To The BME Community

Posted on March 15, 2023 by BME

I hope you might remember me, my name is Nefarious. My childhood was surrounded by BME and I have missed it in the past years, so hello I hope you are doing well. As you may already know, today 10 years ago my dad Shannon Larratt passed away. And if you were not aware, my mom Rachel Larratt passed away last year in June. Together they built BME and created a place where people truly had freedom. BME may have not been as active recently as it was in the past, but I do not want to let it die with them. Unfortunately through those years of neglect, the site and community have deteriorated. Since my mom’s passing we have been dealing with hosting issues, unforeseen struggles, and a string of bad luck. We’re still gaining full control over some accounts. It is very complicated, but we are asking for patience. We are trying to get it back, but this time it will take longer than it has before.

I cannot promise that the millions of photos and videos since its inception in 1996 are safe right now, but if it does come to it, together we can create a new collection. Jon, Jen, Marks and I have worked tirelessly trying to keep BME online, and we will continue to do so. In the meantime we will keep this blog running, and we are launching a private website that will allow us to stay connected.

Times have changed and so have all of you. BME on the other hand has had nearly no changes in the past 15 years. We are overdue for more than just a makeover and recent events mean that BMEShop is our only source of income right now. If you ever want to make suggestions, or even just want to send a friendly letter, please reach out at [email protected].

– Nefarious

We’re still here. We’re not giving up.

Posted on January 11, 2023 by BME

I wanted to provide another update since it’s a new year. As you can tell I’ve not managed to import any of the old Moblog content yet, but I’m hoping to work on that soon. I was away for the holiday spending time with family. I believe I have been able to fix the main site billing issues so you should hopefully be able to create new subscriptions or if you had one that expired over the holiday it should renew very soon.

We are continuing to keep the site alive and online and we’re working in the background on some plans for the future. Please stay tuned, as we hope to make some announcements on the future path for BME. Thank you all for the support.

-jonathon

We’re back, but…

Posted on December 6, 2022 by BME

As you can see we’re not quite 100%. We were able to recover file backups (images, scripts, etc) of the sites on the machine we lost. However we’ve not been able to recover database backups (posts, comments, etc). On top of that the backup server in our rack has crashed and isn’t responding. We may need to get someone to physically reboot the machine which will take more time. And even if we get that server back online we don’t know if we’ll be able to find what we need*. I’m really sorry, and I assure you nobody is more upset about it than I am. Jen and I will continue to do our best to keep things running until we have a clear plan of what the future will be.

In the mean time we’ve setup a new blog and we’ll do our best to provide some meaningful updates and regular content for you. The theme isn’t quite what it was but I hope it brings some kind of familiarity while we work on recovery.

If you’re reading this and you care about BME, we’d love for you to leave a comment as a show of support so we know you’re all out there. This feels like a very lonely place right now and that is very much the anti-thesis of what BME stands for.

Sorry I don’t have any good news.

* We’re working on scraping the internet archive for old posts and comments.

-jonathon

Support BME: Update

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Rob

Thanks to your support BME has surpassed the voting threshold needed to be considered for the small business grant!

It will be a while before we know if we won the grant, but we just wanted to extend a huge thank-you to everyone who voted. There are still 2 days left, and more votes won’t hurt, so if you haven’t yet taken a moment to vote for BME, you can do so by simply visiting www.missionsmallbusiness.com. On the bottom right you’ll see a button labeled “Log in & Support”. The site will link to your facebook, so you don’t need to create a profile of any kind. Once you’ve signed in, search for “BME” and click the “VOTE” button for BME.com. That’s it!

So again, from all of us here at BME, thank you so much for your continued support.

p.s. The t-shirts from the fundraiser for Ari are being printed right now and should be back from the printers in the first week of July. So expect to see them in your mailbox sometime after that.

Mission: Support BME

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Rob

As many of you know, BME is a small business. With only 5 employees, BME still manages to be the world’s largest online tattoo, piercing and body modification community, historical archive and educational resource. While there have been some changes over the years, most notably the gallery redesign, and the upgrades to IAM, not to mention staff changes, BME is still up and running. For those that have been paying attention to Rachel’s IAM page, you’ll recall that the site redesign took about 3 years longer than was predicted, and cost a lot more than was estimated. We’ve since gotten rid of the company that was screwing us over and brought in a new programmer that has been working day and night to address as many issues as possible. Now with us having such a small staff, it’s obviously a lot harder for us to keep up with the changes that you’ve come to expect from your social networking sites. Now if BME were to receive a large sum of cash, we’d be able to bring in more programmers and get the features that you want to you a lot sooner.

