“Pioneers may be picturesque figures, but they are often rather lonely ones.”

– Nancy Astor

 

When I was twenty in 1994, my 3/4″ earlobe piercing was shocking enough to the public that I was stopped regularly so people could take photos. Today, with a societal foundation laid where the public is “used” to seeing body modification, I doubt anyone would even notice — it takes something far more radical to turn heads. My friend Toph certainly falls into that category — with roughly an inch plug in each nostril and a nearly two inch lip plate, as well as a myriad of other modifations, he’s tormenting the programmers of facial recognition software by pushing the limits of a modern human face is.

I’ve split this interview with Toph into two sections, beginning with a discussion of his amazing modifications, and with the second section being about him and his life. As well as via the comment forum at the end of the article, you can contact Toph via his IAM page, toph.

PART ONE

How did you do your lip stretching?

I got my center lip piercing done at a 16ga — I didn’t have a choice in the matter because the shop I went to only had that size, so when I went home I immediately put it to a 12ga. A few days later I put in an 8ga — my body stretches rather easily I think compared to most people. My steps were either every week or every other week until I got to 3/4″, which was done all with a taper up until that point. Once it got to 3/4″ it became loose every other day, and then I took my steps one millimeter at a time, every other day or so. By this time I was just “popping” them in without tapers or tape — I didn’t use tape until about 28mm.

How long did the lip stretching take in all?

My lip took a total of six months to go from 16g to 40mm (1 9/16″).

How do you usually wear your lip?

I wear it down 24/7, even when I eat, but drinking is always with a straw!

How about your tongue stretching?

My tongue was a different situation. I wanted to split my tongue, but I needed a good back brace, so at first I started my tongue off by scalpelling straight to 6mm, then stretching it up to 9mm the next day. I wore that for four days, and then scalpelled it to 16mm and stretched to 19mm the next day. By then I was ready for the split — I first cut it to 20mm, stretched it to 21mm, and used a scalpel and cut from the underneath up until the plug fell out and my tongue was split.

And your nostrils?

My nostrils were pierced when I was eighteen at a 10ga and immediately stretched to 8ga. I waited a good four months before going to 6ga, and then every month I went up to the next size until 16mm. Then about every week or so it was 1mm at a time until I took a long break at 22mm — about 5 months. I tapered them the whole way until 5/8″, then slide the next millimeters in by hand. I just recently started stretching them again.

Finally, tell me about your ear stretching? What happened to your ears?

My ears have been a work in progress since I was sixteen, when they were done with a gun at the mall. I took it slow the most of the time, but I did stretch a few times faster than I should have. Unfortunately both my lobes were cut by a bad pair of eyelets at 19mm, and then thinned out pretty badly, so I had to take it really slow after that. Then last year I had plastic surgery on my left lobe due to a landscaping accident — I was weedwhacking a lawn at work and a rock got kicked up and split the 1 1/2″ lobe!

What are the differences in stretching the different types of piercing?

The differences I came across stretching the different types of piercing were that on the ears and lip weight worked really well, whereas the nostrils were all about time — if they didn’t have enough time they just wouldn’t stretch. My tongue was cut the whole time so it was a piece of cake, and I learned that if you really really want a 20mm tongue you can cut it there in a week without a hitch.

Did you have any problems in your stretching?

I did get some scar tissue on the front of my lip during my journey, which was cut off each time it happened and healed perfectly fine. I didn’t come across any problems with my nostrils, mostly because I was really careful. The have minor scar tissue but it went away with the pressure of o-rings in under a week. With my tongue I didn’t have one problem — besides blood and drool!

You managed to upsize all of them incredibly quickly — did you have a secret to doing this or does your body just tolerate stretching really well?

I think it’s a mixture of the two — on one hand my body handles stretching really well because I keep it on a basic schedule, and I think my body adjusted to it and went with it for the most part. My goal sizes are 28mm nostrils and a 63mm lip plate. My ears are as is and if they go bigger then good, but if not I’m still satisfied.

Toph in the early stages of his modifications

Are all of your piercings publicly visible, or do you have private mods as well?

I have had a 00g PA, a 4ga scalped frenum, three ladders and two pubic surface piercings. I do my own genital mods and plan on starting my full subincision soon — I’ve already done the meatotomy.

Do you have plans for further modifications?

