I often wonder if it’s person who makes the mods or the mods that make the person… A year ago, Dragon FX Kingsway tattoo artist, Mike Gibson was just a “normal” dude. His most “extreme” features being his tattoos and long hair.

Now he’s rocking silicone horn implants (by Phish), a tongue split (by Dirk Sullivan), (removable) Fangs and red contacts, UV responsive facial tattoos (self-done), and he’s even an ordained priest!

It’s really interesting how his attitude has changed. I don’t think I have any pictures of him before his extreme modifications. He was impossible to take pictures of as he’d always put his hand up to sheild himself from the camera. These days he’s clearly more confident… because he clearly owns the underworld.

As a piercer, I’ve always been a huge anti- piercing gun advocate. The main reason stems from the first major incident I ever encountered on my lifelong friend Jaime.

When Jaime was 18 years old, she had her upper helix pierced from a friend who took a “course” on how to use a piercing gun.

Within a week, Jaime had developed an infection so bad she required emergency medical attention. Her doctors said it was “worse than a staph infection” and likely came from residue of someone else’s tissue left over on the gun despite the machine being “disinfected” between uses.

Jaime’s cartilege literally liquefied due to swelling and the infection eating away at it. She had to have an incision sliced down the back of her ear and packed with gauze so the wound could be cleaned and the infection and necrotic tissue could be scraped out.

After the infection was brought under control, Jaime underwent plastic surgery to reconstruct the cartilage. The surgeon had to remove cartilage from her ribs and literally carve out the shape of her ear to rebuild it.

1 & 2 - Jaime’s ear at the height of it’s infected state
3 - Jaime’s other normal ear
4, 5, 6 - Jaime’s ear today after reconstructive surgery.