BME will be right back!

Posted on April 8, 2020 by Rachel

BME suffered a hardware malfunction on Sunday, April 5th. This has caused a site wide outage. This affects BME and the “friends of BME” sites that are hosted in BME’s colo cabinet.

While the hardware that needs to be replaced is fairly minor, it is a critical component of BME’s hosting environment and can’t function without it. It is also a specialty item that can’t be sourced locally. Due to closures and delays caused by COVID-19, what could normally be sourced in a few hours, will likely take several days.

Please bear with us while we ~~obsessively check the mail~~ patiently wait for the replacement to arrive.

Remember to wash your hands and practice social distancing!

Find more information at CDC.gov!

(Update: In case you missed it, BME has been back up since April 10th!)

Cancer Fundraiser

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Rachel

If you live in the Huntington Beach area and you’re looking to get tattooed, check out the event below. Proceeds will be donated to help someone in their battle against cancer.

Visit their website at http://www.hbtattoo.com.

Ari’s Fundraiser update!

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Rachel

Thank you. That’s what I needed to start this post with because there is nothing that can express my gratitude and what we’re feeling but THANK YOU is a good start.

In one week we’ve managed to sell 86 t-shirts, raising enough money to put a dent in the medical bills. We’re going in for more tests this week and while I wish that Ari didn’t have to go through this, she has been handling it like a champ. Ari has had to swallow bottle after bottle of chalky, sour tasting barium, get poked and prodded and do all sorts of other unpleasant things but she is taking it in stride. She understands that there is a point behind it all and that point is to make her feel better. For those of you who know her, you know she isn’t a shy kid but she definitely is over having to go to the bathroom in the “poop hat” in order to collect samples for testing! The “poop hat” is a hat shaped plastic contraption that goes under the toilet lid in order to make it easier to collect certain specimens. She is ready to get rid of it!

I explained to Ari that her Dad and I were selling t-shirts in order to raise some money. She knows all about fundraisers from school as they’ve done several this year. “That’s like what school does with their bake sales!” but when I showed her the orders that have come in for t-shirts she asked “these people don’t know me, why do they care if I’m sick or not?”. I explained that while a lot of you have met her in “real life”, all of you have shared in her life over the past 9 years as well as during my pregnancy since it was all photographed and chronicled on both her Mom and Dad’s IAM pages. I explained to her that even though she isn’t old enough to be on BME herself, she is still a part of a community of friends who care for and support each other in times of need. She was absolutely blown away by it and I think it’s an amazing example to show a young child who is growing up in the digital age. The internet brought her parents together and is responsible for her existence and it’s also responsible for helping a little girl feel loved and cared about. Some people say that the internet is ruining our sense of community but to me, things like this show that it isn’t being ruined, it’s just changing the boundaries and dynamics as to what the word “community” actually means.

I can’t express how much it means to me that everyone has come together to help us out. All I can say is thank you.

I also wanted to give you guys an update since you’re helping us to pay a portion of the medical bills. Ari had several tests over the past few weeks. One of them indicated that a portion of her intestines (not sure if that’s the right anatomical word!) are restricting “gastric material”. That “material” is coming back up as undigested food. So some food is getting through but the majority of it isn’t. This is why she hadn’t started showing signs of serious weight loss until last week when the vomiting got more severe. It made me think of people who have had bariatric surgery and since I’ve read several blogs from IAM members who have gone through it. I started giving her much smaller meals spaced through out the day or dinner being spaced out over several hours instead of at one sitting..

We did a practice run over the 3 day weekend. I’ve managed to get it so that she hasn’t thrown up in three days, which is a lot better than we’d done over the past few weeks. She’ll be going to see a specialist once she’s back up in Canada but in the mean time the doctors are putting her on a medication that will hopefully kick start her intestines (again, sorry if that’s the wrong word!) and get food moving. The only thing that is troublesome is that she appears to have some kidney issues that we’re getting further testing on. They don’t know if it’s related to the endless vomiting but if not, then it may have been a blessing in disguise if she has a larger issue with her kidneys. I’m just hoping that we get an answer because not knowing what is wrong with your child is one of the worst feeling one can imagine.

I’m going to be taking the shirts down on Wednesday so that I can get a clear number on the shirts that I need to have printed so if you would like a shirt, they’re linked below.

Thank you all again!

Let’s all welcome our new ASK.BME Staff!

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Rachel

We recently put up a post to invite people to apply to for a staff position over at ASK.BME. After combing through tons of responses, I selected a handful of professionals from the industry to help answer questions. They’ve already hit the ground running and between the four of them have answered almost 200 questions in the past week.