My future modifications will include more facial ink, full sleeves,scarification, and large conches. It’s a short list but over the years I’ve had a lot of different stuff done and I’m pretty satisfied with the way my image turned out.

Other facial configurations that Toph has tried

And if you change your mind about all of it and want to go back, do you have a “Plan B”?

If it ever came to a reversal, I would downsize the same way I went up and hope for the best — but I’ve never once seriously thought about changing my image. I’ve been planning this out and making it a part of my life, and plan on keeping it for life.

How much do you think you’ve spent on jewelry so far — you must have gone through a lot?

Over the years I’ve spent about $8000 on jewelry. That was another addiction — I collected jewelry, never thinking I would actually wear it all in multiple piercing over the years. I collected anything from normal stainless steel to one of a kind $200 plugs. Once I met Karl (iam:MobyK), he offered to make me Delrin plugs if I ever needed them. At first I was like “no thanks”, but the more I got into it… like you said, I went through a lot of jewelry.

Karl became a mentor to me and a godfather — we have been very close friends for about three years now, and have never once met. I met Pauly Unstopable through Karl who showed me how big a nostril can go — he was my inspiration for that single piercing. Jesse (iam:pillpoppinfun, featured in BME’s first article on lip plates) was my original influence for the labret. He wore pins and plugs and it interested me. Throughout the years I’ve had a lot of positive influence through the industry, not to mention the movie ‘MODIFY’ which gave me the idea to scalpel my own frenum.

PART TWO

How old are you, what do you do for a living, and what “life plans” do you have?

I am twenty years old, and currently unemployed. I worked restaurants for five years and landscaping for two before I moved to Oklahoma. Now I’m back at the challenge of finding a new occupation. My life plans are to find someone to apprentice me so I can take what I love and make it into a living. This is my life and it’s what I think about day in and day out. I’m just hoping for the opportunity to get into the modification industry to fulfill my life goal.

Tell me a little about yourself in terms of interests?

I am a big fan of extreme sports — skateboarding, aggressive inline, four wheeling, motor cycles, and jet skis. I’m big into nature and photography and consider myself a decent artist.

What’s your peer group like?

I don’t have a big group friends outside the Internet and I like to keep my life limited to family and close friends for the most part. When I go out in public I like to inform anyone who has questions about myself and what and why I do this, to my best ability, to try to help the public understand that we’re not freaks or assholes. I do this mostly to help the next generation of modders so people don’t get the wrong idea about us — this is very important to me.

How do people respond when they see you?

When I’m out in public people freak out… when they talk to me, it’s very funny. Once they see I’m willing to talk to them they just let go and ask me a million questions. People jump up and down, spin and laugh, saying “oh my god, that shit is crazy!” I’ve found that I get more attention from middle aged and older African Americans than I do from white teens and young adults… I don’t know why but I like it.

What got you interested in body modification originally?

I was around fifteen years old and I was a troubled kid, and I met a body piercer named Paul Kriner. He changed my life. I had already had a major interest in body modification, and so when I met him I tried to spend all my free time up at the shop that he worked at. He taught me a lot about the industry, proper aftercare and stretching, and became my mentor and someone I could look up to no matter what. I learned a lot from a young and very talented artist (he was only twenty at the time), and since the day I met him I knew what direction my life was going.

I know the why question is hard, but “why?”, and can you think of earlier influences?

This is my passion. It makes me very happy doing this, and it satisfies an empty spot in my life. I believe in concentrating and self-inflicting pain — it’s putting myself through more challenges in life… As if life wasn’t hard enough! I don’t think life should be easy, and if you’re doing something you love and it makes your life harder, and you have the ability to work through it, it only makes you stronger. This is the love of my life — more than family and friends even. If I wasn’t able to mod myself I’d feel as if I was walking around as a fake. I also find the way I look attractive — I’m absolutely amazed at what one can do to one’s body to make it completely change form.

Really, why should everyone look the same?

Like I said, my piercer was a big influence on me in my teens, but as a kid my uncle was in a state prison and all I could see were endless tattoos. He was a great guy — he just screwed up. I had a very positive image of body modification at a young age, although it went against everything my parents ever told me. As a kid I pierced my ears with safety pins and my labret with a sewing needle, as well as numerous surface temporary piercings. The more my parents said no the more I got into it… Then I discovered BME — oh my god, BME — once I was shown that site it was over. It was a candy store for me. I started hanging out at tattoo shops all summer long and every day after school for around five years until I went off on my own.

