Rose Adare: Restraint & Revolution

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Shannon Larratt

Recently a friend forwarded me a video of an art opening — the one I’ve included below — asking me if I recognized anyone. I watched the video with curiosity, and yes, I did recognize someone, seeing my friend Kala Kaiwi (who was just featured in part III of the “Evolution” series) and a number of other modified and atypical models immortalized in paint. The artwork turned out to be that of Hawaiian artist Rose Adare, who I tracked down and interviewed about her current Restraint & Revolution gallery show.

“I set out to paint nontraditional people in a traditional medium.”

I should also mention that you can find out more about Rose and her art at her website RoseAdare.com, where you can also get in touch with her about both originals and prints (which are very reasonably priced by the way, starting at $20). Her current show will be at Holualoa’s J+ Gallery until March 10, 2013.

* * *

* Are you a modified person yourself, or more of a fan?

I don’t have any hardcore bodymods yet, though I do have a fiery tattoo on my lower back I drew while learning to fire spin in Ireland, and I have four spike piercings crowning the top of my ear. All of my piercings were done by Kala Kaiwi, our resident specialist on the Big Island of Hawaii — he’s also the model in Primal Buddha.

* How did you get into piercing and tattoos?

A lot of things drew me to bodymod. I was a San Francisco goth while studying at the Academy of Art University — another shadow in the Deathguild scene, dancing on coffins at Spike’s Vampire Bar at Burning Man! In 2005 I was in a collision with a municipal train and wound up in ten body braces. With the overall body-pain I had to escape the cold of San Francisco so I moved to Hawaii. I wound up living with the wonderful John Corbin — R.I.P., fondly remembered as Burning Man’s flaming bagpipes. He used to have a flamethrower which would set off a huge jet of fire when he wailed! His house was covered in surreal murals, and my room was a bright pink girly-girl room with a mural of Pudge the Fish (the sandwich eating fish from Lilo and Stitch). Here’s me, lying in black, in a bright pink room with Pudge the Fish. Aloha!

Years later my partner, Alex Stitt, the fire dancer in Pyro Paramour, moved into a new place with Robert Bennett, the model in the painting Ardens. I adore Robert. He’s family, and the one who painted all the murals in my old house. He’s one of the best tattoo artists on the Big Island, and unlike many tattoo artists he’s also a painter, which gives him an eye for detail and form, and his professionalism is next to known.

rose - primal buddha

* What were you “trying to say” with this series of paintings?

When I was dreaming of Restraint & Revolution I was imagining all the different kinds of corsetry. The painting series is about how people push social boundaries, and corsets are amazing because they have transformed from a symbol of chastity worn under the clothes, to sexy, naughty lingerie worn over top. A complete 180! Everyone in the series pushes those boundaries. Kimberly Dark (Mysterium) is one of the top six LGBT speakers in the country, Carol Queen (Queen 2B4) founded GAYouth and the Center For Sex and Culture — the woman added words to the sexual dictionary! — Jason Webley (Eleventh Hour) is an underground musical genius, Buffy Saint-Marie (Sky Dance) is a Native American musical powerhouse, Ariellah Darker Still (Bring Me My Ghosts) created Dark Fusion belly dance, and Master Obsidian and slave Namaste (Genuflect) are award-winning sex positive role models. They’re all amazing because they change the world by expressing who they are. I mean, if we’re talking about body-mods and self actualization, let’s talk about Billy Castro (Bonnie is Clyde). He’s a transgender porn star. He even spoke at Stanford at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research.

* But beyond corsets of the traditional body-reshaping clothing type, you’ve also painted the play piercing sort?

Naturally, I wanted to paint a corset piercing. At the time Robert was dating the fetish model Stembot (who’s in the painting Acceptance). She leapt off the couch and said “Let’s do it!” Next thing I know, we’re at Kala Kaiwi’s mod-shop lancing eighteen hoops into her back. That’s how I met Kala. His work is brilliant. Scarification, implants, subdermals — he can do it all and he has it all. Implants in his forehead, spikes drilled into the top of his head, tattooed eyes, knotwork patterns in his skin. Everything. About a year later Stembot moved back to the mainland and Robert met Jesi Collins (Venus Unbound). She’s also an amazing tattoo artist and a wonderful mom (Robert tattooed a lot of the work on her left leg). She and her daughter came to live with us. She has a starfish implant in the back of her hand (which you can’t see in the painting because of her pose), as well as a magnet embedded in her finger to perform magic tricks like picking up paper clips and making them spin on tables. She also has a puffer-fish tattooed on her right leg so when she bends her knee it puffs up! I guess we were one fantastic, freaky family after that. We used to go down to the cliffs in the jungle and Kala would pierce Jesi’s back with these huge meat hooks then Robert would suspend her from a tree and swing her out across the water.

rose - portrait of jesi collins

* How literal are you with your portraits?

I paint people as they are — though Koyote (in the painting Koyote) is wearing costume horns because he’s a fire performer, and I think they suit him. Sexy devil! However, people are motion, and paintings are still. What I mean by that is people, in life, transform from second to second. Every smile and frown and twitch creases the face, so the idea you have of them is an amalgam of these images — the serene, the troubled, the beautiful, the fear; all mashed together. A painting is like picking one character out of the play that is you. My painting of Kala, for example, is undoubtedly him, though only one or two aspects. Unlike photographs, paintings are more than a mere snapshot. They’re archetypes, like streamlined forms of self.

* What about with their body art? For example, do you try and be literal with their tattoos, or do you take liberties to make their tattoos match your artistic style or commentary?

I love painting tattoos because they are the literal meaning of organic art. When it comes to painting in general, I use sacred geometry like the vesica piscis or the nautilus spiral, blending and softening around the edges before bringing it in for detail. This means that certain tattoos come into focus, just as your eye would focus, while others phase out into basic shapes and color. People can’t see everything simultaneously, and that’s important to remember in portraiture. It’s one of the key differences between Classical Realism and Photo realism. An excellent tattoo painter is Shawn Barber. He focuses on the detail of tattoos.

rose - portrait of robert bennett

* What sort of response have you gotten to this series?

