Friday February 29th, 2008 @ 8:20 PM
I’m actually going to try and not fill my spare moments this weekend with ModBlog posts, but continue work on more interviews for next week. Thanks to everyone who’s helped out on them so far, and thanks to readers who’ve posted interesting commentary as well. There’s an image update uncompressing right now, and I’ll be back on Monday.
EDIT: For some reason today’s update seems to have — as Jayson put it — “usurped” the previous update. I won’t have a chance to re-insert the previous update’s pictures over the weekend, but it’s a simple fix and I’ll do it on Monday most likely.
The tattoo below is by Keegan Lam (another home artist) by the way; I quite like the simplicity of the design.
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 30 Comments
Friday February 29th, 2008 @ 8:12 PM
One of my favorite things about scars is how they “grow” and age… the many stages they go through, from the fresh and scabbed up version the day of, through the various phases of initial healing, and then the assorted periods of aging… For at least three to five years, the piece is in a slow state of flux. Quentin from Kalima did these brands below (fresh in the first picture), and after the break you can see them at one of my favorite stages, especially on this color of skin.
Read more…
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 46 Comments
Friday February 29th, 2008 @ 8:05 PM
This robot arm (which would make a pretty cool full-body project — I’m not sure how far this one will be extended) is being done by Brett Barr at Built 4 Speed in Orlando, Florida. This is actually just the undercoat and it’s being gone over in gray, white, and color next. Assuming I get pictures I’ll post them here as well, because it looks great already at this stage!
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 23 Comments
Friday February 29th, 2008 @ 7:59 PM
…Play after the break…
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Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 44 Comments
Friday February 29th, 2008 @ 7:56 PM
MeltBanana writes, “if only Bettie had a scar like mine…”
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 31 Comments
Friday February 29th, 2008 @ 7:49 PM
Real men cut them off when they’re done with them!
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 21 Comments
Friday February 29th, 2008 @ 7:43 PM
Shannon: “What does Andrew keep in his chainmail pouch?”
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 33 Comments
Friday February 29th, 2008 @ 10:23 AM
After having posted an interview a day all week, I’m taking a break for at least a few days with this great chat with Johnny Thief, which I think is definitely the one to read if you want to really “get” what American tattooing is about (at least in my mind). I enjoyed reading his responses immensely, and have presented them here almost exactly as they were received and without edit or restructuring, in the hope that you’ll enjoy them just as much as I did in their pure form.
Click through to read, come back to comment!
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 46 Comments
Friday February 29th, 2008 @ 9:20 AM
Big thanks and massive lip-love to Rafa for sending in this awesome labret scalpelling video..
Not to worry sunshine, BME will kiss it better!
Posted by RooRaaah Crumbs | Permalink | 66 Comments
Thursday February 28th, 2008 @ 3:43 PM
This winter Tyler and some friends went to Tanzania. He’s a social anthropologist as well as a ModBlog reader, so while he was there he snapped some pictures of the widespread body modifications they saw. The guy on the left in the photo below is Kerry, their guide, who they met in Dar Es Salaam — almost all young men in Dar have similar Western-style tattoos.
On the way to Ngorongoro Crater they stopped near a small Maasai village where they were approached by the women in the pictures here who were hoping to sell them various trinkets. The piercing holes they have were made with iron knives, and with no sterilization, they’ve been increasingly vulnerable to bloodborne problems such as HIV/AIDS.
Tyler adds that you do see hi-tech though even in the deepest areas of the country, where they met the “cyber Maasai” above left in a quiet Zanzibari village using his earlobes to hold up his headphones. His bottom front teeth are also knocked out, a traditional body modification liked to breastfeeding and udder sucking. Thanks to Tyler for the pictures and background!
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 21 Comments
Thursday February 28th, 2008 @ 2:48 PM
Septum smoking at Dono’s place in Cerro Navia is kind of a good trick I suppose, but I think that Soul of a Coke Dealer wins with his twisted up mug, which also requires a big lip piercing.
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 11 Comments
Thursday February 28th, 2008 @ 2:48 PM
It’s one thing to marvel over someone’s big lip or big earlobe piercing, but it’s another thing altogether when someone manages to stretch their anus to enormous proportions, as my friend JC (regularly featured on both BME/HARD and in BMEvideo) has managed to do. If you’re interested in learning more, here’s a link to an interview I did back in 2002 with someone with similar modifications.
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 50 Comments
Thursday February 28th, 2008 @ 2:23 PM
On the other hand, in relation to the previous entry, as this puppyriffic picture of Uranium Hobo sums up quite effectively, I have absolutely no fear of Colorado Springs.
