Author Archives: Shannon Larratt

Look, ma, no hands!

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As I’m talking about microdermals added to tattoos (like the googly eyes by Joeltron) in ways that actually make sense and add to the preexisting tattoo rather than just making it the laughing stock of your body’s ink neighborhood, I wanted to share a piece that jumped out of James Rajewski’s portfolio at me. James works at Infamous Ink (infamousinknc.com) in Charlotte, NC by the way. When I first saw this little project, I wondered what I was looking at because even though it’s just a normal microdermal with a decorative flat bead, the color choice almost makes it look like a tunnel going down into the body (bringing to mind Lukas Zpira’s inset transdermals). Too bad it’s not, you’d only have to make it about twice that size to create a holder for miniature watch components. Either way, this is another one of those nice but deliriously rare examples of a microdermal-tattoo combo that works well, in my opinion.

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Robby Needs Your Help

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Neil Chakrabarti, whose name you certainly recognize, writes me with this sad note,

So another one of our beloved members of the suspension community is in need of our help. Robby Seepersad, aka Ribble, is in the custody of the INS and is facing deportation to Trinidad. Robby moved to the US as a child and grew up in Queens where he applied for citizenship. Due to red tape after 9/11, Robby never received citizenship in the US, and in 2009, under extreme mental duress, plead guilty to false charges in NYC and went to jail for eight months. This past winter, Robby was in a car that hit some sleet and slid through an intersection in IL. When the police ran his name, Robby was turned over to the INS due to his previous wrongful imprisonment. Robby Seepersad might as well be my brother. He’s kind, hilarious, passionate about what he does, and is an amazing suspension practitioner and friend. Please help us raise money so his fiancée, Dede Nichols, can marry the love of her life before he is forced out of our country. Please visit http://www.gofundme.com/16qja0 and help save an American Dreamer.

Over the years I’ve dated a couple people who were so-called “illegal aliens” in Canada — part of Rachel’s current medical dilemma (which is a big part of the reason that BME struggles at times) is my fault for never having properly dealt with her citizenship issues while we were married. I was one myself for a while in Philadephia when I was dating an American. I can not imagine how much more horrific this experience would have been if myself and the people involved didn’t have a home country we knew to go back to. I can’t imagine how much worse it would be if I was facing losing the love of my life rather than just running away from a broken relationship. I can’t imagine how much worse it would be if the country I was being exiled from was the only home I’d ever really known. Well, Robby doesn’t have to imagine any of that. He knows it all too intimately.

Let me share a few pictures.

From left to right, (1) Robby, Neil, and other groomsmen at Arwen’s wedding. (2) Robby and his fiancée, Dede Nichols. (3) The first time Neil met Robby, 12/6/09. (4) The back to stomach pull Robby and Neil did after Arwen’s funeral in Long Island on 10/22/11 — his fiancée, Dede, is in the pic as well doing Robby’s bio.

If there is anything you donate it would help. You can do so at http://www.gofundme.com/16qja0. As always, I would not post something like this, asking you to help if I wasn’t willing to help myself. I don’t just post every request for help people ask me to post. I only post them if I believe in them, and if I believe that donating will actually help.

Googly Eyes FTW

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I’d say 100% of the time when I see microdermals added to the eyes of a tattoo, it transforms the tattoo from something potentially tough looking into something hilariously goofy. I’d say 99% of the time, that is not at all the intended consequence, and the wearer is blissfully unaware that they’re a little silly looking. The wonderful thing about this example, pierced by old BME friend Joeltron of First Blood (firstblood.com.au) and tattooed by Naepier “Kooky and Spooky” Jenkins (naepier.com), is that for once the whole thing works — and works so well — and is actually supposed to be in that wonderful self-aware 1%.

Click for the big uncropped version.

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Inverted Forehead Pull

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I’ve posted some beautiful tripod beach suspensions from the 8th Italian Suscon, but it was such an incredible gathering of talented and inspired individuals that I’m sure you know, even if you haven’t done much gallery browsing, that there were many amazing suspensions that happened.