So what can you do to help? Well, we’re not asking for your money, but we are asking you to support us as we’ve applied for a small business grant. Showing your support is extremely simple.

First, visit www.missionsmallbusiness.com. On the bottom right you’ll see a button labeled “Log in & Support”. The site will link to your facebook, so you don’t need to create a profile of any kind. Once you’ve signed in, search for “BME” and click the “VOTE” button for BME.com. That’s it!

We need at least 250 votes to be in consideration for the grant, so be sure to ask your friends to vote as well. The more votes we get, the better our chances of winning. If BME receives the grant, you can expect a lot of the changes that we’ve been working on happening considerably faster. So put this on your IAM pages, your Facebook wall, and your Twitter feeds! Get the word out, and help support BME! Voting ends June 30th, so vote today!

Hey Saturday, How You Doin’?

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Rachel

Phew! I’m covered in a variety of inks from printing t-shirts all night. I’ve been taking breaks between making mock ups of tshirts, fixing old artwork so that it can be printed again and printing the t-shirts themselves. It’s just been one thing after another but I’m having fun. The only thing I am longing for right now would be a heated workshop!

If you hadn’t noticed, here are even more designs added to the shop since the last time Rob posted about it. Can you believe it? No.. Didn’t think so! I was going to add them all here but I figured I’ll just put the link right HERE and you can go and look at the 100+ designs that I’ve added in the last week.

Now here is the fun part. I’m losing my second wind and I’m definitely going to crash but I wanted to give myself a little joy before I go to bed (that does not sound like how I meant it to sound..) and the easiest way to do that is to GIVE AWAY FREE STUFF! Yep, that’s right!

I’m going to put together 5 “surprise packages” for BMEshop orders that come in today. This is how it’s going to work. There will be a “surprise pack” for the first orders placed on the shop for the following amounts:

$20
$50
$75
$100
$200

Make sense to you? It seems pretty clear to me but I”m the one that thought it up. Say two people placed orders on the shop. One was for $21.00 and the other was for $25.00. The first of those two orders, since they’re both over $20, would be the one that got the “surprise pack”. If we had people place orders for $25, $78, $90, $100 and $200, the person who placed their order first between the $78 and $90 dollar order would win the spot for the $75 order while the second person would get the prize for the $50 dollar or since technically they’re above $50 but they weren’t the first person to place the order for the $75 spot. Did that clear things up or is it even more confusing now? Either way, get shopping over on BMEshop and I’ll make it worth your while. The “surprise packs” will definitely NOT disappoint. Did I mention that they will be relative to the number that you win do the higher the dollar amount that you win for, the better the surprise!

I love giving stuff away! Hope you all have a great weekend!

Always Use Lube

Piercers do it with their gloves on.

Barbell Rides: The first one is always free.

We’re on the lookout for new ask.BME Staff!

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Rachel

UPDATE: Thanks for all the submissions we’ve managed to fill all the empty spots. Keep an eye on ModBlog for a post introducing you to them.

It’s that time again! We’re looking for additional ask.BME staff to help answer questions on BME!

If you’ve got what it takes to be a part of BME ask team, then please copy and past the questions below and send them to [email protected]! We have some rules and guidelines on how to answer questions on ask.BME but I want to see how you’d answer them on your own without any guidance from us. Don’t worry about answering them all, just answer the questions that match up with your experience and skill set. Be honest about the questions that you don’t know the right answer to and remember, everyone has different answers and there is always more than one correct answer to a question! So fill out the answers to the questions and send them in! P.S. Spelling errors are from the submittors of the questions, not BME! For authenticity we’re leaving them as is!

