rubbed the wrong way conspire to fabricate false charges against him, why am I not surprised? People said they’d get him busted for things he never did, maybe they succeeded (to put this into time context, it played out in the spring/summer of 2002).

    As I write this, Todd Bertrang and his parter Robyn sit in prison for allegedly conspiring to perform female circumcisions on minors. The procedure they were offering is encouraged by the medical community, and, with slight (gender) variation, is even legal for non-doctors to perform. Not only that, but there never actually even were any minors — the whole thing was a cleverly concocted fantasy designed to entrap Bertrang. No matter what your opinion of Todd (he’s never masked his sexual overtones), this arrest is troubling on two levels — first, because it involves a deeply hypocritical law, and second, because it involves a questionable sting on a body modification artist.

    To be clear let’s put the procedure in question into context: female circumcision. FGM. Female genital mutilation. It sounds terrible, doesn’t it — but it’s a loaded term chosen by activists (male circumcision is known as MGM, or “male genital mutilation”). The procedure we’re talking about isn’t an infibulation or a clitorectomy — it’s a circumcision (“to cut around”). The purpose of the procedure is to reshape the labia into a more pleasing form and to reduce or split the hood in order to make the clitoris more exposed. The procedure is designed to be a positive and enhancing one, not something oppressive or abusive.


    The Hypocrisy

    Proponents of female circumcision in the West (it’s a popular elective surgery) will tell you that it enhances the appearance of the genitals, as well as making sex more physically pleasurable. Proponents in Africa and the Middle East will tell you that, on top of its cultural and religious importance, it maintains cleanliness, prevents disease and cancers, keeps a couple together by making the man able to sexually satisfy the woman, and otherwise protects the woman who receives it. Some regions even have circumcision methods designed to make intercourse more physically pleasurable — in countries that it’s done in, it’s the women who have had the procedure that are usually the strongest proponents of continuing the practice.

    Now don’t get me wrong — in spite of all these wonderful things about it, I believe it’s fundamentally wrong to force this on a child who can’t decide for themselves, let alone to allow an unqualified practitioner to do it. But we have to take an objective look at this in light of procedures that we do allow.

    While most Western countries have phased out the procedure as barbaric, and the AMA has decried it as pointless and dangerous mutilation, in America, the genitals of young boys are still routinely partially amputated. The foreskin, one of the most nerve-heavy parts of the male genitals (and containing glands essential to genital health), is cut off, usually without anesthesia. Significant complications arise annually and numerous men permanently lose sexual function from this procedure. While it is most commonly done by a doctor, non-medical practitioners are also permitted to perform the procedure in private home ceremonies. No health benefits have ever been conclusively shown for this procedure, and the original justification for performing it was to reduce masturbation by “associating pain with the penis”.

    So, with boys, we allow non-medical practitioners to cut off part of their genitals for dubious reasons, but with women we don’t. The fact is that we can’t have it both ways. Either make male genital mutilation illegal, or allow it for both genders.

    The Sting

    Underground cutters tend to be motivated by two factors. First, they usually enjoy doing the procedures they offer. Second, they care about the people they are working on and perceive themselves as helping — by offering a procedure that’s not available in the mainstream, they fulfill an important need and improve someone’s life (and thus they feel a need to come to the aid of someone in distress). The authorities understand that and in their stings play to the desires and ethics of their victim, dangling the perfect carrot in front of their noses.

    It’s no secret from his actions in online chat rooms that Todd wants to believe that there are cultures that accept his views on female genital enhancement procedures. Additionally, talking to him it’s clear not only that he’s “getting off” on doing the procedures, but that he cares about his clients. The FBI appears to have presented Todd with a fabricated situation that seemed to good to be true — the opportunity to help a pro-circumcision family (ie. a culture that accepted his belief structure), and to improve two young girls’ lives.

    Maybe you’re saying, “Shannon, are you insane? He was a pervert who was hoping to get off cutting up young girl’s genitals!

    That may or may not be true, but the fact is that those girls never actually existed and Todd never sought them out — the FBI presented them to him along with a tailored backstory to make it appear to Todd like he was doing the right thing by allegedly agreeing to perform the operation. Given that it was happening on minors with the full consent of the “parents”, and with the presented goal of helping the minors, can you really say it was even illegal? (Remember, we allow parents to send their children to absolutely brutal, sometimes fatalBoot Camps”). In Todd’s eyes, and in the eyes of millions of people around the world, this procedure is positive and normal (which would make the government the oppressor, and Todd an agent of freedom). The FBI basically tricked him into allowing his beliefs and ethics to get the better of him.

    * * *

    I’m not trying to defend Todd with this article — if the allegations are true and he offered to work on minors like this, in my opinion he went too far. However, I do feel that it’s fundamentally wrong to charge someone for a crime that only exists as a police fabrication, and I believe it’s even more wrong to charge someone with laws that are by their very nature racist and sexist. These are unjust laws being applied with a heavy hand. Maybe Todd hit on you in a chat room and you’re glad to see him finally go down — but are you really comfortable having it happen like this?

    Most body modification happens in a grey area. It’s usually not entirely legal, but it’s also usually not entirely illegal either, depending on how you look at it. Because of this, it’s very easy for almost any body artist to be arrested at any time, based on the whims of local or federal prosecutors. Body modification procedures are safer than everyday activities like driving a car, occur almost exclusively between consenting adults, and usually involve procedures not being medically offered (making underground the only option). To be clear, the laws are fundamentally unjust. Until we either start banning everything, or these procedures start getting medically offered, it is wrong to deny these grass-roots solutions.

    The other reason body artists should be wary is if the FBI is setting up stings that seem “too good to be true”, you never know who could be next or how. Most body artists are pretty honest easy-to-read people — it’s very easy to figure out what makes them tick. We’ve accepted as a culture that it is wrong for our authorities to engage in entrapment (entrapment being when the police fabricate an illegal act, encourage the mark to take part in it, and then charge them for it), yet we’ve just watched Todd Bertrang fall victim to it. Because of the seemingly heinous nature of the charges (mutilating the genitals of young girls), most people don’t even consider the fact that this isn’t justice — just like we’re instinctively ready to act outside or beyond the law when it comes to dealing with child molesters and sex criminals.

    So objectively, what we have here is an arrest of questionable legality for a fabricated crime, which is only a crime under laws which are hypocritical at best. Ask yourselves — are you willing to allow it to happen just because you don’t like Todd? Then ask yourselves a second question — will it happen again? What do you believe in that the mainstream may not agree with?


    Shannon Larratt
    BME.com

    You can get in touch with Todd via his website at ToddBertrang.com, although you should be aware that all communication is probably being monitored.

  • Modified Does Not Equal Apathetic [Guest Column]

    Modified ≠ Apathetic
     

    “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”

    Margaret Mead

     

    (CLICK PHOTOS TO ACCESS IAM PAGE) 


    massaarKyle is an eighteen year old male from Barrie, Ontario, Canada. He currently lives at home with his parents and due to him recently relocating he is unemployed. He co-founded Skate-4-Cancer with his friend Rob Dyer in July 2003. He currently has four piercings (tongue, nipples, and his lobes stretched to 00 gauge). He has three tattoos: words on his stomach, Sailor Jerry flash on his back, and stars on his arms. The co-founder of the Skate-4-Cancer charity has stretched lobes, a nipple piercing, and multiple tattoos including a 3/4 sleeve in progress.

    TattoodRedHeadLiz is a 35 year old female real estate broker who formerly worked in the music business for Capitol and Virgin Records in NYC. She graduated with a BA in Media studies and currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts, USA with her husband. Liz has approximately 60 hours of tattoo work, she has half sleeves, a nostril piercing, and a vertical hood piercing.

    nycnickNick is a 45 year old male and living in New York City, New York, USA. He has a degree in Architecture from New York’s Cornell University and is currently a very successful and sought after architect. Considering Nick only started his journey into modification in 2003 he is heavily modified with 52 tattoos including full sleeves, and multiple piercings including a 0 ga Prince Albert, 0 ga labret (recently retired due to gum recession), and 3/4″ stretched lobes — When asked why he got his mods so late in life he replied, “It just felt right, and of course a lot of iam people inspired me! My parents were dead against it, so I waited till they were dead.

     

    This article is not here (only) to showcase these individuals. It’s here to say, “hey, maybe it’s fun to get involved in my comunity” — and more importantly, that it’ normal to be involved!

     

    Communities tend to react to “aberration” with distrust and ostracism. This ostracism can result in an individual or group being perceived as responsible for the problems in the community, greedy consumption of charitable services they don’t need, behaving in a manner the majority of the community feels is unacceptable, and having an unacceptable appearance.

    We in the body modification community have all experienced this ostracism for being “different”. People think we’re violent, mentally ill, unemployed, and addicted to all sorts of illicit drugs simply because of the modifications we’ve made to our bodies and how we dress. Our appearance seems to give those who don’t understand permission to label us with various negative and undeserved attributes.

    Historically, while community service and volunteerism has always been a valued trait, actual practice has lagged in recent years, and organizations in need of volunteers often find themselves short-staffed and under-funded as a result. Since his inauguration, American President George W. Bush has issued repeated challenges to the American people to increase the amount of volunteer work being done in the country. Nothing much happened, although the events of 9/11/01 saw volunteerism rates peak for a few months and then slowly decline to the present.

