For many of you reading this post you know what today is already.
One year ago today a friend, father, visionary, profound human being, and founder of BME Shannon Larratt passed away. Writing this one year later the idea of Shannon’s passing hasn’t fully set in for me or many of the people who were lucky enough to know him. It is hard not to say what has already been said about a man that changed so many lives. Many people, myself included, never got the opportunity to have a personal relationship with Shannon for one reason or another, however he was someone who impacted my life more than he could have ever known. All over my social media today it is apparent how profoundly loved and appreciated he is.
I will keep this post short and sweet as it is a tough day for many folks. I will however make a motion to spend today thinking about how Shannon and BME have impacted your life. Whether it be directly or indirectly, where would you be without Shannon or BME? Today should be a day of appreciation and memories, I encourage all of you who read this in passing to share in the comments a bit about the effect he had on you.
We have all probably read and re-read Shannon’s final post on his Zentastic blog, I leave you with a very small excerpt.
“As much as these last years have been the most difficult I can imagine, and there are still many deeds to be done, please know that I have had a wonderful adventure and enjoyed it immensely on the whole.”
While that isn’t the most striking part of his entire entry, the words “There are still many deeds to be done.” strike me as particularly important. What Shannon started didn’t leave with him. We are all still here continuing his fantastic legacy and building off the foundation he has given us. I never in a million years thought I would have the opportunity to carry the torch for ModBlog and carry the legacy of BME onwards. I am eternally grateful and I wholeheartedly say thank you Shannon, and thank you to everyone who continues to make BME what it is today.
BME/News and Modblog highlight only a small fraction of what
Surely his spirit lives on through BME and still is
changing lives around the
world. May he rest in Peace.
Surely his spirit lives on through BME and still is
changing lives around the
world. May he rest in Peace.
i never knew him personally either, but if i had never found BMEzine, i probably would not have been as knowledgeable about body mods and end up endangering myself and possibly others with diy piercings and such. plus all the awesome stories and pictures up helped inspire me into who i am today and who i will continue to grow into in the future. RIP Shannon
i never knew him personally either, but if i had never found BMEzine, i probably would not have been as knowledgeable about body mods and end up endangering myself and possibly others with diy piercings and such. plus all the awesome stories and pictures up helped inspire me into who i am today and who i will continue to grow into in the future. RIP Shannon
I have no words. It has affected me deeply his loss on this earth
I have no words. It has affected me deeply his loss on this earth
Without Shannon, I wouldn’t be half the piercer and person I am today. Without him I wouldn’t have my daughter or have met some of the awesome people that I know.
Without Shannon, I wouldn’t be half the piercer and person I am today. Without him I wouldn’t have my daughter or have met some of the awesome people that I know.
I never met or spoke to Shannon. At the time I became aware of him, and the mod community (rather than goth or punk), he was already very ill. He shared the things that interested him, which educated and encouraged me tremendously. He was awesome. One year is a little blip in time, and I extend sympathies to his nearest and dearest – he had a huge impact on me, I can only imagine the loss you suffer if you knew him. Total strangers on the opposite end of the globe remember and appreciate him and his work, I hope this offers some form of condolence xXx
I never met or spoke to Shannon. At the time I became aware of him, and the mod community (rather than goth or punk), he was already very ill. He shared the things that interested him, which educated and encouraged me tremendously. He was awesome. One year is a little blip in time, and I extend sympathies to his nearest and dearest – he had a huge impact on me, I can only imagine the loss you suffer if you knew him. Total strangers on the opposite end of the globe remember and appreciate him and his work, I hope this offers some form of condolence xXx
if i hadnt stumbled upon BME/Modblog/IAM i wouldnt be who i am today…so in turn, Shannon helped me to accept who i am and the mods i wanted to have and that it was okay… thank you Shannon. RIP.
if i hadnt stumbled upon BME/Modblog/IAM i wouldnt be who i am today…so in turn, Shannon helped me to accept who i am and the mods i wanted to have and that it was okay… thank you Shannon. RIP.
Beautifully written. I never had the chance to meet Shannon either, and the only little bit of interaction I had with him was via email and extremely brief. Body modification made such leaps forward in so many short years, and I don’t think any of it would have been possible had it not been for Shannons efforts in uniting the community the way he did.
