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Transitions

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This impressive feat of rigging is a 4 point knee suspension that transitions into  a 2 point chest suspension. It was done by some of the ROP Brooklyn guys; Brian, George and Cere. Pictures by Candace.

kneesandchest

Speaking of Rites of Passage, Cere and some other ROP guys have headed west to help with Meg’s event the LA BME Fundraiser, a suspension event to help raise money for BME, that is taking place tomorrow. If you are interested in going check out the events page or message Meg.

For one more pic from this transitional suspension, keep on keeping on.

chest

BME’s Big Question #3: Economic Collapse Edition

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Welcome to BME’s Big Question! In this weekly (hopefully) feature, we’re going to ask a handful of the community’s best and brightest piercers, tattooists, heavy mod practitioners and shop owners for their opinion on one question or issue that’s affecting the body modification community. Many, many thanks to all of the contributors.

If you’d like to be a part of future editions, or if you have an idea for an issue or question you’d like to see addressed, please e-mail me.

This week’s topic:

The economy is in the crapper. People across the country (and the world) are being forced to reevaluate what qualifies as a necessity, as well as their own skills and what they’re capable of contributing to a society that appears to be on the brink of an economic collapse. Where does body modification fall? It may not be a “necessity” the way food and shelter are, but it’s undeniably vital to many people. What are your thoughts on the current economic situation and how it will affect body modification as an industry?

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Steve Truitt
I think, and am noticing, that business is slowing down quite a bit, but it normally does around this time of year here every year. It seems slower than normal, but going through my books, it isn’t.

I think that people will continue to get tattoos/piercings/etc. done even when the economy is bad because they make them feel good about themselves — even though they aren’t necessities. Much like sales of alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, etc. don’t really get affected like other industries (restaurants, movie theaters and so on) by the economy, I think body modification will be just fine overall. It just seems that people are opting for cheaper plain jewelry instead of going with the fancy jeweled piece more often now though.

John Joyce
A lot of people around Syracuse work in factories. New Venture Gear/ Chrysler is one of the larger ones, and they have been laying people off since the end of last year. Before them there was Carrier, which ended up closing. With these lay-offs, there are thousands of people with no work. I’ve definitely noticed a slight drop in the amount of business we are doing which I definitely relate to the local economy. But like Steve said, it’s not that I’m really doing fewer piercings, I’m just using less expensive jewelry. People aren’t getting the gems as often, and I’ve received far fewer requests for the more expensive plugs.

I’m also seeing more and more people coming in after getting work done somewhere else — usually with very low quality jewelry, poor placement, the wrong aftercare information, and all sorts of irritation. While I’ve always had people come in to get things fixed from these other places, the number is definitely increasing.


Meg Barber
As both a piercer, and someone who works in a wholesale situation, I have totally noticed a drop in business on both ends.

As for piercing, we have recently dropped from doing about $3,000 a day or more to an average of about $1,000-$2,000. That’s a big drop for us. Being in NYC especially makes it worse; people feel the drops in the stock market a little more keenly I think. People are more conservative with their spending now, and the idea of luxury, except for the very wealthy, is a back-burner thought.

Thankfully, we do have some of those clients keeping numbers high. But, yeah … sales are lower, and people are price shopping more, and with the cost of gold climbing, that makes it really hard on us at times. But we make it.

Barry Blanchard
Sure, the economy is in the crapper — that is indisputable. Guess what: it’s probably going to get worse.

What we do for a living makes someone who is not feeling well feel good about themselves. I do not see it getting so bad that it comes down to “food or a piercing, but it is that fear that keeps people from spending extra money on an item such as a piercing.

We are all going to feel “it.”

It’s time to get back to the basics, such as customer service and quality. That way, when someone does want to spend their hard earned (and slim) money, they will come to you — that person who treated them the best.

Anatometal has been hammered with orders right up until today. Not sure what tomorrow will bring, but make no bones about it: We are busy.

Jewelry (including body jewelry) has shown to be one of the more “recession-proof” items out there. No, we are not talking about big ticket items — those who can afford those will afford them no matter what.

My point: girl walks into a tattoo shop because she has nothing better to do. She just got laid off, and she wants to get a tattoo, but that $125/hour rate is a bit much for her. Instead she walks out with a $40-60 piece for her navel. She feels better about herself and helps this economy at the same time. Retail therapy works and works very well for not just that girl with the new navel bling; it also works for people like you and me.

We are up 10 percent from last year, and up 33 percent from two years ago. I attribute this to our customer service staff and our great customers.