    People in the mainstream tend to expect the modified to be among the least likely people to provide any type of community service or volunteer work. However, a surprising number of people involved in body modification feel the motivation to give back to their communities; communities that to a large extent tend to discriminate against them. The people in this article go above and beyond to provide invaluable volunteer services in a variety of areas to the communities in which they live.

    They have not only helped their communities but they have gone well beyond the expectations of others by founding a variety of charities and organizations and continuing to work in the non-profit or volunteer sector while maintaining active participation in the modified community. While non-profit work and volunteering isn’t for everyone it does strike a chord with these individuals. At the foundation of all of these people is a willingness and desire to help others through any means possible.


    BME: How did you originally get involved with non-profit volunteer work and what was your role in the groups you were with?

    Kyle: I never really did much charity work, just the usual stuff they made me do at school: cleaning up roads, picking up litter, and so on. I went down to Toronto once for three days to help feed homeless people and help out at some shelters as well. Up until when Skate

    4Cancer was started, I had never really done anything on my own time.

    My friend, Rob Dyer, and I started Skate4Cancer together back in July of this year. He originally had the idea about two years ago, and actually tried to start it up but it never took off because he didn’t really have anyone helping him. He mentioned the idea to me during the summer, and I decided I really liked it and offered to help him out by building a website. From there, it just sort of progressed into what it is now.

    Skate4Cancer is a charity that was started to raise youth awareness and fund for cancer research. Starting in March of 2004, we will be skateboarding from Los Angeles to Toronto. The entire trip is roughly 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) in length.

    My role now is maintaining the website, and I continue to help plan what we will be doing and helping out as much as I can at fundraisers and various publicity events. Once we get started on the trip, I will principally be the bus driver and webmaster of the site.

    Liz: In 1999 I co-founded a group called Fanseverywhere as a result of the rapes and sexual assaults that happened at Woodstock ’99. I still, to this day, answer email from young girls and women who have been sexually molested and raped at rock concerts.


    “I was so offended by what was happening to the women at Woodstock ’99.”
     

    The police weren’t any help and women (some as young as thirteen) were being assaulted while crowd surfing or sleeping in their tents. It was outrageous and these women needed somewhere to go to, someone to speak with. I was the Co-Founder and main contact for these women. I conducted letter writing campaigns to NOW and RAINN to alert them of the issues and to record labels and concert promoters urging them to be aware of what was going on at many shows.

    Nick: I serve as a Board Member on the NYC City council, for community Board 9, I serve on the Landmarks committee for Manhattan, NYC District 9. I am completing my Police Officer Training, and will serve in the NYPD auxiliary program, walking a beat as a cop in Manhattan.

    “I wanted to give to my community.”

    BME: Have you been involved in other non-profit work other than what you described above?

    Kyle: Honestly, I have never done anything like this before. I mean, I’ve given to food drives and donated some money before, but nothing really significant to a non-profit organization.

    Liz: I started working with the Milarepa Group to help the Tibetans in 1996 working at the Tibetan Freedom Concerts in SanFrancisco, NYC and Washington DC. I moved on to help an agency called the Tibetan Refugee Health Care Project. I was motivated by my desire to help people in need. I know that I am lucky to have the things that I have and some aren’t so fortunate. I felt compelled to help out where I could.

    I volunteered my time with the Milarepa Group from 1996-1998 and assisted with the development of the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. I worked with the Tibetan Refugee Health Care Project from 1998-2000.

    The Tibetan Refugee Health Care Project is a non-political organization funded entirely by private donations. It was created in response to the dire and growing need for public health care for the Tibetan community-in-exile, living both in resettlement camps in India, and throughout the world, and to be a support for The Tibetan Government-in-exile, His Holiness The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Department of Health. All projects are reported to them.

    Its mission is to facilitate medical treatment of the Tibetan people as well as to educate them about disease prevention. One of the goals of the project is to encourage Tibetans to learn skills that enable them to help other Tibetans. This is done by training qualified Tibetans so that they may become practitioners, skilled laborers, or volunteers who go back to work in their communities. I volunteered my time to help with anything that needed to be done. I sat in protest of the Chinese government. I ran sound and lights for speeches. I coordinated email campaigns. Helped in the offices. Passed out flyers. For Milarepa, I donated my time to help coordinate other volunteers for the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. This came out to about fifteen hours a week.

    BME: What originally prompted you to choose the groups you ultimately worked with?

    Kyle: I chose to become involved with Skate4Cancer because I felt it was a worthy cause, and I believe that we can make a difference in the world. I decided early in my life that I would not just be one of those people who graduate high school, maybe go to college and then work a desk job for the rest of their lives. I feel that this might be something I could do for the rest of my life, and this will allow to wake up every morning believing that I have a purpose in my life and I ’m making a difference in other peoples lives.

    Liz: Passion. Passion to try to make things better for someone other than yourself. Bring issues to the public eye.

    Nick: My architectural background enable me to help the landmarks committee, and the community board, I really wanted to prove to myself that I could become a cop, and am just about complete with my training.

    BME: Have you ever had any memorable reactions to your modifications during your volunteer work?

    Kyle: Besides the, “Oh, cool tattoos!” comments that are fairly usual, I personally haven’t, but I know Rob (the co-founder of Skate4Cancer) has. I know he’s experienced some negative reactions to his tattoos and even the way he dresses.

    Liz: Never anything negative. I would say it has been pretty neutral territory as far as my charity work has been concerned.

    Nick: Well, the NYPD did ask me to remove a lot of the metal, but I was more than willing to do that! For my police training I keep the tatts generally covered as much as possible.

    BME: Have you found that your modifications have helped or hindered you in this work?

    Kyle: I think that they help more than they hinder, because we’ve found what’s key to making Skate4Cancer work is getting the kids to notice it, and then they tell their parents about it. Tattoos are noticed alot of the youth of today because they are ‘in’, most of the youth think they are cool, so they may notice us for our mods, then hear about what we are doing and really like the idea, then helping us spread the word. But on the other side, they have hindered us at times because for the most part, the older generation isn’t too keen on body modification, and thus they don’t think we are serious about it, making them reluctant to donate or preach to others about us.

    Liz: Definitely helped for Fanseverywhere. The girls would see the tattoos and would feel comfortable because I was “one of them”

    Nick: Neither really. I like trying to break though peoples perceptions of what a tattooed person should or shouldn’t do. But actually no, no problems at all. Everyone remembers me, and that might not be bad!

    BME: Why do you donate your time, energy, and resources? What is the primary reason?

    Kyle: The main reason I do this is to help myself feel good. As I mentioned before, I want to make a difference to people in my life, and I think this could be something that really changes people and makes them examine themselves.

    Secondary to that, I believe that cancer is an epidemic that has to be stopped. SARS was made into such a big deal by the media, but it wasn’t as bad as they made it seem. I don’t want to make it seem like I’m belittling SARS, but on average 185 Canadians die of cancer each day. That’s just in Canada, just think of how many die worldwide. I don’t think many people realize how bad cancer really is.

    Liz: I am fortunate in my life, and sometimes someone just has to show you the way up and out of a bad situation. I hope that I have offered that kind of assistance to just one person. Life is what you make of it.

    Nick: I love to help others!

    BME: What is one thing that stands out that you have learned from your volunteer work that has helped you in other aspects of your life?

    Kyle: I’ve learned that no matter how bad my life seems, there is always someone who is worse off then me. I shouldn’t complain about the little things that don’t matter, when my little things are a life-or-death matter to someone else.

    Liz: Compassion to others. You never know when your situation is going to become bad and you will need the help of kind strangers. Everyone deserves a chance.

    Nick: That I’m a really fortunate guy!

    BME: If you could create your own charitable organization what would it be?

    Kyle: I haven’t thought about creating other charities at this point, one is enough work right now! but we have a couple ideas on how to expand Skate4Cancer after this initial run, and that should keep me and everyone else busy enough for a little while at least haha.

    Liz: To provide inner city school children with all the resources they need to learn music and art. Those programs are being taken away and need to be given back to those who could benefit from them the most.

    Nick: I would like to create a foundation to help people to decide to do the right thing, so they can have productive lives.


    The people we’ve talked to above are only a brief mentioning of the many volunteers we know that are also BME members. It seems despite the undeservedly grim and often outright bigoted opinions in many articles published in the mainstream media it seems that the modified are doing more than just volunteering in their communities; they are starting organizations to help others, extending their own resources to give others a chance.

    They are most definitely not apathetic or “not playing the game of life” as has been suggested, but are instead giving back in ways the “average person” seems either unwilling or unable to do. The communities to which these individuals belong would do well to respect, admire, recognize and aspire to the shining example these people represent not only to their communities, not only to the modified, but to humanity in general.

    [Ed note: This is an abridged version of this column; click here for the “director’s cut”]

     

     


    Danielle (iam: Vanilla) and Chris (iam:serpents) Clark

    Copyright © 2004 BMEzine.com LLC. Permission is granted to reprint this article in its entirety as long as credit is retained and usage is non-commercial. Requests to publish edited or shortened versions must be confirmed in writing. For bibliographical purposes this article was first published January 9th, 2004 by BMEzine.com LLC in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

    Chris and Danielle Clark

     

     

  • Pierced? Get out of America! [The Publisher’s Ring]


    Pierced? Get out of America!