Beautifully written. I never had the chance to meet Shannon either, and the only little bit of interaction I had with him was via email and extremely brief. Body modification made such leaps forward in so many short years, and I don’t think any of it would have been possible had it not been for Shannons efforts in uniting the community the way he did.
I started writing here, then realized that I have a whole article’s worth to say on this, and since ModBlog’s been a little slim on content lately, it has a decent chance of getting published. Thanks for inspiring me with this post!
I started writing here, then realized that I have a whole article’s worth to say on this, and since ModBlog’s been a little slim on content lately, it has a decent chance of getting published. Thanks for inspiring me with this post!
I’m hugely thankful to Shannon.
He was a part of my digital day for well over a decade: BME, Submarines, Cars, Painting, Sculpting, Programming, Peanuts, Homesteading, Pain, Comics, Survivor, Cooking, Psychedelics, Travel, German, Doctors, Rock Band, Skinny Puppy, Beard…
I miss him very much, and wish his family well at a difficult time of year.
I’m hugely thankful to Shannon.
He was a part of my digital day for well over a decade: BME, Submarines, Cars, Painting, Sculpting, Programming, Peanuts, Homesteading, Pain, Comics, Survivor, Cooking, Psychedelics, Travel, German, Doctors, Rock Band, Skinny Puppy, Beard…
I miss him very much, and wish his family well at a difficult time of year.
I’ve never met him, all i know is i am deeply grateful for what he has done with bmezine site and i don’t know where i’d be had i not found this place. Thank you for this posting, (as always), and thank you Mr. Shannon Larratt.
I’ve never met him, all i know is i am deeply grateful for what he has done with bmezine site and i don’t know where i’d be had i not found this place. Thank you for this posting, (as always), and thank you Mr. Shannon Larratt.
I had the fortune to say “thank you” to him several years ago.
BME/IAM may be a part of saving my life in a way. I owe not only Shannon that “thank you”, i owe it to all co-founders of BME/IAM and all members who helped keep it alive.
I had the fortune to say “thank you” to him several years ago.
BME/IAM may be a part of saving my life in a way. I owe not only Shannon that “thank you”, i owe it to all co-founders of BME/IAM and all members who helped keep it alive.
Wow, I cant believe he is gone. He did great things for freedoms and civil liberties. I have friends that became surgeons because of BMEzine, so at least as far as my knowledge of what he did he helped people In my life make better decisions. And you wouldn’t believe some of the other things I have had happen in life from all of this. God Bless Shannon.
Wow, I cant believe he is gone. He did great things for freedoms and civil liberties. I have friends that became surgeons because of BMEzine, so at least as far as my knowledge of what he did he helped people In my life make better decisions. And you wouldn’t believe some of the other things I have had happen in life from all of this. God Bless Shannon.
oh… wow… this post left me speechless.
let me summarize: I’m from argentina and I discovered bmezine like 11 or 12 years ago. being underage, I had already a couple of piercings my parents didn’t know about (there was no regulation whatsoever on piercing and tattooing in my country back then).
back then, I was really into piercing, which was still quite shocking for people on the street (I live in buenos aires, it’s a large city but 10-12 years ago it wasn’t so common to see a girl with a bunch of piercings and a shocking hair color). I liked reading BME because I wanted to know how things were done, I was eager to learn and BME was the only page I trusted in (excepting for april the 1st, I always remembered :P). I even learned how to pierce myself (not complex piercings, just the basics).
I remember reading shannon, his allmighty magnets, the “stay calm” philosophy, and even if I never knew him (and were really far far away) I could feel his enthusiasm.
