BME: Body Modification Ezine

A tattooed person suspends from hooks, laying flat, one leg higher than the other. Their head is back, and they seem to be smiling, dark hair dangling like an anime character.

Celebrating body modification culture since 1994.

Category: ModBlog

  • So you want to be a body piercer?

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    In my almost 10 years of volunteering for Ask BME no one question has arisen more often than “how do I become a body piercer”.

    The basic answer is “get an apprenticeship”, in this day and age there is no other reputable way into this industry. Being self taught was ok in the 90′s, when the internet was hardly in use so no one really knew any better and when piercing shops were rare and apprenticeships even rarer. Of course now there are so called “piercing schools” that claim to teach everything you need to know in a short course and then give you a nice printed up certificate proclaiming to the piercing community that you are indeed an idiot with no respect for this industry.

    Ok, so it’s obvious an apprenticeship is the way to go, but how does one find an apprenticeship? If you are lucky it can be as simple as asking the piercer at your favorite shop and them being interested in you and desiring an apprentice at that very moment. However, any piercer worth their gloves gets asked for an apprenticeship on a regular basis and can’t possibly take on everyone that ask. Sometimes someone seeking an apprenticeship will respond to an ad such as those on the APP jobs page or other form of classifieds.

    Or perhaps, you have always thought about being a piercer but didn’t even know where to look to find an apprenticeship until one day you were reading your favorite blog and the author was using it as an advertisement for an apprenticeship he was about to offer.

    Long story short, I have one current apprentice. He is just starting to pierce on his own a bit, but I am in the process of opening a second location and need one more piercer to help me cover the shifts. Of course, I could hire a piercer who already knows how to pierce, but I prefer to train someone myself. I have hired other piercers in the past and honestly, I just prefer having someone I trained to do things my way. No conflict of techniques or aftercare, just all of us on the same page. So unless you are Mason, I don’t want anyone experienced as a piercer, I prefer a clean slate.

    So if you are interested in learning to pierce by yours truly and meet the following requirements:

    -Are willing to spend a week on a trial basis to “win” your spot as the next apprentice. This will be like reality tv, without the editing.

    -Have your own transportation and be willing to relocate to the Northern VA/ Eastern WV area.

    -Can support yourself without any income from the apprenticeship (until you are capable of piercing on your own).

    -Are willing to work and take some abuse to earn your apprenticeship.

    -Want to stay in the area and work as a full time piercer after the apprenticeship. I am looking for a long term reliable employee, if this is not what you want or where you want to be this is not the apprenticeship for you.

    This could be your ticket into the piercing industry.

    Here is info on me and my current shop. I won’t waste any more Modblog space on this tonight, so if you think you are interested, email me (using the link next to my picture below entries) for more information.

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    Think your not cool enough to get this apprenticeship?

    I thought this picture of Atlanta, who beat out the competition last round may be enough to encourage ANYONE to think they can get this if they really want it.

  • The battle of good and evil, Ninja Turtle style.

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    I am a sucker for serious tattoos done in a silly manner or silly tattoos done in a serious manner.  This tribute to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters Splinter and Shredder, definitely falls into the later category.

    shredsplint

    Tattoo by Vegas King, Ottawa, Ontario

  • BME Girls, back with a vengeance!

    Written by

    Sean Philips

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    For those of you interested in seeing this batch of girls who submitted their pictures for  possible use in the upcoming BME Girls Calendar, keep on reading. If this isn’t your thing, come back later for other types of modblog post.

    REMEMBER: Absolutely zero negative comments will be tolerated!!!!!!

    Iris Lys
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    Nina
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    cat1acopy
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    About being a featured girl: This event is open to all BME Girls age 18 and over. Girls of all shapes, sizes and race are encouraged to submit pictures. Contestants can be dressed or nude, but nothing too pornographic will be featured. Pictures need to be of decent quality, lest the readers condemn me to hell for posting webcam shots. Agreeing to be involved is consenting to be featured in the calendar, if you are selected for it. If you want to suggest someone, feel free to do so. I will contact them and see if they are interested, but no one will be featured without their explicit approval. To submit pictures, please email them to [email protected] Make sure to include your IAM: name (or real name) in your email.

    About voting: Votes will be tallied by emailing [email protected], just make the subject “Vote (insert name of girl you choose)” and your vote will be tallied.  Votes will be anonymous, there is no reason for anyone to know who voted for whom and how many votes each girl got.  Voting for one week ends when the following weeks post goes up. Please note, this isn’t about competition, it’s about a fun, interactive way to get the readers involved in the selection process.