The response to my art has been nothing but excellent. Restraint & Revolution will be visiting the mainland U.S. within the next year before moving on to Europe. Yet we were careful about starting in Hawaii. Hawaii’s art is Hawaiiana. Dolphins and orchids and sunset “plein air” landscapes. Hawaii is so vibrant and colorful artists have to compete with nature herself to capture anything half as brilliant. My art, because it evolves out of Classical Realism, takes on more somber tones, and there’s nothing quite like these portraits out here. Our opening at the East Hawaii Cultural Center drew more people than they’d ever had at a single event! People came out in droves, and it was a mixed house. The classic Hawiianna art scene, the local island vibe, the hippies from the jungle, the fetishists from the off grid dungeons, the college students from UH Hilo, the vacationers fresh off the cruise ship — everyone wanted to see! And the truth is, people are often afraid to ask, especially about bodymods. They want to know “does it hurt?” or “why did you do that?’ or “how does that work?” or “is her hand really magnetic?” But at the same time that little voice says “don’t stare, don’t be rude.” At the art show we posted bios of each model so people could read all about these different intersecting, counterculture, underground, subculture lifestyles.

* Beyond capturing a sense of breaking sociopersonal boundaries, is there any other theme to your artwork?

I set out to paint nontraditional people in a traditional medium. Fine art can be so stiff and traditional. Masterfully skilled but thematic. Contemporary art, especially abstract art, can be so expressive that in the end there’s more message than talent or skill. I love the traditionalists, but we can’t all be Da Vinci. I love the innovators, but we can’t all be Duchamp. Fine art needs to evolve, in the same way that the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood broke the mold, and the Impressionists blurred the boundaries, and the Surrealists escaped reality. But there is a magic to fine art, an alchemy in oil paint, and a soul in composition that we’re losing to Photoshop and instantaneous art. Each portrait takes well over one hundred hours, and is infused with gold leaf, and santo paolo, and whiskey, and peyote — and in the portrait of Koyote even some of my own blood. Blood, sweat and tears. That’s Fine Art. Don’t get me wrong. I believe in instantaneous art, I believe in instantaneous expression, and I believe everyone is an artist, and everyone has a message, and that’s the truth. But which iconic images survive the test of time? Some changed the very way we saw the world. Look at Picasso and Georges Braque and Cubism. But others survived because they captured time and place. Toulouse-Lautrec immortalized Montmartre, as did Modigliani. I love to celebrate people. I love to celebrate our time, and the bodymod scene is a huge part of that. Blood, sweat and tears. That’s love. That’s dedication. And that’s art.

rose - portrait of stembot

The Tongue-Drive System

Posted on May 28, 2012 by James Weber

(Editor’s note: This article will be published in the summer 2012 issue of The Point, the publication of the Association of Professional Piercers. James Weber the article’s author, have given BME permission to publish this article for the continued education of professionals and body art enthusiasts. Enjoy.)

Late last February a rather curious news story made the rounds on Facebook and other social media sites and pop culture blogs. Various publications¹reported on an article² about a project from Georgia Tech, one that enables a person with quadriplegia to control a wheelchair through the movement of the tongue by moving around a magnet worn in a tongue piercing. Piercers everywhere were sharing, reposting, and reblogging the article in a variety of places—including on my Facebook timeline. Fortunately, this was not news to me, as I’ve had the unique opportunity to be involved with the project as a consultant for several years. But after a dozen piercers forwarded me the article I realized it was time to write about my experience with the clinical trials of the Tongue Drive System.

In late October of 2009 I was contacted by Dr. Maysam Ghovanloo, Associate Professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Over the phone he explained the project that he was working on, titled in the research protocol Development and Translational Assessment of a Tongue-Based Assistive Neuro-Technology for Individuals with Severe Neurological Disorders. Simply, this is a system that allows persons with quadriplegia to perform a variety of computer-aided tasks—including operating their wheelchairs—by changing the position of a small magnet inside their mouths. The magnet’s changing position is monitored by a headpiece that looks like a double-sided, hands-free phone headset.

His team had, at that point, experimented with different ways to attach the magnet to the tongue with varying degrees of success. Adhesives were only effective for very short periods, and the idea of permanently implanting a magnet into the tongue was not considered a workable alternative.³This left a third option suggested by Dr. Anne Laumann: attaching a magnet to the tongue with a tongue piercing.

He then came to the reason for his call: he asked if I would be interested in being involved in the clinical trials as a member of the Data Safety Monitoring Board. As I listened to him describe the details of my involvement, I thought about the incredible places my life as a piercer—and my job as an APP Board member—have brought me. I enthusiastically and without hesitation said “Yes!”

(Note: The article is pretty lengthy, so we’ve put a break here to same some space. Click the Read More button to continue)

For those not familiar with clinical trials (and I was not when I initially agreed to be involved with the study), the Data Safety Monitoring Board (or DSMB, alternately called a Data Monitoring Committee) is a group of experts, independent of the study researchers, who monitor test-subject safety during a clinical trial. The DSMB does this by reviewing the study protocol and evaluating the study data, and will often make recommendations to those in charge of the study concerning the continuation, modification, or termination of the trial. The inclusion of a DSMB is required in studies involving human participants as specified by the Common Rule,⁴ which is the baseline standard of ethics by which any government-funded research in the United States must abide. (The clinical trial is sponsored jointly by both the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health, but nearly all academic institutions hold their researchers to these statements of rights regardless of funding.)⁵

I was excited to be part of the project, and the following May I received the full details of the study. The clinical trial was to be performed in three phases, with three sets of participants. The first involved ten able-bodied individuals with existing tongue piercings. These participants were to test the hardware and software created by his team and to quantify the ability of those participants to operate the wheelchair with the specially-designed post⁶ in their tongue piercing. The second group consisted of ten able-bodied volunteers without tongue piercings. These participants were to be pierced, given time to let the piercings heal, and then monitored operating the Tongue Drive System. The third group of participants was to be a selection of thirty people with quadriplegia—without existing tongue piercings—who were to be pierced and then monitored while the piercing healed. Afterward, they were to be evaluated on their ability to operate a computer and navigate an electric wheelchair through an obstacle course using the magnetic tongue jewelry.