    “The more restrictions and prohibitions in the world, the poorer people get.”

    Lao Tzu

    In her opinion piece “How to win at the game that is America(LINK), Erin Simovic writes that those with piercings and tattoos are “simply not in their right minds”, make no contributions to society, “look like circus members from the underworld”, and are losers who are not fit to be a part of America. This is far from the first moronic article that Ms. Erin “whatever happened to good old-fashioned courting” Simovic has written, but it shines of hatred trying to hide behind a banal smile, her apparent hallmark as a journalist.

    She begins, as Rommel did before her, by insulting her subjects, but somehow trying to justify it with an “honest, I’m cool” footnote, which instead serves simply to illustrate how lacking her understanding is.


    “Spiky, multicolored hair, chains, studs, piercings, face paint, you name it. It’s the scarifying of America, powered by celebrities like Marilyn Manson. Okay, I know what you’re thinking — sheltered little suburban girl totally out of touch with reality — but you couldn’t be more wrong. I’m hip. I read the Sears catalog. I’m so totally in touch with the kids of today.”

    Leveling out at a simpleton’s “gross, I hate you”, Simovic never manages to do anything but string together a series of shallowly hidden insults —


    “...those strange city-dwellers who feel compelled to express themselves with bizarre fashion choices. I am being polite, mind you. I would have used ‘freakish,’ but I figured that wouldn’t be politically correct.”

    That’s like me saying, “Erin Simovic has poor comprehension skills that are further masked by her xenophobia. I would have said that Erin Simovic was a stupid hateful bitch and it’s people like her who make ‘white’ an insult, but that would be rude.” The underlying point is clear, is it not? Just because you’re smiling when you insult someone doesn’t mean the insult wasn’t real.

     
    Erin Simovic, Oregon State’s own Betty Bowers.

    Photo: The Barometer

    She goes on to clarify that she doesn’t get it with whiney remarks like “why would anyone in his right mind choose to alienate themselves”, and then punctuates them with further insults. She bitterly writes, “these individuals either want to rebel from society or are simply not in their right minds — I tend to lean toward the latter myself.”

    She continues, and after a jab about how no one looking like this would ever be a “Miss America contestant”, demands that people with piercings and tattoos make “real efforts to change what they don’t like about society” instead of making buffoons of themselves by wearing “a studded dog collar”. Perhaps she has never been to a protest, or a meeting of environmental activists, and noted the sheer bulk of piercings and tattoos in attendance? If anything, statistically those with body modifications and “nonconforming fashions” are far more likely to be socially progressive and politically active. After a bit more whining and belittling of others she comes right out and says that she believes that the goal of those with piercings and tattoos is to “destroy society”, an opinion so ludicrously removed from reality that one has to start seriously questioning Ms. Simovic’s lucidity.

    She goes on to say that those with piercings, tattoos, and unusual fashions aren’t “playing the game”. As a conclusion, she decides that America isn’t ideal for the modified, and that America “will never be for you” if you have piercings and tattoos — a bold statement, given that many would hold that America embraces freedom of expression, and that the wonderful thing about America is that you can do whatever you want as long as it’s not hurting anyone else. (In theory anyway).

    I’m not so deluded that I think people should have to like body modification, or that people should be punished if they make hateful bigoted statements like Ms. Simovic does. But I do think that we need to ask ourselves exactly what’s going on when a newspaper publishes articles which serve one goal alone — the dissemination of hatred. This column isn’t “funny” or “witty”. It isn’t “insightful” or even “social commentary” on any level. It’s just an excuse for Ms. Simovic to broadcast her bigotry, and it’s very sad that Oregon State’s Barometer feels this is how it wants to represent itself and the students of Oregon State. I realize that ultimately it is an “opinion” piece, and she certainly has the right to her opinion, but as a journalist she also has a greater duty to a balanced truth.

    Let me make it simple: If you don’t like piercings, don’t get piercings and don’t hang out with pierced people. If you don’t like Muslims (I’ll refrain from theorizing as to Ms. Simovic’s feelings about those of color), don’t adopt Islam as your personal faith and don’t hang out with Muslims. But don’t think that your dislike and personal hatreds, coupled with free speech, makes it somehow “ok” for you to broadcast what a horrible person you are, and try and have others adopt your hatreds as well. It might be legal, but it’s definitely not ethical. America — and the modern world in general — is about a myriad of different people getting along and integrating. It’s not about the destruction of other people’s ideas and the eventual creation of a homogenous culture, and it’s not about one esthetic betting superior to another — it’s about a rainbow of different ideas getting along in a rich human fabric.

    It’s very sad that Erin Simovic would choose to supplant that with her own boring, bitter, and repressive worldview, and even sadder that a newspaper would see fit to help her broadcast those attacks.


    Shannon Larratt
    BME.com

    The article in question, “How to win at the game that is America” can be found online at http://barometer.orst.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/01/06/3ffae8b99ea61 and Simovic may be reached by email at [email protected]tudentmedia.orst.edu.


    UPDATE:
    After seeing the feedback her article generated, Ms. Simovic posted,


    After reading all this feedback, I am very sorry for what I wrote, I will look at tattooed and pierced people with more respect from now on and not base their characteristics on what decorations they choose to put on themselves.

    To be honest, I actually find tattooed guys nicer than non tattooed guys because they are able to express their feelings easier, and also they are better in bed. I would know because I am one of those 'been around the block' chicks 😉

    Many readers continued to decry her article, not taking her apology as particularly serious. Katie replied,


    You once again generalize by saying that you find tattooed guys to be nicer, able to express their feelings better, and "better in bed." Then you go on to boast about your "promiscuous" lifestyle... maybe you don't approve of my ten piercings, but don't expect me to applaud you for being a whore.

  • Tyler Fyre Interview – Through the Modified Looking Glass

    Tyler Fyre Interview


    Some say the world will end in fire;
    Some say in ice.
    From what I've tasted of desire

    I hold with those who favor fire.

    Robert Frost

  • Top Contributors, 2003 [The Publisher’s Ring]


    Top Contributors, 2003


    “A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and
    outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I
    must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received
    and am still receiving.”

    Albert Einstein

     

    One of the many prizes, a limited-edition custom BME belt buckle.
     

    Not that I don’t work damn long hours, but BME is first and formost a
    group — community — effort. BME exists because of the drive
    of thousands upon thousands of people of all ages and demographics around
    the world believing in its value, and wanting to help bring that to
    others. Because of that, at the end of every year I like to do this
    little awards ceremony to thank those that went out of their way to
    “help in bulk”. It is these people who built BME in 2003 (and some in
    2002 also).

    The competition was a lot harder this year, with BME’s submissions
    running at approximately double last year’s speed. Instead of just
    doing a top-50 rundown, this year I also split the awards into sections
    to recognize the contributions by category. Click any of the pictures
    below to check out the winners (and their “acceptance speeches” in some
    cases too):


    Experience Authors


    Body Piercing


    Tattoos


    Ritual and Culture

    Scarification


    BME/extreme


    BME/HARD
    Top-50, Images
    BME Staff

    The prizes included custom limited edition belt buckles (which you can see
    above if you have Java turned on), and a series of rather odd limited
    edition shirts (and more):


    What?!? You want to see them in detail?
    You’ll have to wait until the winners
    send in photos for the t-shirt gallery!

    Again, thank you so much to all of you that helped, and especially those of
    you who made it to these top-lists. I really couldn’t do it without you, and
    I look forward to working with you more in 2004 and onward. The 21st century
    belongs to the individual!


    Shannon Larratt
    BMEzine.com

  • AMPUTEE ART – The BME Cultural Corner

    Amputee Art


    Our masters (the spirits) keep a zealous watch over us, and woe betide us afterwards if we do not satisfy them! We cannot quit it; we cannot cease to practise shamanic rites.

    Shaman quoted by Wenceslas Sieroshevksi, 1896

     

    Welcome to the BME Cultural Corner.

    My name is Blake of The Nomad Precision Body Adornment and Tribal Art Museum. This new section of BME/News will focus exclusively on the historical and cultural aspects of bodymod in a traditional context. Personal narratives, stories, articles, rare photos, and new scientific discoveries relating to the endless human need to alter the body will be found here.

    In introduction, I am a piercer of fifteen years, museum curator, and self-educated anthropologist. I have also authored a new book (A Brief History of the Evolution of Body Adornment in Western Culture) which is available here on BME. My interests are purely traditional culture — one might call me a conservative democrat, as far as bodymod goes.

    The subject of this first article of the Cultural Corner will be amputation — a subject, I admit, I never thought I would be writing about in a historic context. Only lately associated with the bodymod community, and profiled in a recent one-hour Discovery Channel special as well as Shannon’s book Modcon, deliberate amputation is generally misunderstood. It can be said that amputation is not ornamentation (unless you wear a severed digit in your earlobe), more exactly, it is augmentation.

    Randomly ask any amputee today about the nature of their “disfigurement” (ignoring all of the social idiums on couth), and expect one of several primary answers — assuming you haven’t pissed them off or trodden on some painful part of their life better left alone.

    Our first hypothetical example: A legless man in a wheelchair — mid 50’s — perhaps he lost them on a mine in Vietnam, his “mobility and vitality” stolen from him in his youth by the “enemy”… non-consentually.

