(Author’s note: Excuse me while I get all meta on you.)
Full-disclosure time: When I first saw on Lane Jensen’s IAM page pictures of the microdermal he’d put into someone’s eyelid, I was mortified. This was too much, too risky, and, though I had not been apprised of the details of the situation, it read as irresponsible at best and fame-seeking at … well, not quite “worst,” but getting there.
The client, it seemed, was quite young [Author’s note: She was 17 years old and her father was present. My point stands, nonetheless], with minimal visible prior body modification work done — not to say she was too immature, but, in the same way that most responsible tattoo artists will refuse to work on a lightly tattooed client’s hands or face, so should it be when it comes to highly experimental piercings (a distinction which, for the sake of this article, we’ll say includes microdermals). Because, as widespread as microdermals have become (and my God have they become widespread), this is still a new concept. The first images of microdermals (then called “dermal anchors” — oh, memories!) appeared on BME in an image update dated October 27, 2005. The first mention of them on ModBlog was April 15, 2006. On November 6, 2006, an article was published featuring interviews with a number of practitioners who had been performing microdermal procedures.
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| ModBlog’s first microdermals |
So let’s say that microdermals are, in their current iteration (as a modernized and ostensibly simplified version of traditional transdermals), at most, about two-and-a-half years old. In most circles, this would place a project in its infancy — far from having been extensively tested or fine-tuned, and potentially rife with unknown (and sometimes well known) risks. (Very seldom are feature films released, for example, that comprise a series of unedited first takes.) Yet, in the body modification community, infamous for its impetuousness, two-and-a-half years is an eternity. The idea of the “guinea pig” is now largely irrelevant; as soon as something “new” has been done, provided the client doesn’t die on the spot, it’s added to the portfolio, uploaded to all manner of Internet forums and, if it’s interesting enough, it’ll probably even get posted on ModBlog.
Pardon me while I put on my ombudsman hat, but make no mistake: ModBlog takes a lot of blame here, playing the dual role of collective consciousness and enabler. Almost everything posted on ModBlog comes via BME submissions, which are filtered for funny, attractive and generally unique content, given a punny caption and then offered up to be criticized and lauded, copied and adopted.
That is to say, ModBlog is supposed to feature the best that BME has to offer.
Such is our position: We want to promote an environment in which new, exciting and beautiful procedures can be put on display and discussed, yet we’re also an archive, for whom comprehensive documentation is a mandate. Appearing on ModBlog, vitriol of the commentariat notwithstanding, is often a validation of sorts: If it’s good enough for BME to showcase, shouldn’t it be good enough for you?
Well, no. Not always. Sometimes in documenting things, we come off a little too enthusiastic about items that aren’t quite ready for prime time, or that we’ve convinced ourselves are worthy of attention simply because we’ve given them a lot of attention — the state of “being famous for being famous.” (See also: Anything related to Kim Kardashian or Brooke Hogan; Gawker’s tireless efforts to track Julia Allison’s every move; The Hills in its entirety.) Is this really a healthy phenomenon? Making stars out of people because of their physical modifications and creating an environment in which this miniscule level of fame can be achieved by pushing one’s limits further, harder and, quite possibly, dangerously quickly? There’s a fine line between celebrating the community and unduly, unfairly celebritizing its members.
And, like I said, this is, to an extent, our fault — “us” being the body modification media, slight as we may be. There is — be it real or imagined — an element of pressure to be more “extreme,” for lack of a better word (and there are many). On another forum, one commenter recently posted that he’d just passed his one year anniversary of entering the wonderful world of body modification, and posted the following laundry list of work he’d done (consider the entire quote [sic]):
septumx2, smileyx2,tongueweb, Apadravya, lorumx5, fingerwebx3, handwebx3, nipplex2, navelx3, lobex9, conchx2, helix/2g Dermal Punch, tragusx2, eyebrowx6, labretx10, “rhino”/unidentified
Though I definately don’t still have all those and I counted where I re-did piercings, I remember wach one… I wonder what mods are to come in the future?
Fifty-three piercings and six tattoos in one year. His first year. Holy crap. Another poster followed up with their own first-year anniversary inventory ([sic] again):
it all started with a septum piercing … It’s now at 1g … 0g flat punch, 0g conch punch, x4 vertical bridges, x4 horizontal eyebrows, 6 tattoos, 1 chest scarification, 6 lip piercings, venoms (now stretched to 10g), tongue webbing, ears pierced at 8g (now 5/8ths), multiple arm surface, belly button, clavicle surface, x2 nape, x5 lower back surface, tragus, smiley.
AND MANY MORE TO COME.
This isn’t a journey — it’s an obsession, whether it’s instigated internally, by a desire to fit in, lead the pack, or otherwise. A bodybuilder doesn’t start out deadlifting 700-pound weights. A mountain climber doesn’t scale K2 as an introductory ascent. This is unhealthy behavior, regardless of the outlet, but body modification allows for it rather easily — even encourages it, be it to pad a portfolio or to get one’s 15 minutes of ModBlog fame. If I had a nickel for every conversation I’ve had with people who mention the role that ModBlog played in the popularization of microdermals, well, I’d probably be able to afford to have one put in my eyelid.
This isn’t to decry experimentation or having fun with one’s body — Rachel posted a video of Lassi doing a guiche suspension a few weeks ago, for God’s sake. But this eyelid microdermal business is different; these images presented an ethical dilemma. By all accounts, it was awfully unsafe and, while not in direct contact with the eyeball, would potentially be a nightmare for the general eye-region. It’s one thing for a trained professional and experienced body modification enthusiast to throw a hook through his taint, but it’s another matter entirely to risk massive harm to a young, inexperienced client just because the opportunity presented itself and it seemed like an interesting procedure to try. I’m not an expert of anatomy, but one thing I’ve picked up on is that unless you are incredibly certain of your methods and the anticipated outcome, you don’t screw around with someone’s eyes. In a field in which calculated risk-taking comprises a significant portion of the action, simple consent should not be the be-all end-all for a practitioner when deciding whether or not to perform an experimental procedure.
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| The microdermal in question |
On the other hand, though? This was ModBlog fodder in every conceivable way. It was probably the first time it had been done, it looked healthy enough and, most importantly, it was new. Considering our standards, it probably deserved to be posted.
We decided not to post it. ModBlog’s influence is tangible, and we decided that appearing to endorse it in any way would have been irresponsible. Let’s wait, we thought, and maybe once we can see some results, we can determine if this is appropriate to post. It would end up in the BME image archives, of course, but ModBlog, to be sure, is a different beast altogether. This was a test — one that didn’t need to be publicized, and arguably performed on the wrong client. We didn’t want to be nannies or censors — BME would still accept the photos for its galleries — but as for ModBlog? This didn’t yet embody the best that BME had to offer. Body modification practitioners should cherish their guinea pigs — not exploit them.
Of course, being an online company has its drawbacks. Through a miscommunication, it ended up getting published on ModBlog. Naturally, some people loved it, some peopled hated it. Some claimed it was yet another moment in BME’s perpetual decline, while others probably asked their piercers if they could get their own (or, conversely, some piercers likely asked their clients if they were interested in trying it out). This isn’t a criticism of the chain of events: It’s just occurred enough by this point that there exists a recognizable pattern and, for the most part, we love it (see also: mustaches tattooed on fingers, etc.) — that’s why we do this. Body modification is a passion, and dealing with it professionally every day would be impossible if we weren’t legitimately excited by people’s experimentation and determination to modify and beautify themselves.
But that’s not an absolute, and it doesn’t mean that everything must be supported or looked upon favorably. Just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be; there may be no right reasons for modifying yourself, but there are sure as hell wrong ones, and those are made substantially worse when the client is being used — whether it’s by the one performing the procedure or the one publicizing it.
(Ed. note: While Jordan is an editor for and a valued member of BME, this is an editorial and does not necessarily reflect the views of other BME staff or BME as a publication. As well, Lane has been invited to do an interview and defend his position. This will be published as soon as possible.)
BME/News and Modblog highlight only a small fraction of what
That’s probably the best written, most thoughtful commentary I’ve ever seen posted on Modblog or anywhere on BME.
good thoughts…. I agree…
As bertrand russell has said… “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.”
that’s what I get from this.
more than anything it bothers me when people want to be heavily modified just to stand out, or be the most extreme.
it’s pretty easy to decipher the difference between someone who does it for the wrong reasons (previously stated), and someone who does it because they feel it is a true part of them.
people like that really do give the modded community a bad name.
I was talking to my piercer while I was waiting to get my two new piercings done, and she was saying how half the stuff that pops up on here isn’t cool, it’s just stupid.
Holla, I agree, this was quite well written and thoughtful. I hear about and see loads of people these days(especially the younger people 16-23) getting ridiculous amounts of work done in an incredibly short amount of time, and not just simple piercings or tattoos, and it’s kind of troublesome. In many ways there is a lot of pressure from the modified community to be more extreme, more heavily modified, and be so at a much younger age than you would have seen even just 5 years ago. I think Modblog of coarse does play a small role in this, but it’s certainly not just modblog, it’s just a part of the modification community as a whole right now.
I thought we’d already heard Lane’s defense – “It was done to see if it was possible.”
I really don’t think he deserves any more attention out of this.
deeeeep
Jordan, I’ve really enjoyed past articles you’ve written (the recent piece about Buck Angel was fantastic!), and this piece is certainly no exception.
Thank you so much for being such a reasonable voice in the world of body modification.
This article makes a very clear point. BME specifically is known worldwide. If any 16 year old types in ear piercing on google, they get BME. If you look for tattoo content, first thing you get, BME. Theres no escaping it. There are the opinions posted by those who chose to voice their opinion all over the modblog pages and on IAM, though there are thousands of other people who simply chose to go with the flow. This does not mean they don’t have an opinion. Be it questionable content relating to “The Best of BME” or “The Worst of BME”, it still comes from the collected conciousness of the website and those who choose to submit their pictures and those who process that content. With that being said, I personally don’t think it was a mistake to post the picture in question. It’s just something to think about. Just like everything else that’s ever been posted and will continue to be put into the objective/subjective eye of the public.
Damn, a whole lot of people just got verbally bitch slapped.
I love it. And kudos for saying what needed to be said.
This is the most interesting and thoughtful thing I’ve ever read on BME. Thank you.
Now thats an excellent piece, and about time.
BME/Modblog is an tricky position between representing BodyMod & encouraging BodyMod. A difficult balance im sure. i loathe censorship & urge BME to continue being as far-out as possible, but articles like this should be written more often.
” Body modification practitioners should cherish their guinea pigs — not exploit them.”
that about sums it up for me (NO pointed fingers).
more importantly, Body modification practitioners should cherish everyone they work on.
this aint no fucking videogame.
I don’t think that “mortified” is the word you were looking for. Sorry to get nit-picky about words, but I hate to see poor word choice in an otherwise well-written article. Thank you, though. We need more intelligent, thoughtful articles like this one.
While I agree with this text on a lot of points, I think we have to be careful not to judge people’s choices too quickly if we don’t really know them. It’s easy to draw conclusions from a single photos or two lines of text, but I don’t think it’s very sane for a community. People are still responsible for their own deeds, they are not children, they don’t have to be taught how to behave.
Still, I think the message of the article is quite wise. Body Modifications should be a personal journey, not a contest of “who’s-the-freakest-person-on-earth” or “who’s-got-the-most-insane-piercing”, and this certainly has to be remembered sometimes. Especially since on the Internet, things tend to spiral quickly.
and in the end, everything said was irrelevant.
BME is about sharing information, bottom line.
Censoring that flow of information seems to defeat that entire purpose..
Some people are going to take that information and make good decisions with it, and some people are going to take that information and make bad decisions with it.
I really don’t think that it should be in any way BME’s job to “parent” the entire modified community.
To each his/her own, whatever floats your boat//whatever sinks your ship.
very well said 🙂 simple as.
I once knew someone that felt they had to get it all and now – I may have been guilty of it myself at one point (not particularly extreme modifications but I had a fair few at one time) – but I think it is very much down to self esteem and feeling the need to fit in and/or create attention for yourself.
I have since become a lot more level headed and no longer have a huge interest in getting mods (having 16+, mostly visible, piercings and 32mm lobes a year or so ago, to a simple 4mm labret and wanting to get my ears sewn up has been a fairly extreme change)
I no longer wish to get pierced and only have plans for ink in the future and while I don’t particularly regret anything i’ve done, I do think there are a lot of young people out there setting themselves up for them.
I certainly agree with kw – I find Jordan’s pieces the most interesting and articulate and appreciate his non-sycophantic views of all things body modification and BME. Sir, I salute you!
BTW, the woman in the pic kinda looks familliar to me. like someone i met briefly at APP.
its quite likely that she has alot more experience then her appearance implies. Are we judging a boom by its cover?
whether or not we, as individuals, feel that Lane was appropriate in doing this piece, we certainly cant judge his choice of recipients. or the recipient herself.
I just woke up, and with the assumption of maybe seeing a new comical tattoo or possibly a suspension picture, wandered over to ModBlog.
Needless to say, this article is very refreshing, I only wish these kinds of problems would be addressed more.
I personally know a lot of people who modify for the sake of being modified, and I have a friend in fact who told me a couple of days ago that he is going to be a “BME star”. This kid did not know of ModBlog thankfully, so I can only hope his view of “extreme” is somewhat limited, and that he will not do anything to his body that he will later regret..
It all reminds me of a clip in the movie MODIFY, where Zulu mentions the discrimination factor within the community, stating that someone with a small heart on their arm is looked down upon by someone with full facial tattoos. I am worried that this is something that will never stop, obviously, people will always strive for attention and to do “the next best thing”, but so many times this sort of “one upping” is completely detrimental. This article is an invaluable source to the community, let’s only hope that it is as well read as it is written.