Steve Truitt
Barry, are you noticing more sales of basic items than the fancier pieces right now? More than usual, I should say, since I’m sure basic plain pieces are always going to be the biggest seller.

Over the last year almost every microdermal I did was with a gem on it; now only about a third are. And up until about two or three months ago, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d pierced a navel with a plain curved barbell — now I haven’t used a jeweled curve in maybe two months.

Barry Blanchard
Basic stuff will always do well for those wanting a new piercing. The catch is to get those people in your environment and treat them just how you would want to be treated.

We don’t do too much “super high-end” stuff like what Meg works with, so it’s hard for me to judge. Gemmed eyelets are most certainly a bit down, but that started after other companies started putting out similar designs.

Just today, I noticed a lot of gold going to places like Japan — more than usual, even.

To answer your question Steve: it appears to be that orders are not much different than they were just a few months ago.

Brian Decker
I’ve never worked in a busy 30-piercing-a-day type shop, so I never expect things to be “busy,” but I’m honestly not noticing any decline in business for myself. If anything, I feel like walk-ins are growing for me, but I attribute that greatly to keeping my pricing as low as is economically possible. Since I seem to have a great reputation in the area for piercing, especially with the college crowd, that’s definitely what keeps me working.

I certainly know, based on the levels of standards of sterility and jewelry quality, I should be charging more, but unfortunately, many people in the city will not pay more. Now that I attribute mainly to lack of information and legislation for possible clientele. If a client comes into the shop and allows me to educate them, very rarely will they leave without the work, but if people know you charge more, they just don’t bother coming in at all. I seem to have found the perfect pricing to maintain clients, but even still, being that I do charge more than most other shops in the area, bunches of people still nearly faint when I tell them the prices. For these people, I really just blame the cost of living in NYC. It’s true, piercing probably isn’t a necessity for most people, so if they don’t know better and can get it cheaper, of course they’re going to.

Barry, I’m curious, with the orders you’re getting, how much of that is from select, enormously busy shops that have been ordering like that for years? You obviously produce unmatched quality, but also obviously more costly than, say Wildcat or BMS, which I’d suspect makes it harder for the smaller shops to exclusively stock your entire line, no? I’m very curious, how many shops in NYC stock your basics?

Barry Blanchard
The orders I get are based on customers like yourself, Brian — you too, Steve.

From the start, we have not had much business out of NYC, so that’s not really something I can go by.

Any shop that’s been ordering from us for the duration knows what I know: piercings as a whole have declined over the past ten years. At the same time, jewelry sales have gone up. Perhaps not for all of you, but as a whole? Body jewelry is doing well.

Those who have visited Anatometal should know its more of a “mom and pop” type atmosphere. It’s shops like yours, Mr. Decker, that I prefer to cater to, and perhaps that’s why things are the way they are at my work.

Sure there are ups and downs, but it seems when one area is down another picks up, and so on and so forth. It’s sort of hard for me to judge unless I do a year-to-year comparison. I have my bookkeeper working on that for September ’07 versus September ’08. October is a better “judge” as it’s typically our slowest month of the year.

Because of the current economic status in America, just know I am watching things very, very closely, looking for the signs, just like everyone else.

I do think that we stand out and sell to a select crowd, Brian — no different than Tiffany & Co. would in the world of standard jewelry. I would like to see how places like BVLA are doing.

Brian Decker
I completely understand what you’re saying, and I love you for that (as well as for other things), but let’s be honest: I don’t spend thousands of dollars per order with you. I wish I had to, but I know it’s not me paying your bills. That’d be places like HPP or old Dragon FX, I’d assume.

Barry Blanchard
It’s the sum of all the “Decker Shops” that are the brunt of our business, and I monitor this very closely.

Some of you will remember that there was a day when we were the biggest in the USA. I don’t ever want to go back to that again as you cannot have that and those three things mentioned above. I turn down anywhere about 25 percent of new clients, even in this economy. I want to be able to serve the clients I have now and in the future.

Meg Barber
To keep our costs down, we make all of our own steel posts, both straight and curved. The only things we are ordering from “the outside” are balls, surface bars, microdermal bases, and the occasional large gauge items.

On the wholesale side, we get a few orders per week, and they are generally for at least $1,000. We ask people how stuff is selling, and they all pretty much tell us the same thing: that it all sells at a good rate. I’m not sure how these shops are charging in comparison to how we charge in our retail store; it would be interesting to find out actually.