Let’s all give a warm welcome to BME’s new ASK Staff members, Joeltron, Kylie Garth, Ryan Mills and Cere Coichetti! They’re here to help answer your body modification questions. Some of them you may recognize as long time contributors to BME and Modblog as well as being IAM members. Some are definitely more controversial than others but active industry professionals, none the less!

Feel free to send in some questions! To celebrate the addition of new ASK.BME, I’ve added 3 months to all IAM account expiration dates which should add 3 months to everyone’s accounts that are already active as well as making any expired IAM accounts accessible again!

In addition to adding new ASK staff, we’ve been cranking along turning out new fixes and features to IAM as well as tweaking various pages so they’re more in line with the old IAM. More changes are coming and we’re hoping that by the end of the summer we’ll have all of the new things we’ve been busy working on behind the scenes completed! It’s been a huge project that has spanned several years but we’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you to everyone who has been patient and understanding while we work to bring BME up to par with the rest of the advances that the internet has seen come to light!

Our New ASK.BME Staff

Joeltron – Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
http://www.joeltron.com

Why hello there! I’m Joeltron – a professional body modification artist based in Sydney Australia. I personally have a number of visible implants, my eyeball tattooed, multiple stretched piercings, my tongue bifurcated, scarification and various other heavy modifications – so I understand the feeling of being on the sharp end of a needle and feel that it helps when understanding how one of my clients feel.

I have been professionally piercing since 2002 and opened my own Custom Tattoo & Piercing studio First Blood (Darlinghurst) in 2010 where I am the head body piercer and work with some truly amazing internationally renowned artists.

At my studio, we only pierce with g23 internal thread titanium jewellery and educate all of our clients to benefits of good quality materials and practitioners. Our shop is a huge advocate for APP.

I have always been into modifications, reading up on procedures and old/new methods since I was very young. I started working in a Piercing studio at the age of 18 where I began to soak up more knowledge and loved helping people. I started piercing professionally a short period after that and still love my job every single day!

Studio: FirstBlood.com.au – 77 William Street, Darlinghurst, NSW, 2010 Australia
Mobile: 0403 1337 77 (SMS Only)
IAM: http://www.bme.com/iam/joeltron
Email: [email protected]
Personal: http://joeltron.com
Facebook: http://facebook.joeltron.com
Google+: http://plus.joeltron.com
Tumblr: http://tumblr.joeltron.com

Kylie Garth – Sydney, NSW, Australia
http://www.bme.com/iam/kylie/

My name is Kylie Garth. I am a professional body piercer and was born in New Zealand,I currently live and work in Sydney Australia at a studio called First Blood.

I have been piercing for 5 years and love my job very much. I love doing ear work,genital and anything heavy gauge.

I have had over 60 piercings and a few heavier modifications my favorites are my cheeks, double philtrum, 0g conchs and my tongue bifurcation.

I am constantly learning and expanding my skills to better myself

Studio Website: http://www.FirstBlood.com.au
Email: [email protected]

Ryan Mills – Dallas, TX
http://www.bme.com/iam/feengerz/

I started piercing over a decade ago in Salt Lake City, Utah. After my apprenticeship ended and I put in my time at my shop, I moved to Las Vegas to work on the strip. During my years in Vegas I toured with Ozzfest during the summer as their piercer. After growing tired of Las Vegas, I moved back to Salt Lake City. I have worked in several states over the years including Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California. Most recently I have come to call Texas my home. I am a freehand piercer and am constantly striving to expand my body modification capabilities. My true passion is branding and scarification. I practice both strike and thermal cautery branding along with scalpel scarification.

I am currently manager and head modification artist at Eastside Tattoo and Piercing Studio in Dallas, Tx.

Studio Website: http://www.dallaseastsidetattoo.com
Email: [email protected]

Cere Coichetti – New York, NY
http://www.bme.com/iam/cere/

Cere is a long time contributor to BME as well as an extremely controversial member of IAM. He’s considered by many to be an instrumental member of the suspension community and is known internationally for his facilitation of suspensions to those in need. Cere is a long time member of Rites of Passage.

Cere is a character that people seem to either love with a passion that drives them to allow him to tattoo them or people hate him so much that they boycott IAM. Cere will drop everything at the drop of the hat to fly across the country to help a friend in need, whether it’s a personal favor or to help them get off the ground and up into the air.

Regardless of if you love him or hate him, Cere will always be there for you.

Hey Saturday, How You Doin’?

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Rachel

Phew! I’m covered in a variety of inks from printing t-shirts all night. I’ve been taking breaks between making mock ups of tshirts, fixing old artwork so that it can be printed again and printing the t-shirts themselves. It’s just been one thing after another but I’m having fun. The only thing I am longing for right now would be a heated workshop!