All of this added to my obsession… The interest was already there, but when my eyes were opened to how far it can be taken I never looked back. I dedicated my life to it, and to this day still do and plan on doing it until I die. It’s a part of my life that’s too good to let go.

What made you decide to start to push your modifications in a direction that’s far more extreme than most people can relate to?

My interest got so deep into it I didn’t see a reason to stop at a certain size just because it was more accepted to stop there — being accepted by the community is something I can do myself no matter how I look. After seeing some of the famous modders like The Lizardman, Pauly Unstoppable, and the movie ‘MODIFY’, I knew I could put up the fight, and so far have succeeded. I take this part of my life so seriously, and I believe you can change the way people think with the right attitude and perspective. It’s all about being nice no matter what, and fully informing them no matter how unbelievable what they see is.

Given that you’ve made these changes in such a short time, I’m sure you’ve got some remarkable insight into how people who look different are treated?

My immediate family does not accept my body modifications at all, and still don’t completely understand me. I’ve done my best but they don’t want to believe this is who I am. My friends love it — they refer to me as a rock star when we go out in pubic because I have five to twenty confrontations each time I go to a store… nothing but tons of questions, excitement, and disgust. The public is very interested but not everyone can gather the courage to confront someone to ask questions and to fulfill their curiously. You’re always going to get bad attention, but there is a lot more good attention than most people would think.

What advice would you have for people who are considering doing something radical like this?

I would seriously encourage people to take a long hard thought before doing something like this. You receive so much criticism, and it’s a lot to deal with on a daily basis. It is very difficult to handle and you have to be emotionally strong to get through it all. But if it is a decision the new generation is willing to take, it is only going to get easier as time goes on.

Since Valentine’s Day is coming up, would you like to meet and date someone as radically modified as yourself?

I believe it would be so much easier to date someone that looked like Duff or Miss Kayteek Etemine because it would be easier to deal with the constant modifications and the public response as well because they would have already been use to it in their own lives, instead of having to adjust to an extreme amount of constant attention.

It can be a lot for someone to handle who has never experienced it before. I recently lost my marriage over my body modifications — she told me it was her or the modifications…. I couldn’t believe my ears. I basically laughed, then cried, then said good bye. This path wasn’t meant for everyone and it takes extreme dedication to do what I have accomplished.

Not to mention sacrifice…

Thank you to Toph for taking the time to talk to us! Please visit him at iam:Toph.

Shannon Larratt
BME.com

"A downtrodden class will never be able to make an effective protest until it achieves solidarity"

- H.G. Wells

No one likes to admit it, but there is a war for survival going on between those who choose to lead public modified lives, and those who believe this lifestyle is wrong. In this article I will attempt to show how this war is being fought, and will propose plans of counterattack that strengthen our collective stance without alienating the generally neutral mainstream population.

First of all, it’s important to differentiate between attacks coming from the private sector (individuals and private businesses) and the attacks coming from the public sector (generally municipal and state government actions). While in the private sector there is a certain balance of rights (for example, the balance between a person’s right to free expression contrasted with a private company’s right to impose a code of behaviour on its workplace and employees), but in the public sector the balance must be far more liberal as the services provided are in general both monopolistic and universal, and because they are paid for by all (including the modified), morally they must be accessible by all.

I’d like to address the public sector attacks first. While I’m not proposing that there’s a unified conspiracy throughout the government opposed to body modification, closed-minded and backward-thinking individuals voted into power can use the strength of the government to attack us primarily via educational restrictions (which attack young people interested in pursuing body modification), although business restrictions (which attempt to close down or restrict from opening body modification studios) and subsequent related prosecutions occur to a lesser extent.

If a state institutes a policy of banning body modifications (generally piercings) in schools, they leave “young modders” with an unpleasant choice: cease to exist as modified people, or be expelled from the school system to fend in the world without an education¹. To take away someone’s basic right to an education over a piercing or tattoo makes a powerful statement: the government viewpoint is that we do not in fact own our bodies or have authority over them, and that the government holds the sole rights to dictate what happens to your body. Additionally, it makes the statement that body modification is so wrong that a person who has committed the sin of body piercing does not deserve to have an education due to the level of danger (presumably via moral corruption) they present to other students. Both are of course patently ridiculous propositions and impossible to defend in any logical debate.