I’ve noticed in the retail store we are doing more piercings lately than in past months, but the jewelry is really, really basic — lots of white gold fixed ball rings in cartilage, 1.2 mm. diamonds in nostrils, and our basic $135 gold/CZ navel combo. We’re still getting the bigger ticket items to move, but it’s a little less than in past months. On Sunday, we did $3,000. Monday, we barely did $700. It’s fluctuating a lot more, and with October being historically slow, it’s hard to gauge whether it’s the typical time of year drop, or economics.

I will say that I did have a client tell me how he just lost half of his money in a stuck crash in recent weeks. He talked about how hard it is for him right now, and how bad things are with everyone he knows. Then he bought a $550 navel piece for himself.

Barry Blanchard
I think we can all agree on one thing: we are all okay. Sure, we are not where we would like to be. Even Meg’s stock broker can agree with that.

I can say where the economy has affected us, and it’s not exactly where this topic started: the cost of materials went through the roof over a year ago. Stainless, Titanium, and yes of course: gold. We tightened our belts a year ago, and perhaps that’s why the little Anatometal engine keeps chugging along.


Meg Barber
The cost of gold is a pain in our ass.

Barry Blanchard
Real numbers:

September ’07 to September ’08: Eight percent growth, and that’s about spot on correct considering all that is going on around us. The October numbers will paint a much clearer picture.

John Joyce
I was just looking over numbers and comparing them to last year. Surprisingly, business is up, just over $15,000. But … so is our spending, which is up almost $19,000.

So, so far this year I’m down almost $4,000 in profits from last year. I blame most of that on the increase of all our supplies — gloves, jewelry, etc. — but, I also blame a lot of that on APP. Man, did I spend far too much money there this year. Cervesa is not cheap!

It’s really just the last two months that I’ve seen a real dip in business. But like I said earlier, New Venture Gear/Chrysler laid off most of their employees around that time, and it looks like they may be closing completely. I just heard today that another big factory was sold and there are already threats of picketing and lay-offs there. So we’ll see what the rest of the year brings.

Derek Lowe
I think modification is going to feel the impact of the economic issues, but I certainly don’t think we’re going to feel it as much as many other types of businesses. Choosing to spend less money by cooking at home is a substitute for going out to eat. Renting a move for $4 is a substitute for spending $20 for two people to go see a movie on a Saturday night. Watching a sporting event on TV is a substitute for spending money on tickets to actually go to the arena.

There simply isn’t a substitute for modification.

Some people will choose to do something different all-together because it’s less expensive. But I think most people who want to get pierced or tattooed will do so because nothing else is going to satiate that desire. They might alter their jewelry choices are size of their tattoo, to help keep the cost down, but I don’t think it’s going to keep that many people away. Now, if we find ourselves in another full-on Great Depression with a 25 percent unemployment rate, it might be a different story. I think the odds of that happening are pretty small though.

I think John touched on a really good point as well: geography is going to play a big role. Being in Minneapolis — a fairly liberal, well-educated, reasonably affluent larger city — I don’t expect to feel the economic impact as much as if I were still working in Cleveland — a fairly conservative, blue-collar city that has had a struggling economy for a while now.

Looking at our numbers, I see that we are down this September, just slightly, compared to last September. Overall though, we are up this year a decent amount, compared to last year, in both piercing fees and jewelry sales. Tattooing shows a similar trend.

This whole “crisis” is just starting to play itself out though, so I think the next few months will provide a much clearer picture.

Allen Falkner
It’s good to hear that everyone is doing well. However, most, if not all of you are on the upper end of the spectrum for sure. I’m not sure about other cities, but I have noticed piercing shops in the Dallas closing. In this city, as with most, tattooing and piercing are combined in one shop. The trend I have been seeing is that the tattoo artist/shop owners are phasing out piercing and the piercers/shop owners are thriving on the shift of business. Now on the flip side of this, tattoo shops are opening left and right. With the all the media exposure, tattooing is the new “navel of the ’90s” and people of all skill levels are cashing in.

As for the common piercer, I think there are dark days ahead. Shop owners and select, well established piercers in good location shops still have plenty of life left in them, but seriously, piercing is a young person’s game. As inflation has risen over the last decade the costs of both jewelry and service have remained fairly steady. If you take into account a four-to-six percent yearly cost of living rate increase, combined with the financial burden of raising a family, the life span of a piercer seems to be getting shorter and shorter.