The study was to be conducted in two different locations: in Atlanta, at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Shepherd Center; and in Chicago, on the Northwestern Medical Center Campus and at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, with half of the participants in each phase of the study coming from each location. (Five from each city for the first two phases, fifteen from each for the last.) Drs. Maysam Ghovanloo and Michael Jones were to oversee the trials in Atlanta, and Drs. Anne Laumann and Elliot Roth were to oversee the trials in Chicago.

The DSMB charter specified the eight people who had been drafted to be part of the DSMB: The board chair is a professor of rehabilitation science and technology; one member is a director of a rehabilitation engineering research center; one a professor of rehabilitation medicine. There are two M.D.s: one a neurologist; one an associate professor of dermatology; two biostatisticians (one acting as study administrator); and me. Also included in the documents sent was the full study protocol. This document outlined the finer points of the study, including the protocol for tongue piercings to be performed by the doctors involved with the study. The email also specified the possible times of the first meeting of the DSMB, to be conducted via conference call.

As I participated in the conference call several weeks later it was hard not to feel I was out of my element. While I routinely lecture at several local universities, it’s been quite a while since I’ve been in academia. But I soon realized I was not there for my academic credentials but for my position and experience—and as a de facto authority on piercing. This I could do.

During that first meeting I expressed the concerns I had about the piercing protocol, specifically about physicians performing the piercings—physicians with little or no experience doing so. “Do any of the members on the research team have prior piercing experience?” I wrote. “Even though it is not a complicated procedure, it is better for doctors who are involved in this task to have prior experience with tongue piercing.”

I was told that the physician overseeing the piercings in Atlanta had performed at least thirty tongue piercings in his private practice. And although Dr. Laumann—who was responsible for the tongue piercings in Chicago—had no prior piercing experience, she had conducted extensive research on piercing and tattooing⁷ and had often observed professional piercers at work. (Furthermore, she is considered an expert among dermatologists in the field of piercing and tattooing.) While my concerns were addressed, I do remember feeling hesitant at the close of that meeting.

The second DSMB meeting was held six months later, in December of 2010. At this time the results of the first and second phases of the clinical trial were to be discussed. Before the meeting I was given information about the second study group and about the tongue piercing method performed at the Chicago location—and including images from both locations. From the images provided, I was concerned that the piercings performed by the physicians looked as if they were done by first-year piercing apprentices—which, in a way, they were.

Of the twenty-one study participants who received a tongue piercing, five were noted as complaining about the placement of the piercing, and three piercings resulted in embedded jewelry. Based on the photos I guessed this was because either the piercing had been placed too far back on the tongue or the length for initial jewelry was improper—or both. I pointed out to the committee this left only about 60% of the subjects who were both comfortable with the placement of the piercing (at least enough to not state the contrary to researchers) and who did not have problems with embedded jewelry. I stated I thought this was far too small a percentage to ensure the well-being of each research participant. Even though it was outside my role as a DSMB member, I further stated the results of the study may be affected by the improperly placed piercings, as more than a few of the study participants had taken out their jewelry and dropped out of the study within a few days of being pierced, saying they were either unhappy with the placement or found the position of the piercing uncomfortable.⁸

I went on to express concerns about the piercing protocols and to question whether piercers could perform these procedures instead of physicians. Unfortunately, I was told the parameters of the study, and the rules at the medical centers where the piercings were being performed, did not allow non-medical professionals to perform the piercing procedures.⁹

Despite my concerns, my suggestions and criticisms were well-received. Dr. Ghovanloo agreed to re-evaluate the piercing protocol and I offered him whatever help he needed. Most importantly, I got the impression the two doctors performing the piercings were somewhat humbled by the experience. While there was no doubt that these physicians have anatomical knowledge and surgical experience that far surpasses mine, they were quickly realizing this didn’t make them proficient piercers.

Several months after that conference call, I had the opportunity to finally meet Dr. Ghovanloo in person. The quarterly meeting of the APP’s board of directors was scheduled in Atlanta in February of 2010, and Dr. Ghovanloo arranged for me to meet some of the trial staff at the Shepherd Center. I had the sense he was excited as well, and he also arranged for the physician doing the piercings during the clinical trials in Atlanta to be there: Dr. Arthur Simon. As I was at a board meeting with Elayne Angel (the APP’s then-Medical Liaison, current President, and resident expert on tongue piercings), I asked about having her attend as well. He readily agreed.

When Elayne and I arrived we were greeted by Shepherd staff member and study coordinator Erica Sutton, and we were soon led to our meeting with Dr. Ghovanloo and Dr. Simon. Compared to the necessary formality of the DSMB meetings, it was a friendly and relaxed meeting. Dr. Ghovanloo and his colleagues were somewhat starstruck by Elayne (she often does that to people) especially since her book, The Piercing Bible, was used so extensively in drafting the trial piercing protocols.

As we talked about the clinical trials, it was hard to not be affected by Dr. Ghovanloo’s enthusiasm for the project. We spoke at length about the issues the doctors encountered when performing the piercings. Doctor Simon in particular was humbled after his experience. “How do you hold those little balls to screw on?” he asked at one point during the several hours we met, a little exasperated and only half joking. I can’t speak for Elayne, but I left with an immense respect for Dr. Ghovanloo, his staff, and the whole project. I also left with the impression that they had a lot more knowledge of—and a little more respect for—what we do as well.