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 46 Comments
Thursday February 28th, 2008 @ 2:19 PM
This picture of Moscow punk Chirik does little to change my prejudiced Amerocentric belief that Russia is a terrifying place that would leave me dead in the gutter within fifteen minutes after leaving the airport…
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 102 Comments
Thursday February 28th, 2008 @ 9:48 AM
My friend Jae, a home tattoo artist that’s been tattooing his friends and family — someone who many would call a “scratcher” — was willing to have a chat about the opposite end of the tattoo spectrum from the top-end artists I’ve been featuring lately (tomorrow we’ll be flipping back in that direction with a great feature on Johnny Thief). That interview’s just been posted — click the picture to read it now, and come back here of course to comment.
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 241 Comments
Wednesday February 27th, 2008 @ 5:24 PM
If I’m understanding the message correctly (there’s a bit of a language barrier), the broken circle represents the human being, and the maze within the human represents the meaning of life… the maze however, as life, is a defective maze. This was done by Hata at InkRatTattoo in Tokyo, Japan.
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 18 Comments
Wednesday February 27th, 2008 @ 5:21 PM
iam:joshthewolf
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 26 Comments
Wednesday February 27th, 2008 @ 5:19 PM
According to Faye, half of this gallery exhibit, “this is what happens if you are not sleepy.” Apparently Arnhem in the Netherlands has more interesting things to do at night than my neighborhood. I live next to a printshop that specializes in church donation envelopes… not very exciting at all. More pictures of their bloodshow after the break.
Read more…
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 10 Comments
Wednesday February 27th, 2008 @ 5:13 PM
This peony cutting, about nine months old in the picture on the right, was done by John Kid at The Piercing Lounge / Blue Lotus Tattoos in Madison, Wisconsin.
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 14 Comments
Wednesday February 27th, 2008 @ 4:59 PM
Is it just my imagination, or have I been posting exceptional man-butt lately?
Haha… Anyway, this random picture was taken at a show that Freakboy, Jimi, and the folks from Diabos Mutantes Equipe de Suspensão in São Paulo, Brasil recently hosted. I have no idea why his pants fell down… The only explanation I have, if prison taught me anything, is that because he’s on suicide [suspension] watch, he’s earned himself a strip search.
In the next update I post there will be a new gallery that features their shows exclusively and has tons more pictures, but for today, just one.
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 9 Comments
Wednesday February 27th, 2008 @ 4:45 PM
Suz wrote me with some pretty pictures of a series of stripes that Blair branded around her already very scarred left arm. I’ve seen other self-harm reclamation pieces that Blair has done, where he’s done scarification over top of scars that the wearer has mixed feelings about, so I asked Suz a little more about it and she was kind enough to write back,
I had been self harming for years and it wasn’t going to be possible to tattoo over. I had originally thought of skin peels as I have some done by Sammpa that turned out nicely. However, when i got chatting to Blair we decided to go for Hyfrecator branding as I was only visiting Canada, and the chance of infection would’ve been too high with a skin peel.
It was complete fluke that I met Blair too — I got directed to New Tribe when I was over in Canada two years ago and Blair happened to be working that day. He saw my arm and we got chatting about me getting some work done, and, next thing I know it’s a year later and we have a design pretty much planned and I’m flying back over to see him! It was an experience I’ll never forget. I’ve got a substantial amount of mods but I’ve never had one that has completely changed my outlook on my body and how people perceive me.
There are more pictures after the break including some very sore looking fresh ones. The thing I really love about this type of work is that it takes something with negative connotations and transforms it into something beautiful, but without covering it up or being “dishonest” about life’s history (not that there’s anything wrong with the cover-up route either).
Read more…
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 48 Comments
Wednesday February 27th, 2008 @ 4:14 PM
Hey, as well as having the requisite rockstar-sleeve, Asian Jesus of The Dirty Chinese Thieves seems to have the same supercheap bass as I do! Anyway, I have two great tattoo interviews ready to go for tomorrow (and I did some really minor cleanup on the look of BME/news since a fairly fast production cycle is happening right now) — I’ll post whichever people are more interested in coming first. The two choices are the opposite ends of the spectrum; the spectacularly talented Johnny Thief, or the “interview with a scratcher”.
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 16 Comments
Wednesday February 27th, 2008 @ 4:00 PM
This BME member in Shandong (which incidentally is also what I call my junk), China, has since split his tongue, but I thought these pictures of him before the split were pretty neat!
Posted by Shannon | Permalink | 21 Comments
