I’ve seen a lot of cool custom rigs in a wide variety of shapes, but I got a laugh out of Christ Steele’s “FUCK” rig (from Psycho Tattoo 3, Douglasville, GA) in these pictures of ImmureMe‘s first four point suicide. You’ll find the pictures here of course, but do expect some blurring if they end up in the local Douglasville TV report!
Just posted an interview with Boff Konkerz about hand poked tattoos, which he’s been doing exclusively for the past four years. Click through to read the interview and come back here to comment.
c/o Roopiec, Poland
This was originally posted on BodyTwo, but I was asked about it again this morning, and I thought it related well to the lip disc posts.
One of the most asked-about members of the modification community is “Fishmaul” (“Fishmouth”) or “Zygzag”, who is said to wear massive plugs in stretched cheek piercings. Here’s the photo set that most people have seen reposted over and over:
Some people claimed he was part of the German street punk scene in Aachen, others claimed he was Russian, and others claimed it was simply a fake Photoshopped picture. As it turns out he’s Polish, and quite real. A reader wrote me about him,
Hi Shannon. That “Fishmouth” is from Poland and everyone calls him “ZygZag”. For now he lives in Germany in a punk squat or something. I don’t know him but he’s a Polish BodyMod legend. For now he doesn’t wear his plugs. I’ve got different photos of him without plugs.
Here are the photos that came with that email:
He was drinking a beer at the time, so clearly he’d figured out how to live with giant holes in his cheeks…
Not long afterwards I received this photo of ZygZag with his plugs in at an event, wearing his cheek plates and other piercings:
As I wrote at the time, I can’t begin to express the admiration that I have for ZygZag’s dedication to developing this look… He’s got to be the only person on the planet, maybe the first in history, to push cheek stretching like this, and the degree he’s done it to is staggering. It’s really amazing to me, and the first time in a long time that I’ve seen something that’s genuinely new.
Unfortunately not much information on ZygZag is out there, as another Polish reader explains,
In January I discussed with my friends the subject of cheek stretching. Someone said that Zygzag is the only person in Poland with stretched cheek piercings so we started to look for his pics. After a few months of searching some guy contacted us and said that he knew Zygzag, and we wouldn’t find anything because he never wanted to have his pictures published. We also came to know that he removed the plugs because his eyes were constantly irritated and he couldn’t speak properly cause of the facial deformation. He had his skin transplanted few times to make the holes smaller. I don’t know how much of this is true, but it’s some additional info about the guy anyway.
So there you go… It won’t surprise me if he ends up being the only person to do this, ever. If anyone knows more (or knows anyone else that’s done this), please do write me!
So I wrote up a long set of potential questions for a series of piercer interviews, and I was thinking how few piercers I know that are “just piercers”… Almost everyone these days does scarification, or implants, or tongue splitting as well. There seem to be very few pure piercers out there — not that that’s a bad thing and not that it’ll stop me from interviewing them. Anyway, if anyone has suggestions on who they’d like to see in the piercer interviews — or wants to volunteer — I’m listening.
* * *
On to the entry… I remember when Steve Haworth first popularized circular barbell implants (“the piercer’s implant”) in the mid-90s, he made a point out of welding the beads on to ensure that there was no “gap” for bacteria or dead tissue to collect. However, many people still implant regular body jewelry. While it’s generally not going to cause a problem, it could increase the risk level slightly.
This story of performing at the Encuentro Arte Corporal festival submitted by my friend Ego Kornus (visit his blog for more info on Kavadi rituals). It was originally posted in 2007 on BodyTwo.com and I am reposting it here now — continue reading for the article if you haven’t already read it. Thanks again for his support and wonderful stories. – Shannon
Several months ago I was invited by the festival “Encuentro Arte Corporal” (7 September – 17 September) to do a performance on the opening night of the festival which would take place in Caracas, at the Theatre Teresa Careño — the biggest and most important in Venezuela. The festival invited people from all over the world to display paintings, photos, videos, movies, and do live performances related to Arte Corporal (Body Art).
I couldn’t find out much about the festival in advance, and only found out what was going on a few weeks before it started. The biggest art form in the festival was body painting and that was being done by diverse artists with diverse specialties. Furthermore there were performance workshops in several forms and classes introducing the meaning of rituals in old tribes. All of this was going to happen after the opening night, throughout all of Venezuela, fully supported by the Ministry of Culture.
