I’m probably the furthest thing from a religious scholar you will find, but during my years in university I did come across a large number of texts that were either directly tied to the church, or at least were influenced by it. Now the term “gargoyle” refers to any sculpture (usually in the form of an animal or person) that is designed to allow water to fall away from the edges of a building to prevent erosion. Over the years people have just adopted the term to apply to any decorative sculpture on the roof of a building.
The reason I bring up the religious side of gargoyles is that centuries ago, when being illiterate was the norm, the church needed ways to convey their stories and rituals to the masses. What better way to educate an illiterate crowd than through images. It was here that the myth of the gargoyle began. As the story goes, St. Romanus encountered a monster in his travels, your typical dragon type creature that breathed fire. Well when Romanus defeated the creature, he brought its body back to be burned, but discovered that the head wouldn’t burn because the dragon breathed fire and the head was adapted to heat. So he hung the head on the outside of the church to ward off evil spirits. Over time the churches would add their own stone gargoyles to the outside of the building in order to let people know that outside the church evil lurks, but inside they will be protected.
Now of course when I was growing up gargoyles were just scary looking statues that eventually came to be “cool” in my young eyes. I suppose that was aided by the Disney cartoon. Of course I’m not the only person walking the planet that enjoys looking at gargoyles. Bromley_Daz submitted this image to BME the other day, and I think it’s safe to assume he enjoys gargoyles as well.
It’s always nice to see images added to the mythological and religious gallery, because often there is a good story behind the designs. This image in particular reminds me that every culture around the world has developed their own wards against evil. Be it symbols or rituals, these wards have become much more than just a repellent to evil. The gargoyle being a prime example of that. What first started as a way to protect buildings from erosion, a practice that pre-dates Christianity by centuries, eventually became a symbol of warning to people. As time passed, these statues became the guardians of the the buildings they were installed on, until eventually they were regarded primarily for their historical significance and their art.
Now while I don’t feel the need to possess any particular wards against evil, I do own a Rangda mask that hangs on my wall, that I really like the aesthetics of. How about you? Do you possess any symbols that can be attributed to warding off the evils of the world?
Be free all worthy spirits, and stretch yourselves, for greatness and for height.
–George Chapman
Today I’ve spent a bit of time focusing on the work of the artists that make up our community. Specifically the works of one artist, but the idea is there. What doesn’t get discussed a lot on ModBlog is the DIY aspect of the modification community. Now the DIY modification enthusiasts range from the simplest of piercings, to some of the hardest modifications and play sessions that are covered by BME. Due to the nature of the broad spectrum that DIY covers, it is impossible write a post about every aspect without getting complaints from people about writing the longest ModBlog post ever. What I do hope to do is feature DIY stories more frequently as there are a tremendous amount of photos of DIY modifications in pretty much every category of photo.
For today, I thought it would be nice to go with something simple. Now the headline may be a bit misleading but it will make sense if you follow along.
So, what would you say is the most popular form of DIY modification? In all honesty, I don’t have any numbers to back me up, but I think a safe bet would probably be lobe stretching. I think it is safe to say that the majority of people with stretched lobes have at some point performed the stretching themselves, probably without even realizing that they were adding their names to the list of DIY modified people.
A lot of what makes the DIY movement so significant is that it is taking the next step in control over the body. While everyone getting mods is doing it for their own personal reasons, they all are in essence changing their bodies to what they want, primarily through the help of practitioners. What DIY means to many is the opportunity to make the changes that they want but by their own hands. This means that by performing any mod by yourself, you are singlehandedly pushing the limits of control you have over your body, changing it to what you want it to be.
One person in particular who was kind enough to send in an image of a DIY modification is IAM: tiny.vertebrae.
From what I can tell, it appears she’s using a piece of wood to stretch out her own lobes.
So while lobe stretching is fairly common when it comes to DIY modifications, it is still a process that is being undertaken by those who are choosing to modify themselves under their own power. I know someone is thinking it, and yes this isn’t the limit in which a lobe can or has been stretched, but in the moment captured in the image, the stretching is pushing the limits of what came before.
Tattoo Hollywood and Known Gallery are also hosting a once in a lifetime opportunity to view works by Kaname Ozuma and Horiyoshi III, appropriately titled: Irezumi Bijin. If you were at the Tattoo Hollywood convention last week you had the opportunity to get a sneak peek at the works by these brilliant artists. Tomorrow night the show begins and will be running until Sept. 18th. I urge you to do whatever is in your power to get to Los Angeles and see this show before it is gone for good.
