At first when I saw this photo, the tourist posing with photographs from super heroes on Hollywood Blvd popped into my head. Luckily enough for us though this is just one kick ass couple that met through BME. I love the juxtaposition of his heavily modified face and her perfectly plain skin. Gnomoweb and his bride to be are yet another couple from Brasil. š
See more in āCouples who met through BMEā (Culture)
I dedicate this post to Google Adsense. The more Google tells me I canāt post images like this, the more it makes me want to post them. I hate being told what to do. I like to make my own decisions and this is one reason that Iāve never wanted to have advertising on BME. I donāt want to be forced to bow down to pressure from advertisers telling me things are ātoo extremeā or ātoo weirdā. This is my community that I love and cherish. I will fight for our rights to do what we want with our bodies till the day I die and I hope you all will stand up and fight with me.
Thanks to Jared from The Loft in Columbus, OH for the photos. Click through for more, including googles version of pornography!
The world is not a just fair place. Iām an adult. I get this. I am fully versed that when deciding to heavily modify yourself, you have to take the challenges and obstacles that come with it. Take Modblog for example. Itās usually not a hard task finding photos to post, after we try and hide some watermarks in there so the sites that steal photos that are submitted to BME can actually be caught but itās a gentle reminder or a swift kick in the pants how fucked up the world is. I see all of these sites that steal our content and then get linked from other sites and receive hundreds of thousands of hits from stumble upon or Digg. Even though you canāt link to BMEzine.com from those sites. So the BME is blocked but not the sites that steal BMEās submissions and post them on their own all the while displaying advertising, which is generally google ads.
Some of you may have noticed that I no longer have Google ads displayed in any of the galleries on BME. Here is an email that I received the other day:
Hello,
While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying
Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For
instance, we found violations of AdSense policies on pages such as
http://www.bme.com/ritual/supsus001.html. Please note that this URL is an
example and that the same violations may exist on other pages of your
website.As stated in our program policies, AdSense publishers are not permitted to
place Google ads on pages with violent content. This includes sites with
content related to breaking bones, getting hit by trains or cars, or
people receiving serious injuries.Please make any necessary changes to your webpages in the next 72 hours.
We also suggest that you take the time to review our program policies
(https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) to ensure that all of your other
pages are in compliance.Once you update your site, we will automatically detect the changes and ad
serving will not be affected. If you choose not to make the changes to
your account within the next three days, your account will remain active
but you will no longer be able to display ads on the site. Please note,
however, that we may disable your account if further violations are found
in the future.Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
Uhm, excuse me?? Did google just send me an email comparing the act of suspension to the same content as breaking bones, getting hit by trains or cars, or people receiving serious injuries?? Yeah, they did. When I wrote them back.. oh wait, you canāt write them back because all contact and demands are sent from no-reply email addresses so you canāt even have a rational discussion with a human being. I had a contact email address for a google ad rep so I forwarded them this message asking how they can compare something like suspension, which is a right of passage in ancient cultures and a very personal and spiritual (and I donāt mean in a God kind of way) experience for an individual. I tried to explain to them itās not the same as some āgross outā type site that films people getting into car accidents or being hit by a train but their only reply was that they also found ads being displayed next to āpornographyā which was actually the image Iām posting below.
Oh no! Seriously! If this is the type of thing thatās considered pornography, then Iām in a heap of trouble. Please remember if you see sites stealing photos from BME, please use this url to create a ticket so that we can get the images off of their sites. Iāll be following this post in a second with a ton of suspension photos as a hearty dose of F-U-Google!
I am sure modblog reader are familiar with āthe myspace angleā, you know, the one where people hold the camera way up high and photograph themselves below. That angle has been proven to be able to take off well over a hundred pounds if used correctly. In a similar fashion photographers often take pictures looking up at there subject, therefore creating the illusion of the subject towering over them.
Well that is exactly what photographer Simon Jacobs did when photographing Dave Bastard for this picture. You see I knew Dave on IAM years before meeting him. From his pictures I thought he was a giant beast of a man, boy was I shocked to see he was just a few inches above oompa loompa height!
Donāt let his small stature fool you though; with his extensive tattooing, muscular physique and extensive gun collection he is one bad ass MoFu! He is also one of the best blackwork tattoo artist in North America, a continent that often overlooks top notch blackwork by stigmatizing it as ātribalā. Check out Dave and his wife Leaās work here.