1. Hey,

I got my tongue pierced 4 days ago and I am very concerned with it getting infected, namely thrush because of the fact that I accidentally ate some food that has food in it that is made from dairy. Well for the past few days I’ve noticed that the back of my tongue from just behind the piercing on back is a yellowish color and I was wondering if this was normal? I have also noticed for the past couple of days that I have a sort of metallic taste in my mouth I was also wondering if this was normal? Then lastly, I was wondering if, instead of using the mouthwash that i’m currently using to rinse my mouth after every time I eat, is it okay to use the sea salt mixture in it’s place? Would using the sea salt mixture cut down on the possibility of getting an infection, like thrush, better than mouthwash? Sorry for all of the questions, i’m really anal about knowing everything that I can about what’s best for my piercings when they are healing.

2. so i recently just got a new tattoo to cover up some ugly ass tribal i had on my leg since i was 16… its a huge sobirety piece on my leg. now my question to you all is why does my tattoo look like the color has faded after some of the scabs have naturaly fallen off? also i have been using tattoo goo and applying 2-3 times per day.. even where i have heavy shading it looks like the color is fading or is that due to the fact the top layer of skin is starting to flake off?

My boyfriend was tattooed 4 days ago and has been chugging along with his aftercare as one does. I was applying ointment to it last night (a cream that tattooists in France always recommend, and that I and my boyfriend have used ourselves on previous tattoos without any problems whatsoever) when I noticed some small, blister-like bumps on parts of his tattoo.

They are more pronounced on the small spots of blue that he has in his tattoo but I also noticed a few of these little blisters on a shaded black area so I don’t think it’s a question of how much pressure was used while tattooing. They range from small circular spots of about 1-2mm in diameter to small smear-shaped raised, dry areas of about 6-8mm in length. There is not an over abundance of them but they seem to be more concentrated (although sparsely) around the inner forearm. There is also a slight redness and raised skin on other shaded areas of the tattoo. However there is no globalized redness or burning/itching.

He does have a tendency to swell up during the tattooing and up to a day after, but from what he tells me he hasn’t ever seen any of these small, raised, blister like patches on any of his other tattoos (he has both coloured and plain black ones).

I have a feeling you will tell me this is an allergy of some sort and to contact the tattoo artist, which I plan on doing, but I just wanted your opinion on this subject and how to possibly treat it. Should he really be panicking about it or is it something easily taken care of and should he seek a doctor’s opinion? Also how badly could it possibly affect the tattoo?

Thank you for any response you can give to put his mind at rest, or push to take action.

3. I just had my septum pierced and the piercer put in a circular barbell. Friends are telling me I should have had a retainer put in first while it heals. Is this true? I wouldn’t be concerned except it seems like the piercing is moving closer and closer to the bottom of the septum due to gravity, away from the cartilage area. Thanks.

4. This is not my first tattoo, I have quite a few but I’ve never had any that have done this. I’ve gone to the same artist for most of my tattoos , I follow the after care procedures, but none of my other tattoos have had this happen, So it’s 7 days old and it has peeled for the most part but underneath the layer that has peeled it is a very shiny and wrinkly skin. It looks as if it’s possibly going to peel a second time. Like I’ve said before that’s never happened before. Is it silver skin/ milk skin? Will it go away? The tattoo is on my inner bicep, does that make a difference in how it heals?

5. I want to get the back of my neck pierced but i’m really worried about wasting money if it rejects, a friend of mine said dermal anchor’s are better and have less chance of rejecting?

Je veux obtenir l’arrière de mon cou percé, mais je suis vraiment inquiet pour gaspiller de l’argent si elle rejette, un de mes amis dit ancrage dermiques sont mieux et ont moins de chance de rejeter?

6. I have had my ear lobes stretched to 1/2 inch for about two year now. I recently got the urge to step up. In the past I have used silicone plugs to dead stretch my ears. I know the whole taper and non-porous jewelry way is preferred, but I was trying to go cheap and it works. I bought some 5/8″ plugs because I was trying to go too big too quick, completely kipping 9/16″. My ears got swollen and were very sensitive. After a few days, I decided to take them out and give my ears a rest. The swelling has almost completely gone down, except for in the fistula. It has been 3 days with no jewelry what so ever and my ears feel about 75% back to normal. I tried sticking a half inch taper through while in the shower but it makes around half way before pain. I am worried that irritating my piercings, coupled with the lack of jewelry, has reduced their size drastically. It is still a little swollen so I don’t know the full severity yet, but right now it look like 2g would be the biggest jewelry I could fit. Is it possible to get back to at least the 1/2″ inch I was at without having to work my way up? They were like that for 2 years, could 2 days have set me back that far?

