Top Contributors, 2003 [The Publisher’s Ring]

Top Contributors, 2003

“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and
outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I
must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received
and am still receiving.”

– Albert Einstein

	One of the many prizes, a limited-edition custom BME belt buckle.

Not that I don’t work damn long hours, but BME is first and formost a
group — community — effort. BME exists because of the drive
of thousands upon thousands of people of all ages and demographics around
the world believing in its value, and wanting to help bring that to
others. Because of that, at the end of every year I like to do this
little awards ceremony to thank those that went out of their way to
“help in bulk”. It is these people who built BME in 2003 (and some in
2002 also).

The competition was a lot harder this year, with BME’s submissions
running at approximately double last year’s speed. Instead of just
doing a top-50 rundown, this year I also split the awards into sections
to recognize the contributions by category. Click any of the pictures
below to check out the winners (and their “acceptance speeches” in some
cases too):

Experience Authors

Body Piercing

Tattoos

Ritual and Culture

Scarification

BME/extreme

BME/HARD
Top-50, Images
BME Staff

The prizes included custom limited edition belt buckles (which you can see
above if you have Java turned on), and a series of rather odd limited
edition shirts (and more):

What?!? You want to see them in detail?
You’ll have to wait until the winners
send in photos for the t-shirt gallery!

Again, thank you so much to all of you that helped, and especially those of
you who made it to these top-lists. I really couldn’t do it without you, and
I look forward to working with you more in 2004 and onward. The 21st century
belongs to the individual!

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com