Kudos for drawing a clear line between the philosophy between “Shannon’s vision of BME” and “Rachel’s vision of BME”. Good to see that the site is going to be responsible for a change. The body modification world has changed, and BME needs to change with it.
I hope that we will also see this material removed or clearly marked as irresponsible in the main BME site as well.
Thanks for posting this, I agree completely with the above statements! The eyelid microdermal was a horrible idea, if it was the clients or Lane’s doesn’t matter. This to me seemed like a case of mod before client! Or even maybe Modblog before client.
agreed.
this article seems more like an “outing” than a form of entertainment witch i thought modblog was supposed to be. this article would have been better placed in bme where an interested piercer or piercee goes or should go(if it weren’t for it being posted here) to find RELEVANT piercing information. the option to add comments there can surely be changed. if the decision to post this article here because of heres popularity then its obvious what direction here is going. but, who am i to say what here is?
ha ha im going to add my two cents anyways. i’m reminded that body piercing as such with everything ever invented started as an experiment. i’m sure the lightbulb was considered “immoral” by a great many leaders at the time. not to say that doing this was correct but if the client is well informed of the risks and that it was relatively new and uncharted territory then they live and learn (or lack there of) with the consiquences. first and foremost, i would ask lane if he would have done this “experiment” on himself first.
ha ha and then there are simply people who get off on taking risks….
Modblog does occasionally feature modifications that I consider to be somewhat or overtly ridiculous; but generally when I have that feeling about a specific photo, so does the general mass of people leaving comments. I’ve been very impressed with the way the community has responded to the more unlikely modifications featured on Modblog, and those shared responses seem to be what it’s all about.
If someone were to look at one of the aforementioned types of posts and be impressed by what they saw, and then go out and try to find someone to do experimental or high-risk work on them without even reading comments, I suspect said culprit would not have been so inclined to do her/his research in the first place.
That said, this was an excellent article articulating the assumed responsibility that Modblog has to consider with every post, which will always be in question. My personal feeling is that in opening the discussion forum to the public by merely allowing comments, Modblog has already delegated some of the responsibility to make ethical judgment calls to the people of the community, which is, more or less, where it belongs.
Keep these posts coming!
ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
This was a really really well said article. As a concerned party AND a practitioner finding myself scrutinized for NOT doing high-risk, never-been-done procedures I appreciate the support from the author and the community.
I think it’s important to ground ourselves every now and again and remember that it’s not a race and it’s not a competition at the expense of our clients and our reputations.
to each their own.
perfect.
Wait.
What?
“The client, it seemed, was quite young, with minimal visible prior body modification work done”
How can you tell this by simply seeing a picture of her from the neck up?
And since when is it a problem that ‘younger’ people are getting modifications, of any sort? Some of us started younger than others. Some of us didn’t. Does this make any of us better or worse? Honestly? Is this really a popularity contest now? And if the artist did this, and took pictures, and posted them, how is that “publicizing” his client??? A lot of artists do work and take pictures to post them. They do this to make a “Portfolio”, for other prospective clients to get an idea of how good/bad their work may be.
Yes, i will admit, this procedure may be new. It may not have been done before. But is it really that horrible?? What about eyeball tattooing? I personally feel eyeball tattooing is a lot more hardcore than a simple microdermal on an eyelid. And i o not doubt that the artist fully made the client aware of any and ALL complications that could arise from this procedure. That being said, why do we feel we have to meddle in his business? Is it our place, because we might ‘feel’ its not right?
All body modifications have to start somewhere. And there are always going to be people (artists and/or clients) that are going to push that envelope to make them happen. But that doesn’t mean that we have the right to get up on our soapboxes and put them down, simply because we feel it is immoral, or wrong in some way.
What irony it is that Rachel and her mercenaries decide to side with Lexci and the Lane haters, when they have been posting pictures on Facebook of Rachel’s gnarly and way more risky boob implants and making fun of them behind her back.
What BME contributor is going to get attacked next? Stainless? xPUREx? Steve Haworth? Howie?
Naw, this is all just infighting and a popularity contest. Go back to shilling for INKED and making excuses for corporations. Pathetic.
I THINK THAT A COMMUNITY THAT SAYS THEY DO NOT JUDGE PEOPLE BASED ON THEIR APPEARANCE AND OTHER NON-IMPORTANT BASIS IS BEING A BIT EFFIN BACKWARDS IF THEY’RE GOING TO SAY THAT JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE LOOKS YOUNG THEY SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO TRY A NEW THING. SHE MAY BE OLDER THAN SHE LOOKS AND NEVER EVER EVER TRY AND RELATE HOW MUCH METAL SOMEONE HAS IN THEIR FACE TO THEIR SKILL LEVEL EVER… SOME OF THE MOST PIERECED PEOPLE I KNOW HAVE HAD MORE THAN A FAIRSHARE OF PIERCINGS BOTH REJECT AND HAVE HAD LENGTHY HEALING TIMES, BITS OF METAL ARE NOT EXPERIENCE MEDALS, YOU DON’T RANK UP WITH EVERYNEW PIERCING. I’M NOT EVEN GOING TO DEBATE THE CLIENT BEFORE MOD BASIS, BECAUSE ALOT OF THIS COMMUNITY IS BASED ON CONSENT. Working with Lane i have known that he has fully explained the procedures and their risks before performing them, if she was old enough to sign for the implant (+18) at dragon she is old enough to decided if it is a good idea or not. THANKS!
This is a good start, and it’s all well and good to bitch-slap a few overachievers every once in a while on ModBlog, but this post will have scrolled away in a few days.
What I want to know is what is really going to be done about this problem? Like Christian said, if someone looks for tattoos or piercings, BME comes up first. Not ModBlog. BME. And these pictures are still there in the photo galleries without any of these warnings. And people will keep copying them and keep wanting them and keep believing they are safe and sanctioned by BME. So this achieved nothing but a few cheers, and tomorrow, BME goes back to profiting from the photos and the artist goes back to promoting their shop. And so in the end, this means nothing.
What site-wide changes will be made to deal with this? The kind of people who makes these mistakes don’t read BME/Risks. A warning buried away in some reference page or an old blog post won’t stop people from getting hurt.
Lucas, 18+? You so sure about that? Furthermore, how would the piercer who did the eyelid anchor KNOW the risks of the procedure if they’d never done it before? According the girl (who IS under 18, by the way) said that as soon as she learned the piercer would do it for free she was sold.
There are a lot of potential clients out there who would be just as happy to have the next new thing put in their bodies by piercers who want to DO the next new thing. Very often, I daresay the majority of the time, the novelty of these procedures and the very idea of being “modblogged” completely blinds the big picture – often the part where common sense comes into play.
It raises the questions if the media is responsible for teaching us, or if we are responsible for teaching ourselves?
I personally think that Modblog (or any other form of media outlet) is there to give information and news.
What people choose to do with that information is their own responsibility.
However, I have thought that Modblog has been lacking a bit on the information side and leaning to heavy on the news side.
People come here to see new and cool pictures, rarely to read long articles about the risks and the story behind the picture. But I’ve always thought that they should go hand in hand.
If people choose not to read the article/information that is related to the picture then it’s their own fault, but it should still be as easy to find as the picture itself is.
I guess what I’m missing is a sort of reminder to people that some of this stuff is actually dangerous and isn’t just something you should be doing with your drunk buddies.
I remember that for a short period it seemed to be really cool to chop your fingers and toes off and then submit pictures that showed a finger that had been cut off two times (why would you cut it off in two places?) and a bottle of vodka or something standing beside it.
Those kind of pictures always make me wonder if those people realize the risk they’re taking and if that was really something they had been wanting to do to themselves, or if they were just fishing for their 15 minutes of fame?
In the end I think it’s their own responsibility and they have to live with the mistakes they make.
Much like many of us have to live with the scars and stories from experiments gone wrong back in the day.
But I do think that it is any news outlets responsibility to supply the masses with the full information/risk warnings along with the cool picture.
I would also like to point out that many of us (me included) are to blame for what is happening.
As soon as someone pops up on Modblog they really get their 1 day of fame if they belong to IAM or attach an E-mail address.
Through out that whole day they will get mails and IM’s telling them how cool this picture is, how awesome of a person they are and so on.
Many people long for attention like that and are quite willing to do anything for it.
We all need to take responsibility here.
I remember messing up some years back and being a total idiot with my new love bead implants. Two got ripped straight out and it got featured on Modblog.
It was a stupid chooses I made with them. I messed up. I took it with humor and the crew from Modblog saw the humor in it and posted the pictures of my girlfriend biting down on the removed implants.
Yet I get several IM’s from people who wanted to know how I did it, that they thought it looked cool and if I could give them any pointers on how to force implants out of their body so they could get some wicked scars and pictures out of it..
We all carry the responsibility of searching out information before we do something risky. It’s BME’s responsibility to have that information ready, but in the end it’s really our own responsibility to make sure we use the knowledge before making a decision.
It is also our own responsibility to stop glorifying attention seeking behavior that boarders on a Jackass attitude towards our own safety..
My mistake about the age thing she looked 18+ to me, seems like that kind of goes against the store policy.
i feel that the competitiveness to have more work, younger, faster, bigger!.. is kind of a sad thing to see in the body modification community. sometimes it takes the fun out of it for me sometimes to see people who are constantly trying to one-up other people in the same community by bragging of more pulls, having bigger gauges, treating others as if it’s not ALL THE WAY, it’s not good enough ,etc. in that mindset, doing/getting risky procedures just for kicks without really thinking of the consequences seems to be a fast way to create a bad image for the community.
I think what a lot of the people who have said that ModBlog is merely here to provide information have forgotten is that sites like ModBlog are *very* opinionated. They are not simply neutral suppliers of information; people do post opinions, and those opinions are as visible to a visitor as the pictures themselves. When ModBlog says something is good, a whole lot of people agree just because it’s ModBlog and are far more likely to go out and get it done themselves than they would be otherwise. In that respect, ModBlog and places like it do have a responsibility to not present new and likely dangerous procedures as being good or safe, just as a doctor has a responsibility to inform a patient of all the risks and possible side effects from a prescription.
Anyway, this was very well-written, and I agree entirely. If I could shake Jordan’s hand for saying what desperately needs to be said, I would.
So, BME staff finally take a stand against sketchy practitioners. Funny that it happened AFTER Shannon left.
This is the best thing that has been featured on ModBlog for a very very long time.
very well articulated entry, wish things like this would be addressed more often
One thing that i will add is that i do agree that it is not a contest about who is the most hardcore or the most modded, however i found it sort of un-professional for you guys to pick one particular artist (who has contributed sooo much to your site and is an avid IAM user) and single him out as the badguy, meanwhile there are artists everywhere doing sketchy procedures with sketchy jewlery with minimal experience. (just look at the Edson Alberta piercing parlor for example.)
Very well said, Jordan. Thank you.
Lucas: Who do you think submitted the pictures to begin with? Lane is the subject of this criticism not on account of being singled out in a witch hunt, but because he did a silly and potentially quite dangerous procedure on a minor and felt proud enough of it to submit pictures.
Very well stated Jordan. Great article.
lucas (34) – so…why is it wrong to point him out when he’s the one who did the work? and last I checked, DFX uses “sketchy jewelry”, but charges top dollar for it….
I’ll echo what a lot of folks have already said – this is one of the best written pieces I’ve read here in just about forever. And I totally agree with the points you were making – I see far too many people who jump first and think later (if at all), and sometimes it comes back to bite them in the ass. This is NOT a contest. IT’s not (or shouldn’t be) about getting your face on Mod Blog or the cover of BME. I don’t think that refraining from publishing things that probably shouldn’t be published is censorship – it’s responsible journalism.
I keep thinking back to that modblog post about the after effects of facial modifications in car crashes.
A well written article which brings up some good points. I am glad you touched on the whole modblog V BME thing, I still think there ought to be an uncensored arena for people to share pictures and stories of body mod culture, IRRESPECTIVE of risks. That’s kind of what keeps drawing me to BME after all.
Now, I guess to some degree, the old “great power great responsibility” adage could ring true for a phenomenon like BME, but I am not sure I agree with the idea that every picture and story should have warning labels plastered up and down them.
Comments like ‘And people will keep copying them and keep wanting them and keep believing they are safe and sanctioned by BME‘ really don’t make sense to me personally. I mean, call me cynical, but don’t we all have some responsibility not to assume anything, perhaps particularly online? Sanctioned by BME.. What does that mean? It’s the same site that also has pictures of people splitting their cocks, hanging from hooks and amputating limbs.. I think BME should keep sanctioning what it (to me) always has done – freedom to experiment with your own body in any way you want. But I’m also glad to see someone thinking about it and expressing their skeptical views once in a while, so well done Jordan.. 🙂
Her lip rings look pretty poorly healed, and she wants to mess around with her eyeballs? A lot of microdermals look really great but the eye one just looks awkward and kind of painful. It’s one thing to try it on one of the piercers at the shop who’s agreed to it and knows the potential risks, but a 17-year-old, even with her father’s consent? Who’s to know that her father is informed enough about the procedure to make the decision for her? I was allowed to have my eyebrow pierced at 15 at a reputable shop after sending my parents about 50 bazillion links from BME but my parents would have exploded if I had asked for something as experimental as this – though at 15 I probably would have lied about it to get them to cave…
Really appreciate the article, Jordan. It’s expressed a lot of the misgivings I’ve had about Modblog as of late, and you really know how to write a good editorial. Once I started seeing a lot of stretched/scalpelled labrets on here, they started cropping up on the local teenagers, 16-year-olds with 00g labrets that they most likely stretched straight from 14g and jammed an acrylic plug in, given how irritated it looks. Then again, you can’t guarantee that people will be, you know, not stupid, even with a million disclaimers.