7. Okay so I got my monroe pierced 5 days ago. It’s looking pretty good except that it’s still red around it. I do not think it’s infected because there is no puss coming out of it or anything and the inside looks totally fine. I emailed my piercer and he said this is totally normal. But, I’m getting paranoid! Almost every person I see says “That’s infected!” I’m really getting tired of hearing it. I know that they pierce with a long piece of jewelry and I do get it caught on my gums sometimes. Will the redness go away once I can switch to a shorter post and don’t get it caught on my gums anymore? I’m doing my SSS 2 times a day. Help please!

8. I’m wondering if you can recommend a reputable scarification artist in Australia. I’m based in Melbourne but I’m willing to travel if I need to. So far my searching hasn’t returned a whole lot.

Also, what method would work best if I’m looking to have subtle flat scars rather than raised keloiding? Is it more a matter of how you personally tend to heal rather than the method used that determines what the healed result is like?

9. Would love to ask if anyone know what category does this tattoo fall in. Tried searching on the web for a long time but couldn’t get it. Got this picture from one of someone and he told me his customer brought him that so no one knows what style/kind this tattoo falls in what category. very much appreciate if anyone out there knows because i really love it and would love to know more then ink it on me !THANKS GUYY!

10. I got an apadravya and frenum long time ago, but recently found out me and my wife are to be expecting a little one. We were just wanting to double check if sex with the apadravya will be ok and not cause any problems with the pregnancy? We’ve tried searching but really couldn’t find a definite answer about this particular circumstance with apadravya + pregnancy. Thank you for any help.

11. I got my navel piercing when I was 15 years old, and I am now almost 25. It has never once been infected, but every once in a while over the years, it gets sore/red/painful for a week or so. In the past couple years I’ve put on about 20 pounds, and the irritation comes more frequently. SO frequently, that I took it out, and let it “heal” a couple months ago.

A few days ago it started the sore/red/painful thing again without even having a ring in it. I figured it was best to put the jewelry back in rather than have it seal in the infection, if that’s what it is. I have sensitive skin, so I only buy surgical steel rings, so that’s definitely not it. I even bought an actual circular ring instead of a barbel so it wouldn’t be too tight.

ANYWAY, I just don’t really know what is wrong.. is it my weight gain? Could it be something else? I just don’t know why it would be doing this after months of not having a ring in. HELP?!

12. Hi guys,

I had both of my ears pierced at 14g in August. They healed up with no problems or infections, and near the end of October, I stretched them to a 12g (my piercer did it for me, and they bled a little bit when he stretched them). Now around a little over a month ago, one of my tunnels was pulled out while I was sleeping, causing it to bleed a bit, but I cleaned it thoroughly then put it back in. After a few days or so, a small bump appeared on the back of my left ear near the piercing (not directly on the piercing, but its very close). At first I assumed it was a pimple because it was small and soft to touch. But after a week or so, it only shrunk a tiny bit. I had my piercer check it out, and he said that it was a “keloid”, and I simply had to rub it/massage it daily with soap on my fingers to help break down the “bacteria/gunk” inside so it could properly heal. Since I started doing that (around 3 or so weeks ago), it has gone down a bit, but is still there. I have also been using saline wound wash, as recommended by another piercer I know.

Now while I’m sure it’s just something I need to be patient with, I decided to ask on here because you guys are the professionals! I apologize if this can’t be analyzed properly without a picture, but I was just hoping you might have some advice towards a more effective solution for my situation.

Thanks much!

13. Just a quick question about tongue piercing. I have had a tongue piercing before but had to remove it and it healed up. I have being thinking about getting 2 new tongue piercings either venom’s or just two in the middle. Is it best to have them both done at the same time or separate?

14. I’m looking into getting a small skin removal piece done seeing how it’s going to be my first, and I was looking on many sites about chemical irritant aftercare, I seen that Toasted Sesame oil is a very good one to use, I got a bottle of 100% sesame oil one accident and wondered if it would do the same? Or better yet if you could suggest more of a variety of chemical irritants? Thank you!