Tattooing, on the other hand, is a whole different animal. Unlike piercers, tattooers are seen as unique artists. Rather than the, “I can get it for $5 less down the street” mindset, tattooing style and ability has a more intrinsic value. Because of this, the art of tattooing is based more on the artist and less on the average market value. Plus, tattoos represent a very different commitment then body piercing.

Of course, everyone here will have a different numbers, but in general piercing clients get worked on a few times and buy new jewelry a few times. Tattoo customers have a much higher percentage of being life-long customers. You can take a piercing out, but the ink is with you forever. (Well, maybe not in my line of business, but that’s another topic all together.) My point is that once people start getting tattooed, they continually want to add, modify or change their tattoos. This just isn’t true for the average piercing client.

Back to the point at hand, piercing has passed its peak, dropped a bit and is finally beginning to level off. However, I agree with you all that modification is a “feel good” service and should ride out the bad economy, especially in college towns where students have fewer financial responsibilities and exploring the world of body modification has become almost a rite of passage for young adults. As for tattooing, I think the unstable economy might be just the thing to help weed out all the mediocre artists that are riding the media shock wave. Overall, unlike Wall Street, this financial crisis might actually be a good thing for the modded community. If nothing else, modified people looking for other forms of work has and will continue to change people’s opinions about what modifications are acceptable in the “real” world.

John Joyce
I completely agree with Allen. If I wasn’t the owner of this studio, I couldn’t make it as just a piercer here. Without the income from the tattoo artists, the piercing business just isn’t as booming as it once was. New tattoo studios are popping up all over Syracuse and the surrounding area. Some of them have piercers, some of them don’t. The ones that do have a high turnover rate. It seems like every other week I hear about some new guy piercing at so-and-so’s shop.

There have definitely been weeks, and even months where piercing seems very slow, and the tattoo artists here carry us through those times. When I first opened, and even up to about a year ago, I could carry the studio on piercing alone. That is definitely not the case any longer.

Stephen DeToma
The economic issues absolutely affect our business. The people that haven’t put any thought into what they’re getting and where they’re getting it done are the first ones we lose; the crowds of college kids that used to flood the shop on the weekends are definitely thinning. But, in the wake of that, I’m finding that the people who are coming through the door know exactly what they want and have been thinking about it for a bit. So instead of four outer helix piercings on college girls, it’s more becoming one individual looking for something maybe a little more complicated and willing to spend a little more in the process.

We’ve felt the hit. In simple terms, it seems like the parents have less money, so the stream of cash trickling down to the college student seams to be less than it was even last year. Things suck and, I agree with Barry, that they will be getting worse, but I don’t think the choice will be piercings/tattoos/mods or food. I think it will be more along the lines of new shoes/purse/movies or getting work done. I’ve never been one to have a lot of money, so to me that isn’t anything new. But dealing with a new breed of college freshmen that may or may not have ever had to hold down a real job, exist without a cellphone or credit card … this will be a kick in the pants.

I’ll tell you what’s pulling me through it personally: the regulars. People who we build relationships with and continue to come back to us really help.

I think Allen makes a good point by saying that piercing is a young man’s game. I’m lucky that I was able to come back to piercing after not working for a few years and I truly enjoy it, but I do find myself wondering what I’ll be doing in another five or 10 years.

Brian Decker
I fully agree with Allen’s last paragraph. For myself, anyhow, any drop off in business is just attributed to the lesser popularity of piercing as a whole, not so much the cost.

Barry Blanchard
I agree with Allen as well.

Allen Falkner
We need a topic where everyone will have a difference of opinion.

Steve Truitt
We should just invite Cere into the conversations and he can disagree with everyone.

Allen Falkner
You know, Cere is a tattoo artist … I would say invite Bradly, but I have a sneaking suspicion he/she is already on the panel.

What do you think? Let’s hear it in the comments.

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BME Update – 2,307 new images

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I went away for the weekend. It wasn’t worth the stress and the headache of knowing I wouldn’t be updating. At least the site only had to go 3 days without a massive update. This update is full of tattoo goodness. The missing May 24th images should be resurrected by this update. Not sure what happened. It’s most likely an error in the zip file that didn’t unzip properly causing the HTML files not to be updated. The search engine on the main page is also working again.

The cover for this update is unmistakably work by Cere on MagneticDistortion. Not only is Cere BME, you are. I am. We all are. If it wasn’t for the community. Where would any of us be?

