Author Archives: Sean Philips

6 pictures worth 6 thousand words

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A friend of mine sent me these procedural pics of a subdermal implant he did. He prefers to remain anonymous, which for procedures of questionable legality, such as subdermal implants, I whole heartedly recommend.

These pictures do a great job of showing the procedure step by step, from the marking to the suturing and each step in between. Procedural pics are a great way to see the actual procedure that was done to you as well as to share the steps with people who may be interested in the same mod. So next time you are getting a mod, whether it be subdermal implants or a simple piercing ask the artist if he/she minds photos being taken and if they are cool with it have a friend document the experience. Of course, submitting these pics to BME to share with the community would be a great next step!

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To see all six procedural pictures in order, keep on keeping on.

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Remember when 80′s hair bands toured the world to spread glam and STD’s….

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……this is like that, except  less glamorous, and without the disease transmission.

Ron Garza, as I have mentioned in previous post, LIVES body modification. He often travels the world to personally experience  the other cultures rituals and body modification practices. Currently though, he is out on tour not to experience things for himself but to help others have their own experiences and to spread his knowledge.

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Ron has 2 days still open in Prague and  some appts. left in Croatia also, where he will be teaching as well.
He will also be teaching in Mexcio city APP also and taking scar appointments in Mexico City as well. If your in any of these areas and want to take some of his classes, get cut or just shoot the shit with a guy who lives for body modification, definitely hit him up.

Another way to improve upon a not so nice tattoo

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So you  have a tattoo, conceptually you like it, but the execution wasn’t so great. Like this camera tattoo, the lines are blown out and the design was done way to small, but it’s still a camera and it still expresses it’s wearers love of photography.

So what can be done about a tattoo like this? You could have it covered, but the coverup would likely be far larger than what you wanted. You could laser it off……or you could accentuate it with a microdermal, such as this young lady had Mike Knight do for her.

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I think this beautiful princess cut stone  threaded end from Anatometal, definitely adds some much needed pizzaz to this otherwise underwhelming tattoo.

It’s my crack head tattoo….

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I know, I am kind of a tool for pretty much abandoning modblog as soon as Rob jumped on board and then coming back only to post a tattoo that I got last weekend. However, had I seen this tattoo on someone else, I would have quickly jumped to post it, especially seeing that it came from a relatively unknown artist out of Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Sometimes, I work conventions, but not this time. This convention was purely about hanging out with friends, enjoying some time off from my usual responsibilities of work and parenting and to get a “little” tattoo. Usually, when I go to conventions I just cruise the show floor looking at portfolios and “convention specials”. Convention specials are tattoos the artist really want to do, either for their portfolio, to enter in tattoo of the day or just because it’s such a ridiculous design no one outside of a convention would likely ever get it. I usually go for the latter. At the recent Philly convention I got a traditional style tattoo of a hand being held in a cup shape that read “cup the balls”, of course I got this on my inner thigh as close to my balls as possible so it could act as a fully functional instruction manual for how to properly handle my balls.

I had every intention of getting an equally, or possibly even more, stupid  tattoo at this convention. Then I saw this design and instantly fell in love with it. After talking to the artist, Matti Hixson, I realized this was the guy who worked at Cherry Bomb In Martinsburg, WV.  I first discovered his work on Sketch Kult and was instantly impressed, and SHOCKED that this kind of work was coming out of WV a mere 20 minutes from my home. After realizing this was the same guy, I almost decided to opt out of the tattoo. “Why get work from a local guy when there are all these amazing artist from all over?”, I thought to myself. I decided to check out the rest of the convention floor. There were some awesome designs but none that drew me in like this one from Matti, so after realizing someone else might actually want this piece, I hauled ass back over to his booth to book the appointment.

I was a bit disappointed to find out  this design would fit nowhere on me (except my left rib panel that I am saving for a bigger piece) that was even remotely visible, but it did fit well between the random tattoos on my upper right thigh. As he started the first things I noticed were that he was incredibly light handed and his machines were damn near silent. It was almost surreal as the two sensations, pain and noise, that I normally associate with tattooing were not present. As the hours went on (6 total) it did get a bit more painful but never unbearable.

The background is one of my favorite parts, it was 100% freehanded on, and while it was being done, I have to admit I had my doubts. I thought to myself,  ”Dots? Big fucking dots? If I wanted dots, I would have gotten a traditional tattoo”. However, I had faith in him, and I kept my thoughts to myself. As it came together, I grew to love these dots. The give the design movement and flow and the muted colors of the background really make the main design pop. When the piece was finished I was blown away. The drawing was rad but the finished tattoo was absolutely incredible. I was not the only one impressed either this piece got second place for Tattoo Of The Day on Saturday, a day full of awesome tattoos.  The girl who took first that day had a bad ass Velociraptor on her thigh and really can you argue with a chic with a velociraptor? I think not. To sweeten the deal, third place went to my wife’s rad tattoo by Josh Payne.