If a state institutes a policy of interfering with the business of body modification, either by malicious zoning and regulation², or by an outright ban³, they attempt to kill body modification at its source. This type of attack has the end effect of putting out of business reputable high-quality studios and forcing customers into the hands of far less reputable fly-by-night studios⁴. The government is perfectly aware that acts like this serve not only to reduce the number of modified people in their community, but also to injure and put at risk those that remain.

I hope that short introduction clarifies that elements of the government are very much at war with the modified community, and that they are willing to both exterminate us and when not able, injure us as much as possible. It is no surprise that similar bigotry exists in the private sector as well. Every one of us has experienced a range of attacks from very minor (rudeness and bad service) to more severe (restriction of access to the job market, poor or even dangerous medical and professional service, and so on)⁵.

Minor and individually launched attacks, while unacceptable and boorish, fluctuate with the whims and perceived norms of the moment, and I believe will largely disappear in time as the practise of body modification becomes more normal and visible — I don’t believe the average person has a problem with us. The difficulty is that more powerful forces in the private sector are doing what they can to ensure that this community doesn’t grow in any space they control. The primary methods in use are the restriction of access to employment, as well as misleading and sometimes fraudulent statements made by professional and semi-official organisations such as medical fraternities and “public interest” groups⁶.

Businesses of course can and should dictate how their employees look and dress. In general this is done in the best interests of the business and to a lesser extent the customer (by instituting policies that give the business a unified look, ensuring employee safety, or increasing customer comfort), but in many cases do not aid the business itself and serves primarily to further the personal bias of the business owner, to the detriment of both the employees and the public — I hold that any act which attempts to restrict consensual activities which do no harm to others takes away from the validity of a free society. When individuals or corporations use their power to attempt to do economic harm to people who’ve chosen to modify their bodies, they are doing what they can to wage war on this community.

I’ve used the term “freedom of expression” a few times — I think it’s important to note that this is not a legal right in the same way as free speech and free religion are. While some hold that body modification is a religion (I certainly concede that it has many spiritual aspects, and even on a minor level is an essential and life changing act for many people⁷), I do not believe that anyone would claim that this is a universal statement⁸. So the private sector attacks I’ve described above are perfectly legal on the whole. Unethical and disgusting, yes, but unfortunately also quite acceptable to the judicial system — and to be honest, as much as I’d like to have what I believe are fundamental rights forced through, if we believe in democracy and the general goodness of people, this can be solved without unpleasant legal confrontation.

So how do we fight this? How do we peacefully show them that we can make their lives better, and that they should want us to take part in the system?

I believe both in the general goodness of people, and in our government’s general system of representing the needs of its population — although it is clear that it often lags behind in reforming questionable policies and there are times when politicians are more concerned with their personal ignorance and prejudices than the needs of their constituents. I believe that if body modification is “right”, that by exercising our democratic voices, both as voters and as consumers, that we can “prove” ourselves. I also believe that if we can not use this system to prove ourselves, that it shows they are in the right⁹.

The simple fact is that there are a lot of us. It is difficult to get exact statistics, but studies show that about 18% of college students have tattoos (up from about 10% in 1997)¹⁰. Employment studies by Vault.com showed that about 20% of the general working population says that their tattoos or piercings have hindered their progress in the job market¹¹. Certain demographic groups show higher numbers; for example, a full third of those involved in computer gaming have piercings and tattoos. Whatever the precise number is, it’s clear that it’s a giagantic group — most likely approximately one in five people¹². For comparison, that means there twice as many people with piercings and tattoos in America as their are African Americans or Hispanics¹³. In addition, when we compare the growth rate of the modified community, we are growing at a rate dramatically faster than any other demographic group¹⁴.

Because there are a lot of us, our strength and victory can come through co-operative organisation, community strength, and grassroots action — not through confrontational legal action which works to alienate and frighten those who don’t understand us. Now let’s outline how we can win this battle. We need to send the message that if they don’t want to play nice, we’re not going to play their game, and we need to send the message that they are better off with us in the system.

The vast majority of people don’t mind what other do to their bodies, but they do suffer from both fear and ignorance, with flames fanned by misleading statements issued by groups such as the American Dental Association¹⁵ which are then transformed into flat-out fraudulent statements by irresponsible journalists¹⁶. As such, we need to be vigilant and responsible in dispelling these myths through even-handed public information campaigns of our own, along with ensuring that members of our community behave responsibly and safely when interacting with the general public, so as not to provide ammunition against ourselves.