If you hadn’t noticed, here are even more designs added to the shop since the last time Rob posted about it. Can you believe it? No.. Didn’t think so! I was going to add them all here but I figured I’ll just put the link right HERE and you can go and look at the 100+ designs that I’ve added in the last week.

Now here is the fun part. I’m losing my second wind and I’m definitely going to crash but I wanted to give myself a little joy before I go to bed (that does not sound like how I meant it to sound..) and the easiest way to do that is to GIVE AWAY FREE STUFF! Yep, that’s right!

I’m going to put together 5 “surprise packages” for BMEshop orders that come in today. This is how it’s going to work. There will be a “surprise pack” for the first orders placed on the shop for the following amounts:

$20
$50
$75
$100
$200

Make sense to you? It seems pretty clear to me but I”m the one that thought it up. Say two people placed orders on the shop. One was for $21.00 and the other was for $25.00. The first of those two orders, since they’re both over $20, would be the one that got the “surprise pack”. If we had people place orders for $25, $78, $90, $100 and $200, the person who placed their order first between the $78 and $90 dollar order would win the spot for the $75 order while the second person would get the prize for the $50 dollar or since technically they’re above $50 but they weren’t the first person to place the order for the $75 spot. Did that clear things up or is it even more confusing now? Either way, get shopping over on BMEshop and I’ll make it worth your while. The “surprise packs” will definitely NOT disappoint. Did I mention that they will be relative to the number that you win do the higher the dollar amount that you win for, the better the surprise!

I love giving stuff away! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Always Use Lube

Piercers do it with their gloves on.

Barbell Rides: The first one is always free.

2011 BME Year End Awards

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Rachel

Woops! Looks like somebody forgot to hit “post” on the 2011 Year End Awards! At least we didn’t forget to send out the Gift Certificates though! If you’re on the list below, check your email because you were sent anywhere from $20 to $1000. That’s right! We’ve gone from t-shirts to cold hard cash (gift certificates are like cash, right?!) If you see yourself on this page and didn’t see your gift certificate email then drop me a line at [email protected] and I’ll send it to you again!

If you haven’t noticed, the new leader boards are up. They’re linked in the footer on BME.com and we’ve also gone back in time (up to 2001 anyway!) and added leader boards for every year! This is the first year that we’ve also got video contributions so that’s another new thing we’re doing.

If you look at the numbers you’re probably thinking, “woah, wasn’t the top contributor 45k images for 2009?” and you’d be right. We’ve been trying to figure out how to make it as easy as it used to be to submit images and we thought the best way would be to make it so that you could email your submissions like you did since the dawn of BME. Give us a couple more weeks to finish working out the kinks and you’ll be able to email your submissions to the site just like the good ole days! We’re also busy working on integration into other sites so you’ll be able to update all of your social sites from BME and vice versus! You’ll be able to manage everything you want from BME with the bonus that you can keep your BME only entries safe behind IAM’s walls while sending out your other posts! No more having to log in to 20 different sites just to get your FB/twitter/tumblr/linkedin/so many other sites, can’t possible name them all, on!

Once again, I can’t thank you enough for contributing to BME. Check the leader boards to see where you ranked on collecting a cool cash prize! We’re going to start doing monthly gift certificate give aways to the top contributors in the photo and video galleries once the email submission tool is back online and I think we’ll see the submission numbers back to where they used to be. The one bonus is that our Year End Awards got to see some new faces because they didn’t have to upload tens of thousands of photos just to have a shot! While that was fun for one year, lets get back to submitting tens of thousands of photos, videos and stories!

Top 10 Image Contributors
1. 856 images

Joeltron

2. 469 images Naoise-Ryan Israel	3. 454 images The Sinner Team	4. 451 images 8bga-kipodd
5. 399 images 8ckf-olegek97	6. 341 images Supa	7. 292 images Self Sacrifice
8. 248 images skindependent	9. 243 images UrbanSoul	10. 156 images 8phv-l8onha

Top 10 Video Contributors

1. 132 videos 9bdz_kokomi3k	2. 56 videos 8bfh-udreisoern	3. 50 videos swen2
4. 33 videos 9vlm-pdebsk	5. 26 videos 9bgc-edziu1902	6. 25 videos xzotikmodz
7. 24 videos uwe	8. 22 videos smbite57	9. 20 videos jonjuan60
9. 20 videos 8ckf-olegek97	9. 20 videos wandalaput	10. 17 videos elevateur

Top 3 Story Contributors

1. 3 stories
katsaw

KatSaw

1. 3 stories

annalese

1. 3 stories

DollParts7

A big SHOUT OUT!!! goes out to the following people for being generally awesome and more specific things they’ve done to help BME keep ticking!