Why do so many people have to hate so much here? The only problem I see with this whole thing is that the girl was under 18. Why act like this community shouldnt push you to go further and more extreme. Thats EXACTLY what this community is here for. Encouragement. This entire community is built around pushing the envelope of what one can possibly achieve(be it safe or not). I’ve been a modblog reader for years now, and it never seemed that it featured the best of BME. It seemed to feature stories that showed new procedures, new ways of doing old procedures, events, naked girls, and other things that showed what this community is and where it is going. in my opinion there is nothing wrong with getting 50 piercings and 20 tattoos your first year, and there would be absolutely nothing wrong with an eye microdermal as long as the client is 18. Lane Jensen FTW
I agree….. in general, yet to censor it on Modblog, this is odd to me.
The ammount of stuff displayed on BME and Modblog(good/bad/ugly/beautiful), this is why we come here right?
To see new things learn whats up with other people and there mods???
I agree the piercing should not have been done for various reasons already stated… yet IF IN FACT she did get screwd over and the guy effed it up, took her eye out, lied about him doing them befor, said it would be free if she let him try it out……(what ever could have gone wrong) she would not have sent in the picture right?
So in the end someone else ruined there reputation, and got all of this attention out of it and we got something new to look at….
50 piercings in a year has to be damn expensive.Idon’t think i have it in me to do something like that.
Although it’s not the primary focus of the article, I agree that the desire to fit in prompts some people to modify themselves more extremely, mainly in teenagers. I see plenty of the younger kids I used to go to school with a few years back desperately trying to one-up one another with larger stretched lobes and facial piercings to prove how hardcore they are. We’re talking age 15, 16 etc. One or two isn’t enough, and not having enough makes you some kind of wannabe. It’s crazy.
Waitt, who doesn’t love sleeved-out 18-year-olds?
Anyway, I enjoy the thoughtfulness and reflection involved in this post. Please continue to editorialize, it’s a very refreshing perspective.
(apologies if this is a bit rambling but im just after finishing a 43 hour, 6 day week with no time off)
i liked this article, but while it did point out that a lot of people immitate what they see on sites such as BME, it didnt seem to directly quote the line which i feel is most directly responsible for it. usually its something along the lines of “healed well, no problems” , and tis usually related to something a bit ……odd.
im all for progress. i LOVE some of the inventive things that people come up with. at the same time, i feel that posting something like “got it done 6 months ago, has healed well, no discomfort or problems” can be a bit misleading. i mean in all fairness, thats no discomfort or problems for that one person, not for the procedure itself. different people have different reactions to the same thing. and different tolerances for comfort and pain.
maybe this type of phrase should be used less often, or on stuff thats been problem free for more than a year or 18 months. personally i’d wait longer, but as was said in the article, 3 years seems like an eternity to a lot of people.
more specifically, about this particular microdermal, the person may not notice anything wrong due to the location. theres no nerves on the surface of the eye. and as an organ, the eye is sealed. your eyes NEVER grow, they are not designed to change size. even something as tested and widely used as contact lenses can go horribly wrong for a person due to the shape of their eye, and nothing can be done to alter the situation. so how do we know that the slight readjusting of pressure around the eye socket, no matter how small, isnt going to do some permanent damage?
pain is the body’s way of drawing attention to something that might be going wrong. pain is triggered by nerves. with none in the eye, how will the body let the person know that the microdermal is causing problems before its too late?
other microdermals, like on hands and feet as pictured in the article, while again i feel are spreading too fast without some people researching em properly, are slightly less dangerous in that a problem will make itself known fairly sharpish.
rushing into stuff like this seems to betray a childish or attention seeking personality. i’ve found with all 7 of my tattoo’s and 6 of my piercings, i’ve spaced them out over time, and as each one heals and for years after, i’ve been admiring them. each one has meant something to me. but people getting 30 / 40 / 50 in the space of a year or two strike me as just trying to impress other people, rather than make themselves happy.
wtf their is more risky shit on this site then a microdermal on an eyelid.
I agree with most aspects of this article. I’d love to hear more :]
It all comes down to the fact that there are too many idiots in the world; people who are much too willing to cannonball into the deep end of the mod pool, yet completely unwilling to spend an afternoon doing research. I myself am young (18) and modified, and have spent countless hours fawning over modblog entires; but I’ve also spent hours on google- reading articles, searching for helpful experiences, and researching safe and clean piercing/tattoo shops. I’m young, but informed.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about most people my age, and therein lies the problem. They don’t understand the risks behind piercings and the fact that tattoos are, indeed, permanent. I applaud Jordan for bringing attention to this; now how to fix it? And is it even modblog’s /responsibility/ to fix it?
I’ve had a few piercings done by Lane and he seemed pretty cool. However, after all this eyelid microdermal drama i’ve lost all my respect for him. To me, i think he did this procedure simply because the opportunity came in his direction and he wanted to slap his name on it before anyone else could regardless of who the client was. What bothers me the most is how he acted like a royal ass in the comments for the original post like no one around him should question his authority. I realize piercing a 16 year old in Canada is legal but it seems like he doesn’t even care about the well being of the girl, sure her microdermal is fine but what about that lip piercing that caused such a shitstorm? just cuz he didnt do it, it doesnt matter if its not doing well? I dont think i’ll be going to dragon anymore, or atleast not until Lane climbs off his crucifix.
I agree with the vast majority of this…
but every person IS different just because some 17 year old (ie:me) gets like 50 piercings in a year doesn’t mean I’m doing it for attention or to fit in, granted some people do. actually most people do. But I’ve actually been ostracized by the body modification community for it! I’ve been trying to get a job as an apprentice piercer now for quite a while and each place I have been to they have told me I had ‘too many piercings, and would scare away the customers’ yeah, too many piercings…to become a piercer.
Since then I have taken out the majority of them and now have a ‘normal’ job getting prepared to go to a ‘normal’ school. so if you are looking to cast hate over you’re own community you should probably believe everything this man is saying. Otherwise you should grow up and make a decision for yourself, and realize that the youth are here to push it more to the extreme more than what the more mature people in the community are doing. It’s the same with EVERY subculture. get over it.
I worded that last part really weird I just realized.
oh well, my point came across.
“It raises the questions if the media is responsible for teaching us, or if we are responsible for teaching ourselves?
I personally think that Modblog (or any other form of media outlet) is there to give information and news.
What people choose to do with that information is their own responsibility.” -Shadark
This says it all.
The vast majority of us are big kids. Old enough to make our own decisions. If you’re trying to censor a media outlet to protect the idiots out there who are willing to try dangerous, irrational things then you’re going to be censoring for a looooong time.
i’m going to go get 3 of them now. since i saw it on modblog i have to have it now.
Well like many have said the article was very well written and points out many of the flaws in BME, ModBlog and the modification culture as a whole. Thank you for that.
With the information that the subject of the eyelid dermal anchoring was underage the question turns from whether the piercing is appropriate to whether or not the piercing should be considered criminal. The fact that her father apparently signed for an experimental procedure that put his child in danger of permanent medical danger. (consider the chance of a violent forced rejection that could damage or destroy her eyelid and subsequently require reconstructive surgery or partial blindness)
The one issue I have is the damnation of dermal anchors (microdermals). While there is no question that they are risky, a quality, thoughtful piercer who informs the client of the risks and considers the placement the mental state of their client can install dermal anchors responsibly. Yes there are many piercers who are far to cavalier with dermal anchors but when the piercer and piercie are well informed and prepared for the semi-permeant procedure that is dermal anchoring, it is a good procedure that opens doors in the mod community.
**note** I have two very successful dermal anchors and therefore I am biased when it comes to responsible dermal anchoring.
*get out two cents*
If she wanted it done, and Lane had refused, someone down the line would have done it for her. Or, she may have attempted to do it herself. Was it dangerous? Yes. But a lot of piercings/implants and other body modifications are as well. I, for one, refuse to jump on this bandwagon. I understand Jordan’s position, but I also understand the client’s and Lane’s. *throws in two cents and douses self in flame retardant solution*
really god article…but i just want to say, piercings on the eyelid: someone had to do it first. In the world of body modifications there are always risks, and to try new things you got to take them. I’m not a heavy modified person (yet) but i did a tattoo on my eyelids, and i sure know the risks of it, and i know this was a big decision in my life, but i have my reasons to do it on that part of my body, not everyone who does extreme things are looking for atention, nowdays it is a trend to be extreme, but there are still some of us who do it for themselfs. I really hope with time this all “im pierced so i’m fashion” thing pass out.
(sorry for my english :x…)
Very well stated, and I’m looking forward to reading Lane’s interview as well. I would love to see more editorial pieces like this on ModBlog in the future. Thanks also for bringing up the issue, I enjoy seeing the different points of view in the comment section and am glad this community is capable of well reasoned discussion.
there’s just so many posts to this that irate me to no end…But I’ll just touch one something I quickly scanned passed.
This “Community” should NOT be here to “push you to go further and more extreme”
This “community” is SUPPOSE to be here to support and stand by your PERSONAL journey with Body Modification.
It should not be here to make contests and have people trying their best to out do someone. Does anyone even remember back in the day when it was solidly confirmed in that belief? Back when it WASN’T a race/contest?
Support and Respect someones decision to have their body modified…DON’T make it into a contest and push yourself and others to have more than anyone else or have the next big thing
Remember people…Body Modification is: my journey….my life….
Jordan this was VERY well written and I applaud this entry and thank you for trying to remind people to just relax and enjoy body modification, not cram it down peoples cram holes.
I think a bolted on eye patch held in place by microdermals would be the best thing ever.
Lucas: I’ll let you know how it goes…I got a 12 year old wanting that exact placement…they even brought in a patch with a skull and cross-bones on it.
YAAAARRRRRRGGGGH!
the “had lane not done it” argument holds very little argument when it comes to ethics and responsibility.
If a client comes in and wants you to pierce their nipples and masturbate on them, you dont say “well…. if I don’t… someone else will”
I mean, SOMEONE might..
ok. bad example.
That is to say, ModBlog is supposed to feature the best that BME has to offer.
Ummm…I believe ModBlog has shown quite a bit of crap in it’s lifetime.
I don’t really understand the hullaballoo over this microdermal. We’ve seem umpteen fingers, toes, feet, and earlobes cut off and carved up. We’ve seen blue ink injected into eyeballs. We’ve seen penises cut off or sliced open. Hell, even people’s cutting due to mental problems (not all are related to mental issues, don’t get me wrong) are put on display.
This girl and her father went in and had this procedure performed on her. It seems to me they will have to deal with the outcome of having something done that hasn’t been done before. All piercings started out that way, someone was the guinea pig. She just happens to be the one for this microdermal placing.
Big ups Jordan! A very good read indeed.
I don’t think there needs to be censorship though, as we should be mature enough as a comunity to decide for ourselves if we think its a good progression or not. If it is so decided that it is a dumb idea, then there will be record of it not being approved of by this community in these archives.
What do we ACTUALLY want as a collective? to have a mod-ethical charter that we all agree to follow, not getting, giving or even acknowledging any mod procedure that has not been previously accepted and endorsed by a regulatory mod-comittee?
OR
Would we rather participate in a dynamic community where new procedures, no matter how controversal, can be discussed, the pros and cons weighed up, and a general opinion and knowledge base be formed around each procedure, as a concept, aswell as the execution of the example procedure?
Personally I say the latter is better, its how we encourage good progression.
Nah this eyepatch would be made out of stainless sheet metal curved to fit the eye with some bolts holding it on… Can you say effin hardcore?
and maybe a laserpointer and red lights installed!
Squid:
“I don’t think there needs to be censorship though, as we should be mature enough as a comunity to decide for ourselves if we think its a good progression or not.”
You give this community far too much credit. As Jordan posted the community has now erupted into a borderline obsessive group of individuals always wanting to out do one another…
as for your comparison…Funny thing about MANY industries…They all are always coming up with new methods and practices, new ways to go about something…Its not saying new things CAN’T be tried out, but realistically the current state in which the Body Piercing Profession tests these cases out, is going to one day lead to the death of an individual.
Now some people don’t care about other peoples lives…Some will say “you have to break a few eggs to make an omlette”…I say FUCK THAT we should NEVER be seriously putting anyones lives at risk.
If you don’t know how something will work, or what the risks are,etc…You don’t just do it…You get educated on the matter and THAN attempt it.
It’s called being pre-cautious and caring of those you are working on.
In this day an age I can see what the clients are on this wave length because these ideas of being cautious and caring are so removed and now its all about the almighty dollar and doing anything and everything the individual wants regardless…
Lucas: LMAO!
i think the argument jordan makes is sound. hell id say its valid. and where as i wouldnt be convinced a microdermal on the eye lid would be a good idea, i did think the toe and finger were decent placement choices. and seeing as how those are my photos being shown above lanes i think i can put my two cents in. i did those two pieces on not just clients but close friends. call them guinea pigs if you want, but they were not paying customers. i firmly believe ” trying things out” or “experimenting” on clients is bad form. especially on someone who you never know if youre going to see again. its reckless. but i think until lane gets a chance to actually give his opinion its kind of a moot point. was it bad judgement? in my opinion yes. but i didnt do the mod and the real choice lies with lane and his client. collectively we can all point fingers but with modblog promoting anything “cutting edge” lets not skip where some of the blame has to lie. im sorry this is all over the place and not totally linear. but everyone has to make the best choices with their bodies. their bodies. and as a practioner its my job to do what i think is sustainable. again. what i think is sustainable. mistakes will be made. and thats not a cop out just a true statement. everybody wants to see something new. is it for progress? or the chance to point the collective finger and yell “how dare you?”.