    Next, an older man (yes, women can be amputees too) missing a forearm and a hand… his whole life haunted by the feeling that with both hands he is incomplete as a person until that appendage is sacrificed. Consumed with a deep, unnameable need to remove part of the anatomy considered essential — perhaps an “accident” with a Skilsaw — and now he is content… an indescribable inner part of himself somehow satiated.

    For our third example we turn back the hands of time (no pun intended)… about 30,000 years! The place is a dark cave in Paleolithic Europe. With the entire clan in attendance — spellbound — an elder shaman severs a digit from his hand. Does he hate himself? No. Does he have issues? No. The primitive mind and developing psyche of humanity is consumed wih offerings of magic, sacrifice, the spirit-world, and the animal kingdom, upon which he depends for survival.


    Amputated finger tips. Left: 30,000 years old (© Pawel Valde-Nowak), right: 6 years old (from BME’s collection).

    What is transpiring in the cave is one of earliest known forms of “religious rite” or spiritual practice and enactment of ritual. In fact, discoveries at Oblazowa, a Paleolithic site in Poland have sparked a huge controversy in the world of prehistoric art. Known to science, yet rare, are hand-stencils on the walls of Paleolithic European caves with missing digits. This “Amputee Art” was previously regarded as examples of illness, accidents or a strange system of communication — until now.

    New evidence has unearthed (in the same caves that housed the amputee art): a thumb phalanx, and other human finger bones found in association with shell pendants, stone beads, the perforated teeth of an Arctic fox, a Mammoth tusk boomerang (the oldest boomerang ever found), and other ritual objects. They date to more than 30,000 years ago.

    Pawel Valde-Nowak, the scientist who excavated the site believes that this proves that “fingers were amputated in a ceremonial context” and that amputee art gives “depictions of hands (with missing digits) a very particular symbolic meaning”.

    Even with our imaginary time-travel, early language, grammar, and syntax prevent the modern mind (if we could ask) from communication with the shaman in the cave. “Why?” we might inquire, yet the ritual context of this ancient amputation lets the scientific mind extrapolate, respect, and appreciate the ceremonial, even religious rite associated with the ancient amputation.


    Amputations. Left to right: Performance artist Roger Kaufman who has changed the length of nearly all his fingers and toes (photo: Efrain Gonzalez), healed amputation with original finger tip (photo and model: Jerome Abramovitch), and an “amputation party” in Russia (both photos: BME archives).

    With scientific evidence substantiating this new theory, further conjecture will be limited only by lack of further archaeological evidence… in the art world, the controversy will likely continue for decades to come. Now science has established ritual amputation to the earliest days of modern man and dated the practice to Paleolithic times, paralleling the emergence of humanity’s oldest forms of ritualized ornamentation and adornment; piercing and tattooing.

    Amputation, drugs, religion, meditation or ritualized body adornment are means by which we may glimpse the divine, or, that which is greater than the sum of our “parts”. These vehicles of transcendental experience are doorways to an ancient state of mind. To borrow a quote from my book, “the ways by which we find release and transcendence as a species are varied, indeed.


    Blake


    Blake Perlingieri is a body piercer of fifteen years, a museum curator, and a self-educated anthropologist. He is the author of A Brief History of the Evolution of Body Adornment in Western Culture and can be found online (and offline) at nomadmuseum.com.

    Copyright © 2003 BMEzine.com LLC. Requests to republish must be confirmed in writing. For bibliographical purposes this article was first published December 17th, 2003 by BMEzine.com LLC in Tweed, Ontario, Canada.




  • SO YOU WANT TO BE A FREAK – Through the Modified Looking Glass

    So you want to be a

    FREAK


    You wanna have big fame, let me explain
    What happens to these stars and their big brains
    First they get played like all damn day

    Long as you sell everything will be ok
    Then you get dissed by the media and fans
    Things never stay the same way they began

    Cypress Hill, Rap Superstar

  • Lizardman Q & A – Part 5 – Through the Modified Looking Glass

    Lizardman Q & A – Part 5


    Hi! I’m Troy McLure. You may remember me from such medical films as “Alice Doesn’t Live Anymore,” and “Mommy, What’s Wrong With That Man’s Face?”

    Troy Mclure, The Simpsons

  • Straightedge and Modified [The Publisher’s Ring]


    Straightedge and Modified

    “Those drugs are gonna kill you if I don’t get to you first
    Make the wrong choice and I’m gonna judge you
    I hope that fucked up head can tell you what to do.”

    - JUDGE, You’ve Lost My Respect

    Straightedge appears as an interesting connundrum — it advocates a strong sense of community, yet it willfully isolates itself from the mainstream. It advocates clean-living while over-indulging in risky behavior like body modification, glorification of violence, and even body rites. Its adherents aim for serenity while often embracing conflict and choosing fashion statements of guerrilla warfare and gangsterism… Earlier this year BME did a series of interviews on the subject, and, after sitting on my desktop for six months, I’ve finally had a chance to put them together for you here.

    Straightedge (sXe) – Straightedge is a philosophy of “clean living” that espouses a total ban on drugs and alcohol (usually including cigarettes and caffeine), as well as promiscuous (or even pre-marital) sex and other “risky” behavior. The name is based on song lyrics describing the philosophy, and members identify themselves with X’s, often on the back of their hands (mimicking the X’s put on underage attendees at an all-ages show — indicating that they may not be served alcohol).

    Militant Straightedge (aka “Hate Edge”) – While most straightedge members chose the lifestyle for personal reasons and are largely concerned with how they lead their own lives, some “militant” members feel that the entire world should agree with them. They adhere to oppressive slogans such as “bring back prohibition” and are known for hateful and anti-social acts such as violently assaulting strangers leaving bars. These groups often choose names including words like “courage”, “honor”, and “discipline”, suffixed with “crew”, giving the public impression that they are a “gang” or militia unit (the literal “Courage Crew”, who the media often pins much of the blame on, encourage their members to be physically imposing and become proficient in “self defence” skills — whether this is an offensive or defensive strategy depends on who you talk to). Instead of focussing on their own problems (and successes, other than edge in and of itself) they focus on the “war” they perceive is going on between those who drink and those who do not.

    A number of governments, including the United States, consider forms of militant straightedge a terrorist or cult movement akin to eco-terrorism. Many members glorify the violence by choosing tattoos and icons of brass knuckles, knives, guns, and bats, often festooned with straightedge slogans, while dressing like ‘terrorists’ or ‘guerrillas’ with bandanas hiding their faces and so on. There is a strong neo-nazi element, and their community often suffers from other hate disorders such as homophobia and racism, sometimes echoing oft-co-opted working-class iconography such as the white pride/power movement’s Hammerskins crossed hammers logo.


    VIOLENT TATTOO IMAGRY FROM THE
    BME ARCHIVES AND OTHER ONLINE POSTINGS.

    What’s interesting about hate edge is that it’s almost come full circle from where it all started. Straightedge was “founded” in part to combat the nihilism of early punk, but hate edge embraces this nihilism. It should be noted that sXe founder Ian MacKaye — who has repeatedly said it’s “not about rules” and you can still have an occasional beer (it’s about having a clean life, not blindly following) — doesn’t think much of where sXe has gone.

    “I’m a person just like you, but I’ve got better things to do than sit around and smoke dope, ’cause I know that I can cope ... I’ve got the straight-edge.”

    - Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat)

    “Losing/Breaking Edge” – In an almost cult-like fashion, members may be “shunned” if they “break edge” and have a beer or otherwise slip. Often this can result in insults, homophobic accusations (ie. “drinking is gay you fag”), a total removal from the peer group, and even violence.

    Straightedge till 21 – Over the past decade, straightedge has increasingly become a youth fashion movement as much as a philosophy of clean living. Because of this, some young people will adhere to straightedge while they’ve got nothing to lose by doing so, and then “lose the edge” when they are old enough to drink legally.

    Well over a decade ago I spent a year — as an artist — researching LSD use in combination with bloodletting in the development of both an artistic and a spiritual voice. As a result I was offered and accepted a full fine arts scholarship to York University and there was able to pursue modifications more seriously, and I also met my current business partner as well as a friend who’d later help me create BME (as I didn’t own a computer at the time suitable for publishing). My conclusion from all of my experiences is that — when used responsibly — the role of psychotropic and psychedelic drugs is very similar in destination to body-oriented ritual. I also believe from my personal experiences that the psychiatric effects — the “redefinition of self” — that comes with mind-altering drug use echoes the redefinition that comes with body modification.

    In addition, my feeling is that even without these similarities, straightedge was incongruous with body modification since it involved injecting foreign substances into the body and certainly fell into the same “risky behavior” category as sex — and one could argue that there were “addiction” issues as well. Body ritual I figured was a definite no-no on account of willfully inducing altered states!

    Because of that, it came as a surprise when one of the most visible and vocal body modification groups that developed as tattoos and piercings popularized was the straightedge movement. At this point “drug free” subcultures represent between 10% and 15% of IAM’s membership. Most of the encounters that I recognized as being with straightedge people were militant — typically after they’d gotten in one dispute or another. To cite a recent example, after being asked why he had posted death threats against members of BME involved with drugs*, and how he would feel if the situation were reversed, Danny “I wear the X as a symbol of war” Trudell (of Seventh Dagger) wrote me,

    If you want the right to say “look at me I have cut off my genitals and am an utter freak” then you would have to extend the same privelige [sic] to others and their views and lifestyle choices. Grow up and hey while you are at it get the mother of your deformed child not to drink while she is pregnant next time.