    About Commenting: I am enforcing a strict ZERO TOLERANCE policy for negative comments about the girls. They are being kind enough to share themselves with us and to help BME make a calendar, they should not have to fear public ridicule. Negative comments will be deleted, if we have a repeat offender, all of their future modblog comments will be sent to moderation. This isn’t about censorship, it’s about common courtesy and respect.

  • The difference between and square and a rectangle

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    All squares are rectangles. Not all rectangles are squares. That is basic elementary school math.

    In the same basic knowledge all FULL beards have mustaches, yet not every mustache has a full beard.

    Yet, for March Mustache Madness on Modblog, I am getting several submissions of Abe Lincoln style jaw beards with NO MUSTACHE.

    This months special bonus super extreme modblog feature is about Mustaches, sometimes these mustaches will be attached to beards, but for this month the beard takes a back seat to the mustache.

    If you have a rocking hearty beard you want to share with Modblog readers, either submit pics to BME the old fashioned way and hope it gets picked or patiently wait until SeptemBEARD, but this is March Mustache Madness.

    Bein here understands the difference. Here he is with his double nostril , 1-1/2″ lobes and featuring his attempt at a mustache!

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    Now to answer the question everyone’s asking, “what happened to the BME Girls feature?”. Well it turns out we have had some legal issues and can no longer show naked females…….Ok that is total BS. The truth is I had made a mess of my email account with all the submissions and votes and had to get that all straightened out. Also, I am in the process of opening another piercing shop on top of lots of other personal projects none of you care about. However, what a lot of you do care about (as made obvious by the mass amount of messages and emails I received) is seeing gorgeous modified women on a weekly basis. So tonight, I am featuring a few extra beautiful modified ladies to make up for my recent failures to do so.

    Also coming soon an interview/ feature on Jared from OneTribe organic body jewelry.

  • The BME World Tour Winners are..

    Written by

    Rachel

    This has been a really hard month for me. First I get crazy in the middle of the night in a hotel in Austin. I haven’t slept in days, I’m alone, it’s 30 degrees out, I’m starving and I’m out of change for the vending machines. I started to think about how I haven’t been traveling at all over the past year. I’ve noted that falling in love has this affect on me. I stop being the person that’s only home one weekend out of the month because I’m at conventions, BBQ’s, suspension events, learning/teaching conferences and I focus on being home so that I can be a supportive, attentive and caring partner at home.

    I was suddenly back on the road and realizing how much I miss it and how BME suffers when I can’t be out on the road. I decided though after a lot of thought that my passport is full because I’ve traveled around the globe but that for one reason or another all of my travels were alone. The last time I went on any kind of extended trip was in 2008 when I went to the Oslo Suscon, then to BMXnet and finally to a tattoo convention in England (which I ended bailing out on!). That was 3 weeks in Europe SOLO. I submitted around 1000 photos from that trip alone and had a great time meeting people in person.

    Now I’m doing it a little differently and I’m extending the amount of time that I’ll be on the road and bringing 4 people with me. I’m sure that you want to know who they are but you HAVE to understand how difficult the selection process was. First it started out with watching hundreds of videos, browsing portolios, reading blogs and writing samples and with Jen‘s help, I narrowed it down to 17 finalists. Everyone has so much to offer and all of the finalists are multi-talented. While some people shine at one particular talent more than others, they are still fully capable of doing everything else that will be required on the road.

    The hardest part about choosing the 4 winners is that there are some people who aren’t getting chosen that have been helping out a ton behind the scenes. When they volunteered to help out, I told them it wouldn’t be scoring them any extra points and I had to go with my gut. The other thing that was really hard is that one of my closest friends applied for the video. Thad is an awesome photographer and a great friend but ultimately I feel like I would lean on him too much during this tour. Plus he’d let me get away with being like “I’m too tired to cope today” and I can’t have that.

    Click through to find out who won!

    In no particular order, the four interns that will be accompanying me on this tour are Chez, Richard, Darah and Megan.

    This was a very hard decision and I have my reasons as well as where I just needed to “go with my gut”. If you are a contestant and you want more feedback on why I didn’t pick you, feel free to contact me. I wish I could have brought everyone or I could split it up into two teams so that I could bring more people but I simply can’t due to the costs involved.

    Thank you go everyone who applied and for all of the hard work that everyone put in. It means a lot to me and I appreciate your support as always.

    Don’t forget the sale on BMEshop is still going on until Midnight! Use the coupon code “worldtour” (without the quotes!) to get 30% off of nearly everything!

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