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

  • Hitting all the bases

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    After a while corsetry pictures all start to look the same, but these pictures that Shorty of Ink and Pistons Tattoo and Slushbox Art Gallery (PiercingsbyShorty.com) created in collaboration with a body painter, hair stylist, and photographer. The photography and hair are great of course, but what really set it apart for me was the way the body paint and corset piercing intermingle and play off each other. Giving full credit where it’s due, the body paint and makeup was by Georgette Pressler of Devious Body Art (DeviousBodyart.com), the hair was by Melrose (Melrosehairdesign.com), and the photography by Tara Hauck (TaraIncPhotography.com). I think as people become more familiar with things like this, you have to present it better and better — it was the same with suspension. In the beginning, just watching a minute of simple suicide suspension was enough to really wow a crowd, but these days, it requires a sense of the theatrical and depending on the context, increasingly complex rigging. Same thing with corset projects.

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  • Little Swastika Book

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Marc, better known as Little Swastika, is an avant garde tattoo artist that’s a leader in the new worlds of dotwork, geometry, “trash” tattooing, neotribal spiritualism and fine art tattooing. He has just released a limited edition book of paintings and sketches done between 2005 and 2009. It is 108 pages long, printed in a limited hand-numbered and signed edition of 108 copies, and costs 108 euro (about $140 USD). This is a must-have for any tattoo studio — it’s not flash, but it’s a wonderful design resource — or tattoo artist interested in this style as well as art collectors. You can click below to take a closer look, or visit little-swastika.com to find out how to get your own copy of this incredibly special book.

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    Marc’s work has been featured on ModBlog ever since I first saw his work, at the time at his earlier studio Swastika Freakshop, but while I have your attention, let me show you two recent creations. On the left, and amazingly dense and manic chestpiece that somehow mix the scrawlings of a madman with ripples and spirals and sacred geometry, and on the left, an evocative backpiece in dripping in saturated full color, with multiple layers of both scribbled block printing and Marc’s highly stylized and very recognizable red script. If you enjoy art tattooing, Marc is one of the best, creative and technically gifted.

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    Finally, since they have not yet been covered on ModBlog, I want to give coverage to Marc’s work with double backpieces. Marc’s art is sometimes so big and powerful that it takes more than one person to contain it, as he splashes his striking visions across friends and families. Here are three examples of multi-person tattoos that he’s performed, as well as a shot of him working on laying down a stencil on two of his latest subjects. I love all of these (even though the one in the top row does cover up a BME logo!).

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    little-swastika-dtat3t little-swastika-dtat4t

    Again, you can find Marc online at little-swastika.com, or click here to see a collection of ModBlog entries of his work. I just spent a few minutes going through it myself and found lots of wonderful pieces that had slipped my memory — his portfolio is beyond incredible. Have I mentioned what a fan I am? Finally you can also track him down on Facebook at facebook.com/tattoingisdeath. There are very few artists who I whole-heartedly endorse. Marc is one of them.

  • Take your protein pills and put your helmet on

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    Ana Laco posts this all-kinds-of-win photo of Morten and Matt earning their asstronaut wings.

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  • OM NOM NOM!

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    For those who need a prequel to the reconstruction Gabriele did…

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  • Katzen’s New Whiskers

    Written by

    Shannon Larratt

    My old friend, world famous artist, musician, performer, and tattooist Katzen just had her whiskers cut by scarmaster Pineapple at Shaman (shamanmodificationsatx.com) in Austin, Texas where they both live. I wanted to mention the term I’m using here for scarification artist, “scarmaster”. I’ve seen “scartist” used before, but that’s sort of a joking word that was invented in Internet days, but “scarmaster” is an indigenous term (translated into English of course) that, if memory serves, I picked up from Lars Krutak who has been traveling around the world documenting scarification and other body modifications — I hope to review his book Spiritual Skin: Magical Tattoos and Scarification soon.

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    Edit/Update: Here’s a nice close-up as well!

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