    Not that it’s a sin unique to edge, but apparently he didn’t understand that there is a difference between loving yourself, and hating others!


    * To avoid accusations that I’m misleading you, the issue began with a graphic shirt he was promoting on IAM saying “KILL YOUR LOCAL DRUG DEALER”. Like it or not, IAM, like all large international communities, has many members who are involved in drug trafficking, sometimes legally, sometimes not, depending on the culture they live in. Whether you agree with the act or not, one of IAM’s core philosophies is that you can’t threaten to murder your fellow members!

    These sorts of baseless (outside of anything else, my wife doesn’t drink and my daughter is high-functioning and certainly not “deformed”) and bizarre attacks — reflex-like anger responses really — had me believing the stereotype (perhaps falsely) that most people were straightedge because of some sort of internal conflict, self-esteem issues, or childhood trauma that was making them unable to think clearly on the subject. These interactions seemed to typify the relationship that the militants were fostering with mainstream society, needlessly alienating themselves and non-militant straightedge in the process — as they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease… and a bad apple ruins the lot.

    Of course, on the other hand I knew people like Phish of Slave to the Needle in Seattle, or Brian Decker (“xPUREx”) of Sacred Body Arts in Manhattan, both very talented piercers and modification artists — and of course Emrys Yetz, the driving force behind the influential suspension group Rites of Passage, to name just a few of many. All are vehemently straightedge, but sane, lucid, and deeply involved with body modification and mind-altering body ritual. I decided to sit down with them and others to talk about how their straightedge lifestyle fit in with their body modifications. After a little arguing back and forth, we were also joined by Danny Trudell who I quoted earlier.

    PHISH… is a 35 year old professional body modification artist who loves guns, poker, pitbulls, and extreme body modification, and hates drunks, backstabbers, bad piercers, and Freddie Prinz Jr.. He’s also a member of BME’s QOD staff.
    (CLICK THE PICTURES FOR IAM PAGE LINKS)

    EMRYS… is a body modification artist and founder and main force behind the suspension group Rites of Passage. He has helped hundreds of people around the world take that first leap into the air
    BRUCE (“Dr. Scorpio”)… is, in his own words, “a pervert, a poet, a painter, a jackass, and a psychic”. He is also a heavily modified performance artist
    JASON (“Grazer”)… is an Ohio-based artist and one of the core voices in the suspension group iHung. He has travelled the continent bringing the joy of suspension to others.
    BRIAN… is a piercer and modification artist in Manhattan and an experienced body performance artist with Rites of Passage. He’s known among other things for the advances he’s contributed to the field of surface piercing, and for his trademark one-hook suspensions.
    DANNY… has been straightedge for fifteen years (nearly half his life) and is currently working on a book on modern straightedge culture.

    BME: Tell me a little about what straightedge means to you, and why you chose it for yourself?

    PHISH: To me, straightedge is not indulging in mind altering addictive substances that will affect my quality of life — or the lives of those around me. This includes alcohol and all drugs that aren’t prescribed to me for strictly medical use. It also includes tobacco. I saw my own life and the lives of my friends and family being so drastically affected by my early drug use, that I made a pledge to stay away from things that affected me in that way.

    EMRYS: Straightedge is a drug free lifestyle. Some say you can’t drink caffeine, some say no sex before marriage, and some people go as far as saying you need to be vegan as well. In my eyes as long as you’re free of drugs and alcohol you can call yourself straightedge. I usually just say I’m “drug free” — not “straightedge” — to avoid the stereotypes.

    BRIAN: I also usuaully use “drug free” or “poison free” over straightedge to describe myself nowadays. A stigma has been attached to that term that exudes such a negative characterization. I am not this person — don’t let the militant groups give me a bad name, cuz I’m not a bad guy!

    Anyway, it’s a drug-free path which allows me to deal with life — its problems and its fun — with clear judgement 100% of the time. I chose it because if I can’t see something for what it really is, without distortion, I don’t need to see it at all. I know myself to be a fun and outgoing person without ever needing the “help” that some people have told me they need to find this person inside themselves. I like to think I’m a stronger person because of it.

    JASON: For me it’s trying your hardest to live a low-risk lifestyle and keep your body clean, natural, and healthy. By low risk I mean sickness and disease — no promiscuous sex! I also feel that veganism is a natural extension of sXe since meat is merely an intermediary between you and chemicals, at least as far as agri-business is concerned.

    I decided to stop drinking after a really drunk night in college — when I figured it would be a good idea to attend the riot I heard about on the news. At the end of it I’d been shot by the police and beaten extensively with batons! Alcoholism runs in my family, as does being a violent drunk, so I figured it would be for the best if I stopped drinking then. At about the same time I met other like-minded people at college and discovered the straightedge community. Before long it was just second nature not to drink, and just chill with friends.

    Being straightedge has cleared my mind and body and made me a much more conscientious person. I feel more in touch with my environment and my friends. It’s given me hope and strength where religion has failed me, and it’s taught me to believe in myself. I used Catholicism as a crutch in hard times in the past, but this is not the same escapism.

    EMRYS: I was at a very low part of my life — I was motherless, fatherless, and left to raise myself. I was in a haze of drugs, trying to run from my problems, and was about to end up dead like my parents, or in jail. I decided that if I was going to prosper in life I’d have to sober up. I didn’t want to work a dead end job just to make enough money for my next fix, even if it was just cigarettes. I lost a lot of friends when I made that choice, but I feel more alive than ever. I have more energy, I’m able to remember things, and I achieve my goals — I think if I hadn’t become straightedge I’d have slipped deeper into drugged states. Being edge gave me something to work towards, something that no one could take from me, that I could be proud of — I overcame my addictions, and I face my problems sober.

    JASON: Straighedge has its downsides as well — I grew up in Dayton (home of the “Courage Crew”, an aggressive straightedge gang) and have gotten a lot of negativity from people who found out I was edge. I’ve even been sucker punched for it — “Do you want a beer?” “No thanks, I’m edge” — WHAM! and I’m on the floor. Through IAM I met a lot of really cool edge people that weren’t militant and just wanted to have fun — then I started calling myself edge again. I’m vocal about it now because I want to show people that there are straightedge people out there who aren’t assholes — straightedge should be something good, not something condescending.

    BRUCE: I don’t identify as straightedge — I just haven’t done drugs or alcohol for the last six years in order to save my life. I grew up in the DC hardcore scene in the early 1980s where Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat coined the phrase in the first place, so I’ve probably been around straightedge for over twenty years now — back then it was just a way to alienate yourself from the norm. The community was very tight-knit and cliquish, and very anti-woman.

    Now there seems to be an underbelly of violence and preachyness — today’s mosh pits with the thrown punches and karate kicks which purposely do harm to others… When it was just dancing and thrashing sometimes people did get hurt but when someone went down others picked them up — the last pit I was at when someone went down they got kicked in the ribs. You see it in the violent symbols they choose — bats, brass knuckles, knives, and so on. Those were not part of the old movement of politically conscious human rights oriented goals!

    It doesn't take a big man to knock somebody down
    Just a little courage to lift him off the ground

    - DROPKICK MURPHYS, Fightstarter Karaoke

    BME: And what drew you to body modification?

    PHISH: My first lobe piercing was in 1979 when I was eleven. I watched a lot of pirate movies and always liked them. When I was fourteen or fifteen I was at a party and saw a tattoo that a friend of my older sister’s had — I can remember the design as if it was yesterday — and started becoming really interested in tattoos.

    BRIAN: When I was about ten years old I was going to all the kickass 80s metal shows. You know, Motley Crüe, Skid Row, Van Halen, Metallica, and all that. The older (and so much cooler) people at the shows proudly exhibited their piercings and tattoos. I looked up to them a lot. When I got a little older, the metal turned into punk and hardcore. All the piercings and tattoos were still there — even more so. So, I guess the music I listened to and the people I revered in the bands and in the crowds drew me towards modifying myself for status.

    Now, I am modified for the sole purpose of showing off who I am to myself, to my friends, to my family, and to strangers. My drug free tattoos are there to tell myself and remind others how strong I am for what I can do, and the things I’ve achieved. I hear far too often, “You do what with hooks where? You know you have to be fucked up for that. What kind of drugs are you on?” My proud response… none. Suspending is another way I prove to myself how much I can accomplish with my mind.

    EMRYS: When I was nine years old I carved “EY” into my forearms with my first pocket knife. When it healed I did it again and again until it stayed. It hurt more to cut it deep so it would stay, but the pain of cutting it was made worth it by the pleasure of having the marks. After I did it I felt energized.

    Growing up, my mother hung out with a lot of bikers so I was always around pierced and tattooed individuals. The piercings I wanted most were my nipples because I thought guys had no reason for having nipples — if I decorated them with jewelry, they would serve a purpose. So, when I was thirteen years old I got my nipples pierced, and the woman who did them later apprenticed me!