The next image update should include more work by Cere as well. Hopefully some great photos out of Texas and I know I’ll have convention coverage from NIX after the convention in the middle of June. I’m going to have a booth there which is nice. Notice the banners? If you’re in the Toronto area, hope to see you there.

The only thing I need now is a great convention banner. Anyone feeling creative?

French Kissing in the UK

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Pull up a table and chair for this interview with Alice (compulsive knitter, terribly short, culinary masochist, double jointed, colon-love lover, sarcastic and a truly classy woman) and Benoit (pronounced Ben-Wah, very British with a ridiculous French accent, covered in hair, disorganised, lazy, easily amused, stubborn and a hypocritical xenophobe).
Alice and Benoit - Just another day

ROO:

Bonjour Ben. How do you do Alice?

BEN:

Up against the wall why?

ROO:

Mere curiosity, merci for sating it.Ok, in at the deep end! You’re the co-founders of Constant Elevation (the suspension group formerly known as House of Wah), is this correct?

ALICE:

Not strictly speaking as Ben started the thing on his own — I just got involved early on, ‘encouraged’ him and added my own influence to it.The website however — that’s entirely my fault — I suppose it was around that time that we started using the name Constant Elevation.

BEN:

I could say I founded Constant Elevation to boost my ego, so I guess I did.

ROO:

Here Ben, sit your ego on my lap and let me stroke it. There’s a good boy.Would you say the introduction of a website has helped or hindered? As far as enquiries from the public and the media go?

ALICE:

As far as finding new people wanting to suspend it’s definitely helped, we are no longer limited to those who either have IAM access or the initiative to track us down another way.It’s also made it easier for the media to contact us, so in general I would say it’s helped — although a couple of enquiries from the media have been a little ‘interesting’ and not the sort of thing we’d want to do or be associated with. On the whole though I think it’s been a good thing.

ROO:

What were these enquiries that had you so befuddled?

ALICE:

One instance was a documentary maker asking about suspensions — it became pretty obvious that what he wanted was shock value — pain and blood everywhere!He wanted something grotesque and shocking and purely about pain, basically tabloid shock horror which is NOT what we are about or what suspension is about — since it is a positive thing to do and I can’t think of anyone who has undertaken it purely to get have inflicted upon themselves.

Anyway when you look at a photo of a suspension what you usually see is someone smiling.

ROO:

I love smiling.Now, Alice.. You’ve been working with Constant Elevation and having sexual relations with Ben since almost day one — which of the two would you say has been the most rewarding?

ALICE:

No matter what I say here I will be in trouble if I choose one of those — so I will be diplomatic (as well as honest) and say that I enjoy both very much. Both at the same time would be nice, if a little hazardous. (ROO: Well, if it ever happens I expect it to be painstakingly documented for BME).

BEN:

Who said we were having sex?! (Oops, sorry mum)

ROO:

You know you came from sex, right Ben?

BEN:

I thought my mum found me under a gooseberry bush.You’ve shattered my illusions!

ROO:

Seriously though, has the transition between House of Wah and Constant Elevation been an easy one?Considering House of Wah began as a joke (at least the name did) with delusions of grandeur rather than a suspension group with ambitions.

BEN:

If I remember correctly House of Wah was a name given by Hillary — mainly to describe the funny farm where it all started — Constant Elevation was born around the time we started piercing for suspensions and stopped harassing people to pierce for us.The transition (if any occurred) went very smoothly indeed, it was a good idea at the time and I still think it is!

Then everything went wrong, very wrong indeed!

ROO:

Oooh, tell me more about this wrongness!

BEN:

I’ll let Alice cover that! I will say though, in the last year we have been involved in several shows in London, England — more planned in the future and plenty of other plans up our sleeves — maybe wrong wasn’t the right word, bite me I’m French (ROO: Yes Ben, we know, you’re French. You can’t use that as an excuse all your life though).

ALICE:

Just look at the pictures! So wrong but at the same time so right!Oh, and whilst I’m at it if anyone has a big bag of money laying around then we’d appreciate it to help with funding, as our creativity is limited by our cashflow (very low at the moment) — so if you want to be part of something interesting any loose change or unwanted cheques would be lovely.

Also, Constant Elevation is just a better name, by a long way.

ROO:

Hot! So what advice would you extend to someone wanting to form a suspension group from scratch?

BEN:

How much spare time do you have? How much money are you willing to invest? How much do you really want it?I was extremely lucky to have (at the time) a very interesting and open minded landlord who let me use an indoor rig in my bedroom — without him and the fact that he went to live abroad at around the time everything ‘kicked off’, none of this could have happened.