I just read on Rachelās page about Ari getting her ears re-pierced soon. Ā It got me thinking about childrenās ear piercings. While, I, as a piercer, refuse to do babies ears. However, I fully encourage parents to wait until there child is old enough to ask for the piercing and then bring them into a proper piercing establishment. Most of the modblog readers can spout off reasons why piercing guns are bad and those are all valid points. However, people often overlook the importance of a skilled piercer doing the lobe piercings and assume merely using a needle alone is enough. This is why the vast majority of ear lobe piercings are poorly angled or not symetrically matched and Ā also why many in our community who have stretched from āregularā lobe piercings end up needing to be scalpelled to correct this initial screw up later down the line.
Rest assured John Scarabās niece is on the right path if she decides to follow in her uncleās footsteps and stretch her lobes when she is older. Or maybe she will decide to keep with the smaller jewelry like theĀ white gold studs with pink sapphires she was pierced with. Either way as long as she doesnāt decide to āGaugeā her ears, John has done well for her.
People who know me well will tell you that I am a Youtube-er. I browse their vids all the time, and post them everywhere and anywhere. I really enjoy the videos coming out of Currentās channel, what with all the tongue in cheek humor and colourful characters. Ā This video is a guide on how to make a Youtube video about your new tattoo. And if you are looking for something a littleā¦racier? Well why not check out some of these videos.
Cheers!
What a beautiful morning. There definitely isnāt going to be any snow this Christmas here in Los Angeles but thatās one of the main reasons I live here. Iām going to be in and out over the next couple of weeks so please understand that while youāre on vacation from school or work, that we here at BME are putting the final touches on the new BME so that we can launch it around the second week of January. Modblog is going to have to take a back seat for a couple weeks while we plod ahead with that. Itās almost two years in the making and I hope itās worth the wait.
I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has continued to support BME. The community is really about you guys and it is what makes this place so great. Iād also like to thank the new contributors Iāve had helping me keep up and especially thank Sean and Jen for their help with Modblog. Iāve enjoyed reading their posts and I hope you have too.
Before you click through, make that guess. Donāt forget that youāve only got a couple more days to try to catch up to KitanoKaryuudo who has submitted 45,670 images this year. Check out the leaderboards to see where you are at. The top 20 contributors in each section will be getting awards!
See more in āFemale Torture Playā (members only)
I recently wrote about how the Saddle Ranch Chop House abuses their āAnti Gang Tattooā Policy to keep out heavily tattooed āgang membersā like myself and my tattooer friends but the real reason that we were at City Walk was to see the newly released movie Avatar.
Now anyone who knows me knows that Iām not a huge movie buff. Most of the time the biggest response youāll get from me is āit was okay.ā which generally means just that. When asked about Avatar, I said I liked it which means a lot coming from me. One of the things I liked was the integration of mods into the characters. It was so seemless and natural that is it wasnāt for the fact that some characters had stretched lobes and some didnāt, I would have assumed it was just the way they were ābornā.
The movieās male lead is a ājar headā and has stereotypical tribal tattoos.Ā I couldnāt find anything better so Iām using the images from the movieās website. Heās got a tribal half sleeve on one arm which you can see a smidge of and a tribal armband on the other arm.
Iād be interested to know if these are Sam Worthingtonās real tattoos or if they were fakes used for the movie. Google was about as helpful as ever in directing me to celebrity tattoo sites that had the typical Angelina Jolie tattoos and not much else.Ā This stuff isnāt as interesting, click through to see some more shots from the movie.
Nothing like scantily clad tiger/cat people to make your night more enjoyable. The female lead in the movie, Neytiri, has what look like 1/2ā³ stretched lobes, as did several of the other planets indigenous population. Coupled in with natural āstripesā, which remind me of Katzen, they flowed extremely well. I know itās only a movie and these are just characters but thatās one beautiful looking cat lady.
The last āmodificationā though not a consensual one, is a mod that weāve featured here on Modblog many times. Weāve seen all sorts of facial scarification like this one done on bouncers, bounty hunters and other people who want to look like theyāve either been stabbed or attacked by bears. Either way, I think the makeup department did a great job on this one because it looked really realistic on screen.
All of that being said, I definitely would recommend the movie. We saw it in 3D but I think it would be exceptional without the added special effects.
If I had more time, Iād make an IMDB style database of all the mods in movies, just for fun.
**Images are courtesy and property of Fox. Visit their website for more information on the movie.
Babies, babies, babies. Doesnāt it seem like everyone you know is having one right now? In the middle of trying to figure out what to post about I got the news that another friend is, you guessed it, āexpectingā. It got me thinking about how many people I know who are either expecting or have recently had babies, and then I realised that the majority are women I know from IAM! Imagine that. So Iāve decided to put together a series of interviews with some of my favorite modified moms.