One that really stood out to me was Alice Tancredi and a recent but dear friend, Martini Col Bivio, did together. There are two main ways to do a multi-person suspension (not including lifts) — tandem suspension, where one person hangs from another, or a suspended pulling, where people suspend separately, and are then connected by separate flesh hooks and ropes. This is what Alice and her friend did. They both did an inverted seated suspension, already an unusual setup, and then connected to each other with a forehead pull. I’ve done forehead pulls, so I was able to relate to the unique experience they offer — you can really get pulled into the other person’s psyche and even though you’re in public, it can become a very private event.

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Tattoo healing failure, fixed

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David Newman-Stump, owner and artist at Skeleton Crew Tattoo (skeletoncrewtattoo.com) in Columbus, IN, sent me in some photos to help out in my mission to show people what they should expect from tattoo healing (mostly brought on by this entry). The previous post I made showed color tattoo healing, but this one is black and grey shading.

The picture on the left is how the tattoo healed after being done by a generally talented and respected artist with a solid clientele. Fresh it probably looked great — I imagine quite similar to how it appears in the middle photo. Unfortunately tit didn’t heal well, and the client was left with an undefined, faded ghostly tattoo. Thankfully there was nothing wrong with the fundamental shape of the tattoo so it wasn’t terribly challenging for David to go over the tattoo and put the ink in properly. However, if I left you with just his fresh tattoo, not only would I be misleading you about what a tattoo looks like, but you’d also have no way of knowing that the same thing didn’t happen again. So four months later — completely healed — the picture on the right was taken. Now, it is true that a tattoo will continue to degrade from sun damage and skin aging over the lifetime of the wearer, 90% of the change happens in the first month, so this client can be secure in the joy that their tattoo has been successfully repaired.

You should definitely click and zoom to take a better look at the details.

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A Loving Mom, With A Gun

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Usually when someone gets a tattoo capturing love between a child and their mother, it’s usually the child getting a “Mom heart” (just like Bart Simpson did), or maybe the parent getting a portrait of their kids. And of course pretty much 100% of the time some person unrelated to the relationship performs the tattoo. Abril Ferrario’s mom recently tattooed this very sweet note on his arm — “I love you son, [from] Mama”. She did it freehand, and it was the first tattoo she’d ever done.

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Chain Corsetry

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Mike Grant of Maple Ridge, BC’s XZOTIKMODZ did a leg play piercing corsetry photoshoot, but instead of using de facto ribbon (for example like this beautifully realized example by Shorty) he uses gold chain, which works quite nicely as an “alternative” lacing material (I was not sold on the police tape corset for example). Very nice photo as well. By the way, if you like corsetry piercing pictures, BME has a gallery of them with well over 15,000 photos.

Click to see the photo uncropped

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BME logo vs. Jodi Lyford

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I love the way Mateo (a regular here on ModBlog) is integrating his BME logo with the new geometric work being done by Jodi Lyford of Chimera Tattoo Studio & Gallery (chimeratattoo.com) in Santa Cruz. This is just the very start of the session and the very beginning of what I’m sure will be a great addition to Mateo’s already impressive collection of body art.

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Juggalo Jesse in Ink

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I can’t imagine there’s a single BME regular who doesn’t know Jesse Star, and many of us have known him throughout his remarkable body modification journey (which I’m sure is still ongoing). I was both amused and pleased to see the tattoo that Josh Taylor got in the middle of his back. Yes, it’s true, it’s getting covered up as he blackens himself, but still, I think Jesse can say he’s reached a certain level of bodmod success if people are tattooing his visage on themselves, even temporarily. But my favorite part of the story is that they haven’t just tattooed over him in a single step. As they’re getting close to finished, they’ve “updated” Josh’s Jesse into Juggalo mode!

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Click to zoom that picture for a close-up view of the tattoos. The inset picture is how it started of course. For those that haven’t seen Jesse Star lately, I have to share a recent picture showing a small part of his wonderful collection of body modifications.

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