I asked my friends a lot of questions — Vampy – Body Evolution / Sarge – Metal Fatigue Collective / Cere and Brian – Rites of Passage (Click here to read an interview with Cere and Brian) for advice and what to shop for.

You have to learn all the basics to improve, making mistakes is usually the best way to learn — providing they’re made safely.

ALICE:

There is information out there, use it! Attend suspension events — always be willing to listen, learn and improve — don’t think you know everything already or that you know best — because I can assure you, you don’t!

ROO:

What would you say are the basics?

BEN:

Work alongside people who know what they are doing, help out!Seeing people in action is much easier than seeing it on paper. Search as much as you can, there’s enough information about and plenty of people who will be more than willing help you.

Joining the scouts isn’t necessary, but those guys know their knots (sailors do too). I personally started by helping around at other suspension events, watching, asking loads of questions then getting more involved when I felt confident enough — you have to know what you are doing and what to do if something goes wrong.

Be humble, attentive, open. Confidence (but not arrogance) is important as the person you are dealing with might be shitting bricks as it could well be his or her first suspension. Having a friend who already suspended as your first suspendee will take some of your pressure off, as they already know what to expect and can guide you in what you are doing. As they say — “Practise makes perfect!”

ALICE:

If you know someone who has experience piercing then it’d be a good idea to get them to take care of that side of things and to teach you, rather than attempting to throw hooks yourself from the word go. We started out having other people piercing for us, and then started ourselves after we felt confident enough to do so — if you’re just starting out you do not want to cause yourself more problems — get the rigging side of things covered first.Also practise changing gloves and putting them on properly as it is harder than it looks. Read up on cross contamination and sterility as well.

ROO:

All good advice!Benoit, combien de vos clients sont morts?

BEN:

Nobody yet, shall we put your name on the top of the list?

ROO:

If you can, you might be able to cook but I doubt you can spell it.

BEN:

I’m a chef, not a writer..Our scariest moment was doing a static suspension with two friends last summer, when Tam decided to pass out a metre above the ground.

The problem was he was attached from his torso and back with roughly twenty metres of rope.

He’s alive and kicking — now a member of the group and always willing to attempt something different or weird , just for the sake of trying.

ROO:

Poor lad (for both passing out and becoming a fully-fledged member), how did you bring him down to earth safely?

BEN:

Mmmmmmm! — Two people were holding him on their shoulders whilst Alice was jumping about and climbing around busily cutting ropes!I learned a lot that day — namely that you have to make a decision very fast, and it has to be the right one — his safety is as important as your own.

ALICE:

Yeah, having 14 stone of South African full of hooks land on you is a bit of a shock I can tell you! It’s good that it hasn’t put him off though.

ROO:

Who did he land on, exactly?

ALICE:

His friend who was helping out, then on Ben, then on me.

ROO:

It sounds like human pinball, what fun!You two scallywags are well known for suspending whilst performing relatively mundane tasks such as eating afternoon tea, cycling and ironing. How did this come about?

ALICE:

Ben did the cycling suspension before Constant Elevation existed — and I saw photos and thought it was a really good idea, so I had a go at knitting while suspending just to see if I could and because it was funny!Once I’d done that it was like ‘ok that worked, what can we do next?’ and you have seen the results. I like doing mundane things while suspending purely for the ridiculousness — I will always jump at the chance to be silly.

ROO:

Yes, I’ve heard that — do you have anything on the drawing board at the moment? Don’t give the game away but some saucy hints wouldn’t go amiss.

BEN:

A hint — more bedtime stories!We have a couple of projects with several suspensions happening simultaneously — I wish money would grow on a tree, and I had one of those in my backgarden.

ALICE:

One day, in the misty future, I just might suspend without any household appliances or haberdashery. Wait and see..

BEN:

I think you (Roo) were there for the bike suspension — that was my second suspension — and a very good start if I do say so myself.Some of those ideas started in front of several drinks at the pub — whilst drunk anything seems possible — it’s when you sober up that they can happen.

ROO:

I was there, yes! I really wanted to ring your bell but I was gloved up.

ALICE:

The idea for the ironing suspension actually came from a conversation with my dad. I don’t think he believed I’d actually do it though — Oops!

ROO:

Haha, I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if the conversation was about herding sheep.

ALICE:

I don’t actually know where to get any live sheep in London — but if you have any I guess it could be interesting..

ROO:

Out of all the suspensions you’ve been involved with which do you feel was the most memorable?