Since that time, stage three of the clinical trials has already taken place. I’ve been informed by Dr. Ghovanloo that the third and final meeting of the DSMB will be scheduled in the coming weeks. In fact, trials are being planned using a new prototype that allows users to wear a dental retainer on the roof of their mouth embedded with sensors to control the system (instead of the headset),¹⁰ with the signals from these sensors wirelessly transmitted to an iPod or iPhone. Software installed on the iPod then determines the relative position of the magnet with respect to the array of sensors in real time, and this information is used to control the movements of a computer cursor or a powered wheelchair.

I’m looking forward to hearing when the project is out of the trial phase and more widely available to all who can use it. When that happens, I’m sure I’ll be hearing from Dr. Ghovanloo—and seeing the news again posted on Facebook.

More information about the current trials can be found on the Shepherd Center’s web site: http://www.shepherdcentermagazine.org/q3_11/#/feature2/

Links:

1 http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-02/21/tongue-drive-system, http://news.discovery.com/tech/tongue-drives-wheelchair-120222.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1, http://boingboing.net/2012/02/24/tongue-piercing-steers-wheelch.html

2 http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=110351

3 Unlike implants under the skin, the tongue has no “pockets” in which to encase a foreign object, and there was also concern about the need to remove the magnet for surgeries and MRIs.

4 http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/commonrule/index.html

5 The history of research ethics in the country is simultaneously fascinating and shameful. Most of the modern rules now in place concerning clinical trials in the U.S. are as a result of the public outcry over the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, a study that ran for four decades, from 1932 and 1972, in Tuskegee, Alabama. This clinical trial was conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service and was set up to study untreated syphilis in poor, rural black men who thought they were receiving free health care from the U.S. government. The study was terminated only after an article in the New York Times brought it to the attention of the public. More information about the history of research ethics can be found here: http://research.unlv.edu/ORI-HSR/history-ethics.htm

6 In one of my early conversations with Dr. Ghovanloo I gave him the name of several manufacturers who I thought would be willing and/or able to make the jewelry needed for the trials. Barry Blanchard from Anatometal came through by manufacturing special barbells with a magnet encased in a laser-welded titanium ball fixed on top. Blue Mountain Steel also donated the barbells and piercing supplies for the initial piercings.

7 Dr. Laumann has co-written several published papers on body piercing and tattooing. The most recent is titled, “Body Piercing: Complications and Prevention of Health Risks.”

8 Dr. Ghovanloo and the other physicians had suggestions for the reasons for the high dropout rate among healthy subjects. In response to an early draft of this article, he wrote, “We simply lost contact with a few subjects after piercing, and cannot say for sure what their motivation was in participating in the trial and consequently dropping out after receiving the piercing.” Dr. Laumann, commenting on the Chicago site, wrote, “We prescreened thirty-two volunteers. Ten of these were screened and consented. Three of these were ineligible due to a short lingual frenulum, or ‘tongue web.’ This would have made the use of the TDS impracticable and for research it would have been considered inappropriate to cut the lingual frenulum. We pierced seven subjects and—you are correct—our first subject dropped out related to embedding of the jewelry and pain on the first day. After that we were careful to measure the thickness of the tongue and insert a barbell that allowed for 6.35 mm (1/4 inch) of swelling. Otherwise drop-outs came much later during the TDS testing phase related to scheduling and unrelated medical issues. One of the subjects, a piercer herself, was particularly pleased with the procedure, the tract placement and the appearance.”

9 Though the protocols did not allow the procedure to be conducted by non-medical personnel, Gigi Gits, from Kolo, was present during one of the phase-two health subject’s piercings and Bethra Szumski, from Virtue and Vice, was able to offer advice at the first phase-three piercing session in Atlanta.

10 Dr. Laumann: “The problem with headgear is that it needs to be removed at night, which means that the disabled individual cannot do anything in the morning until the headset is replaced and the TDS recalibrated. With secure intra-oral sensors, recalibration will not be necessary in the morning, nor will the sensors slip during use, which gives the wearer a great degree of independence. Of course, a dental retainer takes up space in the mouth and this may be difficult with a barbell in place.”

Help out the youngest member of the BME family. Get a limited edition 2012 BME Classic Logo t-shirt. Read all the details here.

ModBlog News of the Week: December 16th, 2011

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Rob

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Alright, so the year is almost at an end and I was thinking to myself, I didn’t really do a year-end news post last year. So this year I’m going to rectify that. However, in order to do so, I’m going to need your help. Take a look through the newsfeed archive for the past year, and then send me an e-mail with what you think are the top stories of the year. It could be one, it could be more, that’s up to you. Then, for the last news post of the year, I’ll do a re-cap of the stories that you thought were the most important ones. Was it TLC’s failed attempt at a “Tattoo School” show? Mike Tyson’s tattoo artist nearly preventing Hangover 2 from being released? Rick Genest (Zombie Boy) becoming the muse to Lady Gaga’s stylist? You tell me. Of course, don’t forget to keep sending me those links to other stories that you think should be included in the weekly news.

Alright, let’s get things started with a bang this week. The big story is out of Indonesia where police raided a punk concert in an effort to crack down on tattooed and pierced teenagers.

Police in Indonesia’s most conservative province raided a punk-rock concert and detained 65 fans, buzzing off their spiky mohawks and stripping away body piercings because of the perceived threat to Islamic values. Dog-collar necklaces and chains also were taken from the youths before they were thrown in pools of water for “spiritual” cleansing, local police chief Iskandar Hasan said. After replacing their “disgusting” clothes, he handed each a toothbrush and barked “use it.” The crackdown marked the latest effort by authorities to promote strict moral values in Aceh, the only province in this secular but predominantly Muslim nation of 240 million to have imposed Islamic laws.

Though pierced and tattooed teens have complained for months about harassment, Saturday’s roundup at a concert attended by more than 100 people was by far the biggest and most dramatic bust yet. Baton-wielding police scattered fans, many of whom had travelled from other parts of the sprawling archipelagic nation to attend the show. Hasan said 59 young men and five women were loaded into vans and brought to a police detention centre 60 kilometres from the provincial capital, Banda Aceh. They would spend 10 days getting rehabilitation, training in military-style discipline and religious classes, including Koran recitation, he said. Afterward, they’ll be sent home.