lextalonis
Sean Phillips

Sean helps out whenever we need him and he’s got a few minutes to spare. Sean being around makes me feel old since he’s been a member of BME since the dawn of time!

mcshady
Katie McShady

Katie was awesome and helped out with BMEshop while I got back into the swing of things after the cross country move from LA to VA. If you got orders in 2011, Katie and her beautiful hair probably graced your goods with her presence! 🙂

Midian2000

Midian has also been around for over a DECADE and he’s continued to throw the SoCal BME BBQ come hell or high water! If you’re looking for a BME BBQ on the West Coast to meet fellow BME members, his BBQ is the place to be!

nano
Nano

Nano also touched every single one of your BMEshop orders for most of 2011, that is until he got himself denied entry! That’s what you get for being an international playboy! We love Nano and miss him dearly!

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS

A huge “thank you” goes out to past and present editorial contributors to BME. Everyone has continued to grow with their own projects and while some former contributors to BME have been swamped with their own projects, it wouldn’t be right not to thank them for everything they’ve done in the past and what they continue to do not only for BME but for the community at large! Without them, BME wouldn’t have grown in the way it has over the past 18 years!

Allen Falkner
Roundtable, Author

Ferg
Author

Russ Foxx
Ask.BME staff

Ron Garza
Roundtable, Author

Warren Hiller
Ask.BME staff

Derek Lowe
Ask.BME, Roundtable

John Joyce
Roundtable member

Paul King
Author

Lexci Million
Ask.BME staff

Ryan Ouellette
Ask.BME, Roundtable

Sean Philips
Ask.BME staff, Modblog

Shawn Porter
Ask.BME, Author

Efix Roy
Ask.BME staff

Joy Rumore
Roundtable

Lori St. Leone
Ask.BME staff

Steve Truitt
Roundtable member

Tiff Badhairdo
Ask.BME staff

Brian Decker
Roundtable member

Stephen DeToma
Roundtable member

BME Staff

BME staff.. What can I say about the people listed below? You know and love (well most of them!) dearly because some of them (Mike and Jen!) have been around BME for almost as long as it’s been online! There is a newcomer in the group and his name is Diego! He’s our new programmer and he’s been fixing bugs, adding new features and generally kicking ass since he hit the ground running!

For those of you who didn’t notice, Mike moved from the snowy horridness of the New England area to sunny Hawaii and we are all so jealous it makes us want to do very bad things to him.. Very bad! We let it slide though because when the servers hit the floor, Mike is the first one there to pick them up and put them back where they belong! Without Mike, BME would have had some serious outages over the years!

If you’ve had any kind of issue with your account, you’ve talked to Jen. She was possibly grumpy and short (she can’t help being 4′ 11″!) but she probably solved your issue and got you back on the site! Jen has been solving member issues since 2004! She took over 10 years ago after I had my daughter and couldn’t keep up with member support while juggling everything else BME and a beautiful baby girl!

I’m not sure that Rob needs any kind of introduction. He sorts through the moderation queue and pulls out submissions to showcase on modblog. He takes your beatings when “nothing new and ground breaking” has been posted because he hasn’t been out on the street inventing body modifications because he’s too busy moderating content and posting links to body modification news around the web. We also like him because of his thick skin!

Rob ModBlog Beard Guy	Diego Sys-Admin Guy	CT Tropical Sys-Admin Guy
Jen Girl-Friday	Rachel HBIC

I know I’ve been MIA from Modblog and IAM for most of 2011 but that’s because I’ve been busy behind the scenes. Between going back to being a full time Mom, running BMEshop single handed and dealing with non-stop medical issues, I haven’t had the time that I’d like to post online in general. I’m hoping that we’re able to wrap up fixing all of the issues with rebuilding the site from the ground up and that I can move on to building fun features and new applications for BME. I have a TON of stuff launching in the next few months and I’m hoping that lightens the load on all of us here at BME. I know that people often give credit to the staff of BME for it being what it is but it truly is a community effort. BME wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the collective efforts of millions of body modification enthusiasts world wide. Without you, there wouldn’t be BME. I hope to see you on the Year End Awards next year!

We’re on the lookout for new ask.BME Staff!

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Rachel

UPDATE: Thanks for all the submissions we’ve managed to fill all the empty spots. Keep an eye on ModBlog for a post introducing you to them.

It’s that time again! We’re looking for additional ask.BME staff to help answer questions on BME!

