Thanks again everyone for the support and see you in 2008!
PS. The logo in the picture — taken by his sister — of Tom-Tom (who works for one of Norway’s biggest corporations — anti-mod stigma is disappearing all over the world) isn’t the year end shirt, it’s a logo that I drew called “Ultracalm” which may or may not be run as a shirt in the future.
Sorry I didn’t write sooner in the day. Ryan from BMEshop reminded me that Rock Band is out in Canada now so I picked it up this morning and quickly whipped through beating it on “hard” (the graphics are nicer than in Guitar Hero, but it’s a way easier game)… Sorry, it’s a compulsion! Beating “expert” is next although I don’t expect it to be particularly challenging either (I’m just playing on “Solo Tour” mode with my GH guitar).
Anyway, this super-clean and precise looking skin removal of a set of brass knuckles on a calf was done by my friend Anders at The Dragons Lair Tattoo in Marsden, Brisbane Australia.
Lane sums up his leg implant experience (scroll down a couple entries if you haven’t seen it yet) by simply saying, “My body just did not want it at all.”
The rather unpleasant photos below were taken two weeks after the implant was put in.
A day after Lane took the sutures out, the wound opened up and nearly a liter of yellowish-clear fluid poured out of the incision — the previous three nights he’d been running a high fever accompanied by heavy sweats, general ill-health, and a stiff neck. After consulting with Brian on the phone, who inserted the boobs, they agreed that taking it out was the right thing to do. Because it was the holidays, Lane’s staff weren’t around, so in a one hour DIY procedure and with his wife’s assistance he removed it. Thankfully it’s now healing well — flat chested once again — and looking much better.
It’s unclear whether this was the early stages of septic shock, or if his body was straining to reject the large piece of silicon.
However, I’d really like to emphasize that Lane is a healthy guy that’s aware of body modification issues, and Brian is an experienced and clean practitioner — even in the best of cases, things can and often do go horribly wrong. If Lane had not removed the implant when he did, he could very easily have become seriously ill or even died without emergency care. If you choose to explore the world of heavy modification, it’s your responsibility to not just find a good artist you can trust, but also to be completely aware of what you’re getting yourself into and be very in tune with your own body. I can not repeat enough that things go wrong for everyone, and it’s these cases we need to prepare for. Being prepared is what will keep them as nothing but temporary setbacks instead of permanent setbacks.
Note to self: If you’ve been feeling nauseous all day, editing ModBlog entries may not always help take your mind off it..
– Roo
Brian in the Netherlands got his toes cut up by the girls from Dare2wear in Amsterdam, with Julia cutting the 666, and Sharon cutting the HELL… Both of them were cut simultaneously, which he describes as a “different” feeling! (Cut him some slack, it’s not as if English is his first language). Julia also did the goat-head cutting on his shin, and Ilya did the spider skin-peelings at Lab360 in Amsterdam.
Brian is also a performer, and recently did this suspension show in Maastricht, The Netherlands, assisted by Raoul and Beto… The facial hooks — my favorite part — were inspired by the movie Hellraiser (and remind me of Casshan‘s shows).
One of the most popular entries — linked and plagiarized from all over the net — in my now exterminated previous blog featured my friend Lane having Brian (photos by Candace) give his pin-up tattoo a set of carved silicone breast implants. The implants are carved as a single piece (rather than being, say, two separate domes).
The procedure took less than 45 minutes and seemed quite uneventful. Everything went fine, and the next day it felt like nothing more than a bruised leg.
PS. A few days after he got the implant he sent me a couple of healing photos… I noticed (and you can probably see as well) that there was some apparent irritation over the top of one of the “breasts”, this reminded me of a series of implants that I had which were removed due to rejection. Anyway, no one thought anything of it at the time but it foreshadowed a very unpleasant end for this modification… I’ll post more about that later today.
I got some more great photos from Sergio Enfermo of Russian suspension events by the folks from Apokalypse Party in Saint Petersburg. This set is from a suspension party at the tattoo studio Extreme Art, where they did the three suicide suspensions — Totay, owner of the studio (the guy with long hair and beard), Aspid, and Clockorange (I really like the touching photos of Doggy, her husband, and her in this set — below at full size, and you can find more if you follow the links).
They’re aiming to host an event every week or two, and you can also find them on IAM — Doggy, Clockorange, and devil rejeñts.
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I think maybe this entry will be of interest mostly to etymology buffs? Niklas (here’s a picture of him and his sister) got this tattoo to show his roots — Swedish one half, Hungarian on the other. The text on the top is Hungarian and the Swedish is on the bottom — the reason I thought it was interesting is that I’ve always identified “Home Sweet Home” as a uniquely American expression, so it’s really a mix of three cultures, one of them unintended?
I think that 2007 is definitely “year of the microdermal”, a modification which I continue to believe is the single most revolutionary thing to happen to body piercing in the last decade.
When Jon Cobb first proposed it in 1997 (he called it “pocketing”), people laughed and thought it was silly that a section for it was added to BME. It took a decade for people to figure out the perfect method and jewelry, and now they’re almost commonplace, offering people an infinite range of new decorative options for their body.
This triple wrist was done on Ryan by John Blake and another piercer at the same shop. Ryan writes,
Everything is healing up fine — both of the side ones have given me no problems at all and these have been the most painless modifications I’ve ever done… a lot more practical than surface bars, which makes for an all-round better experience for the subject who is enduring the procedure. I got my first one, right in the middle and it’s only caused me problem upon problem as the piercer who did it (not John, although she works in the same shop) told me to keep it covered with an airtight dressing for a week, which did nothing but trap an infection under my skin, thus the problems.
I would recommend to anyone looking to have a healthy microdermal to take my advice and just leave it alone.
Most of Seth’s mods are self-done, but he got his forearm balls done last Sunday by Brian. They’re a series of five 1″ silicone domes (photos above by Ashlee Parry).
There’s still a bit of swelling around them, so they’ll likely “pop out” more as they heal.
You may have noticed we now have implant and microdermal categories you can browse through.
I tried to be thorough but it was quite a tedious task so if you notice any discrepancies, omissions or errors let me know, thanks.
– Roo