Hasan insisted he’d done nothing wrong. “We’re not torturing anyone,” the police chief said. “We’re not violating human rights. We’re just trying to put them back on the right moral path.” However, Nur Kholis, a national human commissioner, deplored the detentions, saying police have to explain what kinds of criminal laws have been broken. “Otherwise, they violated people’s right of gathering and expression,” Kholis said, promising to investigate.

It should be noted that the province where this occurred is unique in Indonesia for being strict adherents to Sharia law. The rest of the country, while predominantly Muslim, practice a moderate form of their faith. I’m personally a little concerned as to what they may do to those kids who are tattooed. It’s easy to shave someone’s head and rip out piercings, it’s something else entirely to remove a tattoo. The linked article above has a few more photos of what happened. Now I try not to be political when it comes to the news, however this is a prime example of why the church and state need to be completely separate. And it doesn’t matter what religion it is either. The moment one group’s religious beliefs are imposed upon another, and backed by the government, is the the same moment that things like this become acceptable. The reason I’m mentioning this is because in North America there is a strong anti-Sharia law movement taking place, which is backed by people who want their own religion put in place as the state-sponsored religion, without realizing that they’re protesting against the very thing they want. Leave the government to the crooks and liars, and let people determine their own religious (or non-religious) beliefs.

Ok, that’s enough moralizing from me. There’s more news to come, so keep on reading.

So while we’re still on the subject of people imposing their beliefs on others, a woman in Vietnam has gone to the police after her employer tattooed centipedes on her face and chest.

A worker at a Vietnamese cafe said the owner forced her to get centipede tattoos on her face and bosom for a suspected affair with the owner’s husband. Police in Vung Tau City were investigating Nguyen Thuy Ngoc’s claim that Nguyen Thi Anh, who owns the Mo Neo cafe, shaved Ngoc’s head and forced her to get a centipede tattooed on her face and two others on her chest because of a suspected affair between Ngoc and Ahn’s husband, Pham The Phong, Tuoi Tre News reported.

Ngoc, 20, said Anh, 33, had asked her why she had an affair with her husband and beat her Nov. 26 and Nov. 27 at the cafe. Ngoc said she came to Vung Tau in April 2008 to work for Anh at her cellphone shop but Anh later opened a cafe and forced her to work there. Ngoc returned to her home in Nghe An province’s Nghi Loc district Nov. 28 and told her mother, Tran Thi Hoa, of her treatment. The mother reported it to police in Nghe An and Vung Tau. Vung Tau police questioned Anh and Phong and the couple told police they had hired Ngoc at the cafe but she quit over conflicts between her and Anh.

Here’s what I don’t get. It says she was beat at work on the 26th and 27th. You’d think she wouldn’t want to go into work the next day after that happened. This is the reason Jen and I live in different cities, I know that if we lived closer together she’d try to beat me up as often as she could.

Now it’s one thing to have your boss tattoo you, it’s another to have your boss tell you what kind of tattoos you can and can’t get. Now if your boss is the Major League Baseball Association, that’s exactly what they just did.

The Associated Press reports the new labor deal will result in a four-day All-Star break by 2013, with the game being played on a Wednesday instead of a Tuesday, and it will allow teams in the same division to meet in the playoffs before the league championship series.

Among other new stipulations:

Teams must provide individual rooms during spring training for all players on the 40-man roster, instead of having some of them room together.

Players who want to change uniform number while on the same team will be required to give eight-months’ notification.

Players will not be allowed to display tattoos with corporate logos.

According to the new CBA, a copy of which was obtained by AP, “no player may have any visible markings or logos tattooed on his body” as part of the uniform regulations. “Just trying to head something off at the pass,” said Rob Manfred, baseball’s executive vice president for labor relations.

I guess this means we won’t be seeing any Golden Palace tattoos on anyone’s forehead next summer.

It’s time now for this week’s common sense awards. First up is a young woman who was rushed to hospital after swallowing some magnets. The catch, the magnets are being marketed as “fake piercings“.

One of Cameron Miller’s friends recently gave her magnetic jewelry. The super magnets are often marketed to teens because they’re meant to look like piercings. “Everybody has them at school. Everybody brings them every day and they wear them until the teacher says take them out,” Miller said. But the 13-year-old accidently swallowed the seemingly harmless tiny pieces of metal. “I had one on my lip and I took a drink. I forgot I had them in. I swallowed them,” she said.

Miller, a softball player, went on to play in a game later that day and didn’t give the magnets much more thought until she started to feel sick a couple days later. Perry Miller said blood work showed her daughter developed a blood infection. Then an x-ray revealed four magnets in a row stuck together inside the teen’s intestines. She was rushed to Cook Children’s Medical Center for surgery after two of the magnets tore a hole in her colon.

Now I remember an article a while back about kids using bucky balls to achieve the same look, and the same thing happened. Of course instead of realizing this was pretty horrible, someone had the bright idea to start selling them as jewelry.

Our other winner this week is a man who was able to write his own headline after tattooing “No Regrets” on a 14-year-old girl.

A COURT heard yesterday a man regretted tattooing “No regrets” on a 14-year-old girl’s shoulder. Allan Fenton had no licence to give tattoos but ran a word-of-mouth business from his home in Dundee. The 24-year-old’s Bebo page features dozens of tattoos he has done. Fenton, who charged the girl £25, was caught when police and council licensing bosses swooped on his home. They found surgical tape and gloves, rolls of cling film, five tattooing machines, a tattooing table and arm rests in his bedroom.

Alan Lyle, defending, said: “The tattoo was only two inches long, but he regrets this.”

So congratulations to both the tattoo artist and the company making these magnets for piercings. Thanks to their lack of common sense, I had two stories to include this week.