Just to add on to my previous post, and in the wake of a great many of the ones that followed it: I find it disturbing how easily people are losing sight of the point. Seriously. Did you all even *read* the article, or did you just look at the pictures and run with it? It wasn’t focusing JUST on the eyelid microdermal, it wasn’t focusing JUST on the guy who did it. It was talking about risky and downright foolish procedures and the way they’re handled in general.
Ps….. wouldent piercing an eyelid with a CBR be even more dangerous (as previsouly displayed on this site.)
The constant rubbing on the eye, causing the raw-ness and the red-ness and the yuck-ness???
That made me cringe(as in it being dangerous) waaaaay more the the eyeball not being touched in this case. Or the tattooing of the eye, or the splitting of this body part and that body part, I dont know, sorry I just had to ramble again.
Warren thinks i’m kidding i’m welding it up right now!
63.: The difference between the extreme body mods (you specifically reference the eyeball tattoos) and this is that in those extreme cases the mods are either self done, or done in an experimental fashion. This was not an experiment. This was a 17 year old. I am 100% for the expansion of the art of body modification and for artists pushing the envelop… when such experiments are done by those heavily intrenched in the community. This is human experimentation and even with her father’s approval it should not have been done.
And the argument that someone would have done it is a moot point. If ANYONE performs experimental mods on underage clients they are in the wrong. Leave experimentation to the professionals.
#71 – Jasmine, your point about tattooing the eyeball – notice how this procedure was done on people who have been involved with the modification community for years and years (Shannon Larratt, Pauly etc), people who know the risks. They didn’t need to be sat down by the artist for a risk talk, they knew them before because of their extensive knowledge.
And about the point of “well if Lane wouldn’t do it, someone would”, I am highly suspicious that this girl didn’t think of this completely on her own. This idea was implanted (no pun intended), into her brain, as a really cool idea, and she simply jumped at it when it was announced as free.
My question would be this: for those two posters who got all that work done in one year: What practitioner are you going to? Because it your artist gave a crap about you as a client vs making money, they would have stopped you at a couple mods in one year. A person who abuses their body that much is likely to have crap for an immune system.
Scott:
I referenced more than eyeball tattoos. If this girl was 18, would the whole thing have been turned into what it has? Is the uproar over the age of the “client” or over the procedure itself? If it’s the age, maybe places like IAM should be 18+, since those younger than 18 obviously can’t make a smart decision when it comes to their body mods (at least that is what it seems you think). If younger people can view places like IAM and we welcome their mods there, why couldn’t a 17 year old get a modification with her parent’s approval?
All body modification is pretty much human experimentation Scott, we’re all doing things to our bodies that get even more strange by the day.
I wonder when there will be an “eyelid microdermal” section on BME? I’m pretty sure it will pop up.
Normally these articles reek of the authors personal insecurities, so I avoid them, this one made me think though and I agree with his sentiment.
Nowadays it seems like people are modifying themselves with no intention to commit to these changes. They do it to one-up each other and to stand out.
lame.
Fakir’s two cents worth. Thank you Jordan for the moral high ground. BME has caused a lot of grief for the Fakir family and school in the past. We have to repeatedly remind the hundreds that come to us for piercer education that the one-up-man-ship they see on the site is not necessarily standard and safe operating procedure. We have always stressed, since our start in 1990, that novel procedures should not be tried until they are proven. And we have always been conservative in teaching new procedures until we are convinced of their sanity and safety. BTW, we did introduced two days of instruction on microdermals in our August 2008 Advanced Piercing Intensive. But it took us four years of experimentation on our own, with much help from the major jewelry manufacturers, before we felt morally ok to add this procedure to our curriculum.
Its rare that I come to bme or modblog and am impressed with something, so thank you jordan.
aww…shucks: I do believe their would have been quite a bit of uproar over the piercing even if she was 18 but the fact is she isn’t. While you do make a good point that all piercing is experimental the question remains; should such extreme experiments be performed on a child? In medicine, you rarely, if ever, hear of a child being the first to receive a new surgical procedure. Should the mod community act any differently?
I do not believe that only those over 18 should be allowed to be modified but, like many states, I believe there are certain modifications that should only be performed on individuals over certain ages. I will be very interested to hear the piercer’s response because though the father was a part of this procedure, it is unknown if he was informed of every risk of the dermal anchoring process. Did the girl tell her dad what was going on? Did she manipulate the situation to get what she wanted?
Please get the piercer’s response. This will clear up many of the disputed facts of the project.
This all seems rather self-important. Some people take this place much too seriously when really all it is is another resource like so many out in the world. Spread the information and leave the judgments for each individual to make for themselves.
As being part of the very few body modification media groups out there you do have a significant role in the world of body modification. However, I believe you are over playing your role, you make it sound like this is some special operations mission gone awry that no one but the highest in the military are even supposed to know about it just got leaked out to all of the public. This is simply an experiment. An important mile-stone just occurred in the micro-dermals. You could have still posted it to us with regards saying that this is experimental, and we are waiting for follow up pictures.
You kept us up to date with the eye tattoos, why is it such a disgrace to keep us up to date with this? Even if you don’t approve of it, this does not mean you should censor it. Just because you post an article about it does not mean you are endorsing it. There are many news groups who do not approve of the wars, however they still let the public know about them, and how they are going. They do not censor us from it, yet they do not endorse it.
We are a community that some members of us support such extreme things such as castration, amputation, scarification etc…. Don’t you think relative to our normal behaviors this is a very small happening just blown out of proportion?
Sincerely, Bunson
As someone mentioned a few comments above mine, the only issue I had was that she was under the age of eighteen, but she had her father’s consent.
Whether or not she had it done because it was free, or because she wanted it, it was willful. Her father seemed to believe she could handle the piercing, and as long as they both completely understood the possible risks of such a procedure, well it should be honky-dory.
That the piercer would perform this experimental piercing is what I’m more concerned about, because it’s experimental. But as I mentioned above there was consent, how ever misguided it may have been or not.
One should be responsible for their own actions and suffer the consequences, not a website though warnings on such are very much welcome.
As for influencing the modification community and attention seekers… well, what’s the big deal? Their modification choices are not detrimental to anyone but themselves if anything less than ideal would happen, if they modifications were to become infected, reject, reduce their employment possibilities, or what have you. Sure, some of these can be annoying and the IAM community has many of these people who seem to modify themselves for attention purposes, but we are a community not a blanket entity. We are not all the same, we do not modify ourselves for the same reasons, and not all of us take breaks between one modification and another.
Good post Jordan. When new ideas come to light, I like to see a discussion of the good and bad aspects of it, not just a picture with a “cool” message.
Sensationalism without sensibility can be found anywhere. Modblog should rise above this and be an example to others as to how to report innovations responsibly. The ability to comment on posts is an important aspect of this. I would have liked to have seen some comments from the people involved in this as part of the original post.
Keep up the good work!
Well written, Jordan. Thanks for posting =)
On a website that has previously posted a lengthy interview with a man who eats the shit from diapers he finds in the dumpsters behind Aids clinics getting on your high horse about an eyelid microdermal smacks of hypocrisy. Since when was BME / Modblog about passing judgement on other peoples decisions? This development doesn’t sit right with me at all.
a good article although a little more opinionated than i’d like..
Dear People toting this as an “experiment”
Please go back to school and learn what a PROPER experiment is.
Even back when the initial article involving Microdermals/Surface Anchors came out I was a LOUDLY against the claims of “hey we’re only experimenting”
Mainly because I don’t know what science classes all you have been too…But proper experimentation doesn’t involve: “Ok so you want what where? COOL!” If anyone did any sort of Experiment in school, they’d be slapped with a big huge “F”
There’s a Hypothesis, Experiments, Testing & Evaluation,etc,etc,etc,etc.
again just going ahead and doing something, is not experimenting…And I don’t even think Lane associated the procedure with experimentation he said: “wanted to see if it was possible”…Sure it can be argued that Lane was “experimenting” but if that’s what he and others are going to call it, its being completely improperly labeled as “experimenting”
I’m very much looking forward to read/hearing what Lane has to say on this subject…Although I suspect it just to be another way for him to justify why he did what he did…Honestly I don’t think things like this should be encouraged…As all it does it give more media attention to it, so people can read and emulate it. Any news is good news and all that sorta stuff.
If modblog were the best BME has to offer BME would never have made it this far.
More posts like this one though and it could start approaching that standard.
I have quite a few mods. To some people who don’t know me I suppose they could believe I’m trying to be an attention seeker or have “a desire to fit in, lead the pack, or otherwise”. But to people who know me they know this has been a journey of 20 years. Not over nite. Not a race.
I really don’t care what people think, and everyone has to pay for their own sins whether it’s getting an experimental modification or blowing out their ear in a race to beat their friends stretching.
People take their own chances.
It’s not up to me to spoon feed them or police them because I don’t want the favor to be forced onto me.
We’re “encouraged” to emulate things simply by being alive. From the clothes we wear to the body images we seek to the lifestyles of the rich and famous (or not so rich and famous)…to the influences of music and art and even the slang we use. Some of these things are positive and some are not.
The bottom line is that we all have freedom of choice to emulate or not.
It’s rather unfortunate to see people tote hate towards an individual online. It’s safe enough to say that the mod itself was risky and experimental but do we honestly have nothing better to do than bad mouth a person for trying something new? Meanwhile, we’re debating the maturity of a girl that 99.5% of this community doesn’t even know. She is a mature girl; I happened to have the chance of meeting her at a suspension a few weeks back- she is mature and has more of a knowledge base than a good portion of people I know in the industry. Not to mention that Lane was considering this before hand; going over pros and cons to figure out the situation in the event of it actually happening. The girl from what I was explained when I first heard about this, came in asking for a CBR in her eyelid. Something that is obviously going to cause irritation and severe issues later on. So, he chose a micro-dermal and it turned out well in my opinion but as I’ve seen so far after peering into this industry as well as the community here, people knock anything by anyone who happens to have a bad rep from a few folks spreading slander. It looked healthy and in amazing shape so I don’t why we’re criticizing a girl who can’t defend herself online and a guy who happened to be responsible for training a few of the people commenting here. Whether or not it was wrong of him to do it is up to him and the client. If he didn’t feel comfortable doing it, he wouldn’t have done it. If she wasn’t comfortable doing it at the last minute then it wouldn’t have happened. I don’t understand why people need to jump to every conclusion possible when 100% of the story isn’t out to the open. Whatever, hey? Anything to be negative.
can I just pose the question to all that if someone is coming in persisting to have something done, would you rather see someone who has experience doing these things, even if they are on other parts of the body, do it or have them go to someones basement or shop where they do not ID clients and get it done and have horrible complications possibly?
just my opinion, but the way I feel, is that it could have turned horrifying if she would have gone to someone who was not experienced doing any of these procedures…
The client consented. That right there should be the end of any and all discussion. No offense to Jordan, but I really don’t see why he thinks he has the right to say what people should and should not do to their bodies. Not only the girl but also the condemnation of the others mentioned in the article just doesn’t sit right with me. I’ve always seen BME and this community as a place that fosters the notion that it’s ok to play with ones body. It kinda seems now that the mission statement is saying the exact opposite.
I will always hold the belief that you should be able to do to your body whatever the hell you want, and I’ll continue to hold that belief regardless of the official stance or what the popular majority think.
And for those who are preaching about age, remember that in this local it was legal. Would it be immoral in America to get an 18yr old drunk? Sure, but in Canada that’s legal. If this procedure was done in the USA I’d be right behind everyone preaching against lane.
If you want to try something out and experiment – do it on yourself, or your friend -> piercer. I think then it’s a fair way… and yes, your kind of “journey” as well…
I was under the impression that she required the consent of her father to get the procedure. Besides that I wouldn’t believe giving an eighteen year old alcohol is immoral, only illegal.
I agree with what ever else you typed.
wow, the second forum post quoted is from a forum on BodyMod.org, and it is me.
um, i may be young and relatively new to modification, but it kinda sucks, because i got all my information from sites like these and respectable shops around my hometown. And my post was used almost in a negative manner. I don’t do this stuff to please others, if i did, i would have a great high paying job and lots of “cool modded friends”. But i dont have any heavily modded friends that live near me. i do this because it makes me happy.
Sucks to have a post singled out and used in a way it was not made for.
fucking sucks.
but otherwise, retarded article.
thanks for putting me on modblog like this, lol.
warren, i was playing devils advocate a little there 😉
i used to be way more liberal towards personal liberties than i am now (stil only 22yo) as i have started to realise that some of the population is too stupid to make some choices for themselves..at ANY age..and thus need to be protected from themselves
Cere: Here in NM, I could legally put a microdermal, or any piercing, tattoo, branding, or cutting for that matter, on a 3 year old should it’s parent sign a consent form. And since you say it’s ok for Lane to do this cuz it’s legal, I’m gonna start doing just this now. Anyone want to bring your infants in for extreme mods, the line forms here. 😛
There is a distinct difference between consent and informed consent.
its sick that this is entirely about the almighty dollar. every single bit of it.
Can someone refer to the post where it states the girl’s father gave consent?
Its all going to come full circle. I think that the ‘ mod scene’ is so oversaturated right now that its become almost a trend. And its all about keeping up with the jones’ and that’s just what society has succumb to.
In essence modblog is a blog. You aren’t gonna agree with everything, and sure as hell no one is asking you to.
Although it does sadden me to see poorly done/kept body mods, I don’t mind.
I’m waiting for enough people to fuck up to knock it out of the trend status.
I’m sick of kids asking me ‘what gauge am I, and how long it took’ and ’2 years and you’re only at a 0?!’
Its not a trend.
But that’s not the controversy at hand, I mean what bearing does the ‘age of consent’ really hold?
And form over function is strong in the mod community, yes the micro dermal was risky, but nothing is learned or achieved without trial and error.
::falls off soapbox::
This would be the best thing i have even read bout the industry. I am a body piercer, I have had many people come in and ask for stupid things or just really random.. I always ask them why? whats making wanna do this.. I don’t judge them but seriously if i was asked to do something i didn’t believe was safe, i would send them on their way. Tell them to research the outcomes of their ideas. Yes, trying new things too a few of my mates that are heavily modified and know what there in for is ok because they know the outcome. Some humans are just wanting the attention to be in the “moment” not in it for themselves.
But again without trying things in the first place would we be out of the trees yet?
STILLL GRRRRR PEOPLE ARE FOOOLS 🙂
Lexci- I believe someone said something about it in either the comments on this post or the other.
I’m glad I read this, because it reaffirmed that I’m still in the right community, and there are other people around here who care about experimentation that is still ethical and safe and most importantly – right for the individual, and not just trends and being the most extreme and ‘omg I made it to modblog I’m famous lol’.
If she wanted it done, and Lane had refused, someone down the line would have done it for her. Or, she may have attempted to do it herself.
When I hear the above it really, really makes me seethe. It’s the same as the heroin dealer who says ‘if I didn’t sell the drugs they would only go get it from someone else who sells sh*t that could be cut with anything. At least mine is pure and they get good deals’ – this is something I have actually heard someone say to justify their ‘livelihood’.
However you dress it up, both examples.. highly unethical.
I feel like now that people have read this article they are going to assume that EVERY 17 year old or 18 year old with tattoos and piercings are just trying to one up each other and doing it for the sake of having it done.
which scares me.
alot.
I turn to modblog and BMEzine to find comfort in being different, I’ve been ostracized by practically everyone else and I’m sure many of you as well. I feel like now the older generation of the modified ‘community’ are going to look down at the younger one and a gap will begin to form, which again scares me. alot.
so hopefully there are some people out here who think this article is about as ridiculous as they come, yeah sure it was worded beautifully but the content worries me to the core.
I always found this ‘community’ to be a very loving and open minded one, not a “OMG, those kids have to many piercings! WTF” one.
🙁
i think you make a very good point. i get a lot of people asking me my opinion and advice on what they should get pierced/who should do it etc.
the only reason they ask me is because i’m the ‘most modified’ person around where i live. that’s all they go off. i’m no expert.
but we come across ‘professionals’ who are willing to do this sort of thing to people who haven’t necessarily thoroughly thought about the complications that may arise and even if they have, because no one has ever seen someones eye go green and drop out of its own socket, or someones breast have to be removed due to infection, they just don’t care enough not to do it to someone/themselves. the only time they would admit that it was wrong would be when the person drops dead as a direct cause, otherwise the excuse is that ‘no one could have known that would happen’.
Sean – I didn’t get that sort of vibe from this article at all. Rather, I would see an older, more experienced member of the community looking out for younger/newer members of the community, and their safety, not a judgement. I am 25 and have much younger friends – I wouldn’t judge them for mods they want, rather point out realities and risks, and let them decide. Likewise I have older friends, and friends around my age who have been in this scene a lot longer, and I have never felt looked down on. But maybe that is because I am sensible and mature and think before I speak or act, and am not after 15 minutes of fame. Unfortunately, same can’t be said of a lot of humanity!!! :p
Sean- I’m going to have to agree with almaxaquotal. Ill be 19 in a few months and I have never felt as though I’ve been looked down on by the older generation. I appreciate the fact that they in some ways look out for those of us who haven’t been in the mod community as long. Because there are a lot of people who love to make a profit off of teens that don’t know what their doing. But if that is how you feel than its up to us to change those views. Prove to them that some of us do know what were doing, that we do our research, that we don’t do it as a trend or for 15 mins of fame. If we can’t show them that than of course we will be lumped into a category of naive impulsive teens just like the girl in question.
I’m speaking mostly of this section:
“This isn’t a journey — it’s an obsession, whether it’s instigated internally, by a desire to fit in, lead the pack, or otherwise. A bodybuilder doesn’t start out deadlifting 700-pound weights. A mountain climber doesn’t scale K2 as an introductory ascent. This is unhealthy behavior, regardless of the outlet, but body modification allows for it rather easily — even encourages it, be it to pad a portfolio or to get one’s 15 minutes of ModBlog fame. ”
like, I’m not saying it’s happening YET, in fact most every person I’ve met in the community has been GREAT to me, my best friend is the piercer and a tattoo artist at Everlasting ink in New Minas Nova Scotia, and we went to the tattoo festival in Nova Scotia together this summer, and I met some really amazing artists and worthwhile friends there!
so I’m not saying every older person looks down on the younger generation, but I’m just afraid that some people might after reading that. But seeing those couple of comments makes me feel a whole lot better.
🙂
i totally understand your concerns, but i must disagree at some point: even though BME has always a major role in new procedures becoming widespread, you always discourage doing it in an irresponsible way, you always talk about safety, going with a trusted professional with experience in the subject, etc. there is and will ALWAYS be irresponsible people that wants to be “the first one” at any cost (and i’m not only talking about modified people, but professionals too, i bet a lot of them do this kind of stuff for the portfolio even when theyŕe not qualified and/or experienced), and you can’t control it. it’s not of your duty, also. people has to become responsible about their own actions, and if there’s some 17 year old girl whose father and piercer are completely insane people that let her do whatever crosses her mind to become “the first girl with a microdermal in her eye”, it’s not your fault. i bet 99% of us remember having read in the first entries about microdermals that they were an experimental procedure, not recommended for begginers. you cannot take the blame. also consider you are a major source of information about the right way of doing body modification, at least, i always read here about everything i want to know before getting into any new modification. don’t blame yourself for the stupidity of people that uses information in the worst possible way.
how do you have 10 labret piercings in one year? 0_0
it ain’t up to some emo looking guy posing as a journalist to say who is and isn’t modding people for celebrity status within the community. this is another reason why i left iam, because of the bitchiness of the “head people”. shit, to me it seems like everyone who writes on this site is a wanna-be of some sort. you’ve got rachel posing as some kind of modded barbie doll, jordan who thinks he’s john pilger, and roo who’s stilted british humour went out of vogue in the late 80s. it’s a shit show where opinion becomes law. just profile mods and quit acting like you’re the censors. that’s not what BME was ever about.
Jon what are you talking about!? CLEARLY it’s more than Rachel and the site administrators being “bitchy”.
I’m personally enjoying modblog without reading about people eating shit and calling it modification. I think they needed to draw in the reigns for a bit and this is a great start.
I <3 barbie! Thank you so much for the compliment! 🙂
I’m just an outsider looking in, but I did find it refreshing to see an article on this site (which I quite enjoy, BTW) admitting that for SOME SEGMENT of the population, these days body modification has become trendy and so YES, you have some people rushing and racing, for acceptance status within that subculture. It’s become mainstream enough in some circles that it’s POSSIBLE to get mods to fit in there.
Anyone reading here a while knows that periodically there will be someone asking “are breast enhancements appropriate mods to feature on BME” and it sparks discussion, and previously there would be at least a few responses to the effect that “body modification is done to stand out, not to fit in, so it’s different” and “with body modification, people are making their own journey to be their true selves, not fit an image.” For many (most?) sure. But not everyone. So, it’s interesting to look at the “trend” phenomenon too. Certainly things have gone more mainstream in the past 10 to 15 years, seeing someone with septum or lip piercings in my town (which has a university) is common now. 12 years ago, my friend having an ear pierce with a little metal grommet you could barely see through (0, I think, and still one of my favorite looks) was just crazy wild unheard of “ew”. In many ways, this new commonness is a good thing.
But then you get the infamous post on here of the 15 y.o. kid who apparently jammed a piece of chain link through his lip. Not a good move…
Mind, I don’t think most of the community is that way, nor do I think that those people who ARE “keeping up with the Joneses” are necessarily only the younger members, either. I just think it’s healthy to acknowledge that yes, with things getting more widely known and done, some of this “subculture race” is bound to occur, just like with everything else. It’s now POSSIBLE to race for a trend reason.
Still, if you want to see that side of things, there are lots of yahoo answers posts waiting and ready to horrify. I think this site (modblog BME) does a good job of featuring articles, both positive AND negative ones. Plus as others posted, if the article itself leaves off some specifics, someone in the comments is bound to point out certain dangers.
This article is yet another good read. Thanks for it.
I like all the opposing views and opinions this ‘debate’ or whatever is seeing, and I keep changing my mind about stuff too, which is kinda cool. Or poser. Whichever. Oh, and I randomly dreamed about all the BME staff last night. Does BME headquarters really consist of huge 30ft statues made from leather which people live in and stuff, with all the staff driving hotrod cars? THAT’s a crazy lifestyle right there..
Comparing Lane to Steve Haworth or Howie is like comparing George Bush to Stephen Hawkings.
i would just like to state the fact that the girl’s “father” who supposedly signed for her was actually her boyfriend.
I think the overriding problem with body modifications is the ‘herd’ effect it seems to have.
4 Years ago, I decided to get a labret piercing – at the time, I knew only a handful of others, and knew it was somthign I wanted to do. Fast-forward 4 years and almost every other person between the ages of 16 and 20 has a visible facial piercing.
In short, it’s my belief that people are no longer havng piercings because it’s what THEY want to do, rather they are getting piercings because its what their peers want them to do.
This, naturally, spirals into the well-known supply and demand pattern – people believe that in order to fit in they must have a piercing, then to also be an individual (ie – an individual with a glass celing of their friendship groups expectations of them), they have to take it to the next level. And theres always going to be a piercer around who is more than willing to take it to that next level, regardless fo the motivations and thoughts behind a particular procedure.
Esentially, I think it boils down to the question of which do you value more, your social ‘standing’ or your health.
Thats not to say that you should be prevented from getting a piercing because of what others perceive to be the ‘wrong’ reasons – rather that the most exterme, cutting edge procedures should not be carried out unless the client had the full understanding of the procedure itself, and more importantly its potential rammifications for their future.
phew… that was quite a rant…
Sean- there’s no need worrying about those “few” that will all of the sudden think were all idiots because of what this article says. Someone like that shouldn’t be worth your time. Believe me there are more people here that will give us a chance than those who won’t.
i’m pretty much just blown away someone’s dad let them get a microdermal on their EYE.
it seems to be right on the crease, too!
wonder how that’ll heal for her.
*quietly steps around all the drama*
I agree with most of what you’ve said here, but what I wouldn’t be okay with would be the possible censorship of new procedures that people are experimenting with. I am not a modification practitioner but I do consider myself a full-fledged member of this community, and I check Modblog as a sort of ‘news’ – I know interesting, unique mods will be posted, and sometimes this includes novel procedures that people are trying out. I think new innovations in any field deserve exposure, and body modification is no exception. Just because something is potentially unsafe and it was done does not mean it should be censored from appearing on Modblog. I want to learn about the new things people are doing! Yes, eyelid stuff included! If I’m not going to learn about it on Modblog & BME, then where? I can think of no more credible source.
Your commentary somewhat leaves out the importance of personal responsibility in all of this. It is the responsibility of the person undergoing a certain procedure, new & scary procedure or a tried & true one to do the research about safety, aftercare, and possible complications.
BME has always advertised itself as being a very non-judgemental place. No one is really allowed to flame each other on here, it’s supposed to be a peaceful, respectful place where everyone gets along. If someone wants to get a new procedure that might be dangerous and understands the consequences, what right does anyone have to stop them? What right does anyone have to judge them? Everyone has their own reasons for doing what they do, and I don’t believe anyone deserves judgement on this level. If someone wants to get something either because it’s a part of them or because they want to look more hardcore, who cares which reason it is?
I certainly don’t.
Choosing to not post something on ModBlog is NOT censorship.
I am so glad this got delt with.
BME and Modblog serve to provide us with information. While our community may seem to be booming when you look through BME’s galleries, it’s really quite small. In my area, there are few modified people that have more than a simple nostril piercing or lip labret. Nothing extravagant or extreme, and no way to keep up with the rush and evolution of the community.
The point is not to discriminate against material we do not agree with. Push boundaries, so that they may give way and open up to new opportunities. I am confident that, unless all parties involved were complete clods, the potential physical risks were obvious and understood by the client. Her maturity cannot be assumed because of age. I’m sure that everyone here knows a thirty-something that throws fits like a toddler, and a young teenager with the characteristics of a wise man.
Featuring things like this on Modblog are almost entirely -necessary-. Without trial and error, and all the risks, mistakes, and problems encountered, we could not continue to grow as a community and our practitioners would never improve their method. If someone is encouraged to have a modification because it was featured on Modblog, I would consider it to be a positive step. It is the responsibility of the client to be aware of all the risks beforehand and of the practitioner to be well informed and only undertake experiments he believes he can handle. If we never stepped out of our range of comfort, who would grow and learn? Only the person bold enough to push their boundaries.
Every piercing is potentially dangerous. As is every tattoo and every other modification. Clients who have their nipples pierced may develop Mastitis. An infected tongue piercing could pass its infection into the blood stream, the brain, or the heart, or the likely possibility of tooth and gum damage. Although most of these are rarities, they are still entirely real risks. But we consider them to be negligible because it is how we feel we should express and challenge ourselves.
yeah those “punny captions” are great, asshole. look at me, i went to undergrad school, i can type many paragraphs in immediate succession.
anyway, who gives a fuck about risky procedures. obviously shoving some metal “permanently” into your eye is going to carry the risk of your fucking eye falling out. i don’t give a fuck. what are you, stupid? i run around punching people in the eyeball all the time with a fat ring on. all the fucking time. you think those people have depth perception? I DON’T GIVE A FUCCCCCCCK. god damned microdermals look like shit in every circumstance anyway. do something original, punch yourself in the eye socket with a wrench or rip your eyelids off with a vice grip. now that is experimental.
at 135 – Just the REASON why they wouldn’t post something as new as this would be censorship – because it is dangerous. Okay, so it’s dangerous – mention that when it’s posted with an article like this one to accompany the image. Don’t ignore the fact that this sort of stuff is happening.
137 – word up 🙂
130- Comparing Steve to either of those two is a travesty…
Howie is a raging psycho who WILL end up hurting someone VERY BADLY
Lane is a rockstar.. maybe it’s an Alberta thing
whatever happened to the days when you needed to be “in the know” to get the advanced stuff done? sigh..
wait…. so BME ISN’T a dick sizing contest!? oh man… so I’ve been stretching my ears out for no reason!? I’m not going to impress anyone!? AND my split tongue!? I now have to live with this freakish lizard tongue and no one is going to notice or CARE!?
well, I guess I’ll just have to go find something else for my entire life to be about….
haha
i just read through that entire thing
and basically
who cares
its their body, its like how people smoke, sure alot of people dont approve of it, its their body and they can do what they like.
so what if some kid wants to get 50 piercings in one yr and rush it all
they will probably regret it one day
let them figure that out for themselves
i think its great to come on modblog and see some completely experimental new piercing
My point was that Lane is probably more qualified than whoever else the girl could have found to do this project. This is something that could have gone south in a real bad way. Lane did a good job and if I was to question the”ethics” of any of the parties involved it would be the parents of the child, rather than Lanes.
Also, to number 98:
Seeing as you are so determined to have your opinion heard, I will counter and defend the microdermal as an ‘experiment’ by your definition. Although first, I’ll suggest that you take a trip back to basic English class, as you seem to have an understanding of Science. You are ranting about the scientific method. An experiment is any sort of test of an idea, and can be applied to many situations.
The scientific method and microdermals! The basic run-down of the scientific method is –
1. Observation | 2. Hypothesis | 3.Testing/The Experiment | 4. Analyze your data | 5. Share your data
The observation: there is a curiosity or demand for a type of product or procedure that would give the look of an implant, without the drawbacks or commitment.
The hypothesis: Something that has an anchor would be easy to insert and keep it grounded beneath the skin, creating a single point on the surface of the skin that gives the appearance of a transdermal/single point piercing/ et cetera. Easier procedure, arguably less permanent, and all of those wonderful perks. Also: an anchor with several small holes may allow the tissue to grow through them, ‘rooting’ the implant more permanently.
Testing: Fishtail labrets and many microdermal prototypes are implanted into willing “guinea pigs”. Eventually, the more successful modern model is invented and tested.
Analyze: Fishtail labrets suck. Microdermal implants that do not reject give the appearance of a smaller transdermal implant without the invasive procedure. They can also be used as single-point “piercings”, to decorate tattoos, and what have you. Hoorah!
Information sharing: Articles regarding microdermals are published on BME, and they begin to gain popularity in the modified community. Success!
Sorry. It’s a full moon tonight, I think. 🙂
Wow this is one hell of a fire storm.
Way to chase one of the most contributing members of Bme away… GOOD EFFIN JOB JERKS!
What 135 said.
Modblog and BMEzine do not serve as vaults of information. I think that’s a dreadful definition. This isn’t censorship – Digg and that HD key was censorship – this is acting responsibly until further information is gained about the situation. Like the article says, there will only be a rush of people wanting this done, before anyone knows about the risks. Modblog will be held responsible for procedures gone wrong – it doesn’t need a reputation among parents of ‘they’re the ones who encouraged people getting studs in their eyelids.’
sometimes, people just try too hard to be different.
Awesome editorial! Serious props, dude.
…as to not resurface anything, I will be vague:
It’s the “more modded-than-thou” mindset that will truly ruin the community and alienate those here, in mainstream society, and the ignorant.
Great article. (I will link it on my website.)
As a piercer (I work from home now), I don’t do much “risky” procedures for the simple reason is that a lot of people (not ALL) can’t even take care of 1 inch of their body, So doing something of this kind has too much risks involved. I rarely meet customers (or people in genral) who would FULLY understand those risks. If I ever meet some body who wants something more risky and completely understands what’s involved, I will do it. But as I said, not many people understand.
Personally, I would not pierce a minor, even if it’s legal and with parental consent. I have done this on some occasions (rarely), except ear lobes, navels and nostrils. The only reason is, is that I know they want it, and they want it NOW, so if I don’t do it, they will go to another place which will butcher them. But as I said, this is MY choice and MY ethics and morals, and mine only.
Also, I don’t consider myself “heavily modified”- some people do though, and even years ago, no one ever talked to me with disrespect because of my “lacking” in mods. Maybe I was lucky with the people I met. I think it depends of how you present yourself (as in personality) that people will “judge”, maybe they are jerks and “elite” bitches around, but as I said, with the many people I met, I’ve never experienced it. And jerks in the mod scene, even without mods, they would be jerks anyways, no matter in what field. And for sure I don’t see getting modified as a competition.
This is my two cents. And sorry for the shitty spelling, (and weird grammar, I’m not english and you can tell) I’m tired and just came home, so I hope it’s “readable”.
re: 131… I think you’ll find every human culture, including subcultures, causes a “herd” effect. I see it constantly with all the ugly lil American who rape my culture when they copy ta moko kanohi (numerous examples on BME, NYCNick being one of them he didn’t even know his facial tattoo was ripped off from te ao Maori).
We’re animals. We follow what’s popular. Or we follow what’s unpopular because we don’t want to be part of the “mainstream”. We’re disgusting. It’s just how we are.
” As well, Lane has been invited to do an interview and defend his position. This will be published as soon as possible.”
what is actually left do discuss? I think he already explained his opinion very well. and why should he defend himself? is this going to be lawsuit, jordan ginsberg found guilty of critizining modblog? that’s ridiculous.
I still say all this is just a question of who should be responsible for who here. To me it’s always going to be you are responsible for your actions, and I’m responsible for mine.
What does age really matter in the end?
I’ve talked to guys and girls past the age of 30 who gave close to no thought about risks and long term effects.
And I’ve talked to people under the age of 15 who were so mature and thoughtful about that decisions and so aware of the risks and long term effects that I felt they should be looking down at me for some of my risky behavior in the past.
We know nothing of this girl in the picture, she is simply put out as an example. Stop thinking she isn’t fully aware about what she is doing simply due to her age (or supposed age. Do we even really know her real age?). She is an example, not the poster child for a new movement.
What I got from the article is the question of where our own responsibility starts and where Modblogs ends.
My two cents on the whole thing is this..
We are the only ones responsible for ourselves, no one else.
Modblog/BME might be playing a big part in todays mod trend but it still isn’t THEIR responsibility to hold our hand and tell us what to do.
Personally I would like to see a link at the bottom of most pictures that link us to a list of risks, benefits, artists who are able to do this etc.
If for no other reason than to have an easier time finding information about what I’m looking at, and to have an easier time pointing people in the right direction when they are curious about a mod/thinking about getting it.
But, again, that is also OUR responsibility to read up on stuff and do our research before we do something to ourselves that is quite obviously risky in one way or another.
I would be thrilled if something like that got added to Modblog, but I certainly wont blame the staff if they don’t want to do that, don’t have time for it or simply aren’t able to make such an extensive risk/benefit list for every single picture they choose to add here.
Again, we don’t really know anything about the girl in the picture, her level of maturity, the reasons behind her desire for getting this mod or, as far as I’ve been able to see, the reasons why the piercer decided to do it.
So let’s stop this witch hunt on these two people and wait for them to reply here and in the meantime focus on the real concerns some people have here.
“As well, Lane has been invited to do an interview and defend his position. This will be published as soon as possible.”
Well ain’t that just a bunch of shit. Hey Rachel and Jordan, who the fuck made you the mod police? Defend his position? Against whom should he defend himself?
Do you guys have cool lil badges and certificates presented to you by the Mod State? Have you been legislated in our culture as the defenders, to serve and protect? Are you the Mod Pigs now?
That’s some bullshit. Lane shouldn’t have to defend himself. If some stupid lil kids gonna walk in and get wet cos she’s getting some new placement for free, then go for it. If it turns to shit, serves the bitch right.
“Defend his position? Against whom should he defend himself?”
Against the numerous people who have criticised his actions? I’m just guessing.
“If some stupid lil kids gonna walk in and get wet cos she’s getting some new placement for free, then go for it. If it turns to shit, serves the bitch right.”
Some practitioners think that way, too. That’s the problem.
opinions are like assholes, everyones got one.
Can’t jordan post his? I hardly think he’s trying to be the mod police. This picture obviously inspired him to write what was on his mind. I also don’t think he is trying to regulate the body modification world, he just doesn’t agree with some peoples persuits.
“While Jordan is an editor for and a valued member of BME, this is an editorial and does not necessarily reflect the views of other BME staff or BME as a publication.”
You read this Jon P? maybe not, but then you feel the need to go on to insult anyone you can? You have some thorn in your side, huh? Some personal vendetta against all that is bme? Seems like it…. yet you still post here. Are you trying to be the mod police?
“I see it constantly with all the ugly lil American who rape my culture when they copy ta moko kanohi ”
seems like mod police to me. You quickly bash jordan, yet your expressing the same feelings he is… just from a different perspective. Don’t you see it? Atleast he doesnt turn everything he says into a stereotyping childish insult. Atleast he doesnt get so overwhelmed with anger that he turns every post into the exact same point. Are you accomplishing anything? We know how you feel… and Jordan is expressing how he feels. That is fucking it.
Somewhere along the line a jock / meathead mentality crept into body modification. It happens.
If Jordan or anyone is going to slag someone by name, I feel it leaves him open to be equally slagged. Get off the guys dick. I love the piece he wrote, but naming names is stupid unless you’re going to publically air the grievances which lead to the slagging. Are we to just take it at face value and say, “Hey, this Lane guy sounds a bit naff, let’s stay away from him”? Fuck nah! But perhaps we should all be privy to the background as well as the name calling?
And I have as much right as anyone to criticize BME. Ask any IAM from New Zealand. Once you put in as much groundwork OFFLINE as I did here in Aotearoa, then maybe you’d see things from my perspective. I don’t hate BME, I hate what it’s become. If I hated it, I’d have to cover-up a third of my back. Ass.
Fact of the matter is regardless of who actually performed the procedure, it was wrong.
Ive just come to realize that when anything with Lane Jensen’s name appears anywhere, its followed with a whole parade of controversy. In the situation where your piercer has to weigh out the pros and cons to decide whether or not they’re actually going to do it, its just a recipe for disaster. If a procedure ever has any “cons” then it becomes irresponsible to perform. And that should be practice for anyone calling themselves a professional piercer. Modifications have enough risks associated with them as it is, its plain stupid to create more. Modifications are meant to better our lives or make us happier with ourselves and not put us at the risk of going blind. Yea, Ill admit that an eyelid micro-dermal is really fucking cool… But is it really worth potential blindness or other severe complications down the road? If she wasnt old enough to consent for this procedure for herself, if she actually had to get her father to sign for her that should have been the first and only red light saying to the piercer that they shouldnt be doing it. I also happen to know FOR A FACT that Lane is notorious for putting the mod first and the client second
I really enjoyed reading that. A very thoughtful & poignant viewpoint !
we make it what it has become.
the internet is not reality….
Jon P, I think you and I can agree that all this “debate”, solves squat shit. That stupid girls and boys alike are going to walk into places, that to others, are places that they shouldnt be walking.
anything media based is going to sway our blob of a consiousness into an opinion of indentity. Either it be opposing or embracing. Either it be a picture of a mod, a news brief on global warming, or a music band. Modblog has nothing to do with this reality. Our culture is media saturated. I fail to see many points that are constructive. I agree with not naming names… It calls for false impressions, an identity completely defined through a virtual reality, which a lot of stupid people unfortunatly make as their reality. That Lane is a bad person because of something that they judge instantly through a photo of a girl, but I think you need alittle more faith that we’re not all sheep.
People who make it their reality make other people upset naturally… You feel offended by someone that you feel has no right to relate to or know. I don’t use social networking websites and I don’t blog. I’ve been looking at BME for 14years and I’ve always been anonymous and never used IAM, for that exact reason. I would rather be doing stuff that is OFFLINE. I would rather experience for myself. But coming off as just insulting, helps make BME what it’s “become”.
People that rant on about how modblog is going into a decline and only post on things that they hate,blah blah blah my sandy vagina hurts blah blah blah… It just sounds like that annoying kid yelling at his, used to be favorite band…. “I liked you before everyone else did. you’re sell outs now!!! ”
Lame, move on.
It’s crazy to think that one microdermal set off so many opposing views. But for Christ’s sake…they’ve posted so many worse things. What about self amputation? Needless to say that’s a bit worse than an eye microdermal. I do agree that the piercer displayed improper judgement when he agreed to give such a young and immature client an eye microdermal, but ModBlog has posted worse things and probably will continue to do so.
i think there should be some kind of cagefight. winner is right loser is wrong. now, whos gonna be in the cage i think would be the real debate here.
Just my two cents here.
Is it just me , or did modBlog just echo every anti mod argument ever by saying that people who get the mods that Rachel/ Jordan don’t personally approve of are only doing so for “attention”/ ” competition”/ “jock mentaily”/ [ insert wring reason]?
Who the hell are the owners of BME to judge what one ought to do with one’s body?
The seventeen year old young woman had her father present, and it is HIS call, not Rachel/Jordan’s to decide what she ought to do with her body or not.
This entire diatribe smacks of corporate arse covering in case of a lawsuit to me, but then again, I’m not surprised. Long live BME corp, where what sells is what’s acceptable.
The number one most important thing is the safety of your client. It does not matter if they are 17 or 77. It does not matter if they are legal or if their legal guardian(boyfriend?) gives consent. It does not matter how many modifications they have or want. It does not matter how experienced the piercer/mod artist is. It does not matter how cool you are or want to be. Bme,Modblog, Rachel,Roo,Jordan,Shannon could not have changed this situation. I personally do not feel it is acceptable to perform this procedure because it is in my opinion way too dangerous!!! Why risk something like your eyesight? Informed or not?
And I am referring to this specific procedure:)
KJ: I agree wholeheartedly. It’s a shame the brown-noses don’t want to get in trouble with Rachel. Cos she might go threatening legal action against them too.
I’m surprised that in almost 250 comments between the two posts, nobody has discussed just how fundamentally anatomically STUPID placing a microdermal IMPLANT beneath the eyelid is. For those who don’t know, this isn’t the first time Lane has placed dermals with complete disregard for both his client and logic, seemingly just to be the first and stretch that dick a little longer. Anyone who’s browsed the male genital piercing galleries will have seen his almost comical attempts at placing a series along the shaft – really brings the dick measuring analogy home.
What it comes down to is that microdermals are NOT body piercing jewelry, they are miniturized transdermal implants. Unlike regular jewelry, they are specifically designed not to sit inertly, and require a subcutaneous fat layer to grow around their sharp edges, which is not possible in the thin, internally mucosal tissue of the eyelid, or the penis for that matter.
If this were truly a case of experimenting and pushing the boundaries, new jewelry would have been created before this was ever considered. The eyeball tattooing experiments were carefully thought out and great consideration was given to the best methodology for the mod. If people want to start single point piercing eyelids, we’ll need something like a fine gauge silicone based labret stud before it becomes even remotely safe. Hell, even a regular labret stud with a nice smooth flat base would probably have beat a microdermal in this instance.
But putting a microdermal implant in an eyelid makes about as much sense as a septum transdermal or a subdermal dome placed under the side of the nose. It’s a bloody big square peg trying to fit in a round hole, no one with even the most basic understanding of physiology would consider it. By comparison, I have no objections to eyeball tattooing experiments.
Lane has gone too far this time, and finally exposed himself to the world as the egocentric hack he is. If it really was done for free, it’s the worst case of mod before client I’ve seen on Modblog (as opposed to BME). I’d be very surprised if that girl has no permanent damage unless it’s removed immediately. Never mind the fact that the eyelid was quite likely dermal punched and could hence lead to chronic health issues for life if it doesn’t close up.
I mean I know he’s a reckless wannabe superstar, but what was he honestly thinking?
I don’t know about this whole attitude of “the internets isn’t real”.
While I do agree that this specific discussion in this specific corner of the net is not going to *solve* anything, the net definitely affects people’s reality.
Like any modern subculture, the mod community uses the internet to build and reniforce real life networks.
People use IAM and BME to exchange experiences, form decisons and find practitioners as well as people with similar experiences.
People get married through IAM, for fuck’s sake.
So while BME is not representative of the whole body mod community, it’s definitely an important medium for real people in different corners of the real world to communicate and exchange information, and that’s as real as it gets.
Like any medium, BME is not solely responsible for things that happen with the info they give. But like any medium, BME/Modblog should not be treated too lightly.
And even though a lot of people already said it: Excellent piece, Jordan. I too enjoy a lot of your writing, you sure put a lot of thought in it.
Redeye, makes one’s head spin, dunnit? LOL
It’s not just artists who are turning BME into a contest, but some of the members as well. I have to admit that even I’ve had impulses to go get something done because I see it on ModBlog, but I don’t because that would be stupid. BME is meant to share ideas and experiences (both good and bad) so that people can learn and be inspired. Body modification itself is very personal and not everyone’s personality fits all the new more “extreme” mods. People have to take into consideration that body modification is not a race or a competition and that essentially it has everything to do with self-expression (while keeping your own health in mind), which obviously this girl did not do either.
Now it’s my turn to stand on my little soapbox and be important.
I’m currently sitting in my office. The little girl with the eyelid peircing? Lives down the road from me, past the hay feild, on a little farm with her grandmother, grandfather, and two horses. Her ‘father’, was probably her boyfriend, who is twice her age. Her best friend is the younger sister of my best friend. Her knowledge of body modification extends about as far as ‘if it’s sharp, it will peirce, and if it’s bigger, it will stretch’. Many, if not all, of her other peircings, were self done. Lane’s CLEAR irresponsibility in performing such a risky procedure on such an obviously inexperienced girl (note the irritation, dry skin, oversized and poor-grade jewlery in her snakebites, as just one -or two- example[s]).
And COME ON.
THE EYELID? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Aside from being an incredibly thin membrane that is supposed to sheild your eyeball – YOUR MEANS OF SIGHT – from outside elements, it isn’t well known for its masses of tissue and probably makes for a very unstable mechanism for healing the microdermal in a stable, anchored way. I’m no eye doctor, but I’m relatively certain this may cause issues with such simple mechanisms such as blinking and…I dunnoo…vision somewhere along the road, such as, if by perchance, it were to get infected.
The girl does competitive horseback riding, it’s inevitable that dust, hay, sweat, etc, will get into the anchor and irritate it. I work in a measly hot kitchen and my microdermal gets irritated from the heat and humidity.
Just saying.
The fact that we are debating whether or not lane is irresponsible shows that it is not clear. I prsonally STILL find nothing wrong with what he’s done. Once again, if the client was informed and consent was given then lane was completely responsible and ethical. The only way he stands culpable for what people are saying about him
On this thread is if he lied about the risks to the client. And since none of us were there when he had his consult with her, none of us can talk all this shit.
And Lane knew the risks of an eyelid dermal anchor???? how would he know that? He doesn’t seem to know (or care) about a lot of important issues in this industry.
If he had done it on a member of his staff or someone who would have seemed to at least be able to take care of piercings in general, let alone a very delicate, experimental procedure on the face – it may not have been such uproarious occasion that this was posted.
He IS irresponsible, Cere. I get that you have a thing with age of consent and whatnot in the area we’re in and I can respect that idea. But it just doesn’t work for everything. It’s not black and white.
Miss Meg posted a VERY nicely written stand on it in the Learning Forum (a forum of dedicated, professional piercers who are determined to move forward in a safe, ethical manner)
I’d like her to post it in here….
And everything you stated above was merely your OPINION. Of course its not black and white because we are talking about something that is rooted in ones FEELINGS, not facts.
My feelings on the subject are very black and white. One should be free to do whatever one wants to to your own body. Nothing Lane did in anyway, shape or form was wrong.
I wouldnt mind reading what meg wrote, but i cant find the learnign forum anymore. Its no longer on warrens age? And btw, calling the learning forum a “a forum of dedicated, professional piercers who are determined to move forward in a safe, ethical manner” definately gave me the best laugh i had in a long time.
Things like this are exactly the reason I’ve directed dozens of people firmly away from Dragon FX. The jewelry I’ve seen from there is of terrible quality, and yet goes for the same amount as top notch jewelry. So many of my friends got their first piercing there, and came out of it wondering what the hell had gone wrong with their piercing. Sure, some of it was probably just poor aftercare on the clients’ part, but you can’t attribute every ruined piercing to that. When I see how many unsatisfied people come out of there compared to the other shops in the city, it’s pretty clear to me. I’m just glad that I work with so many young people getting their first piercing – I’m the first person they ask for advice before getting it and I’m happy that I know exactly who I can trust to send them to.
Cere, you’ve never even posted in the forum. It’s a forum for piercers.
Laugh all you want, but I’ll give respect to any piercer who’s asking questions and learning ANYTIME over someone who’s just making a quick buck doing hand web and eyelid piercings for modblog cred on teenagers using tin-quality body jewelry.
Cere mentioned in passing that the “…fact that we are debating whether or not lane is irresponsible shows that it is not clear.” which I must disagree with. The fact that people are debating whether or not piercing an eyelid with a microdermal implant is acceptable or irresponsible shows that there are widely ranging viewpoints on the topic. These range from the sensible (e.g. “Perhaps piercing the only membrane protecting your eyesight isn’t the best idea in the world?”) to the completely ridiculous (i.e. “Seventeen year olds wanting to get pierced should be able to get a 0g barbell in their prefrontal lobes!”)
My opinion is that regardless how well its done, a piercing in contact with the scleroid is going to have to come out pretty quickly barring very special circumstances. I’d like to hear more about those circumstances but its pretty telling that other than the initial post nobobdy involved in performing this procedure (apparently on a minor, apparently for free, possibly without ‘confirmed’ consent), certainly hasn’t shown up in these forums defending doing it. Tout est juste dans l’amour et piercing, but honestly… perhaps a bit more responsibility could be exercised?
I don’t think its entirely ethical for someone doing procedures like this to pierce anything they think will be okay, because what if it isn’t? To illustrate, lets imagine this eyelid pierce heals really well. Great! No problems, both piercer and piercee got very lucky for a procedure never before attempted. But if it doesn’t? Well… the possible medical rammifications could lead to state-sponsored lawsuits banning procedures the community performs commonly and knows are relatively safe.
Pushing the envelope this way isn’t brave trailblazing, its bravado and stupidity in combination and could lead to the legal system and society at large pissing on everyone’s bonfire.
ummm, I know I don’t post in the learning forum. That’s pretty easy to deduce since I didn’t even know it moved off of warrens page….
Thanks for keeping track of my comings and goings though!
“One should be free to do whatever one wants to to your own body.”
Cere, I couldn’t agree more. If you want to throw yourself off a bridge, or pierce your navel with a bread knife and use disposable chopsticks for jewelry (or your labret with rusty chain link..), or inject yourself with 20 tylenol, I’m honestly not bothered in the slightest. Age doesn’t even really come into play for me.
But if you want to go into business throwing OTHER people off bridges, chopsticking their navels, destroying their livers with drugs, or whatever other grievous bodily harm may be in question, that’s another thing entirely. Allegedly offering services for free to tempt the poorly informed client and accepting dubious parental consent only makes things that much worse. And for reasons stated above, I don’t care what you say – anyone agreeing to have a microdermal placed in their eyelid is either NOT informed or seeking to deliberately damage their eyeball.
A consent form doesn’t abdicate you from your legal and social obligations to not harm or kill another individual deliberately or through negligence. Your ideology is sweet, but it amounts to anarchy – this incident is completely unacceptable as an “experiment” on SO many levels. I don’t know about North America, but I believe here in Australia any cosmetic surgeon performing elective surgery for free would immediately lose all liability coverage and legal standing were something to go wrong.
In a sense you’re right though, it’s not black and white – I’m merely operating on the presumption that anarchy is socially undesirable, which of course warps my opinions so I feel that risking or causing permanent damage on someone else unnecessarily in a “professional” capacity is morally bankrupt. Online, I’m nothing more than a manifestation of my beliefs…
Does anybody remember when surface bars were the newest infallible invention? haha.
redeye and lexci… word to you guys. i think this type of editorial is long overdue and kudos for including it on modblog. people can disagree, of course, but i think opening up the debate and the thought process on the ethical / health ramifications of modding is essential.
Jesus, I have so many problems with the tone of this whole thing.
I actually feel uncomfortable to be on BME now…
somehow, being underage and having your boyfriend sign for you, that just doesnt scream maturity to me. if they dont have the maturity level to wait it out a couple months, then I dont hold it in high regard that she’ll take care of her “experimental” piercing very well. Just saying.
redeye quote “Allegedly offering services for free to tempt the poorly informed client and accepting dubious parental consent only makes things that much worse.”
I agree. Knowing fully-well that the majority of teens (and this is not a stereotype, but a FACT) are not overadbundantly swimming in disposable cash, the fact that this procedure was touted as “free” screams a fat red flag to me.
I think that everbody who disagrees with this has a reason. But you know what, I AM THE ONE WHO HAD THE EYELID DONE. THIS PICTURE IS OF ME. IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE ME WHATEVER, THAT IS YOUR OWN CHOICE, I CAN PROVE THAT THIS IS MYSELF.