Anyhow, like I said, I feel like a bit of a tool for posting a tattoo that I have, but I really think Matti deserves some recognition for his talents, and this post is the best way for me to do that.  If you are within a few hours of Martinsburg, WV and are interested in a low pain, high quality color realism style tattoo, at AMAZINGLY REASONABLE West Virginia prices  definitely get in touch with him.

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PS: Now that I am back in town and things have settled down a bit I am going to try and put out at least one modblog post a day, to take some of the burden off Rob.

PPS: On a totally unrelated note. Does anyone know the older gentleman who is tattooed all blue with tribal tattoos that was running around the convention? I tried to peg him down for an interview, but I never saw him except when I was stuck in the tattoo chair. He seemed like a super nice guy and it’s odd for me to see someone with that heavy of a transformation and not at least know of them.

Everyone needs their own booty call

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I have gotten a bunch of emails and a few messages on IAM asking if I had quit writing for modblog. Of course not. I honestly plan to keep doing this so long as Rachel wants me here. However, since Rob’s here to pick up my slack and I am also involved in other blogs and projects that demand my time, I am  limiting myself to post what I consider to be exceptional photos truly fitting of modblog. In fact I wasn’t going to post anything today, until I saw this tattoo that could redefine tattooing puns as we know them.

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31 Years ago today…

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…..Doug Malloy died.

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Doug Malloy was the allias used by Richard Simonton. Richard Simonton was a married father of four. He was an executive with the Muzak Corporation as well as a  founding member of the American Association of Theatre Organ Enthusiasts.

As Doug Malloy, he was heavily involved with the underground  body piercing scene and was an integral part of bringing piercing to where it is today, via his many contributions to the industry.

The below text is from the BME Wiki:

As Doug Malloy, he was an instrumental supporter and patron of the early body modification scene. By 1975, he had published a short, largely fictional autobiography entitled Diary of a Piercing Freak under his assumed name, which was sold to a fetish publisher and released in softback under the title The Art of Pierced Penises and Decorative Tattoos. He had also established contacts amongst body piercing enthusiasts both in Los Angeles and on a global scale, including London tattooist Alan Oversby (better known as Mr. Sebastian), Roland Loomis (better known as Fakir Musafar), Viking Navarro, Sailor Sid Diller and Jim Ward. He was also an organizer and active member of the T&P Group, an association of tattoo and piercing enthusiasts based in Los Angeles.

The upsurge in interest in body piercing had created enough interest that Simonton advised Jim Ward, who had previously worked as a designer, that he should start a body piercing business. Simonton advanced Ward the money to start Gauntlet, originally a home based business, and Jim began to produce body piercing jewelry. Simonton’s experience as an amateur piercer formed the basis of the primitive techniques used at the time, and his network of contacts was instrumental in spreading the popularity of body piercing, especially genital piercing. By 1978 Gauntlet had a retail location and the world’s first body piercing studio was established. Doug also provided extensive notes that were ghostwritten by Ward into full articles for PFIQ, the first magazine devoted to the subject of body piercing, a Gauntlet publication.

One of Simonton’s other notable contributions to the development of body piercing in contemporary society was his pamphlet Body & Genital Piercing in Brief which is responsible for a large portion of the myths surrounding the origins of many piercings, most notably genital ones. Simonton’s personal enthusiasm for body piercing as an erotic practice and his love of the fantastic came together in this document, which is almost entirely fictional or highly speculative. Many of the theories regarding the practice and origins of various piercings historically have been distorted by the excellent circulation of this document or later documents which quote it.

If not for Doug Malloy’s enthusiasm for body piercings, we might have never had Gauntlet and without Gauntlet we might have never had professional piercing studios. So let’s take a few minutes out of our day to remember where we came from and pay respect where respect is due.

Here is a link to an old BME News article by none other than Jim Ward himself, explaining who Doug Malloy was and how he has made his mark on modern body piercing:

Who Was Doug Malloy: by Jim Ward

Happy birthday to Phish!

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I know it seems I make a lot of modblog post wishing friends of mine happy birthday.  However, this isn’t facebook, I don’t wish every friend of mine a happy birthday on modblog, only those whom have made a significant impact on this community.

I am blessed to be able to be friends with people who have made such significant impacts on the industry and/or the community. One of the greatest things about the body modification community for me, is people I once considered heros, I now consider friends.

Phish (no relation to the hippy band) is a perfect example of one of those people.