    BRUCE: When I took the drugs and alcohol out of my life, there was a huge void. I didn’t know what to do with myself! I became aware of things in the world I hadn’t really thought about. For some reason piercings and tattoos stood out as a way to separate me from the norm… Within six months I had my lobes pierced and three tattoos and started feeling better about myself. My self-esteem started to rise, and the natural endorphin rush of getting tattooed was a thrill I enjoyed when I thought I’d given up all the things that got me off — yes, it got me off.

    JASON: My first piercings were done with a gun the day before I left for college — my girlfriend and another close friend all did it to show we’re together, no matter where we were. I met a few kids at college who were more into mods and discovered BME (this was late 1996). I became immediately fascinated. Like a lot of modded people, I’d read National Geographic all my life, but not until BME did I realize how normal this was — I was addicted and spent hours pouring over the texts and pictures. Slowly the “I would never do that” turned into the “I’m not sure I’m ready for that… yet!

    I got my tragus pierced first, and not long after, another cartilage piercing, and after some encouragement from my friend Ian I plunged into genital piercing, getting a few scrotal piercings, a lorum, an a frenum. Then came July 1, 2001 and iWasCured.

    I drove six and a half hours after being told I could do a flesh pull — it seemed like the logical extension after being relatively pierced and tattooed. The drive was horrible, and I was manic the entire time — I kept bouncing between thinking about how amazing this was going to be, and flipping out about what the hell was wrong with me for wanting to so something like this.

    But it turned out great.

    After a few more visits with iWasCured, Phil [Barbosa] asked me why I didn’t start doing suspensions back in Ohio. I told him I wouldn’t know how, and immediately the crash course in suspension started. Not long after, iHung was born.

    Suspension has become my obsession in life. Everything that I see that is taller than me, I quickly analyze it to see if I could feasibly hang from it. Suspending puts me into my mind’s space like nothing else has ever done. I have clarity, and it shows me what my life really means — enjoyment, good friends, and family. After my first suspension in your back yard, I was addicted… I knew it… I was able to think about my life and see myself from an outside perspective — I was able to just witness myself being myself and not trying to be anything else.

    Suspending and piercing have helped me get through a lot of rough times. In the past I used the pain of getting pierced to remind me that I was in control of my life, and those moments helped me get my life back in order. These days suspending is even more important in my life because I travel and am able to give others the opportunity to suspend — I see people’s eyes as I hold thier hands when their feet leave the ground. That brief shimmer of reality that overwhelms every sitcom that they have ever been brainwashed by. The tears of pain and joy that people shed, I shed as well… When I assist someone with a suspension, a small part of me is hanging with them. I feel it.

    Being raised Catholic I was used to ritualism — when I stopped believing in Christ I began to miss the ritualism of Mass. I think suspensions helped fill that gap. On the same thought, drugs have similar rituals with them — packing the pipe, lighting it for someone else, passing it around the circle. I can definitely see the correlations between drugs and rituals of the flesh… They are different doors to the same room.


    BME: I guess what I don’t understand is that if promiscuous sex, putting drugs into the body, and so on are “bad”, then why isn’t “damaging the body” and inducing drug-like states from endorphins (ie. body modification) a bad thing as well?

    BRUCE: Hey, I love promiscuous sex! But I can’t argue this point — I’m fucking high as a kite when I do a hard pull. There’s a great picture of me at LexTalonis’s second social with my cheeks skewered. I look stoned out of my mind and pretty much was.

    JASON: My friends who do drugs have the same conversations with me about their experiences with psychedelics as I do with them about suspension. We each found a path that works for us and there are parallels between these paths. The difference is that with drugs there is an outside chemical being introduced into the body to achieve altered states, whereas with ritual like pulling and suspending, these use the body to achieve those states.

    As it relates to straightedge, it is possible to get addicted to the adrenaline or endorphin rush — that’s where the old adage “all things in moderation” comes into play… or is that a cop out? Addiction is addiction no matter what the substance is. So maybe it’s “not straightedge”… But I don’t feel that it makes me any less edge since you can achieve similar feelings through hard workouts, skateboarding, or other rigorous exertion.

    Suspensions are like exercise to me — I get a nice workout from it and I feel better afterwards.

    PHISH: I don’t believe modifications control our lives like drugs and alcohol do — mods affect us in a positive way. They become part of us — I’m not talking about the spiritual sense, I’m talking about the rather obvious physical way. They raise self-esteem and confidence in ways that drugs can only do for short periods (which are just illusions anyway — and often end in the opposite emotion).

    EMRYS: Modifying the body isn’t contrary because you’re changing your body in a way that will eventually heal and sometimes better your body and raise your self-esteem. Drug use on the other hand breaks down the body and causes irreversible damage such as destruction of brain cells, liver cells, and so on — modification practiced responsibly won’t cause any problems like this.

    As far as body rites giving a drug-like state, that is your body’s natural reaction to what you are putting yourself through — not something you are taking. It’s produced inside the body. That said, if you’re doing the body rite purely “for the high” then that’s probably not very edge.

    BME: I see a lot of young straightedge youth getting new mods constantly — is there a worry that maybe one addiction is being traded for another?

    PHISH: I’ve never really subscribed to the “mods are addictive” philosophy. Addiction is a compulsive need and is characterized by things like withdrawal pains — and I’ve never seen anyone have even psychological withdrawal from lack of mods! Anyway, lots of groups patronize our business, not just sXe’rs.

    EMRYS: …And not everyone who does drugs is addicted to them. If this is an addiction (and I don’t think it is), this is an addiction that betters me, not one that destroys me.

    DANNY: Straightedge, simply put, is abstaining from drugs and alcohol. End of story. Getting too many tattoos is not hazardous to my heath, nor do they adversely affect my ability to function.

    BME: Well, it does make it hard to integrate into mainstream society…

    DANNY: If I wanted to do that I would drink and watch the Cubs game. I am not interested in mixing in with this society — clean living does not mean “fitting in with society”. I am straightedge, not a member of the Boy Scouts or Young Republicans. Straightedge has nothing to do with fitting in or mixing well with society. If anything, it is totally against fitting in becasue the norm is using drugs, drinking, or smoking, and sXe as a philosophy says, “stop and think about what you are doing, and the consequences it may have — don’t mindlessly consume”.

    Society teaches from day one that these destructive behaviours are acceptable, just like they teach you to go to church, get married and have two point five children, animals are for food, or any number of other social “norms” beaten into you from birth. Everywhere you turn society is pushing drugs, but despite society’s desire for me to be unhealthy and appathetic I refuse to join in.

    But to return to your original question, anything can be addictive. It is not the purpose of this movement to contol all addictive tendencies — though I would say that the discipline I have learned through sXe has tought me to moderate everything in my life.

    BRUCE: With my own mods I have really had to contemplate the consequences before I go through with them. There are mods I like a lot that I won’t get because I would be crossing lines into addiction. So I don’t.

    JASON: Straightedge isn’t really about “life without addiction”, it’s about being substance-free… Most sXe kids aren’t willing to talk about this — often times, at least in Dayton, kids claim edge because they don’t know anything else. They go to shows and see the tough guys who dominate the dance floor and want to be them. It’s sort of an upper crust that people flock to without giving it much critical thought. This leads to a lot of “sell outs” since they didn’t really know what they were getting into.

    People rarely admit that there are flaws in their decisions, and the addiction trade-off is no different. I know several edge people who drink Mountain Dew (heavily caffeinated) like it is their job — to me that’s pretty un-edge. But edge is a personal decision and not some hard-line rules.

    BME: Have your modifications played a spiritual role?

    PHISH: My spirituality is from my sense of self; I don’t get it from mods or ritual play.

    BRUCE: I think I have become more spiritually in-tune with my body. I just know it better.

    EMRYS: By concentrating on my body and modifying it the way I have, it keeps my mind and body working together — it reconnects them when they start to fade apart. I feel in control and more aware of my body as I change it to how I want it to be. When my body is in pain when I’m doing a body rite, my mind has to take care of my body, and my body and mind talk to each other to handle what’s going on — I am aware of both of their messages because they’re working together on a level that they normally don’t achieve.

    JASON: Spiritually, modification and body play has given me faith in myself again. After I gave up on organized religion I was deeply depressed — probably because I didn’t have anything to believe in and didn’t have faith in myself. Catholicism had let me down when I realized what it had done to other cultures, and straightedge had let me down due to ignorant assholes stigmatizing it. I’d let myself down and was failing school, and I felt like I was letting down my friends and family as well.

    Body modification pulled me out of that shell and when I was emotionally level I did my first pulling. That opened my eyes to the natural energies of people — never before had I felt so at peace and completely moved at the same time. At that moment I realized that there is far more to the world than what I had ever been taught or really told about.

    BRUCE: Twenty years ago I took a 30-day mountaineering course — complete outback, backpacking, with no contact with the outside in the Cascade mountain range. Two weeks into the course while crossing a boulder field I fell — my sternum hit a boulder and I was driven into the ground with an eighty pound pack on my back. I was hurt (but not as bad as I made it seem) and had to stay out for two days while the course went on — I gave up. I felt weak and like shit. My younger brother was a professional climber in the Himalayas and I had failed a backpacking course because I couldn’t handle the discomfort.

    This tormented me for years, knowing I was weak and weak willed, knowing that I failed, and feeling like the only one who had failed. This hurt and I got therapy, but nothing helped. My self-esteem was obliterated.