If you’ve got what it takes to be a part of BME ask team, then please copy and past the questions below and send them to [email protected]! We have some rules and guidelines on how to answer questions on ask.BME but I want to see how you’d answer them on your own without any guidance from us. Don’t worry about answering them all, just answer the questions that match up with your experience and skill set. Be honest about the questions that you don’t know the right answer to and remember, everyone has different answers and there is always more than one correct answer to a question! So fill out the answers to the questions and send them in! P.S. Spelling errors are from the submittors of the questions, not BME! For authenticity we’re leaving them as is!

1. Hey,

I got my tongue pierced 4 days ago and I am very concerned with it getting infected, namely thrush because of the fact that I accidentally ate some food that has food in it that is made from dairy. Well for the past few days I’ve noticed that the back of my tongue from just behind the piercing on back is a yellowish color and I was wondering if this was normal? I have also noticed for the past couple of days that I have a sort of metallic taste in my mouth I was also wondering if this was normal? Then lastly, I was wondering if, instead of using the mouthwash that i’m currently using to rinse my mouth after every time I eat, is it okay to use the sea salt mixture in it’s place? Would using the sea salt mixture cut down on the possibility of getting an infection, like thrush, better than mouthwash? Sorry for all of the questions, i’m really anal about knowing everything that I can about what’s best for my piercings when they are healing.

2. so i recently just got a new tattoo to cover up some ugly ass tribal i had on my leg since i was 16… its a huge sobirety piece on my leg. now my question to you all is why does my tattoo look like the color has faded after some of the scabs have naturaly fallen off? also i have been using tattoo goo and applying 2-3 times per day.. even where i have heavy shading it looks like the color is fading or is that due to the fact the top layer of skin is starting to flake off?

My boyfriend was tattooed 4 days ago and has been chugging along with his aftercare as one does. I was applying ointment to it last night (a cream that tattooists in France always recommend, and that I and my boyfriend have used ourselves on previous tattoos without any problems whatsoever) when I noticed some small, blister-like bumps on parts of his tattoo.

They are more pronounced on the small spots of blue that he has in his tattoo but I also noticed a few of these little blisters on a shaded black area so I don’t think it’s a question of how much pressure was used while tattooing. They range from small circular spots of about 1-2mm in diameter to small smear-shaped raised, dry areas of about 6-8mm in length. There is not an over abundance of them but they seem to be more concentrated (although sparsely) around the inner forearm. There is also a slight redness and raised skin on other shaded areas of the tattoo. However there is no globalized redness or burning/itching.

He does have a tendency to swell up during the tattooing and up to a day after, but from what he tells me he hasn’t ever seen any of these small, raised, blister like patches on any of his other tattoos (he has both coloured and plain black ones).

I have a feeling you will tell me this is an allergy of some sort and to contact the tattoo artist, which I plan on doing, but I just wanted your opinion on this subject and how to possibly treat it. Should he really be panicking about it or is it something easily taken care of and should he seek a doctor’s opinion? Also how badly could it possibly affect the tattoo?

Thank you for any response you can give to put his mind at rest, or push to take action.

3. I just had my septum pierced and the piercer put in a circular barbell. Friends are telling me I should have had a retainer put in first while it heals. Is this true? I wouldn’t be concerned except it seems like the piercing is moving closer and closer to the bottom of the septum due to gravity, away from the cartilage area. Thanks.

4. This is not my first tattoo, I have quite a few but I’ve never had any that have done this. I’ve gone to the same artist for most of my tattoos , I follow the after care procedures, but none of my other tattoos have had this happen, So it’s 7 days old and it has peeled for the most part but underneath the layer that has peeled it is a very shiny and wrinkly skin. It looks as if it’s possibly going to peel a second time. Like I’ve said before that’s never happened before. Is it silver skin/ milk skin? Will it go away? The tattoo is on my inner bicep, does that make a difference in how it heals?

5. I want to get the back of my neck pierced but i’m really worried about wasting money if it rejects, a friend of mine said dermal anchor’s are better and have less chance of rejecting?

Je veux obtenir l’arrière de mon cou percé, mais je suis vraiment inquiet pour gaspiller de l’argent si elle rejette, un de mes amis dit ancrage dermiques sont mieux et ont moins de chance de rejeter?

6. I have had my ear lobes stretched to 1/2 inch for about two year now. I recently got the urge to step up. In the past I have used silicone plugs to dead stretch my ears. I know the whole taper and non-porous jewelry way is preferred, but I was trying to go cheap and it works. I bought some 5/8″ plugs because I was trying to go too big too quick, completely kipping 9/16″. My ears got swollen and were very sensitive. After a few days, I decided to take them out and give my ears a rest. The swelling has almost completely gone down, except for in the fistula. It has been 3 days with no jewelry what so ever and my ears feel about 75% back to normal. I tried sticking a half inch taper through while in the shower but it makes around half way before pain. I am worried that irritating my piercings, coupled with the lack of jewelry, has reduced their size drastically. It is still a little swollen so I don’t know the full severity yet, but right now it look like 2g would be the biggest jewelry I could fit. Is it possible to get back to at least the 1/2″ inch I was at without having to work my way up? They were like that for 2 years, could 2 days have set me back that far?