To start of the series, we have Molly, a young hip mom to daughter Audrey. Or, as she calls her, Odd. Click āread moreā for the full interview.
When in your own personal life did you start modifying your body?
Iām from a small town, I wasnāt even aware of modifications outside of the occasional eyebrow or lip ring until I was 17 and I moved to a larger town/small city and made a few friends there who worked at piercing/tattoo shops. I eventually had my lip pierced, and then a few months later switched that for two upper lip piercings (commonly called double monroes I guess). I got my first tattoo the same day, for an incredibly stupid reason. I was dating a young tattoo artist and we were bored. Itās a pretty horrid piece really, with a ton of scar tissue, but it was my first one so I remember it fondly. From there I just kind of ran with it. I realized that it was something I found esthetically pleasing on myself and others. I started stretching my ears, getting more tattoos, and reading up on different modifications through BMEzine actually.
How would you say that your own parents have influenced that decision?
My step-dad likes to tease me and say he got me into tattoos. This is a lie, he has a few silly little pieces (including Calvin and Hobbes and a chinese characters armband) and if anything, he should have shamed me away from them! My mom has never expressed an outright disgust or disapproval for my tattoos. Although when I got a memorial tattoo for my dad on the back of my neck, her response was āItās a little big, isnāt it?ā. She seems pretty used to it all now, and even compliments my pieces sometimes. But I can tell sheās still kind of worrying about the stigma attatched and me limiting myself in career choices. Thankfully, my family is pretty supportive and understanding and Iāve never been put in a position where Iāve had to choose between something I love and my family that I love.
Have your views changed since you became a parent.
I wouldnāt say that my views have changed, I still love tattoos and my earlobes and my piercings. I would never be embarassed by them just because Iām a mom, and Iām not going to regret them either. I do tend to notice more when people stare or make comments, just because I donāt want Audrey to ever be made uncomfortable. And it bothers me that somebody could make her feel this way someday over the way I look. Hopefully, we will raise her in a way that keeps her open-minded and comfortable with herself and her family, no matter what sheās like as she grows up.
Out for a walk. Photo by princeclare.com
Tell me a little bit about your journey into parenthood
I hadnāt really planned on being a parent. Iāve always had the idea in the back of my mind, but I just never felt Iād be ready. Iād also been told by two seperate doctors that my chances of ever concieving were between 1 ā 5%, for a variety of health reasons. So it was just kind of something that wasnāt going to happen for me. I actually didnāt find out I was pregnant until 3 months into the pregnancy when a female room mate mentioned that sheād gone to the clinic for a test of her own that had come back negative. She was explaining the symptoms sheād felt that she was sure meant she was pregnant, and each thing she mentioned I mentally ticked off as something that was happening to me. So I decided I should probably do a test just to be sure, and VOILA. Positive. It turns out my room mate had actually been having sympathy symptoms for me.
My partner, Zach, and I had only been dating for about three months at this point. We were very happy, and I was losing my apartment so heād offered to share his place with me until I could find something else. It was literally the day I was moving into his house, while he was at work, that I found out I was pregnant so you can imagine the stress. I told him, and it took us about two weeks to come to a firm decision about keeping the baby.For awhile, it was very hard to get used to losing my chance at being a carefree, 20-something year old with a bunch of friends and a busy social/work life. Being a parent was the polar opposite. And a lot more difficult than anything I was used to. But it was also incredibly fulfilling and made me so proud and happy.
What are some of the challenges you face as a parent?
Iāve had issues, Iāve been stereotyped and ignored. But I arm myself with knowledge and force people to take me seriously. Iām not going to sit back and let other people make the decisions regarding my body and my daughterās life. Iāve dealt with the stigma attached to someone with visible modifications. Iāve had other moms make snide comments towards me, doctors refuse to accept that I have educated myself on what is right for me and my daughter, and a general public that is convinced that Iām the stereotypical, trashy, un-wed mother. Iāve also had to face the fact that I am an incredibly impatient person, and babies require incredibly amounts of patience. Iāve had to try to change the way I react to different things, and find things to keep myself calm. Iāve also dealt with losing a lot of friends who are still young and living entirely different lives than I am. Pretty much the moment I could no longer go out and get drunk every night, I was ditched. Iāve made a ton of amazing friends though to make up for that, ones who are supportive, helpful, understanding, and always there for me and my family.