    That moment I said “take me up”, with the hooks in my back and my feet off the ground, and I swung back and forth, all thoughts of personal weakness were gone — my self-esteem has risen ten-fold since then. I feel worthwhile. I’m not a failure. I kicked motherfucking ass! I’m so glad my life doesn’t revolve around mind-altering substances — I’m so fucking happy I can’t stand it! If that’s not spiritual re-birth, I don’t know what is.

    BRIAN: When I ready myself for a modification or suspension, I promise myself I will not back down until I get what I want or need from the experience. I get panic attacks pretty regularly and if I can prove to myself that I can overcome the pain, anxiety, and suffocation that comes from hanging from a single hook over my sternum, then I should be able to deal with a racing heartbeat and unexplainable fears that I know will be gone in five minutes so I can make it to work on the subway in the morning.

    BME: And how has being straightedge changed the way that you perceive mind altering ritual play?

    BRUCE: Without giving up the drugs and alcohol I would never have known or been aware enough to be involved in these things. Giving up the drugs and alcohol actually opened up something in my life that I now know I could not live without. I went from a used up worthless human being to someone who cares, is strong, and open to a daily world filled with life. I can’t even imagine how I lived with the blinders on for so many years.

    JASON: It definitely helped me. I can’t imagine suspending while under the influence of any substances. To me it would dilute the effects of the suspensions and make it more difficult to obtain the clarity that I have during rituals. Then again, it could add a whole other level to it!

    PHISH: Straightedge does help me because I can experience all of life in a coherent state of mind. I like to remember all of my experiences. If there is going to be a “spiritual” experience, I’d prefer having it from the experience itself, not from chemicals.

    EMRYS: Yes — it’s simple — being sXe meant my mind was clear and my body was clear. I was more able to comprehend and understand what was taking place and happening to me.

    BME: Given that rituals traditionally used to seek enlightenment involved drug-assisted altered states, or even non-drug altered states, is there a worry that there could be a conflict if you pursued such a path?

    DANNY: I don’t have a lot of experience with this so excuse my ignorance. However, I am an avid runner. I run every day so the closest I can come to understanding what you are talking about is what they call “runner’s high”, when your endorphins kick in from the physical stress of running, making your aches and pains less painful, and making you feel like you can run more. I don’t see this as dangerous — that is not ingesting a mind altering substance, and it’s not engaing in an addictive or destructive passtime.

    JASON: For me, being straightedge helps keep me on that path, and I know I’m not being influenced by the substances. If I was asked to take part in a ritual that involved taking drugs, I would politely decline but take in as much of it as possible through observation — I’ve done this with friends on hallucinogens. If I was traveling and had the opportunity to take part in an indigenous ritual that involved some drug use, I’m not certain what I’d do — declining such a once in a life time opportunity would be tough.

    EMRYS: As someone who is planning his own version of the Sundance, I’ve had to face whether I want to include tobacco and other mind altering substances to follow the tradition of the ritual. After long thought and a lot of discussions I’ve come to the conclusion that technically it is “breaking edge”, but because it’s in a controlled manner where you’re using the substances for their intended purpose, I don’t think it would be a violation of my beliefs. I have chosen that when the time comes I will stay true to the ritual.

    BRIAN: I admit, I take a prescription med every morning, to help keep my heart beating at a “normal” rate, and my tension down — I could easily take the easy way out and drink and use heavier drugs to deal with my problems with anxiety. I know a lot of people who do. I definitely think I’m a much stronger person for doing it “on my own”.

    BRUCE: My past altered states achieved through LSD, mescaline, scopolamine, and so on were, to me, false altered states — just dreams. Taking those things out of my system has allowed me to go inside, to discover myself, who I am; not a lie. I do achieve some altered perceptions through body rites, but I view them as clean and pure, because they are totally me. I could never achieve them through drugs.

    PHISH: Personally, I’ve participated in a lot of mod-related rituals and have yet to have a truly “altered” state of being. I have had an inflated sense of happiness, well being, and accomplishment… but I don’t view those as altered states of being. I’m not saying these rituals hold no spiritual value, but I believe that many people exaggerate these experiences to fit what they’re seeking.


    BME: What made you decide to commemorate your straightedge lifestyle with a publicly visible tattoo?

    EMRYS: For me there were two reasons — like I said, I used to be big into drugs and knew I had to get myself out. But I’m only human and have desires, so I got my “xDRUGxFREEx” tattoo in small sittings even though it could have been done in one. Every time I got the urge to use drugs or drink I would get the tattoo artist to cancel an appointment. Through the pain it would help remind me of my commitment I made to myself, and also remind me of the pain drugs brought me.

    Second, whenever people at the shops I worked at asked me for an idea for a tattoo, I told them, “pick something that you are proud of or want someone to know about you just by looking at you” — I’m very proud of overcoming drug and alcohol addiction on my own.

    PHISH: I wear my heart on my sleeve not so much for other people but to remind myself of my strength and pride in myself — there is pride in being able to resist the temptation of substances. I’ve never cared if someone else wanted to drink or drug so I don’t really care if someone else notices my tattoos or not. Most of them are hidden — the XXX under my chin, a sober heart on my chest, and sXe bombs on my thumbs. The tattoos are there for me, not for someone else.

    DANNY: The tattoos are an extension of who I am and what is a huge part of my life. I’ve poured tons of time and energy into promoting this lifestyle, so naturally I will tattoo my convictions on myself. It’s no different than tattoos involving my decision to live vegan, or my faith in God. Tattoos being a permanent mark on my body blend idealistically with my permanent decision to abstain from what I believe to be a dangerous way of living.

    I’ve always loved tattoos, so it’s natural that I blend the things I permanently believe in with that love.

    BME: Do you think that’s why most people get the straightedge tattoos?

    EMRYS: It comes down to the pride of being straightedge. Most people choose that label for a reason, for themselves, so they want people to know. I think also for a lot of people once you get it tattooed there’s no turning back — it shows another level of dedication that some people aren’t willing to take.

    So many people say “I used to be straightedge”, but if you aren’t now you never were, because it’s a lifetime lifestyle and dedication. The people getting tattooed are showing they’re not “true till 21”, they’re “true till death” — and if they’re not, they are left with that tattoo, or the one that covers it, as a constant reminder that they sold out.

    PHISH: I think the abundance of tattoos comes more from the scene (EC hardcore) that gave birth to straightedge, rather than the lifestyle itself. But a lot of straightedge kids of very proud of their achievements and it’s logical to fly a flag of pride.

    JASON: Many edge people get their tattoos out of competition and peer pressure I think — that’s why they get them in such visible places. It gets them respect in the community, but it also makes them visible targets if they lose edge. I find it sad that so many people who are edge are pushed to get visible work — I know a lot of people that have deep regrets about their knuckles, chests, throats, and hands. It’s also the more militant members that seem to get these, as if to say, “yeah, I’m edge — you got a problem with that?

    If you look at the general trend of edge tattoos, they tend to be aggressive — it’s about creating a “tough” image. I think that some people get edge tattoos to affirm their belief with others, and so they don’t have to be critical of themselves — if they’re not confident of their edge, but have the tattoos to “prove it”, then their peers will keep them in line, if that makes sense… Like the man who gets married to prove that he’s in love instead of getting married because he knows he’s in love.

    DANNY: I will say upfront that a lot of kids get crazy straightedge tattoos way too early in an effort to appear cool or tough.

    JASON: It’s been my experience that people with the less aggressive straightedge tattoos — simple X’s or “pure” and other variations — are more passionate about their lifestyle and less passionate about “the scene”. They tend to be the clear thinkers, strong in their personal convictions without preaching to others.

    BME: Why do you think so many get the tattoos on their throats?

    DANNY: How does anyone end up with a throat tattoo? I started with my legs and arms and before you know it, I’ve got tattoos on my hands and throat. I don’t think it’s inherently sXe to get these things. Whether I’d been involved in sXe or not I would have tattoos in these places — I’ve loved tattoos since I was a small child.

    BME: Any last words?

    JASON: When I am in need of strength I think about all I have done with my body — what I have endured and what I have felt from other people. It makes me realize that whatever is bothering me is probably rather petty in the grand scheme of things. Through body ritual, my eyes, heart, and mind have all been opened up to a greater presence in life and an awareness of those lives. Being edge gave me the clarity to understand what I saw.

    EMRYS: Question: “Why do straightedge kids that break edge go emo?”
    Answer: “Because it’s easy to cover X’s with stars.”


    I’ve avoided turning this into a debate because my goal hasn’t been to suggest that straightedge is for everyone, or that drugs universally enhance ritual. I think though that one overwhelming suggestion comes forward no matter who you talk to: be yourself, tackle life with a clear head, and enjoy and learn from what it gives you.

    Straightedge, especially when combined with the tools that modification and body rites have to offer, can be an effective way of helping achieve that — as long as it doesn’t degrade into joyless and narrow-minded oppressive militancy. I think the reason that path so obviously fails is that you can’t define yourself by what you’re not — that is, saying “I don’t do drugs” isn’t who you are. It’s who you are not. The individuals I spoke to above used their straightedge lifestyle to give them clarity which allowed them to find purpose — rather than attempting to have straightedge be their purpose in and of itself.