Looking forward to the answers! ^_^

15. Hi, I’m really wanting to get my sub dermal clavicles done, I’m not sure where to do this because I know that they’re pretty rate piercings.can anyone recommend a place or places in Texas where I could get mine done? it can be anywhere on the state, if not in the state, somewhere in the same general area would be good, I want them badly and I’m getting pretty desperate to find somewhere, can anyone help?

16. I’m really interested in doing a saline injection temporary breast enlargement. do you know of any professionals who do this in the southern California area?

17. I had both of my nipples pierced almost 8 years ago and never had a problem with them until about a year ago. The left one kept getting a bump towards the right side of the piercing. After some tlc, it would go away, but a few weeks later it would be back. Roughly 3 months ago, I noticed the spot where the bump had been actually left a tiny hole I could see the jewelry through. Well, it healed and wasn’t causing me any pain until yesterday I noticed the skin on that side had ripped up into where the hole was. Is this a type of rejection? If so, why so long? I took the jewelry out when I noticed this and it appears everything is closing up fine and there’s no pain. Would it be recommended to have the piercing re-done once everything is completely healed up?

18. Hi, I got my nipple pierced about 5 days ago and due to the swelling one ball is digging into my nipple. So much so that you can see where some skin has rubbed off due to the pressure and it has started to scab. I went to the piercer and asked if he would put a longer bar in and he said that that was normal, and that with any tongue or nipple piercing indentation is going to occur and to just wait for the swelling to go down.

My question is should I go to a different piercer and get their opinion on it, or should i just wait and hope that one day i dont wake up to the ball having dug its way into the piercing?

19. Hey everyone, I’ve got a question regarding the pain I’ve been feeling with my tongue piercing.. I find it understandable to have sensitivity issues with a new piercing, but I’ve had my tongue pierced for a couple years now and don’t know what the cause of my discomfort is. Occasionally, I get a stinging pain on the bottom of my tongue, directly around the exit hole of my tongue piercing around the barbell. Right now I have the pain for a couple days and it is a little more uncomfortable than usual but tolerable-no where else but just the bottom of my tongue directly around the barbell itself. There’s no swelling or signs of infection, but when the piercing moves around in my mouth or I just move my tongue I get a stinging pain. This started happening well after the piercing healed up too. Any idea what might be causing this and what it could be?

20. I’ve had my tongue pierced for seven years, but I’ve heard they do close up very quickly even if they’ve been pierced for a long time. I’m having surgery later in the year, and will most likely have to take out all of my piercings for it. I’m worried it will close up. I also probably won’t be able to put it back in myself for awhile, because the surgery is on my chest, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to raise my arms high enough to do it. My fiancee is too squeamish to do it, and I don’t know if a nurse at the hospital would do it. Am I doomed to have to have it re-pierced after my surgery is healed, or is there a chance it would go back in after having it out for a week or so? Thank you!

It’s finally here!!

Posted on August 5, 2011 by Rachel

Dear IAM family,

The time has finally come. After 3 very long years, several false starts, thousands of man hours, dozens of people (most of whom aren’t the same people from the start), 3,714 emails between the developers, Mike, Jen and myself, hundreds of pages of designs, hundreds of thousands of lines of code, thousands of revisions and unfortunately my entire life savings! 🙂

We’ve been tweaking things left and right on the private beta to clean up as much as we can and have it 100% perfect with every feature ready to go but that’s the entire reason it’s called a beta! We need to have our community actively using it so that we can move forward with fresh eyes. As the community uses the beta, more and more features will be added, we had to draw the line some where and get everyone using it so that we could make all the other adjustments that we need to make with the system under heavy load.

I’m sending out this broadcast to all of IAM in order to let everyone know that we’re about to release the new version of IAM.BME.com. In order to make sure that we have the most up to date copy of the data, we’re going to have to turn IAM off for a couple of days prior to launching the new site. IAM will be offline starting Monday the 8th. It should be back online on Thursday the 11th.

We have spent the last several years going over and over the data, the old site and the new site to make sure that we are always advancing and giving you more than IAM & BME have ever been able to offer in the past.

With the initial launch, some features that you’re used to using may not be available initially, but please don’t worry! The site will continually be upgraded to keep BME/IAM in line with the rest of the internet. As I said before, we have to draw the line at some point with a feature set and get the community running on the new software in order to keep adding all of the features that we want IAM to have.