When:
Opening Reception: Thursday August 26th, 2010 | 8pm-11pm
Show Runs: August 26th – September 18th
Where:
Known Gallery
441 North Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
About the artists:
Kaname Ozuma
Born in Niigata, Japan in 1939, Ozuma Kaname began studying traditional Japanese painting under his uncle, artist Sakai Soushi, from a young age. Moving to Tokyo at the age of 18, he trained as an art dealer while working at a printing company. Afterwards, he moved on to the publishing industry where he illustrated tattoos. The majority of his work continues to be tattoo-related along with other traditional Japanese themes; and often serves as a source of inspiration for master tattooist Horiyoshi III, whose clients in turn, are often depicted in Ozuma’s paintings.
Horiyoshi III
Born Yoshihito Nakano in 1946, Horiyoshi III is the second tattooist to be bestowed the honorific title—the tattooist affixation “Hori” means engrave—in a line started by his master, the legendary tattoo artist Yoshitsugu Muramatsu, or Shodai Horiyoshi of Yokohama (Muramatsu went on to dub his son Horiyoshi II, and later Nakano was named Horiyoshi III). His images are classical Japanese woodblock print motifs such as the phoenix, dragon, snakes, tigers, samurai warriors, Buddhist gods to name a few as well as background images of waves, clouds and various flowers. Among Horiyoshi III’s published works are 36 Ghosts, 108 Heroes of the Suikoden, 100 Demons, and The Namakubi (severed heads), 100 Dragons and 58 Warriors. Horiyoshi’s artistic genius and generosity of spirit have had a defining impact on the world of tattooing, taking it to new levels in this new century.
I’m definitely trying to put plans together to put myself on the road again sometime before the show ends just so I can check it out. Who knows, maybe I’ll see you there.
Sometimes the daily grind can be overwhelming. Work, family, friends, bills, kids, and more can all be a joy at times and a curse at others. While we’re all flying through space on this spinning top we call home, sometimes it can feel great just to stop everything and be still.
To everyone the act of being still can mean many things. To some it is a form of release, allowing the stresses of the world flow out of their bodies. For others stillness can evoke feelings of anxiety, the calm before the storm as it were, the moment where everything just seems too good to be true. Even in nature stillness can have many meanings. Those early moments at dawn when a lake is perfectly still, just existing waiting for the world to begin again and reflect itself in its surface, the stillness of the night before still echoing across the glassy surface in the form of the mists. Then there are the predator and prey. The predator stalks its prey until it finds the perfect position to mount its attack, holding everything in and becoming a rock, immovable yet capable of motion. The waiting, the thinking, becoming so still with focus that the rest of the world falls away. While the predator waits, the prey becomes still as well, not with calm or focus, but with fear. Knowing there is danger around and that the slightest movement will set in motion a cascade of events that could be the end of its existence.
The stillness of the world cannot exist without the movement. The time after the world has stopped. The first fish leaping from the water to eat an insect, causing the first waves to break the surface, waves that will continue to move until the next morning when the cycle begins again. The moment where the stillness has fulfilled its purpose and the time to act is present, releasing all the energy locked within in one swift and sudden movement. When the fear changes from the overwhelming power to be still, to the realization that by remaining still will be the end, and movement is what is necessary to survive.
Looking at this photo of IAM: Radical Kiba, you can see the stillness in her. Lost within herself she is looking out on the world. There’s no way to know how she is feeling, but you can feel the stillness.
What is stillness to you? Is it the calm of the water at dawn, the anticipation of the predator waiting to strike, or is it the fear of the prey? Or is it something else, something that only you can feel?
I’ve intentionally been avoiding writing a story about the Millennium Trilogy for a while now. While I haven’t read the books, I have seen the films which are believably good, but despite the title, the tattoo in question doesn’t really play a major role in the films. Sure the character of Lisbeth sports a massive back piece, but seeing as how you only see it a couple of times and the actress, Noomi Rapace, didn’t actually get it tattooed on herself I just assumed that the entire thing was a non-story.
Today I was pleasantly proven wrong.
Before we begin, here’s the trailer for the first film: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
I use Google news alerts to flag stories that have specific key words in them. Tattoo of course being one of them. So you can imagine that with these films gaining international acclaim, the books being bestsellers, and casting rumors flying around for the American adaptations, my inbox has been filled for the past few months of stories about the trilogy. For the most part I just dismiss them, but since they finally got around to casting the role of Lisbeth in the American films, the e-mails have died down.