BEN:

The first static (off the bed frame) suspension happened after meeting Oliver in Oslo, and discovering the possibilities of static rigging.

ROO:

Could you explain the term ‘Static Suspension’ in a little more detail please, anyone?

BEN:

In a few words — the person isn’t going to be lifted off the ground — the person would be raised up in position, the ropes tied on and tension applied then the support is lowered so the person stays in the position they were placed in.No pulleys are used for this type of suspension. A perfect example would be the work of Oliver and some of the Stelarc performances (where rocks are used as counterweights during the suspension).

Static suspension is a fantastic way to go wild with the rigging, but, as the adjustments are done while the person is still supported once the person is up there is little (or no) adjustment possible.

ALICE:

Although for the static suspension I wasn’t exactly ‘involved’ since I was the person suspending, it was a really exciting moment when the objects I was resting on were taken away and the rigging worked and it went as well as we were hoping.

ROO:

I’m sure the word “exciting” doesn’t do the moment justice, but can you have a stab at describing how it felt to someone who’s never suspended?

ALICE:

If you read experiences of people’s suspensions you will in almost every case hear that the initial lifting off the ground was painful — then the rush of endorphins cancels out the pain.With static that doesn’t happen, as the full tension is applied to each hook before the support is lowered. It’s a much slower process so it is in some ways less painful and in other ways moreso, as you are always aware of what is happening.

It also feels more stable and restrictive than a normal suspension as the whole point is for you to remain in the one position that the rigging has put you into. I would not recommend it to someone for a first suspension as when the rigging is attached communication between the person suspending and the person taking care of the rigging is vital, as if, say, one of the hooks has far more tension and is more painful — that can’t be changed once you are up.

Also, you need to know which parts of your body can take more weight than others or it could be extremely uncomfortable.
Alice's static bed suspension
Alice’s static bed suspension.

BEN:

Or doing a guerilla suspension in France, that was brilliant!A few friends, a rucksack with all the gear in, going for a walk (a climb actually) searching for a good tree to suspend from, stunning location, awesome view of the sea, a great day on holiday!

ROO:

Where and who and how did you end up suspending after all that hard work?

BEN:

It wasn’t such hard work as we were having fun wandering around looking for a good tree to suspend from (in a forest, looking for a tree, but not any tree!!)We were in Marseille — in a mountain park overlooking the bay. We had a suspension planned in a great location but for some reason that fell through at the last minute — the gear was there to be used so we made the most of it.

Alice and a friend Iestyn both did a two point suicide, that was a damm good location and we’ll definately be back for more.
Guerilla suspension in Marseille
Guerilla suspension in Marseille.

ROO:

Benoit, you’re a chef! Sorry if that came as a bit of a shock to you.If there was a sudden worldwide shortage of hooks and/or autoclaves and the only sterilised hook was in your possession — what would you cook for yourself as a pre-suspension meal?

BEN:

Sounds like a Mad Max scenario! Probably a not very nice road kill stew with root vegetables.

ROO:

What?!

BEN:

Do you have any tasty road kill recipes by any chance?

ROO:

Erm, no. Moving on! How does the UK suspension scene compare to other European countries and groups you’ve worked alongside?

BEN:

My only real experience with another European suspension group was last year with “Wings of Desire” in Oslo. What I found amazing was that out of all the people attending that weekend at least 95% suspended!It really was a dedicated suspension meet rather than a social gathering.

ROO:

Which do you prefer, atmosphere-wise?

BEN:

Both are great really — but for very different reasons.In the UK people tend to stick with the “classic” suspensions and are a little less willing to try something new/original/unusual.
Tea party and static bed suspension

ROO:

Could you tap into your vast intellect for a moment and explain why you think that is?

BEN:

I don’t really know, the suspension scene is somewhat newer in the United Kingdom — there are a lot of first time suspendee’s but those who have suspended several times tend to try different things.There’s always the oddball, the weirdo, the mad one who wants to do something completely different (ROO: Hmm, I wonder who he could be referring to. Naughty ego — no supper!). Just not that many of ‘em — give it another year or two!

Actually who am I to say rubbish like that?! I only did my first suspension four years ago..

ROO:

You have come a long way, old bean.Alice, rumour has it Ben has more hair than twenty five grown men combined. How do you cope? Have you ever tackled the subject with his royal hairiness? Would he agree to an extreme-shaving suspension?

BEN:

I am not a bear!!!!!