    Body modification fits well with that, because it’s also a tool with a great deal of application in self-discovery and self-improvement. But ultimately, one must always remember that all of these things — even drugs — when used correctly do not add anything. They simply help you to bring out the best in yourself.


    Shannon Larratt
    BMEzine.com

    PS. All stories have another side — if you have experiences combining drugs with body rites to achieve spiritual enlightenment, please contact me so I can interview you for that side of things!


    While most of the feedback I’ve received on this column has been overwhelmingly positive, it has generated some anger as well, mostly due to the sidebar. The sidebar information is collected from news articles and web sites discussing the subject — people are certainly welcome to dispute them, but please understand that I’m simply repeating what’s already considered fact by the majority of the sources I could find, and not inserting my own opinions or notions. My goal was simply to frame the article with some information that would put it into context for people not experienced with the subject.

    Most of this feedback is probably due to the sidebar which speaks negatively of militant straightedge. The sidebar has been edited since this was first published, but since this feedback is from that sidebar I am including the original version here for clarity:

    While most straightedge members chose the lifestyle for personal reasons and are largely concerned with how they lead their own lives, some “militant” members feel that the entire world should agree with them. They adhere to oppressive slogans such as “bring back prohibition” and are known for hateful and anti-social acts such as violently assaulting strangers leaving bars. These groups tend to choose honor-implying names such as “courage crew” and instead of focussing on their own problems they focus on the “war” they perceive is going on between those who drink and those who do not.

    A number of governments, including the United States, consider forms of militant straightedge a terrorist or cult movement akin to eco-terrorism. Many members glorify the violence by choosing tattoos and icons of brass knuckles, knives, guns, and bats, often festooned with straightedge slogans, while dressing like ‘terrorists’ or ‘guerrillas’ with bandanas hiding their faces and so on. There is a strong neo-nazi element, and their community often suffers from other hate disorders such as homophobia and racism, sometimes echoing iconography such as the white pride/power movement’s Hammerskins crossed hammers logo.

    Anyway, on with the feedback:

    From: Sean Rivers
    Subject: response to article

    Serisously what in the hell moved you to write that rediculous article. Ive been sxe for almost six years now, and im also courage crew. I can tell that everything you have said in that article is hear say, cause if you honestly new any one in courage crew, you wouldnt have labeled us that way. Like my good friend Kramer said, most of us all have lives and are all grown up. Me myself have a wife and kid and I work my ass off to provide for them. It serisously disturbs me when I see shit like this, how people just out of no where like to bring up lame ass shit like this. You must have no kind of life to actually spend six months to produce that garbage, journalism was obviously not your major. Im a member of the United States Navy, and it really gets me to know that I might have to actually die defending a piece of trash such as yourself. My advice to you would be retract that article, write and apology and get a fucking life. Grow up and stop causing unnecessary shit. But im fine, cause i know just how many people you pissed off, and i have a smile on my face knowing that you'll be looking behind your back for a lonnnnnnnng time. Just remember this, someone knows someone, who just might possibly know you.

    ITSN Rivers, United States Navy USS Ford FFG 54

    # # #

    From: jill encarnado
    Subject: you are full of crap!

    you are full of shit..you and your article. What do you want to prove?..what's with the edge anyway? is it a crime not to intoxicate yourself? or to fuck or to become a vegan? is it affecting your life?! This morons or idiots who claim to be a straight edge is an impostor! i think no real edge would exagerate himself just to get attention..you're doing this for yourself...stop your crap and get on with your life!!!!

    # # #

    From: "Ozzy Edge"
    Subject: your article fabricates the truth a bit too much!!

    You should be ashamed of yourself for putting such horse shit in you article. I guess it's not your fault because it's evident you're an idiot already, but prejudging, and generalizing sxe as a movement. First off Straight Edge is inside of me, i'm not apart of some sxe movement. There are a lot of sxe kids that I very much dislike. There's no leader, there never was. Again, every arguement made is not legitimate. Anyone can write an article that is truly opinion, and you have down so, with the most ignorant of opinions. I don't know why i'm even bothering with idiots like you because usually I don't care what worthless people would classify me as.

    Another fase analysis, the part about why people go straight edge. You're right by accident in one part saying that many fall into because it may seem like a trend to them. However, if we look at that at a national level that's absurd. I was maybe the 2nd person to claim edge in my city, and I know I had to deal with a lot of ignorant people like you saying stuff to me, and maybe that's why now when people are like "ohhhhhh sxe, I heard they're racist, and homophobic""""""""""""';and on 20/20 they said they're idiots" I don't blame them, because idiiots like you mold their perception on straight edge. FUCK YOU. I am not racist, I'm a turkish Canadian and have definetly fought racism with my own hands. I am not Homophobic you asshole, the word fag may slip from my mouth but i have many friends who are gay and i'm all for it..

    The whole violence thing: Another false claim. Hate edge. hahah. that's great you almost make people believe that straight edge kids are hateful because of straight edge and not who they were before. You idiot! There are good cops, bad cops. Probobly because maybe 1% is like this, really violent, and aggressive I've never herad of kids waiting after bars to beat up drunk people. That's the biggest fabrication of the truth, ever! Sure some straight edge kids may fight, I will fight to defend my friends, and family. Also, if you ever have been in a part of town that is known for "clubbing" or people getting drunk. You should also take note, you got a pen and pencil chump??? Alright, you should know that drunk people start fights, and maybe sxe kids more often than other kids won't back down. Maybe they're sick of everyone starting fights. Me and my friends never start fights, and half of my friends aren't straight edge. However, people have started with us and we've all fought TOGETHER to ensure the safety of each other. So what if we look out for each other it doesn't mean much... ANd idiot, if you say we're neo-nazia's again, i willl practise this Militant sxe style and say that I spit in your face and punched you because you're not edge. But Reallly it will be the same reason why anyone gets beats up, because they're idiots.

    I Hope you make a follow up article, and that's the only way i'll let this shit slide. I can even help you out on that big guy. If not FUCK YOU, you're just as ignorant and as much of an idiot as 70% of the people out there.

    love,
    XOzzy ErenX The turkish Neo-Nazi ( that makes a lot of sense, just like your article 🙂 ) and don't forget that i was being sarcastic, it seems you wouldn't catch that because of your stupidity.
    XXX

    # # #

    From: joshua kramer
    Subject: straightedge

    I would like to state that your article on straightedge left me deeply offended. I myself am Courage Crew and are in no way militant. I grew up in a household surrounded with smoke and alcohol and decided that i didn't want my life to be like that, for me to be militant i would have to turn my back on my family and some friends. I have been straightedge for 10 years and i couldnt imagine my life any other way.I don't know who you have met that is courage crew or what you have seen but i believe you are deeply mistaken. It seems nowadays when anything involving straightedge and violence it is always blamed on us. Granted there are instances when individuals that belong to this crew have resorted to violence to solve a problem but that is not always the case and has not been for years. For your information we all have similar beliefs and morals in the courage crew. Everyone that is part of this is either in college , over seas fighting, running their own business , or has a trade of some sort, we all follow a lifestyle dedicated to being physically fit, living drug free, training in some sort of self defense and a strong sense of self sufficiency and self worth. Several of the members of of this crew are grown men with families and are in their thirties... an age where violence has a much deeper penalty and could result in the loss of their families and/ or their businesses. I dont understand how any act of violence is concidered militant.If I was in a situation where i was threatened no matter if they are black, white, sober, or drunk i will not hesitate to defend myself as i assume many people straightedge or not would do. The reference to being neo nazis with hammerskin tattoos was absurd, our crew has people of all races and so does straightedge in general, the hammers are from the Judge album and have been adopted to be used as X's since then. I know members of your site that are cxc and are tattoo artists or body piercers that also find this article offending. I don't quite know what your point to writing this was, it seems to me like you wanted to exploit our lifestyle and misrepresent us in a fashion that makes us look like weak barbarians or hypocrites. As far as i can see you know nothing more about straightedge than you did before you wrote your article. This is a belief that thousands hold dear and it should not be made a mockery. "true till twenty one" I have no clue where this "form" of straightedge was concocted but as far as anyone that is straightedge is concerned if you are not now you never were. I have a feeling that you will just take this letter and exploit it on your website somehow and that is fine with me because hopefully the next person who reads this is a bit more opened minded and realizes that there is another way.

    sincerely, Josh Kramer


  • The Tattoo Copyright Controversy [Guest Column]


    The Tattoo Copyright Controversy

    This article is not intended as legal advice. It is intended for only general information purposes. This article does not create any attorney-client relationship.


    When I first came out of the closet as a lawyer to the tattoo community, I was filled with apprehension.

    Would I be called a poser?
    Would I lose my counter-culture cachet?
    Would I still be labelled “The Man” despite my extensive knowledge of Ramones lyrics?

     

    About the Author
    Marisa Kakoulas is a New York lawyer, writer, and muse of Daniel DiMattia of Calypso Tattoo, living in Liege, Belgium. She works undercover — or just covered up — as a corporate consultant: proof that tattoos and suits are not mutually exclusive. Her book “Tattoo Law”, an overview of US laws affecting the body modification community, is scheduled to hit the shelves in summer of 2004. IAM members can visit Marisa at iam:FREE.

     


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