The reason why the festival invited me was for aesthetic reasons, to show my rituals. They asked me to do a suspension. Normally I do not do performances on stage — maybe once a year — and I keep these things private. I saw this as an excellent chance to show how things can also be done in a ritual context. I wanted to show the relaxed and beautiful part of the ritual and to take my time for everything. I wondered what I could do as a bonus for this festival, and for my own experience. If there’s one thing I don’t like so much, it is repeating myself. Of course I like to recycle the things I do, but not in the exact same form. I make combinations, create new things, leave other things out.
My first idea was to do two crowns of spears and a coma suspension together, where the crowns would function as columns. The tricky thing was the construction that was needed to realize the idea, but on the other hand, the festival gave me the opportunity to bring people with me (which was necessary to realize my idea), and to buy the things I needed. I asked Harm over from Holland to give me a hand in the construction, and here in Buenos Aires I asked my wife, Anyi, to do the crowns of spears together with La Negra. I asked Manny to support me in putting in the hooks, and to give me a hand with the suspension itself. The colors black and red, along with the color of bamboo, were the main colors that would rule the scene. A few weeks before the festival Harm told me he had a complete idea for the structure.
After meeting each other in Caracas, only two days before the performance, we needed to start right away building the structure and organizing everything for the performance. Unfortunately we had a problem to solve, since a law had passed a few months earlier making bamboo prohibited for sale in Venezuela — the organization realized that the day we got there! They came up with an alternative bamboo, but after inspecting the bamboo in the store, we concluded it was not strong enough for what we had in mind. We had to change our idea about the actual suspending and use the theatre’s hoist to do the suspension rather than using the structure itself because it was way to weak to handle my weight.
The organization reacted well on all our requests, and the people of the theatre gave a hand where possible. We finished everything on the day of the performance, just before we had to go on stage. A few things I envisioned weren’t possible — the red hope had to be replaced with yellow rope, and the red roses extending the six meter red dresses of the girls had to be changed to red carnations. The stones they bought for me to use were fantastically beautiful cut minerals!
As far as achieving my vision prior to the performance, the aesthetics of the whole was good, and I entered the performance with a relaxed feeling. The organization gave us only fifteen minutes to perform, but I ignored that point and told everybody to relax and do what was necessary to do the whole performance. For myself the performance was relaxed even when I couldn’t see anything. I heard the noises and talking of Harm and Manny, from which I could understand where we were at in the performance. With the twenty one stones hanging down from my back the performance ended and I heard the applause.
Afterwards they told me there were 3,500 people in the seats and on the stairs. The curtain came down and first thing I saw was that we were surrounded by a league of photographers, mainly from the theatre itself. When I came out of the structure my head and body gave me the usual flash and I needed to calm down for a few minutes. I stretched my arms and legs a little and went to the dressing room. In the dressing room we did a little overview of the performance and everybody was happy about how it came out. I heard the things I couldn’t see and about the response of the public.
I changed into a comfortable suit and started walking around in the theatre. Several performances were going on outside the building, and several documentaries were playing. One got my special attention and gave a very good vibe, as it was about scarification in old tribes. The next couple of days we went to several organized parts of the festival to enjoy our last days in Caracas.
L-R: Manny, La Negra, Anyi, Ego Kornus, Harm.
Following up on yesterday’s very cute couple, Victoria from Brasil sent me these wonderful shots, all of which can be clicked for a broader view of course.
Since I’ve had all these animal entries lately, I figure I ought to go with tattoos about animals instead of tattoos on animals to diffuse the pissy mood. I really liked this tribute tattoo for the wearer’s dogs — “mis perros” — done by Jonathan Cardenas at Tron Tattoo out of Santiago, Chile.
Of course, if your pet is Gromphadorhina Portentosa — madagascar hissing cockroaches — you get a tattoo just perfect for an ogre like DistortedSmiles, tattooed by Luis Angel.
I don’t have anything clever to write about this falling kitty done by Guy Creighton of Dam Cool Tattoos in Barnstaple, Devon, UK, but it is Caturday after all…
PhoenixK‘s facial tattoos — which look about perfect for whatever hillbilly Haka you do in Ohio with that axe — were done by Matt at TopRoc Ink in Cleveland.
I don’t know why nostril-to-ear chains ever fell out of fashion. Every time I see someone reviving the style I smile. There’s no facetiousness in my words — I’m being 100% serious. I really love the way it looks.