Please keep in mind that this is the first upgrade that IAM has received in well over a decade! I look forward to it and I appreciate your patience and understanding while we work out the kinks that arise with any upgrade!

While your journal entries, forums, messages and photos will all be imported, please take a moment to use the following tools to make a back up of your data. The “Diary Download” tool will make a file that contains your diary entries, their titles and the dates they were posted, including the HTML you may have included in the post. The “Photo Download” tool will make a zip file containing every image that you have ever uploaded to IAM (including those that you have removed access to from your page). Please allow some time for the tools to process and the downloads to complete. Some members have very large photo back up files and they will take some time to download depending on the speed of your connection.

Diary Download Link: http://iam.bmezine.com/iamback.exe?

Photo Download Link: http://iampix.bmezine.com/cgi-bin/photo-backup.cgi

While the over all “look and feel” of IAM will be changing, most of the way that IAM works will remain the same. We’ve even gone to great lengths to keep the IAM related MACRO tags working. All of the functions and features of IAM will still work and function the same way. The biggest “change” is that all of the various settings that you need to select to select things and make your IAM account function a certain way will have been moved to one “settings” page so that you don’t need to dig in various settings pages in order to find/change them. Our main goal was to make IAM easier to use. That was the main focus of the redesign.

The following MACROS WILL NOT be able to be imported to the new IAM. The reason that is is because those MACROS have been replaced with other MACROS or they have been built INTO other functions that operate a different way. Please remember that these features will be available but with things like your IAM page’s custom theme, you will have to recreate it on the new system.

1.In forums, the following functions will no longer be implemented: **NOINDEX**, **BOTTOMINDEX**, **INDEX**, **RTL** **TRANSCRIPT**
2.In diary entries: **NOBME** – This will no longer be necessary as your media will all be available in the “media” section of your profile. You decide what you want to share with IAM members, with BME or keep private.
3.In diary entries: – This function is not being imported. You can set your page to either “IAM Only” (this is the default) or to allow anyone.
4.Custom themes. These will not be imported. The new IAM uses a WYSIWYG editor and you will be able to easily customize your page using the new editor. If you want to save your current settings so you can refer back to them after the move, we encourage you to view your custom edit page and take a screen shot or copy the data in some way as once the move is made you will no longer be able to access that information.

If you have any questions, please EMAIL [email protected]. Jen, Mike and I will be very busy during the upgrade process so we will not be able to answer individual messages sent via IAM during this time but you will definitely be able to get a reply from Jen if you email [email protected].

Thank you for your continued support of BME. You are what makes BME possible and the place that it has grown to be today!

Rachel

p.s. Everyone’s IAM page is active as I just made sure to add time to all the accounts on IAM so if your friends haven’t logged in because they said their accounts have been expired. So tell all your friends that their IAM account is active so they can come check out all the new features, as well as back up any of their data.

BMEtv – Kaleidoscope Tattoo

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Rachel

One of our first stops in Australia was Kaleidoscope Tattoo down in Bondi Beach. We spoke with tattooers Luciano Lima, Freddy, Stevie Edge, Cory Ohrman and their piercer Brady Hardin. If you’re ever lucky enough to be checking out the beautiful beaches of Sydney, Australia, there is no doubt you’ll be making a stop to see the world famous Bondi Beach. Don’t forget to visit Kaleidoscope Tattoo while you’re there!

bmetv1

Keep reading to check out the video!

Note: Please let us know if you’re experiencing any issues with the videos. Due to the unreliable nature of the integrated video player in wordpress, we will be putting the videos behind the break. We already know that the auto play doesn’t work properly. Despite having it disabled, in some browsers it still starts playing which causes a big problem if you have more than one video on a page! This is the primary reason we are putting the videos themselves behind the break.

If you have any issues playing the videos, please let us know in the comments. Please include your OS, browser type/version and anything that you think will help us to determine what the issue is. Please make sure to be more specific than comments like “it doesn’t work”.

Subtitles: If anyone would like to volunteer to transcribe the videos so that we can add subtitles for our hearing impaired members, please send me an email and let me know. I would love to be able to include those. Thank you!