Yet here I am today, talking about the thing I promised not to discuss on ModBlog. The reason I’m bringing it up now? Well, I’ll let this article from The Mirror fill you in.
Winning a career-making role in the Dragon Tattoo films brought a strange mixture of pleasure and pain to rising star Noomi Rapace. The 30-year-old actress knew she had to nail the part of androgynous anti-hero Lisbeth Salander – or risk offending the many fans of the creator, best-selling author Stieg Larsson. So to really convince as the punky, chain-smoking, kick-ass computer hacker, Noomi embarked on a remarkable transformation. She went on a strict diet, trained in kickboxing and Thai boxing and even took her motorcycle licence. A non-smoker, she began puffing her way through “thousands of cigarettes” both on-set and off it. And she wouldn’t even consider faking all those piercings in Salander’s ears and nose because, as Noomi puts it, “I wanted to feel those piercings in myself.”
You’ll often hear of actors undergoing massive physical changes for a role. De Niro gained a significant amount of weight for his role in Raging Bull, while Christian Bale lost a frightening amount of weight in a short period of time for his role in The Machinist, only to gain it all back plus more in a couple months to be ready for his role in Batman Begins. Actors are required to change themselves to some degree for a role, sometimes it’s simply a costume, and others require a lot more commitment. So for Noomi Rapace, in order to fully transform into the character of Lisbeth she drastically changed not only her physical appearance, but also her behaviour months before filming.
While the diet and smoking is one aspect of the transformation, this being ModBlog I wanted to focus on her mods. You get a brief glimpse of them in the trailer but having seen the films it is obvious that she didn’t just opt for one or two piercings to personify the character. I counted about 10-12 seperate piercings spread out over her lobes, cartilage, nostrils and septum. While by ModBlog standards this isn’t anything too significant, to see an actress portray a character so well, and commit to that many mods is something significant. While the character of Lisbeth is certainly troubled, and goes through several drastic events over the course of the series, what we’re seeing is essentially a mainstream film that doesn’t treat modifications as some form of joke or used as shock value.
I’m sure we’ve all seen films where a “punk” character appears on screen wielding a vast array of facial piercings simply to appear intimidating to the viewer, yet in these films the piercings appear to be just a natural extension of the character. In fact, in the scenes where she isn’t wearing her piercings you get a sense of discomfort looking at her, as if something is missing. Which of course there is. I think an accurate analogy to this would be the NYC skyline post 9-11. The image of the skyline had been etched into the minds of millions of people, and now, looking at it, there is something missing. I’m not making any political statements or anything like that, but the idea that something is removed from an image that everyone was used to seeing makes one feel that sense of “not right”. Of course the NYC skyline itself evokes a lot of feelings, but I think you get where I was going with this. I really think that with Noomi Racpace’s commitment to the role, combined with a skilled filmmaker, that this may be the first portrayal of a modified person that actually captures the essence of the modified culture. Where the focus is on the character, and not the mods, yet when the mods are removed you can tell something has changed not only on her physical exterior, but something inside her as well.
If you were to take a look in a mirror one day and all of your mods were gone, how would you feel? What about those close to you, how do you think they would react if a modification you’ve had for years was suddenly gone without a trace? Because we don’t treat our modifications as something other than what they are, an extension of our ideal selves, we can sense the incompleteness that occurs with a mod is removed. Yes I realize people retire mods all the time, but even then, those first few days really can reveal how much our mods are a part of us.
Looking back at these films with the knowledge of the actor’s commitment to the part, it really shines a light on how a person who is modified isn’t defined by their mods, but by who they are as a person. While this isn’t anything new to us, there still is a large portion of the population that doesn’t realize it. Given that the titular dragon tattoo is the one modification in the film that isn’t a real mod, I thought I should close this post out with a real dragon tattoo from the BMEzine.com tattoo galleries.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who has seen the films. Can anyone else who has seen them weigh in? Did Noomi Rapace actually getting the piercings done change your view of the films and her portrayal, or does her performance stand out on its own without the piercings being a factor?
Well it turns out that when Jennifer Love Hewitt appeared on a talk show ranting about her vajazzle, it was only a matter of time before someone thought to get creative with paint instead of jewels.