I started getting tattoed at age 20. almost all my tattoos represent the key moments of my life. I really put a lot of feeling into tattooing and I always considered it an art (I had a couple of really ugly discussions with my parents about it, but they had to accept me anyway). one of my tattoos was even included in “the world made flesh”, a book of literary tattoos. I sent them my picture when I read about it in modblog. my tattoo was a reminder of the good things that happen in this sad world. I got it done after “recovering” from the worst part of my anorexia. BME also had a nice role because it was a place of refuge for me, when depressive thoughts attacked.
in 2008 I knew my boyfriend-husband (not legally married, but, whatever). he was also really into modification, even if he only has some piercing and a couple of tattoos, he really loved them (especially on women… that means, especially on me :P). he also knew BME! that was great for me, I mean, there’s not a big “body modification” culture in argentina, so he was the first person I knew that read BME 🙂
he studied and worked in the same university when I studied and work, we’re both modified scientists, which is really cool when you talk to kids because they freak out 🙂
I confess later the pressures from work got me away from BME.
what happened later in my life was funny. I graduated and started my PhD in evolutive biology, so did he (he works in robotics). both of us moved in together. we are planning on getting a lotus tattoed (the first gift he gave me was a lotus origami…)
after a couple of years, my health went down the hole. I visited a lot of doctors and it turned out I suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and a possible lupus. RA and lupus are degenerative diseases, and I need chemo to stop my body from destroying itself. fibromyalgia is a chronic pain and fatigue syndrome. all three get worse because of stress.
turns out my life went upside down. and it was not a bad thing (well, it’s bad that I can’t get cured… but it’s not bad realizing your life was taking the wrong path). I realized I had killed my artistic side since I was a kid, I wanted to recover that now. and I realized tattooing is something that I would really want to do. so I started a tattoo course and well.. I’m learning. it’s really cool that I remember A LOT of the things I read here, wrote both by tattoo artists and tattooed people.. that helped me a lot.
so… I recently remembered BME and thought it would be nice to upload my little experiments on pig skin.. and I wanted to check on you guys to see how you’re doing.
and well… shannon’s death made me really sad.
I mean… yeah… I didn’t know him and I was away for a long time. but body modifications in general and BME in particular were (ARE) a really important part of my life. so I love you in a strange kind of way.
I think it’s really nice that BME has guided a lot of us towards a not-always-reallty-understood world. I really like the philosophy of taking control of our body and doing what we want to feel better. having a good time with it. learning how to do it properly. you should feel really proud of yourselves, and well… shannon made it all possible. so we can all say we have him under our skin.
oh… wow… this post left me speechless.
let me summarize: I’m from argentina and I discovered bmezine like 11 or 12 years ago. being underage, I had already a couple of piercings my parents didn’t know about (there was no regulation whatsoever on piercing and tattooing in my country back then).
back then, I was really into piercing, which was still quite shocking for people on the street (I live in buenos aires, it’s a large city but 10-12 years ago it wasn’t so common to see a girl with a bunch of piercings and a shocking hair color). I liked reading BME because I wanted to know how things were done, I was eager to learn and BME was the only page I trusted in (excepting for april the 1st, I always remembered :P). I even learned how to pierce myself (not complex piercings, just the basics).
I remember reading shannon, his allmighty magnets, the “stay calm” philosophy, and even if I never knew him (and were really far far away) I could feel his enthusiasm.
I started getting tattoed at age 20. almost all my tattoos represent the key moments of my life. I really put a lot of feeling into tattooing and I always considered it an art (I had a couple of really ugly discussions with my parents about it, but they had to accept me anyway). one of my tattoos was even included in “the world made flesh”, a book of literary tattoos. I sent them my picture when I read about it in modblog. my tattoo was a reminder of the good things that happen in this sad world. I got it done after “recovering” from the worst part of my anorexia. BME also had a nice role because it was a place of refuge for me, when depressive thoughts attacked.
in 2008 I knew my boyfriend-husband (not legally married, but, whatever). he was also really into modification, even if he only has some piercing and a couple of tattoos, he really loved them (especially on women… that means, especially on me :P). he also knew BME! that was great for me, I mean, there’s not a big “body modification” culture in argentina, so he was the first person I knew that read BME 🙂
he studied and worked in the same university when I studied and work, we’re both modified scientists, which is really cool when you talk to kids because they freak out 🙂
I confess later the pressures from work got me away from BME.
what happened later in my life was funny. I graduated and started my PhD in evolutive biology, so did he (he works in robotics). both of us moved in together. we are planning on getting a lotus tattoed (the first gift he gave me was a lotus origami…)
after a couple of years, my health went down the hole. I visited a lot of doctors and it turned out I suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and a possible lupus. RA and lupus are degenerative diseases, and I need chemo to stop my body from destroying itself. fibromyalgia is a chronic pain and fatigue syndrome. all three get worse because of stress.
turns out my life went upside down. and it was not a bad thing (well, it’s bad that I can’t get cured… but it’s not bad realizing your life was taking the wrong path). I realized I had killed my artistic side since I was a kid, I wanted to recover that now. and I realized tattooing is something that I would really want to do. so I started a tattoo course and well.. I’m learning. it’s really cool that I remember A LOT of the things I read here, wrote both by tattoo artists and tattooed people.. that helped me a lot.
so… I recently remembered BME and thought it would be nice to upload my little experiments on pig skin.. and I wanted to check on you guys to see how you’re doing.
and well… shannon’s death made me really sad.
I mean… yeah… I didn’t know him and I was away for a long time. but body modifications in general and BME in particular were (ARE) a really important part of my life. so I love you in a strange kind of way.
I think it’s really nice that BME has guided a lot of us towards a not-always-reallty-understood world. I really like the philosophy of taking control of our body and doing what we want to feel better. having a good time with it. learning how to do it properly. you should feel really proud of yourselves, and well… shannon made it all possible. so we can all say we have him under our skin.
I found bme about 13 years ago ( I’m 33 now ) when my house first got dial up internet. I have wanted tattoos and was interested in the body modification scene since I was about 13.
I live in Scotland and in a small town at the time and it was such a eye opener to see a different world out there in terms of appearance and people making choices about how they present their body.
For me bme and Shannon allowed me to live through them and imagine myself with tattoos and piercings until such a time that I begin to go down that path myself.
As sad as it sounds I wasn’t alone as it were. I had access to a place where I could research body mods and plan for the future without being made to feel strange by my generally small minded community.
And for that I’m forever grateful 🙂
I found bme about 13 years ago ( I’m 33 now ) when my house first got dial up internet. I have wanted tattoos and was interested in the body modification scene since I was about 13.
I live in Scotland and in a small town at the time and it was such a eye opener to see a different world out there in terms of appearance and people making choices about how they present their body.
For me bme and Shannon allowed me to live through them and imagine myself with tattoos and piercings until such a time that I begin to go down that path myself.
As sad as it sounds I wasn’t alone as it were. I had access to a place where I could research body mods and plan for the future without being made to feel strange by my generally small minded community.
And for that I’m forever grateful 🙂
If it wasn’t for Shannon’s foresight and dedication, so many of us would just be lost, or at least not as strong as we are today. I remember my friend first introducing me to bmezine and was blown away. i was surprised i had never heard of the site before she had shown me but was grateful none the less. The fact that he gave so much of himself to help others become more whole in their lives and fought a fight greater than himself, i think everyone will always be thankful and blessed because of his fight. Shannon always welcomed me when he saw me and just being with him felt peaceful and fun. I know because of him i have some serious plans in my future to help out with the body modification industry that is going to take some time and serious planning. I’m excited for that future jump and i owe it all to him.
If it wasn’t for Shannon’s foresight and dedication, so many of us would just be lost, or at least not as strong as we are today. I remember my friend first introducing me to bmezine and was blown away. i was surprised i had never heard of the site before she had shown me but was grateful none the less. The fact that he gave so much of himself to help others become more whole in their lives and fought a fight greater than himself, i think everyone will always be thankful and blessed because of his fight. Shannon always welcomed me when he saw me and just being with him felt peaceful and fun. I know because of him i have some serious plans in my future to help out with the body modification industry that is going to take some time and serious planning. I’m excited for that future jump and i owe it all to him.
I really miss when this site was thriving, I am 21 now and has made me who I am today. It didn’t just appear to my life, it was very much a part of me. I was here seven years ago. Thank you Rachel *and* Shannon.
He won’t be forgotten, but when BME is, I expect what kept it relevant then to be done again with him in mind.
I really miss when this site was thriving, I am 21 now and has made me who I am today. It didn’t just appear to my life, it was very much a part of me. I was here seven years ago. Thank you Rachel *and* Shannon.
He won’t be forgotten, but when BME is, I expect what kept it relevant then to be done again with him in mind.