As soon as a person has body modifications that are public — facial piercings, tattoos on public skin, and so on — they become aware of the class line. While we are of course fundamentally the same, it really is “us” and “them”, even though this line should be absolutely illusionary and inconsequential. Because the general public has been so effectively conditioned to believe there’s something wrong with modified people, we get treated poorly and receive inadequate service¹⁷. Now, what’s very important here is that the modified community not play into and confirm the stereotype.

That is, if someone is rude to you because of your piercings, in their mind, you started it. Which means that if you respond rudely, in their mind you came in to their place of work and abused them. They will not realize that what they did is wrong in any way. Politely leave, but first make sure that a manager is informed that you were displeased with the service and how you have been made to feel. If the manager does not adequately conclude the encounter, I would strongly encourage you to write a letter to the corporate offices (I have attached sample letters at the end of this article). But please do not ignore the advice of first turning the other cheek and attempting to resolve the confrontation with kindless and polite manners. Don’t be surprised if by doing that you shatter that person’s misconceptions and make life more pleasant for the next modified person.

In any case, the fact is that businesses, especially large businesses, operate on very slim profit margins. A single percentage point drop in their sales is enough to destabilise their business model. Again, it’s very important to note that there are a lot of us, and if we work together we have enormous financial and social power. I’m not suggesting any far out goals or special recognition or special rights — I’m simply saying that we have the right and the power to demand and get “fair and equal treatment”.

If you are turned down for a job, or fired from a job for piercings or tattoos, the simplest way to remedy the situation is to use your voice. Fighting it in court is generally a losing battle, and will eat up your time and money. On the other hand, telling everyone you know what happened to you, and urging them to not support this business until they remedy the situation is free, ethical, very effective and most importantly sends a clear message.

I realize that I am about to ask you to accept some self imposed hardship, but unless it’s utterly necessary, please do not tell them that you’re willing to compromise and take out or hide your body modifications. When that happens, it lets them know that they can push us around, and that expressing who we are means less to us that $6.50 an hour. To achieve this liberty, it’s important that a modified person with uncertain job prospects live light financially and try and keep enough buffer cash to avoid becoming an optionless and powerless wage slave. In addition, it is doubly important that the network of modified people support each other through job contacts, boycotts, and so on. If every time a modified person is denied service or a job by a business, the modified community makes it clear that they’ve just lost a significant percentage of their customer base, the practise will end quickly and peacefully (whereas if we try and fight it using other means, the practise will continue and grow, and if we lose, it will become very clearly legalised).

The government is more difficult to fight because it can not be intimidated by the threat of consumer actions and there may not be alternate services (which gives them the power to dictate nearly any condition they want without leaving other options), and in addition the majority of government attacks are on underage individuals who don’t typically have the power or experience to fight back. As such there are two very important conditions that should be met before attempting to fight this. First of all, the student should not have any major weaknesses — it is far easier to fight if they have average or above average grades, don’t have a disciplinary problems, and are well liked by their peers and hopefully teachers. Second of all, the student should have the active support of their peers and family.

A school can usually get away with quietly kicking out a single student — so refuse to take out your piercings, and make sure your friends do the same, and make sure that your parents support you on the whole. A school can not kick out a dozen or more students for piercings and tattoos, especially solid student with parental support. That’s all it takes to make those policies end almost overnight: solidarity of the modified.

To recap and summarise, they attack us by restricting our access to essential services and by attempting to ban our activities. We can combat that by being productive and positive members of society, while still refusing to bend to their will, and supporting each other through the tough times that sometimes get forced on us. By exercising the power we have due to our numbers, and refusing to take part in their system when it treats us unfairly, we can show them that they will be happier and successful with us than without us¹⁸.

All we have to do is stand together, and we will win.

Thank you,

Shannon Larratt.

Endnotes¹ Over the past five years an increasing number of school boards are including bans on body piercing and dyed hair in their dress code rules. These rules are generally retroactive (that is, the student is forced to remove their piercings and un-dye their hair). It is important to note that these rules are not passed for the safety or benefit of the student, but instead to attempt to force the social morals of a minority on the student body. There are a number of personal stories about this in the editorials section of BME/News, and an Internet search on the subject will turn up numerous examples. Sadly this is not unusual, at least not in North America.