So there’s been a lot of doom and gloom this week, and I’ve got one more, but after that things take a brighter turn.

The Canadian government is searching for ways to keep up with the body modification community. While inspectors are trying to get to every shop, they have no idea on how to handle surgical modifications, which is resulting in a lot of conflicting information. The result is the government is contemplating following in Winnipeg’s steps and outlawing anything that isn’t piercing or tattoos.

Public health authorities across Canada are struggling to address the growing popularity of body modifications such as splitting one’s tongue like a snake’s and surgically altering ears to make them elf-like and pointy, fearing the spread of infection in an unregulated industry. Last Wednesday, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health’s board of health received a report warning that one can suffer a “serious or possibly life-threatening consequence” while undergoing one of these surgical-like procedures in a “non-clinical” environment where there’s a higher threat of contracting HIV or hepatitis B and C. Scarification, which is effectively carving or branding an image into your skin, and suspension, which involves being hung from the ceiling on hooks lodged into your back, are among the more common forms of extreme body modification happening in tattoo and piercing shops across the country who often yield to squeamish health inspectors who judge before they do their work, body modifiers say.

Since the new budget came down, they’ve been able to inspect 175 of the 230 personal service settings, which include anything from body modification to acupuncture, she said — a 136% increase in inspections, which were far rarer with a smaller staff. But even so, it’s tough to find those performing body modifications because these artists freelance or do their branding and tongue splitting after hours or at home, Ms. Kearns said. Personal service settings don’t require a license and so many inspectors depend on new establishments to tell them about any body modification they’d be doing. But that’s not required by law. “We’d inspected a premise we’re aware of that’s low risk and then suddenly they bring in an artist who is doing more procedures and elevating the risk,” she said. “It’s very difficult, from our perspective.”

Winnipeg is one of the only places in Canada to outright ban body modification beyond tattoos and piercings. As of June 2008, the city outlawed scarification and implants after people from the industry voiced concerns about body modifiers that were alleged to have spread disease through their practices, said Pat Masterton, public health inspection coordinator for Winnipeg. “I think the people who wanted to be reputable operators and run proper businesses carrying on sanitary processes wanted to make sure the whole industry was not going to be labelled because someone out there was doing something that was going to be causing infection,” she said.

This is an important story to read for all Canadians, not just those who get implants, scars, etc. As you can see in the opening paragraph, they include suspension as one of the activities they’re investigating. Without significant input from the community Canada may be facing legislation that could outlaw extreme modifications, as well as suspension.

Moving on, a study in Australia has revealed some interesting information when it comes to the tattooed population.

According to a study by La Trobe University’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) a greater proportion of women aged 20 to 29 are the most tattooed Australians, with almost one in three sporting a tattoo, whereas in the older age groups tattoos were more common among men. Tattooing appears to have moved into mainstream society, with roughly one in seven Australian adults reporting having been tattooed. Despite the recent gentrification of tattooing, tattoos still appear to be associated with risk-taking behaviour in adults.

‘Having been tattooed also correlated with certain risk-taking behaviours, most notably smoking, cannabis use, and greater numbers of lifetime sexual partners. Associations between tattooing and risk-taking behaviour have also been reported in studies among adults and adolescents,’ says Professor Marian Pitts, Director of ARCSHS. ‘Although the direction of the relationship between tattooing and risk-taking behaviour in adults is not currently known, it may be that in some groups tattooing still represents and is associated with resistance and rebellion towards more conservative parts of society.’

More recently however, in a 2007 review authors found the most common reasons mentioned in the literature related to embellishments of the body, art, fashion, and individuality. Tattooing was popular among men who had not finished secondary school, tradesmen, and women who did not live with their partners, whereas men and women who had completed postsecondary education were less likely to have a tattoo. Similar findings relating to education attainment were also reported in the U.S. national study. ‘Furthermore, tattooing does not appear to be confined to certain subpopulations, with men and women in every demographic reporting having tattoos,’ says Professor Pitts.

So basically it’s telling us what we already knew. Tattoos aren’t just for sailors, bikers, and prostitutes any more. Unless of course 1 in 3 Australian women between 20-29 are actually prostitutes.

In a nice and heart warming story, a Quebec couple has gotten matching tattoos. That on its own wouldn’t be so special, however the tattoo is of an insulin pump, identical to the one their son has implanted in him.

Some parents get tattoos of their child’s name, but Philippe Aumond and Camille Boivin went one better. In a show of solidarity, they each have an image of an insulin pump tattooed on their abdomens, declaring that they are “forever linked” to their son Jacob. “It is a great thing for him, and we were thrilled just to see his smile when he saw those pumps. It made our day, that’s for sure,” said Boivin, 36, from the family’s home in La Sarre, Que.

A while back, Jacob, diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 3 ½, was excited by the idea of getting an insulin pump that would replace four to five injections a day, and he figured it would be like having his own little robot working for him. When it was delivered, he was “just like a kid on Christmas Eve with his gift,” and even slept with it before it was plugged into him, said Boivin. Jacob is now five and in kindergarten, and he wears it 24-7. “He adapted pretty quick, but one time he told me that he felt different and he was wondering if he was alone in the world, you know, wearing a pump,” Boivin said.

She explained to him that every child is different — some wear glasses, others are in wheelchairs, some have blue eyes, others have brown eyes. “So he got that, but still, you know, he is a kid. He was four at the time, so he wants to be like everybody else,” Boivin explained. “Before we had the pump, I think the way he felt is that having shots was just a little part of his day and nobody had to know. But then now, he was wearing a pump, and people could see it and people were asking questions and I think that’s what bothered him a little bit. So he felt really alone.” She and Aumond decided to get tattoos of the pump, “because no parents want to have their child feel left out or alone.”

See. Heart-warming. Now, is it dusty in here, because I have something in my eye.

Alright, today’s last story is either going to be cool or horrific. It all depends on how you react to the following photo.