I think that everbody who disagrees with this has a reason. But you know what, I AM THE ONE WHO HAD THE EYELID DONE. THIS PICTURE IS OF ME. IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE ME WHATEVER, THAT IS YOUR OWN CHOICE, I CAN PROVE THAT THIS IS MYSELF. I had asked Lane if he would simply pierce my eyelid, as I think that piercing is goergous. He knows I do not like to take my piercings out as I get very attatched, so he suggested a micro dermal, I was all for it, even after he told me he hasn’t done one in that place. I have a saying, “I NEVER WANT TO BE DIFFERENT, I JUST WANT TO BE ME”. and it is true.. I love piercings with a passion, and no matter what any of you think, this is not just for publicity, I wanted it because I thought it was beautiful. I think that people should stop worrying about my own personal decisions and start worrying about their own lives. I dont tell you what to do or judge you, so why am I being judged and accused of something that I have not done wrong……
I as well did know ever risk possible, I signed for myself, I wanted it and seeked it out. this is nobody’s doing but my own. I WANTED IT. I have been forced to live on my own since I have been 10 years old, because my mother is to much of a drunk to even take care of herself. I am a very responisble person and can make my own decisions. From what people are showing me here is that I am more mature than they are because NONE of you have actually asked me anything about any of this, and for all any of you know is that this could be all one lie. I find it rather annoying when people judge me, and they havend even met me. they have no clue who I am or what I am like, and I find it VERY rude
FURTHERMORE if you all feel the need for censorship, why dont you do it yourselves… if it looks gross, or in-appropriate, then dont read it….. it was your choise to read it. Just because I cookie is put in front of you it doesn’t mean you need to eat it….. And as for parentals???? My mother is a drunk, always has been. She could care less about me. She has beaten me, kicked me out in mid winter without a coat, threatened to kill me with a knife while I sleep. I have not talked to her for well over 2 years. My father is a pot dealer, he smoked it in the house WHILE i was there (which is so immature, especially with your child in the same room) he never cared about me at all. I haven’t seen him since I have been 7. I live with my friends, and when i was younger, I lived at their parents houses with them. I tought myself how to be resposible and to learn everything a know on my own. Dont get me wrong, i’m not an agery person, my parents made their own choices and in reaction I had to make my own as well, to leave and find somewhere safe. I pierce because I want to. Why do women put on makeup in the morning??? to make themselves feel good. I pierce to make myself feel good. It is nobody’s choice but my own. And the people that have said, somebody would have done it, are right. If Lane would not of done it, then I would have found somebody else that would.
and my lip looking improperly healed, is not true, it is healed perfectly fine. I CHEW ON IT, as that is why it looks wierd in this picture. It is NOT red, OR SWOLLEN in person. that day i had been chewing on my rings more than usaual and it got a bit tender after some jerk wilking through the mall taking off his coat whacked me in the face…. ALL OF MY PERCINGS ARE HEALED AND IN GOOD CONDITION.
And tattoos…. how are they any better than this. How do you know that those needles are clean and your not going to get aids… how do you know its not going to get infected… or the tattoo artist is dumb and pushes it to deep, scaring everthing…. or that they are actually going to follow the lines correctly….. or when you remove them and destroy your skin…. TATTOOS AND PIERCINGS, ALL OF THEM, EVERY ONE all have risks…. so why pick on this one. does nobody have anything better to do…. can you suggest somewhere better for me to go?? Lane has never done anything wrong than go that distance to be different, so whats the problem?? are you saying everybody should be the same??
And exploiting me…. how is this picture exploiting myself?? tattoo and piercing artists have portfolios of work they have done, WITH PICTURES OF THEIR CLIENTS IN THEM, so why are you not all complaining about that?? why is this picture so much worse…..
the whole, ‘ it was free’ is another issue…. I WOULD HAVE PAYED $300 TO HAVE IT DONE, being free was a bonus. I could care less if it was free or not, if it makes you all happy do you want me to go see Lane right now, and pay him for it…. WHAT DIFFERENCE WOULD IT MAKE, you will all still find a reason to complain because nothing is ever good enough.
If it is so horrible, why dont you just ignore it. If you are complaining ots for publicity, DONT RESPOND TO IT, dont take action to it. If you dont make a deal, it wont make it a big thing… but you all seem to have no problems with supporting it and making it such a big deal……
And why make so many theories withouth even asking the person that had it done… You are the immature ones in my aspect of this. Nobody even gave us a chance…
i honestly dont think your responses have changed anyones view on you, what with you flipping your shit like a child. People are ALLOWED to critique, and thats exactly what they do and they do it often. As for your shitty life, honestly, at this point, I dont think anyone cares. Everyone has their problems, but that doesnt justify doing stupid shit.
Cheryl,
You know every risk and that’s why you have piercers who AREN’T reputable pierce your lips with NON-implant grade jewelry and leave the jewelry entirely too big for your anatomy?
If you’re chewing on your lip piercings enough to make them that angry – you’re not a candidate for an experimental piercing. Period. (That’s why reputable piercers likely turned you away when you asked for risky piercings….or did you just ask ONE piercer in the mall you worked at and since they agreed you let them have at your face?)
Lane going the distance to be “different” IS the problem, lamb. THAT’S what the article is about.
Furthermore, how can you know “every risk” on a piercing which has never been done before?
The people who are concerned are posting negatively in response to the picture of a minor’s eye aren’t going to “ignore” the situation. IF anything happens to you as a result of having anesthetic injected into your eyelid (something that’s ILLEGAL to do to someone without a licence) God forbid (!!) and having an experimental piercing done around a very sensitive organ I will speak out against people who are doing risky procedures on people who don’t understand the risks EVERY TIME it happens. I will NOT stay quiet to avoid sounding like a bitch or hurting feelings because some piercer is trying to “do something different” Nope. Get used to this kind of reaction in regards to foolish procedures. After this article came out, Lane deleted his IAM page and didn’t respond. I know him well. It’s something I wholeheartedly expected him to do after this kind of uproar. If you can’t stand up with your peers and be able to eloquently explain your actions – don’t do stupid shit. You’ll find yourself with no choice but to run away with your tail between your legs because you can’t take the heat.
It’s NOT your job to have to explain yourself. You, as the trusting client, did NOTHING wrong. This article and these posts aren’t a dig at you. It’s an uproar against someone who should’ve known better.
(PS. You don’t get AIDS from body modification. Do some more research.)
(PPS. The picture isn’t exploiting you. You telling the ENTIRE WORLD that your parents are substance and child abusers is exploiting yourself. Shit! Even *I* don’t air THAT kind of laundry!)
can i just add simply this: let others assume youre a fool, rather than opening your mouth and confirming it.
Cheryl. I know how shitty it is to have grown up in a rough backround, while it is important to express your emotions about what you went through i don’t know that it was a entirely applicable responce to this thread.
As a piercer i would not have considered you as a canditate for an experimental piercing for a few reasons:
* you are underage, i don’t really care how long you have been living on your own: you are still underage.
*How the piercing is going to affect your life. i don’t mean aftercare- i mean getting a job or changing jobs, you are still young and while you may be heavily pierced that doesn’t really change the fact that a micro dermal is an implant and hard to remove… i cant imagine how horrid it would be to remove should you need to.
As to your comment: “no one even gave us a chance”… we are debating the ethics of this pierce, not your existance as a person.
Lexci Million is a brilliant poster, and i couldn’t agree more.
WE as piercers and tattooists must feel priviliged that clients place their trust in us, we should never abuse this trust by doing stupid mods to further our “kool” factor.
I would like to thank those who pointed out the bit that I couldn’t help but notice, and ultimately what I wished to comment on. If anything else the professional might have suggested replacing the ill fitting jewelry already prevalent in the existing piercings before continuing a new, possibly riskier mod. Not to mention the clients standard vocabulary and high school education.
Something else that I noticed is that this critisizing is only happening to piercers people dont like. Where is all the arguing about scarification? Lexci I seen a picture with you and your friend, who has a piece of scarification across her lower chest. That was something considered risky and stupid at the time, not it is not. You are cutting yourself open, open to infection. The scar on my eyelid, if it does get taken out is minimal and I knew there would be one if I took it out, but scarification? That is permanently there… Cutting your nerve endings, your skin right off. I think that is sick personally. And how do you know the artist doing the scarification is experienced at it if it is new. That is what I am saying. Every piercing and procedure is new and risky the 1st time, no matter who it is on. You cant trust anybody because nobody has done it. You just have to put fiath in them as I did in Lane. Everything in the begining gets critisized, thats ok, but bashing people and shops is just low. Either way I think this is overblown in the fact that when things are new, yes they are risky, but as time goes on they are less risky, this is just the first step, as it was the same for scarification. Nobody knew how deep to cut down, or what method to use, they jsut went with their knowledge and what they thought was right.
First of all, I look at the young people with enormous lists of tattoos and my first thought isn’t “they’re too young!” or “they’re obsessed!” but, “holy hell, where did they get all that MONEY?”
Now to more relevant stuff: I’m 22, untattooed anywhere, and the only thing I’ve ever really considered getting would be microdermals in my hands. I just think they’re beautiful and would “fit” with me. And the first place I did see them was, in fact, here, on Modblog. But I wondered a lot about them, because I just saw them on here with no real explanation of healing times, how they were put in, etc. (I started reading like, a few months ago so I might have missed that information, lol.) Before/if I got one, I’d end up doing a hell of a lot of research. I know you all are a community that pretty much knows this stuff already, but I was very glad to see some context around this procedure that confirmed my suspicions that it was very new and possibly risky.
My bf is 19, with two “snakebite piercings” on his lower lip. He told me he did them himself, because he wanted them so badly–before he was 18. Really, all you can do is put disclaimers on things–and, I might add, include as much educational information as possible. Think about it as teaching safer sex in a world with HIV: if people want them badly enough, they’ll find a way to do it, no matter how risky it can be. All you can do is try to explain the risks as much as you can for the n00bs and hope that they’re smart enough to read it, becoming as aware of the dangers as they are of how to minimize them.
“How do you know that those needles are clean and your not going to get aids… how do you know its not going to get infected… or the tattoo artist is dumb and pushes it to deep, scaring everthing…. or that they are actually going to follow the lines correctly….. or when you remove them and destroy your skin”
Morals. Trust. Such things as that would be how i would know.
I searched for a long time to find a shop that i was comfortable going to, to get mods done. I researched and visited many shops before i found a place that i knew was reputable. As i did when looking for a tattoo. I searched out many portfolios before i found the artist that i knew in my heart was the one to perform such work on me.
If you did no such research or anything, and just happen to walk by that shop one day and see if someone would do such a risky procedure on a minor , how would you know that the person who would end up doing it, wasnt dumb as shit and wrecking your eyelid for life? Any reputable shop would have turned you down, for numerous reasons. But i guess thats a “risk” that lane was willing to take on you , or any of his clients for that matter and put your safety at risk. It just amazes me.
I did know lane as a piercer, person and friend. I know him himself, I didn’t just simply walk by and say “I dont know you, but can you put a dermal on my eyelid even though it has never been done”. I walked in because he is reputable here. I asked him for an actual eylid percing, which I knew was not the best one you should be getting done. He suggested the dermal because it would not rub on my eye, there is a natural pocket there already, and I would not have to take it out and have a scar. He told me all that he knew could happen, and I trusted him. I also searched on the net that night risks and such of playing with eyes and eyelids. The eyelid is almost like a different organ to the eye, I dont know how to explain it but thats the best I can. I had also talked to my optomitrist, who does reconstrucive surgeries around and on the eyes for people who have been in accidents and such, who is also a friend of our family. He said he seen no real risk with it as on only on the skin, it is not touching my eyeball in any way, and to date, there has never been irritation of any sort. I trusted Lane becasue he did his homework and knew that area. and there is risk with ever piercing you do. You can see nerves, and there are thousands of them in your body. It is easy to hit one by accident and that is a risk ANY person takes when getting a piercing
Cheryl, what the hell does that mean “natural pocket there” You and Lane both seem to be convinced your eyelid is a like a bubble or something?
Lane is NOT reputable here. If you did your homework and asked around, you’d know that. Ask piercers and clients. You likely sought out the only dumbdumb who’d put you at risk. Mod before client, indeed.
When Lane first starting doing anchors he was putting them in lips and monroe piercings to “avoid rubbing” Those didn’t work out so well either as I personally removed a LOT of them.
I’d be shocked to learn that Lane does any homework. This is why his reputation has been reduced to piercing people who don’t know what they’re in for.
The procedure could’ve been done on someone more mature and more able to take on the risks should they arise.
the fact that the man uses injectable anesthetic on regular procedures on people who have no idea what’s going on is the problem.
A big one.
Doing something so risky on a young girl was foolish on his part. He could’ve experimented on one of his staff – but I reckon they knew better LOL
Futhermore, in response to your bizzare critique on people’s scarification – yes, Vyky has an impressive scarification piece on her abdomen. When she had the piece done a couple years ago – it was certainly NOT considered stupid and risky! It’s an age old practice that human beings have been adorning their bodies with scarification. Anyone with any inkling of how our skin works will know “how far down to cut” People have been scarred for thousands of years. It’s not like body piercers who want a cooler looking portfolio just woke up one day, pulled some kid out of the mall and decided to learn how to scar people up.
Obviously “Scarification is permanent” So are tattoos… so are scars from surface anchors. The difference is Vyky sought out an incredibly well-renowned scarification artist to do that piece. She travelled far far away from home for it and used her knowledge and homework to make an INFORMED decision based on a little more than just trust. You think it’s sick to cut your skin off? Ever been pierced by a dermal punch? (How’d you get that thing in your eye?) Yeh.
How do you know an artist is experienced? You ask around. You check out their portfolio. You ask their competition.
I refer people to great piercers and tattooers all the time! that kind of simple information isn’t hard to obtain.
Yet again with the bashing. you sound like you yourself have no idea. put your finger on your eyelid where my demal is. there is no bone, no eyeball. its a space… but I’m not going to argue with somebody who obviously just doesn’t like Lane. I do not care about what you think at all because you were not there in the situation and have no idea what had gone on at all. To me it looks like you are just looking for reasons to stick things to him. So again, I am not arguing with you, its in MY eye and I know how it feels. I have had it looked upon by many people. And if he is so bad, and your so godly, how come I have NEVER heard of you. except for your intent on trying to destroy him, which will never work. And the scarification, she went to a complete stranger and could not have any trust in them because she doesn’t know them, yet I know lane… but whatever, its amusing… the whole, he sucks I rule type thing. So i’ll leave it be at that, I put in my 2 cents and let everybody know that it is fine, and never has been bad. So i’ll just watch the kiddies argue over nothing now :). Bye
In Lane’s defense, he’s pierced me
and nothing has gone wrong,
I do agree that it was kinda stupid that he
did a micro dermal on this girls eye lid.
BUT he is obviously still a great piercer…
In fact, he is the only one I trust.
Good blog though.
I’m glad this site was number one in yahoo so i didn’t have to go searching forever