² Most cities have zoning laws written specifically to set rules for piercing and tattoo studies. These laws restrict the opening of studies and often restrict them to ghettos outside of key business districts. As well as restricting the business’s right to compete fairly in the market, this sends the message that tattooing and piercing is “beneath the mainstream” and that it doesn’t have the right to be in the same area. In addition, it is not unusual for zoning boards to try and push existing businesses out. As a point of morbid trivia, New York City’s vote to re-ban tattooing was terminated by the September 11th attacks.

³ A number of states still maintain state-wide bans on the art form of tattooing. Anyone tattooing in these states faces immediate arrest and imprisonment. Recent court challenges to this law have made tattooing the only art form not protected by the first ammendment.

⁴ My submissions numbers at BME are very clear — piercing and tattooing reaches all demographics and geographies. Laws banning the practise simply pushes it out of the public eye, with an end result of lower quality service to the client.

⁵ One of the first things a person notices when they get their first public modifications is people’s eyes. We are very good at catching what people are looking at — all animals are; it’s a survival skill. I doubt there’s a single person with public mods who’s never suffered from this. Yes, we knew it would happen when we went down this path, but that doesn’t make it right.

⁶ Again, I’m not trying to imply some grand conspiracy. I’m talking about a “trend” or “swarm” of action committed by misguided individuals in positions of power. However, all those actions brought together do represent a somewhat unified wave of attack on us.

⁷ Read the experiences in BME, especially in the ritual section, but also in every section, and it will become immediately clear how profoundly life-changing even fairly innocuous body modification and body ritual acts can be.

⁸ My polls suggest that approximately 5% of the body modification community holds that for them all forms of body modification are literally of religious purpose (and therefore theoretically already constitutionally protected in most Western countries).

⁹ If one agrees that a democratic system can effectively reach conclusions that are what is best for society, then one must use that system to initiate societal change (rather than attempting to strong-arm it through).

¹⁰ Statistics on college students vary a great deal from study to study, with many showing numbers far greater than the 20% range. I have chosen the lower number in order to make a “worst case” number, and I have focused on college students because they are most definitely representative of skilled young people entering the workforce with a large enough skill set to have some freedom in the job market. In addition, college students tend to have the social awareness coupled with financial empowerment that makes being an activist easier.

¹¹ While this is how the study was presented, I believe this may in fact mean “20% of pierced and tattooed people have experienced discrimination”. Either case is unacceptable. The study goes on to say that over two thirds of employers state that they have discriminated against potential employees with visible body modification.

¹² BME’s usage statistics dwarf many other mainstream magazines. According to Lycos, the word “tattoo” was the fourth most popular search term — of all subjects — in 2001.

¹³ The African American and Hispanic communities both make up about 11% of the US population.

¹⁴ BME’s usage statistics have continued to ramp up faster than Internet growth, consistently since opening. In addition, the piercing and tattoo industry has continued to grow every year since the 1970s.

¹⁵ It is not unusual for groups such as the ADA to issue misleading public warnings about the dangers of piercing. While tongue piercings definitely do cause problems from time to time from chipped teeth (which can be minimised through proper jewelry), risks such as “infection leading to brain abscess” are so rare that to bring them up instead of the real risks is clear fear-mongering intended to damage the industry. The medical professionals making these statements are well educated and should be perfectly aware of the deception they are perpetrating and the effects it will have. IAM members can click here to see a letter I wrote to a newspaper on the subject.

¹⁶ A recent example that became national news was the study linking tattoos and piercings to “troubled teens”. While early stories were clear that this was a study of 200 students at a military school, most of whom at been pierced illegally, subsequent articles stated only the size of the entire study (about 5000 students) which had nothing to do with the actual number of pierced students (only 200). This story was repeated internationally in its misleading form, and most certainly influenced the attitudes of parents and legislators. IAM members can click here to see a letter I wrote to one of the news wires on the subject.

¹⁷ My polls indicate that effectively 100% of people with public body modifications have had these experiences.

¹⁸ Let me be clear about something: while right now it is “us and them”, I hope that one day it will simply be “us”. Other than the fact that we on some levels are more self-aware and free, modified and unmodified people are not particularly different. Our goal should be to equalise the rights and treatments of the two groups. Not to achieve special rights or separation, but simply to coexist in a fair and equal manner.

To a school which has threatened expulsion to modified students:

To a business which has anti-mod hiring practises: