A week after getting his tongue scalpelled to 2ga by John Joyce (Scarab Body Arts, Syracuse, NY), Slalamander Steve was still experiencing quite a lot of swelling, and, as you can see here, bruising. Thankfully, other than a little bit of a skin flap at the edge of the piercing, he’s doing fine now, with the bruising and swelling mostly gone and his speech back to normal.
I’m actually going to try and not fill my spare moments this weekend with ModBlog posts, but continue work on more interviews for next week. Thanks to everyone who’s helped out on them so far, and thanks to readers who’ve posted interesting commentary as well. There’s an image update uncompressing right now, and I’ll be back on Monday.
EDIT: For some reason today’s update seems to have — as Jayson put it — “usurped” the previous update. I won’t have a chance to re-insert the previous update’s pictures over the weekend, but it’s a simple fix and I’ll do it on Monday most likely.
The tattoo below is by Keegan Lam (another home artist) by the way; I quite like the simplicity of the design.
One of my favorite things about scars is how they “grow” and age… the many stages they go through, from the fresh and scabbed up version the day of, through the various phases of initial healing, and then the assorted periods of aging… For at least three to five years, the piece is in a slow state of flux. Quentin from Kalima did these brands below (fresh in the first picture), and after the break you can see them at one of my favorite stages, especially on this color of skin.
This robot arm (which would make a pretty cool full-body project — I’m not sure how far this one will be extended) is being done by Brett Barr at Built 4 Speed in Orlando, Florida. This is actually just the undercoat and it’s being gone over in gray, white, and color next. Assuming I get pictures I’ll post them here as well, because it looks great already at this stage!
MeltBanana writes, “if only Bettie had a scar like mine…”
Real men cut them off when they’re done with them!
Shannon: “What does Andrew keep in his chainmail pouch?”
After having posted an interview a day all week, I’m taking a break for at least a few days with this great chat with Johnny Thief, which I think is definitely the one to read if you want to really “get” what American tattooing is about (at least in my mind). I enjoyed reading his responses immensely, and have presented them here almost exactly as they were received and without edit or restructuring, in the hope that you’ll enjoy them just as much as I did in their pure form.
Click through to read, come back to comment!
Big thanks and massive lip-love to Rafa for sending in this awesome labret scalpelling video..
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Not to worry sunshine, BME will kiss it better!
This winter Tyler and some friends went to Tanzania. He’s a social anthropologist as well as a ModBlog reader, so while he was there he snapped some pictures of the widespread body modifications they saw. The guy on the left in the photo below is Kerry, their guide, who they met in Dar Es Salaam — almost all young men in Dar have similar Western-style tattoos.
On the way to Ngorongoro Crater they stopped near a small Maasai village where they were approached by the women in the pictures here who were hoping to sell them various trinkets. The piercing holes they have were made with iron knives, and with no sterilization, they’ve been increasingly vulnerable to bloodborne problems such as HIV/AIDS.
Tyler adds that you do see hi-tech though even in the deepest areas of the country, where they met the “cyber Maasai” above left in a quiet Zanzibari village using his earlobes to hold up his headphones. His bottom front teeth are also knocked out, a traditional body modification liked to breastfeeding and udder sucking. Thanks to Tyler for the pictures and background!