7. Okay so I got my monroe pierced 5 days ago. It’s looking pretty good except that it’s still red around it. I do not think it’s infected because there is no puss coming out of it or anything and the inside looks totally fine. I emailed my piercer and he said this is totally normal. But, I’m getting paranoid! Almost every person I see says “That’s infected!” I’m really getting tired of hearing it. I know that they pierce with a long piece of jewelry and I do get it caught on my gums sometimes. Will the redness go away once I can switch to a shorter post and don’t get it caught on my gums anymore? I’m doing my SSS 2 times a day. Help please!

8. I’m wondering if you can recommend a reputable scarification artist in Australia. I’m based in Melbourne but I’m willing to travel if I need to. So far my searching hasn’t returned a whole lot.

Also, what method would work best if I’m looking to have subtle flat scars rather than raised keloiding? Is it more a matter of how you personally tend to heal rather than the method used that determines what the healed result is like?

9. Would love to ask if anyone know what category does this tattoo fall in. Tried searching on the web for a long time but couldn’t get it. Got this picture from one of someone and he told me his customer brought him that so no one knows what style/kind this tattoo falls in what category. very much appreciate if anyone out there knows because i really love it and would love to know more then ink it on me !THANKS GUYY!

10. I got an apadravya and frenum long time ago, but recently found out me and my wife are to be expecting a little one. We were just wanting to double check if sex with the apadravya will be ok and not cause any problems with the pregnancy? We’ve tried searching but really couldn’t find a definite answer about this particular circumstance with apadravya + pregnancy. Thank you for any help.

11. I got my navel piercing when I was 15 years old, and I am now almost 25. It has never once been infected, but every once in a while over the years, it gets sore/red/painful for a week or so. In the past couple years I’ve put on about 20 pounds, and the irritation comes more frequently. SO frequently, that I took it out, and let it “heal” a couple months ago.

A few days ago it started the sore/red/painful thing again without even having a ring in it. I figured it was best to put the jewelry back in rather than have it seal in the infection, if that’s what it is. I have sensitive skin, so I only buy surgical steel rings, so that’s definitely not it. I even bought an actual circular ring instead of a barbel so it wouldn’t be too tight.

ANYWAY, I just don’t really know what is wrong.. is it my weight gain? Could it be something else? I just don’t know why it would be doing this after months of not having a ring in. HELP?!

12. Hi guys,

I had both of my ears pierced at 14g in August. They healed up with no problems or infections, and near the end of October, I stretched them to a 12g (my piercer did it for me, and they bled a little bit when he stretched them). Now around a little over a month ago, one of my tunnels was pulled out while I was sleeping, causing it to bleed a bit, but I cleaned it thoroughly then put it back in. After a few days or so, a small bump appeared on the back of my left ear near the piercing (not directly on the piercing, but its very close). At first I assumed it was a pimple because it was small and soft to touch. But after a week or so, it only shrunk a tiny bit. I had my piercer check it out, and he said that it was a “keloid”, and I simply had to rub it/massage it daily with soap on my fingers to help break down the “bacteria/gunk” inside so it could properly heal. Since I started doing that (around 3 or so weeks ago), it has gone down a bit, but is still there. I have also been using saline wound wash, as recommended by another piercer I know.

Now while I’m sure it’s just something I need to be patient with, I decided to ask on here because you guys are the professionals! I apologize if this can’t be analyzed properly without a picture, but I was just hoping you might have some advice towards a more effective solution for my situation.

Thanks much!

13. Just a quick question about tongue piercing. I have had a tongue piercing before but had to remove it and it healed up. I have being thinking about getting 2 new tongue piercings either venom’s or just two in the middle. Is it best to have them both done at the same time or separate?

14. I’m looking into getting a small skin removal piece done seeing how it’s going to be my first, and I was looking on many sites about chemical irritant aftercare, I seen that Toasted Sesame oil is a very good one to use, I got a bottle of 100% sesame oil one accident and wondered if it would do the same? Or better yet if you could suggest more of a variety of chemical irritants? Thank you!