As a symbol of wealth and harmony, the goldfish is a popular tattoo. But in a craze sweeping China, goldfish are themselves being inked with patterns and characters intended to being their owners good fortune. The tattoos are said to be the result of an injection which takes half a year to form. Other methods use lasers. Tattooed fish first appeared on the market in 2005 and have become very popular in the past year or two. The technique is not without its critics, however, who claim it is not only cruel, but against the laws of nature.

Like I said. To some people, having a goldfish with a specially designed symbol on them would be pretty cool. To others, it’s animal cruelty. It all depends on how you feel about tattooing fish.

Well, that’s it for this week’s news. We’ll see you back here next week for a special holiday edition, and then it’ll only be one week to go before the BME NYE Party! Hopefully I’ll see a lot of you there. You can find out more about the event right here. As well as the event page on IAM.

Oh, and don’t forget to e-mail me the stories you think were the best this year.

Want to take part in something groundbreaking?

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Rob

After months of planning and research, a new project is about to get underway that is both a living art exhibit and a journey into the very limits of body modification. I’ve known about this for a little while, but I had been asked to keep quiet until the time was right. Well, today is the day.

The artist behind this project has asked to remain anonymous for now, but he/she has been featured on ModBlog several times before. This project is the culmination of many years of hard work. That project? The Arnie Composition.

The focus of the project is to take fictional modification/mutations found in various Arnold Schwarzenegger films and make them a reality. This is where you come in. The artist is looking for volunteers to take part in this radical art showcase. In order to take part you must be 21 or older, and have some experience with surgical modifications (i.e. implants, etc), and be willing to travel to Montreal.

So what modifications are planned? Well I don’t have the final list, but I can provide some examples. We recently saw in the news a professor who used transdermal anchors to stick a camera into the back of his head. The implants eventually had to be removed as the camera weighed too much. For “The Arnie Composition” the artist is looking for someone who is up to the challenge of becoming The Predator. If you recall, in the film Predator, the alien had a digital device attached to his arm. For the project the artist has crafted a compact and lightweight version that will attach to the arm via magnetic transdermals.

In addition to the arm plate, he is also looking to use multiple skull transdermal implants to attach dreadlocks similar to the predator’s.

Next up is the Terminator portion of the exhibit. Using a combination of scarification, branding, and LED implants, the goal is to recreate the iconic look of The Terminator.

Finally, in the most radical modification of the collection, the Total Recall. Total Recall is famous for a number of things, but probably the most iconic image is that of Mary, the prostitute. One lucky woman will have the opportunity to be the centerpiece of the exhibit by transforming into Mary.

There are many more procedures planned, including a radical tattoo and scar piece reminiscent of Mr. Freeze.

If you have any questions regarding this exhibit, feel free to get in contact with me as I’ll be passing the requests along to the artist. In the mean time, take a look through the galleries to see what what the many talented artists that submit their images to BME are capable of, and start watching those Arnie movies to get a better idea of what to expect from The Arnie Composition.

ModBlog News of the Week: December 3rd, 2010

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Rob

Holy crap it’s December already. Why didn’t anyone tell me? With only a couple more weeks until the end of the year, there isn’t a lot of time left for any type of holiday shopping that might need to get done. Not to mention getting travel plans finalized for the BME New Year’s Eve Party.

Thankfully the news is a little light this week so you’ll still have a few hours to get to the stores before they close.

The first story of the day is one of sadness. Back on November 19th the Pike River coal mine in New Zealand was rocked by an explosion which resulted in the deaths of 29 miners. One way that members of the community are handling their grief is through memorial tattoos.

West Coasters are paying a permanent tribute to victims of the Pike River mine disaster. Greymouth tattooist Nick Reedy said he had done tattoos for about 20 people, marking the deaths of the 29 miners. ”It’s something people naturally do in remembrance of others and have done for hundreds, if not thousands, of years,” he said. ”With this latest tragedy … people are doing the same.” Reedy said he had done some tattoos for free, while other customers had made a donation. Designs had included mining tools and the yellow ribbon, which had become a symbol of solidarity with the miners and their families.

For the rest of this week’s news, keep on reading…

Last week I posted a story about a professor who was having a camera implanted into the back of his head. At the time the procedure hadn’t been done, but this week we have video not only of the implant, but also parts of the procedure as well.

New York University photography professor Wafa Bilal had a titanium plate implanted about a week. It was done by someone who normally does body piercings. They used a local anesthetic. A small surveillance camera connects to the base magnetically.

I wasn’t able to find out who did the implant, or even if they want to be publicly acknowledged for the work or not. It does look like they did a good job though, of course that will be determined on how it holds up with the weight of the camera over long periods of time.

Speaking of using implants in unconventional ways, it seems doctors have found a way to use a piercing that resembles a dermal anchor to assist people who have lost the ability to swallow.

Surgeon Peter Belafsky had been tinkering with ways to treat oropharyngeal dysphagia–a swallowing disorder that when severe can prevent people from being able to swallow at all–for years. But it wasn’t until he took his two daughters to get their ears pierced–and noticed the woman behind the counter with piercings in her nose, eyebrow, and even cleavage–that he realized how to do it, and a device to manually open and close the esophagus was born. Described as one of the world’s first medicinal body piercings, the experimental device works by pulling on a tiny metal pin extending out of the skin of the patient’s neck to move the larynx forward and open the esophagus.

“By attaching a tiny titanium rod to a postage stamp-sized plate that we’ve sewn into the neck cartilage, we’ve enabled our patient to safely and without pain pull on the device to move his larynx forward and open the esophagus to allow food and liquid to pass,” Belafsky says. “It’s the first time a person has been able to manually control the entryway to the esophagus.”

Looking closely at the implant you can see they’ve externally threaded the top so the gold colored cap will screw onto it. It also looks like the cap has a loop on the top, which I’d assume is for a string to assist in pulling open the esophagus.

When it comes to charity drives, we’ve seen quite a few when it comes to tattoo/piercing drives. This week we have one that is pretty much in line with all the others, and one that is taking things a step further.