Phish has been a respected piercer for as long as I have been using the internet. When I first became aware of him he was working for HTC under Steve Haworth.  During the old days of BME’s QOD (now askbme.com) he was the only person aside from Steve I would confidently recommend for subdermal implants, this was years before I even knew who Brian Decker was to put things in perspective. When surface bars first came into use, Phish quickly became one of the most experienced and knowledgeable piercings. In issue 25 of The APP’s publication, The Point, Phish wrote what was (at the time) the definitive guide to surface piercing techniques. His sharing of knowledge in this article as well as in other ways has helped many piercers get a grasp of advanced piercing techniques.

After several years of piercing, Phis suffered from the inevitable piercer burn out. He took some time off to pursue a career as a bail bondsman, like Dog the Bounty Hunter but with better tattoos and less ridiculous hair. However, his passion for piercing never died and he has now found a happy balance between piercing the good guys and catching the bad guys.

So happy birthday Phish, here’s to many more years of doing quality piercings and whooping a  little criminal ass.

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Modblog Music: Eye Am Legion

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The body modification community is about as creative and as expressive a group of human beings as the world has ever known. It makes perfect sense that those into body mods and body play rituals would also be into other creative outlets such as art, music, acting and so on. For a while now I had considered asking for submissions to do a regular Modblog Music feature. Those of you who have been on BME long enough may remember the BME CD, well this feature would carry on in that tradition, but on modblog rather than on a cd.

For whatever reason, I never actually followed through with this idea. Then my friend Anthony, who you MUST remember from his BME Rap, shot me a message on facebook asking if I would feature his band. At first I saw the band name “Eye Am Legion“, which reminded me of the line “we are legion” from that godawful Ghost Rider movie and it immediately turned my stomach a bit. Then I thought about their use of “eye” rather than “I” and it reminded me of the sweet Southern sounds of EyeHateGod and all was forgiven.

But I digress, Anthony is a pretty bad ass guitar player, very visibly modded and a helluva nice guy. I think his band will make for an excellent first Modblog Music feature.

From the bands myspace page:

EYE AM LEGION is a band with a message from the heart. Our lyrics contain messages of self-revolution anti-police brutality and most importantly unity. The band is driven by one core belief; “No external moral code, person, or source should ever have higher authority over you then you have over your own self.” This band is a statement, to finally get kids excited about being a family and unified in a cause. To drop everything, let loose, free your mind and just SHRED. Its time to finally question that are supposed to be our “authority” and free your soul as you listen. These people are not our allies, our brothers and sisters grant eachother autonomy, and personal freedom. We take a step back from politics as it is no longer relevant. We encourage enlightenment through music, a feeling of being one with the band, and losing your fucking shit at a show.

This band and its fans is a family, together we stand to take back our lives.

Read more:http://www.myspace.com/eyeamlegion#ixzz0wzphp6IV


Want your band featured here? Shoot an email with bio, website and an embeddable link (most likely youtube) to [email protected] First spots will be given to active members of the body modification community and IAM members.

Before the hate mail begins let me remind the commenters, Modblog isn’t just about the mods, it’s about the modified community as well.

Is THIS the smile of a homicidal maniac?

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I would think not. I am sure modblog readers, as well as the readers of many other blogs as well as viewers of the George Lopez show remember Jesse from the recent media circus surrounding his arrest.

However, this is modblog, so focus on the body mods for a bit.

It’s no wonder he’s smiling, look how absolutely amazingly the “Trojan War Helmet” ECU (electro cautery unit) branding has healed up. The scalp is NOT an easy spot to get to scar, trust me I have tried. Yet these brands by Steve Haworth just look astonishing and really add a new dimension to his already impressive collection of body mods.

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Happy (belated) Birthday to Fakir!

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I just got back, late last night, from a week long family beach trip. I planned to skip out on Modblog today, and instead, focus on healing my sunburn, my sore muscles and my hangover. However, after I got home, I realized a monumental birthday passed while I was gone, the 80th birthday of the “father of the Modern Primitive movement”, Fakir Musafar.

To, me Fakir will always be an inspiration. The fact he has dedicated his life to body modification for longer than I have been alive and that he is still actively involved in body modification, deserves respect from anyone involved in this community. He, more than any other individual brought attention to piercings, scarification, suspension, corsetry and countless other forms of body art and body play. If it were not for him, I don’t know where we (as the bod mod community) would be today, or if most of us would even be a part of this community at all.

There is not much more I can say about Fakir that hasn’t been said in the book Modern Primitives, The DVD Dances Sacred and Profane, his personal website, or Allen’s write up on hooklife.org. So I suggest anyone not fully versed in the life of Fakir Musafar start in those places.  However, for the countless friends and fans of him and/or of his work who didn’t get a chance to wish him a happy birthday on his actual birthday, feel free to so do in the comments here.

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