A while back I brought you some interesting news on the fine art of Vajazzling, which as we all know now, is the act of adorning one’s vagina with little Swarovski crystals. Enhancing the mons pubis has since been an explosive trend in 2010, and I’m happy to bring you the latest installment: vatooing (also spelled “vattooing!”). Vatooing, is also known as “twatooing,” “vatuing,” or simply “vagina tattooing.” Except these tats (vats?) aren’t painful because they’re applied painstakingly with an airbrush
So while this isn’t a permanent (or even semi-permanent) mod, it is always interesting to see what people will do to modify themselves when they know it has 0 chance of being permanent. The Completely Bare chain of spas in NYC are the ones trying to make this fad as popular as the gluing of crystals to your nether regions. Although after watching the video, I’m not completely sold on the “painstakingly applied” technique. As far as I can see they’re limited to using a pre-made stencil with an airbrush.
I know I’ve posted about body painting in the past, and in a lot of cases an argument can be made that it is a form of art. Can the same be said for this procedure? Or do you think that this is just a quick way to cash in on the fad of women who want to live on the wild side, but not have any real permanence to it? This also begs the question, is this trend limited to women? Essentially they’re only adding gems and paint to the area around the vagina, couldn’t men get something done down there as well? There’s already a debate going on as to whether this should be called “Vattooing” or “Twatooing”, if we add men to the mix, should it be called something else? Possibly “Dattooing”, no, that name is taken by the guys trying to create digital tattoos. What about “Cockattooing”, I think it has a nice ring to it.
Now if this temporary tattoo/gemming business really isn’t your cup of tea, there’s always our genital tattoo galleries where you can go to see the real thing.
This ad, designed by Zeitsprung Commercial in Germany got sent to me last night by ModBlog reader Broodje. For those that can’t watch the video at work, allow me to sum it up for you. A man dressed in a bear costume is walking around the streets to cheerful music giving out hugs to people as he strolls along. Then, the lighting darkens as the man in the costume pulls off the bear’s head to reveal his heavily modified face. The tagline of the ad appears as he roars at the camera and stalks away: ”You can’t see H.I.V. But you can prevent it”.
I’m not sure how you may react to this, but I’m on the same page as Broodje, in that we’re both more than a little upset by the implications that this PSA gives off. While the message itself is a good one, the end result may be giving a lot of people a bad impression of the modded community. To me this is saying that not only can you get H.I.V. from a hug, but that someone who is heavily modified is probably infected and it is best to stay away from them.
As for the actor in the bear costume, I have no idea if he knew what the PSA was for, or if it mattered to him how he would be portrayed in the final cut. The fact remains that as much as we try to show the world that modded people aren’t any different from the rest of the world, things like this come along and tap into some base fear that people have of the unknown, setting any progress that has been made back in the process.
I think what troubles me most about this, is that this type of thing is exactly the reason that Jessie had such a huge media circus around his arrest. The media is consistently associating heavily modified people with as many negative connotations as they can. Now we’ve come to a point that not only are heavily modified people scary because they’re “all violent”, but they “all have H.I.V. and should be avoided at all costs”.
What do you think? Am I reading too much into the ad, or is there really an undercurrent in the media that is directly attempting to demonize a group of people just because they choose to take control of their bodies.
UPDATE: It turns out that this video was part of the 2009 HIVisible campaign, and is starring none other than BME’s own IAM:Sicko. So it appears I was completely off base with my interpretation of the ad. Thanks to Bastian for filling me in and clarifying the message.
I’m sure most of us in North America have heard of the Travelling Gnome. The idea is you steal someone’s garden gnome before you go on vacation, then take pictures of the gnome in places all over the world, which you send back to the person you stole the gnome from. Then, when you return, you bring back the gnome and replace it as if it never left. The result, you end up with a great story and experience, and the person who thought their gnome was gone for good gets a surprise in the mail (and their gnome back). Of course over the years the gnome stories have spread all over becoming so popular that a travel booking website uses a gnome as its mascot.
Well it seems the gnome is still on the go, and it looks like his latest spot was in Italy, paying a visit to IAM: Lady_FlameThrower. You may remember her from a ModBlog post a while back about her Watchmen scarification piece. You can see in the photo below that the photographer Alex Hen is featuring not only the gnome, but also Lady_FlameThrower’s surface bar and dermal anchors.
So has the urge to steal a gnome ever crossed your mind? The idea of stealing a gnome is only scratching the surface of what travelers do for fun with their photos. I’ve seen collections of people holding up cardboard cutouts of friends, other keepsakes from houses, and more. Well ModBlog readers, have you taken a gnome or something else on your travels to document the journey?