Artists working at 281 Tattoo Studio in Edinburg, TX are hoping a toy drive will be able to help out a children’s charity. Bring in a toy valued at over $25 and you’ll get a free tattoo.

Over in England, Fay Walker is trying something different when it comes to a tattoo charity drive.

“TATTOO Girl” Fay Walker has been inundated with donations after her plan to ink names on the soles of her feet was revealed. The 27-year-old has been stopped in the street and was given £200 just hours after the Leader reported on her plans to permanently tattoo 50 names on to her size-three feet for charity.

There are still places up for grab on the soles of Faye’s ticklish feet and she is hoping for more bids – as long as they are not rude words. She said: “I have decided I am going to wait until after Christmas to have the tattoos done and let people get it out of the way and I’m going to have it done in mid-January. “I have already sold a foot’s worth, 25 names.”

There are still spots up for sale, and Fay’s contact information is posted in the article if you want to have her get your name (or something else) tattooed on her feet.

I normally only cut+paste a small portion of an article just to you the highlights, but this article from December 3rd, 1899 is just too good to trim down.

The present rage among Eastern girls is to have their arms tattooed. A girl at Newport last summer appeared on the bathing beach with bare arms, of course, and on the dimpled flesh was a dainty tattooed design. Since then scores have followed her example.

The girls say when in evening dress they can wear long gloves, and even if the glove is removed a pretty tattooed mark is rather an addition than otherwise. A dainty blue anchor, a shamrock leaf, a heart or arrow, or even a copy of one’s pet dog is a favorite design.

The Hindu used to be the master hand at tattoo work, but his methods were rather harsh. He jabbed the needle in a quarter of an inch with no compunction, and after five minutes most people had to give up and rest. At present in New York there are several girls who make a good living tattooing. They sponge the spot on the arm with cocaine and then, when all feeling has departed, they rapidly use the little needle, and the patient does not suffer in the least.

At present the shamrock done in green is the favorite design, but the American flag is also a popular mark.

Over 100 years later, and I’m still coming across stories written almost exactly like this.

A good example, this article talking about the latest trend: stretching your earlobes. Since it’s Friday and almost the end of the work day, why don’t you grab a drink before reading this article. Then, take a sip every time the author uses the term “gauge” in place of “stretch”. (Warning: If you’re drinking alcohol you may end up drunk by the end of it) Here’s a small sample.

People stretch their earlobes for a variety of reasons, Burnidge said. Some like the aesthetics of gauges and the ability for self-expression, while others like the primitive look of them.Western junior Canaan Folk-Reinke has been gauging her earlobes since she was a sophomore in high school. She currently wears 00g, or 10 millimeter gauges.

My apologies if you get alcohol poisoning.

When it comes to discussing the risks involved in getting a tattoo, most articles focus on cross-contamination and unsterilized equipment. What is often neglected is the risks inherent in some types of inks. The interesting part of this story is that it is coming from a vegetarian news site, which focuses on the fact that some tattoo inks are not vegan friendly.

Black pigments, derived from kerosene soot and burned animal bones, are considered to pose minimal health risks…that isif you don’t mind walking around with charred critter remains under your skin for an indefinite period of time. While you can even try your hand at making your own DIY black pigment using India ink from an art store, be forewarned that while many modern versions are made with burned wood and/or resin, some are still made with bones…so read the label.

Now I’m not saying that all inks are bad, so don’t shoot me if you think the writer of the article is in the wrong about any of their claims.

Finally, it’s time for the celebrity round-up. This week there is actually a somewhat interesting story buried within the madness that is celebrity news.

British singer Kerry Katona has opened up in an interview as to why she got her children’s names tattooed on her wrists. It seems that she’s continually struggled with self-harm and cutting problems so she got the tattoos to remind herself that she has to take care of her children.

Of course with every thoughtful story about a celebrity, there are 100 ones about useless crap.

While Kerry’s wrist tattoo is a coping mechanism to help with her issues, The Jersey Shore “star” Angelina’s wrist tattoo is because she felt that the editing on the show made her look bad. I’ve seen Jersey Shore. If the editing was intended to make her look bad, then why wasn’t there any editing to make the others look good?

While I’ll admit to having seen Jersey Shore, I can honestly say I’ve never heard of this next person before in my entire life. Supposedly there’s a show called Teen Mom, and one of the moms on the show recently had her kid taken away by child services. She has since gotten her child back, but not before getting a portrait of her daughter on her stomach.

Fans of Inception will likely recognize Tom Hardy from his role in the film. Do yourself a favor and check out Bronson, Hardy is brilliant in it. Hardy himself is no stranger to getting tattooed and this week he went out while on the set of his latest film and got himself a new one.

The 33-year-old actor recently added a Union Jack tattoo on his upper left chest when he popped into the shop, one of his favorite local hangouts while he’s been filming This Means War.

In the final story of the day, while it isn’t really celebrity news, thefrisky.com has put together a collection of the ten best Golden Girls tattoos. I’d have to say #6 and #9 are my favorites.

And thus concludes our broadcasting day here at ModBlog. Remember to send in any links you find to news stories from around the world.

Have a great weekend everyone, and good luck getting everything on your shopping lists.

Awww, isn’t that sweet!

Posted on August 24, 2005 by Shannon Larratt

As you probably know I have magnets inside my fingers, implanted courtesy of Steve Haworth (made by Jesse Jarrell and previously covered on BME). My magnets are mostly intended to be functional, to give me “magnetic vision“, but Steve and his partner Cookie recently opted for something far more romantic.

Each one got two magnet implants done; one in the fingertip, and the other behind the knuckle, positioned so that if they are holding hands, the magnets draw toward each other, linking them. It’s yet to be determined whether there will be a noticeable sensation or not (the magnets are very small), but on a purely symbolic level I really love it!

If you’re interested in something like this (or are an implant artist looking for silicone coated magnets), you can contact Steve via his website at stevehaworth.com.