Looking forward to the answers! ^_^

15. Hi, I’m really wanting to get my sub dermal clavicles done, I’m not sure where to do this because I know that they’re pretty rate piercings.can anyone recommend a place or places in Texas where I could get mine done? it can be anywhere on the state, if not in the state, somewhere in the same general area would be good, I want them badly and I’m getting pretty desperate to find somewhere, can anyone help?

16. I’m really interested in doing a saline injection temporary breast enlargement. do you know of any professionals who do this in the southern California area?

17. I had both of my nipples pierced almost 8 years ago and never had a problem with them until about a year ago. The left one kept getting a bump towards the right side of the piercing. After some tlc, it would go away, but a few weeks later it would be back. Roughly 3 months ago, I noticed the spot where the bump had been actually left a tiny hole I could see the jewelry through. Well, it healed and wasn’t causing me any pain until yesterday I noticed the skin on that side had ripped up into where the hole was. Is this a type of rejection? If so, why so long? I took the jewelry out when I noticed this and it appears everything is closing up fine and there’s no pain. Would it be recommended to have the piercing re-done once everything is completely healed up?

18. Hi, I got my nipple pierced about 5 days ago and due to the swelling one ball is digging into my nipple. So much so that you can see where some skin has rubbed off due to the pressure and it has started to scab. I went to the piercer and asked if he would put a longer bar in and he said that that was normal, and that with any tongue or nipple piercing indentation is going to occur and to just wait for the swelling to go down.

My question is should I go to a different piercer and get their opinion on it, or should i just wait and hope that one day i dont wake up to the ball having dug its way into the piercing?

19. Hey everyone, I’ve got a question regarding the pain I’ve been feeling with my tongue piercing.. I find it understandable to have sensitivity issues with a new piercing, but I’ve had my tongue pierced for a couple years now and don’t know what the cause of my discomfort is. Occasionally, I get a stinging pain on the bottom of my tongue, directly around the exit hole of my tongue piercing around the barbell. Right now I have the pain for a couple days and it is a little more uncomfortable than usual but tolerable-no where else but just the bottom of my tongue directly around the barbell itself. There’s no swelling or signs of infection, but when the piercing moves around in my mouth or I just move my tongue I get a stinging pain. This started happening well after the piercing healed up too. Any idea what might be causing this and what it could be?

20. I’ve had my tongue pierced for seven years, but I’ve heard they do close up very quickly even if they’ve been pierced for a long time. I’m having surgery later in the year, and will most likely have to take out all of my piercings for it. I’m worried it will close up. I also probably won’t be able to put it back in myself for awhile, because the surgery is on my chest, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to raise my arms high enough to do it. My fiancee is too squeamish to do it, and I don’t know if a nurse at the hospital would do it. Am I doomed to have to have it re-pierced after my surgery is healed, or is there a chance it would go back in after having it out for a week or so? Thank you!

A fresh look

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Rachel

Hi everyone, I know a lot of you are excited about the new IAM that will be launching later in the week. Before I get started I just wanted to let you know that the BMEShop Sale code is now working. There was an issue with it not being accepted but it is fixed now. So if you’d like to get 30% your entire BMEShop purchase (DVDs excluded), just put in the code: 3years

As you’ve no doubt noticed, the old IAM has been put into read-only mode. You can still IM people, post in forums, and most importantly, back up your data, however you can’t update your page or images.

Rob posted screenshots from the staging server which did not include the updates or way the site was going to look so I’ve removed them. I’m including a screenshot from the main page of IAM with all of the users data imported to it. The thumbnails are currently cropped incorrectly to maintain the aspect ratio of the thumbnails on the main page. You will be able to log in and correct that. You can choose how you want the thumbnail to be displayed.

We’re chugging along nicely and everything is on schedule to be launched on Thursday. Please feel free to post comments or questions in the comments section.

It’s finally here!!

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Rachel

Dear IAM family,

The time has finally come. After 3 very long years, several false starts, thousands of man hours, dozens of people (most of whom aren’t the same people from the start), 3,714 emails between the developers, Mike, Jen and myself, hundreds of pages of designs, hundreds of thousands of lines of code, thousands of revisions and unfortunately my entire life savings! 🙂

We’ve been tweaking things left and right on the private beta to clean up as much as we can and have it 100% perfect with every feature ready to go but that’s the entire reason it’s called a beta! We need to have our community actively using it so that we can move forward with fresh eyes. As the community uses the beta, more and more features will be added, we had to draw the line some where and get everyone using it so that we could make all the other adjustments that we need to make with the system under heavy load.

I’m sending out this broadcast to all of IAM in order to let everyone know that we’re about to release the new version of IAM.BME.com. In order to make sure that we have the most up to date copy of the data, we’re going to have to turn IAM off for a couple of days prior to launching the new site. IAM will be offline starting Monday the 8th. It should be back online on Thursday the 11th.