Doug Malloy was the allias used by Richard Simonton. Richard Simonton was a married father of four. He was an executive with the Muzak Corporation as well as a founding member of the American Association of Theatre Organ Enthusiasts.
As Doug Malloy, he was heavily involved with the underground body piercing scene and was an integral part of bringing piercing to where it is today, via his many contributions to the industry.
The below text is from the BME Wiki:
As Doug Malloy, he was an instrumental supporter and patron of the early body modification scene. By 1975, he had published a short, largely fictional autobiography entitled Diary of a Piercing Freak under his assumed name, which was sold to a fetish publisher and released in softback under the title The Art of Pierced Penises and Decorative Tattoos. He had also established contacts amongst body piercing enthusiasts both in Los Angeles and on a global scale, including London tattooist Alan Oversby (better known as Mr. Sebastian), Roland Loomis (better known as Fakir Musafar), Viking Navarro, Sailor Sid Diller and Jim Ward. He was also an organizer and active member of the T&P Group, an association of tattoo and piercing enthusiasts based in Los Angeles.
The upsurge in interest in body piercing had created enough interest that Simonton advised Jim Ward, who had previously worked as a designer, that he should start a body piercing business. Simonton advanced Ward the money to start Gauntlet, originally a home based business, and Jim began to produce body piercing jewelry. Simonton’s experience as an amateur piercer formed the basis of the primitive techniques used at the time, and his network of contacts was instrumental in spreading the popularity of body piercing, especially genital piercing. By 1978 Gauntlet had a retail location and the world’s first body piercing studio was established. Doug also provided extensive notes that were ghostwritten by Ward into full articles for PFIQ, the first magazine devoted to the subject of body piercing, a Gauntlet publication.
One of Simonton’s other notable contributions to the development of body piercing in contemporary society was his pamphlet Body & Genital Piercing in Briefwhich is responsible for a large portion of the myths surrounding the origins of many piercings, most notably genital ones. Simonton’s personal enthusiasm for body piercing as an erotic practice and his love of the fantastic came together in this document, which is almost entirely fictional or highly speculative. Many of the theories regarding the practice and origins of various piercings historically have been distorted by the excellent circulation of this document or later documents which quote it.
If not for Doug Malloy’s enthusiasm for body piercings, we might have never had Gauntlet and without Gauntlet we might have never had professional piercing studios. So let’s take a few minutes out of our day to remember where we came from and pay respect where respect is due.
Here is a link to an old BME News article by none other than Jim Ward himself, explaining who Doug Malloy was and how he has made his mark on modern body piercing:
The body modification community is about as creative and as expressive a group of human beings as the world has ever known. It makes perfect sense that those into body mods and body play rituals would also be into other creative outlets such as art, music, acting and so on. For a while now I had considered asking for submissions to do a regular Modblog Music feature. Those of you who have been on BME long enough may remember the BME CD, well this feature would carry on in that tradition, but on modblog rather than on a cd.
For whatever reason, I never actually followed through with this idea. Then my friend Anthony, who you MUST remember from his BME Rap, shot me a message on facebook asking if I would feature his band. At first I saw the band name “Eye Am Legion“, which reminded me of the line “we are legion” from that godawful Ghost Rider movie and it immediately turned my stomach a bit. Then I thought about their use of “eye” rather than “I” and it reminded me of the sweet Southern sounds of EyeHateGod and all was forgiven.
But I digress, Anthony is a pretty bad ass guitar player, very visibly modded and a helluva nice guy. I think his band will make for an excellent first Modblog Music feature.
EYE AM LEGION is a band with a message from the heart. Our lyrics contain messages of self-revolution anti-police brutality and most importantly unity. The band is driven by one core belief; “No external moral code, person, or source should ever have higher authority over you then you have over your own self.” This band is a statement, to finally get kids excited about being a family and unified in a cause. To drop everything, let loose, free your mind and just SHRED. Its time to finally question that are supposed to be our “authority” and free your soul as you listen. These people are not our allies, our brothers and sisters grant eachother autonomy, and personal freedom. We take a step back from politics as it is no longer relevant. We encourage enlightenment through music, a feeling of being one with the band, and losing your fucking shit at a show.
This band and its fans is a family, together we stand to take back our lives.
Want your band featured here? Shoot an email with bio, website and an embeddable link (most likely youtube) to [email protected] First spots will be given to active members of the body modification community and IAM members.
Before the hate mail begins let me remind the commenters, Modblog isn’t just about the mods, it’s about the modified community as well.