Are you employed at the moment? What are your plans professionally for the future?
I am currently employed, I work at a music venue/bar. Sadly we will be closing at the end of January so Iām looking for a similar job. In February, money permitting, I should be starting a Yoga teacher training program. Yoga has been a huge help, both physically and mentally, during my pregnancy and after so Iād love to pursuahae it as a career. I also hope to eventually get back to school, Iād love to do an English major in University and possibly be a teacher one day.
What sort of modifications do you have at the moment? Do you have any in plan for the future?
I have stretched earlobes, basic nostril piercings, and a fair amount of tattoos. A sleeve in the works, my knuckles done and some other scattered pieces. I plan on stretching my ears larger, it just depends on how cooperative they are. I also plan on being pretty covered in tattoos. Iāve got ideas for my chest, arms, legs, hands, neck, etc.
How would you say being a parent has impacted on your personal journey with modifying your body? Have you ever faced discrimination when spending money on your mods?
Being a parent has not swayed my decisions regarding my body and the things I like. I would never get a vulgar or inappropriate tattoo since I have a child, but thatās not something I would do anyways. Iāve never faced judgement over spending money on modifications, but weāre also fairly stable financially and Audrey is spoiled rotten by family. She doesnāt miss out on anything because of our spending. And we would never withold from her to give to ourselves.
and baby make three
What message would you like to share with expecting moms or women who are thinking about having a baby?
Having a child is an amazing experience. It can be overwhelming, stressful, frustrating, heart breaking, and the most difficult thing you will ever go through. But it is also amazing, rewarding, and life-changing in a good way. You need to educate yourself as soon as you know youāre pregnant. Read information about pregnancy, about labour and child-birth, parenting and possible things youāll have to deal with. This is the most important thing I think. I dealt with a lot of problems with doctors assuming I was just another young girl who got herself into a mess. But once I could show that I knew all about what was going on with my body, and what I was going to go through, I found I was listened to more and trusted to voice an opinion.
Thanks Molly!
Weāve all heard stories of when someone feels like theyāve been given poor service at a store or a restaurant because of being heavily modified. Iāve felt like the scene in Pretty Women before where Iām told the store has nothing for me but last night was the first time in a decade that I have ever been refused entry into a restaurant based solely on the fact that we had tattoos.
Last night around 10:30pm, I headed to CityWalk in Universal City, CA with Norm, Charlie and Vanessa Roberts and our friend Jason. We had tickets to see Avatar at 12:10am and wanted to get dinner first. Everything but Subway and Saddle Ranch Chop House were closed. We walked all the way from the movie theatre to Saddle Ranch where Jason and I went in first and got a table. I noticed that Norm was being held at the door. I went back to see what the problem was and found that they were making him remove his clothing to inspect his tattoos. As I asked what the problem was, I was asked to step aside and Norm and I were escorted out of the line to get in, even though I had already been given a table.
Upon further inspection they told us that we had āgang tattoosā and would not be allowed into the restaurant for the safety of the other patrons. Those of you that know us know that we have no gang affiliations, nor do we have any gang tattoos. Iām covered in Flower and faerie tattoos and thatās it. I guess the āAlwaysā on my hand now stands for some gang that I have no idea about? Norm was a gentleman about it but I wanted to talk to the manager even though we had decided we didnāt want to spend our dollars at a businesss that discriminates against tattooed patrons. We left to go to Subway, which by the time we walked all the way back, was closed.
The lesson that we all need to know is that our dollar effects the decisions that corporations make. Iām asking that you do not visit the Saddle Ranch Chop House or their affiliated restaurants.We should come together and boycott them.
If you want to make a difference, email Alex Chavez (Senior Manager) at [emailĀ protected] and let them know that you donāt appreciate rampant discrimination by management against customers who have tattoos and that you and your friends will not be visiting their establishment. You can also call them at 818-760-9680 or send your letter via fax to 818-760-9686. Remember to keep your emails/faxes/phone calls polite and well written otherwise they will just cast us off as they already have.
Do we look like āgang membersā to you? Nope, didnāt think so. Using an excuse like that to discriminate against tattooed individuals is reckless and irresponsible. We all want to be able to visit a restaurant and be safe but using a fake claim that we had āgang tattoosā to discriminant against us using their āanti gang tattoo policyā because we are visibly tattooed is unacceptable. Help me to rectify this situation by making sure organizations like this donāt use their policies to discriminate against everyone who is visibly tattooed.