We have spent the last several years going over and over the data, the old site and the new site to make sure that we are always advancing and giving you more than IAM & BME have ever been able to offer in the past.

With the initial launch, some features that you’re used to using may not be available initially, but please don’t worry! The site will continually be upgraded to keep BME/IAM in line with the rest of the internet. As I said before, we have to draw the line at some point with a feature set and get the community running on the new software in order to keep adding all of the features that we want IAM to have.

Please keep in mind that this is the first upgrade that IAM has received in well over a decade! I look forward to it and I appreciate your patience and understanding while we work out the kinks that arise with any upgrade!

While your journal entries, forums, messages and photos will all be imported, please take a moment to use the following tools to make a back up of your data. The “Diary Download” tool will make a file that contains your diary entries, their titles and the dates they were posted, including the HTML you may have included in the post. The “Photo Download” tool will make a zip file containing every image that you have ever uploaded to IAM (including those that you have removed access to from your page). Please allow some time for the tools to process and the downloads to complete. Some members have very large photo back up files and they will take some time to download depending on the speed of your connection.

Diary Download Link: http://iam.bmezine.com/iamback.exe?

Photo Download Link: http://iampix.bmezine.com/cgi-bin/photo-backup.cgi

While the over all “look and feel” of IAM will be changing, most of the way that IAM works will remain the same. We’ve even gone to great lengths to keep the IAM related MACRO tags working. All of the functions and features of IAM will still work and function the same way. The biggest “change” is that all of the various settings that you need to select to select things and make your IAM account function a certain way will have been moved to one “settings” page so that you don’t need to dig in various settings pages in order to find/change them. Our main goal was to make IAM easier to use. That was the main focus of the redesign.

The following MACROS WILL NOT be able to be imported to the new IAM. The reason that is is because those MACROS have been replaced with other MACROS or they have been built INTO other functions that operate a different way. Please remember that these features will be available but with things like your IAM page’s custom theme, you will have to recreate it on the new system.

1.In forums, the following functions will no longer be implemented: **NOINDEX**, **BOTTOMINDEX**, **INDEX**, **RTL** **TRANSCRIPT**
2.In diary entries: **NOBME** – This will no longer be necessary as your media will all be available in the “media” section of your profile. You decide what you want to share with IAM members, with BME or keep private.
3.In diary entries: – This function is not being imported. You can set your page to either “IAM Only” (this is the default) or to allow anyone.
4.Custom themes. These will not be imported. The new IAM uses a WYSIWYG editor and you will be able to easily customize your page using the new editor. If you want to save your current settings so you can refer back to them after the move, we encourage you to view your custom edit page and take a screen shot or copy the data in some way as once the move is made you will no longer be able to access that information.

If you have any questions, please EMAIL [email protected]. Jen, Mike and I will be very busy during the upgrade process so we will not be able to answer individual messages sent via IAM during this time but you will definitely be able to get a reply from Jen if you email [email protected].

Thank you for your continued support of BME. You are what makes BME possible and the place that it has grown to be today!

Rachel

p.s. Everyone’s IAM page is active as I just made sure to add time to all the accounts on IAM so if your friends haven’t logged in because they said their accounts have been expired. So tell all your friends that their IAM account is active so they can come check out all the new features, as well as back up any of their data.

Ran Maclurkin needs your help!

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Rachel

It seems that I only have time to post on Modblog when I have to be the bearer of bad news. Ran Maclurkin was riding his motorcycle on the way home from work Tuesday night when he was hit by a 4×4. The impact was so severe that it broke his T11 vertebrae as well as his C7. The doctors will be performing surgery on him this coming Friday to fuse the bones. After that he will need to wear a Halo brace for 3 months.

As I’m sure you can guess, he won’t be able to work during that time. As he doesn’t have insurance, this is going to hurt him financially. There is no telling when he will be able to tattoo again. Peter Sheringham, owner of The Piercing Urge where Ran works, is raising funds to help Ran during this horrendous time. If you have a couple bucks to spare, please send it via Paypal to [email protected]. Anything will help. If you’ve got a couple dollars, please send it as every penny counts!

Some of you may remember Ran from the “One Hour Tattoo” that I posted of a tattoo that he did on me during the 2010 BME World Tour. Not only does Ran specialize in Abstract Noir but the rest of his work is amazing. His work in realism and color is top notch. Please donate what you can as well as keeping Ran in your thoughts. Contact Peter if you need any more information on donations or Ran’s condition. We were do our best to keep you updated.

You can also check out The Piercing Urge’s website for more information.