ROO:

Shut up Ben, the question wasn’t directed at you. Sorry about that Alice — please do carry on.

ALICE:

25 is a bit of an exaggeration, maybe 7 would be a little closer to reality..I happen to like his fur — it keeps me warm. And as for shaving: NO! NO! NO!

Good grief, can you imagine full body stubble? No thanks.

ROO:

On that note — Fini!

This and most other photos taken by Al Overdrive (website)

Click here to comment on or discuss this interview (or use the comments forum below)

This article is copyright © 2007 bmezine.com, and for bibliographical purposes was first published April 25th, 2007.

Please consider buying a membership to BME so we can continue bringing you articles like this one.

Bumblebees and Tractors

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It’s pretty common when tattoo artists go to the bathroom or out for lunch, for someone else in their shop to “borrow” their not-logged-out-of IAM page and express their undying love for donkey love. It’s worse though when Cere‘s hanging out at the shop, because he’s moved past messing with people’s computers to messing with their tattoo machines… That said, I have to admit the “JOHN CERE” tractor is pretty funny! Beware if you see him lurking about Beelistic Tattoos in Cincinnati (previously).

Facial expressions say it all?

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I don’t know how Cere does it (best I can come up with other than NLP is quoting Wesley Snipes — always bet on black!), but Phoenixxx (who as a point of trivia has seen a lot more shaved female genitals than I have) got “Cere” (“the man, the legend”) tattooed on her wrist by Cindy Vega at Local Color Tattoo in Philadelphia… He seems quite pleased:

I’m having a little more difficulty precisely assessing the meaning of her facial expression though? I am assuming it’s a joking shot, but it sure has that “oh my god… what did I just do to myself vibe” to it! Or maybe she’s thinking about the tattoo that Cere just did on Robin of what appears to be a fat chick in a party hat? Or maybe a duck? I don’t know.

Adiós! Gillian Hyde’s Last BME Article: Your Questions Answered [Guest Column – Stepping Back]

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“I took the road less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.”

—Robert Frost


Before working for BME I couldn’t bear to look at knee suspension pictures. Two weeks after working for BME, I was announcing to the world that I had bitten off my boyfriend’s ring finger at the same time he had bit off mine as an act of love. To say that my life has changed would be an understatement.

Sometime in November of 2004, BME advertised that they were going to be hiring their first official employee— a journalist who would be in charge of writing articles for BME/News and I immediately sent in my application. In early December Shannon sent me, along with seven other applicants, a message saying we’d made it to the second round. I was ecstatic.

The next step of the process was to write an article to prove that we could handle the responsibilities the job would entail. To be completely honest, I had no idea what I was doing. I’d never written an article before, never conducted an interview— I felt completely out of my element, but after a bit of encouragement and patience from Shannon and Rachel, my first article was published. Mothers with Mods, my interview with IAM:Orinda, and I got very good reviews in the comment forum accompanying the article, and on the poll on the main BME site asking the question, “Which of the writers do you think could do a good job as BME staffers?” I was winning with forty-six percent of the 2000 votes— twenty percent higher than the closest person behind me.

And then there were three. Jordan (IAM:snackninja) and Matt (IAM:volatile) were the other finalists, and up until that point, our identities were anonymous. It was nice to be exposed and take credit for our work. A few days later it was announced that Jordan (author of the Keith Alexander article) and I were both chosen to become interns.

In early March I sold my Vespa moped, broke my lease, left my boyfriend, friends and small mountain town in British Columbia and moved to Mexico.

It would turn out to be one of the most life-altering things I’ve ever done.

I’ve been lucky to talk to hundreds of new people because of my internship with BME and I decided that for my final article I’d let them ask me anything they want to know. I’ve been asking questions for six months, I think it’s time that I answered some.
Gillian Hyde

DREAM WEAVER:  Do you feel you were the best candidate for this internship given the other talented applicants and do you feel you’ve grown as a writer/journalist during this internship?
GILLIAN:  I think most of the candidates were talented and they could have done just a good of job as I, if not better, but yes, I believe I was one of the two best candidates. I felt a woman’s voice was lacking on BME, and I think I was able to fix that, if even for a little while. While Shannon enjoys exploring and exposing the really interesting “freaky” stuff, I think I contrasted that a little— I gave an educated “outsiders view” while still being involved in the industry and community.
SAVAGERABBIT:  Do you feel you gave the internship all you could? What would you have done differently?
GILLIAN:  If I could have done things differently, I would have changed my path about seven years ago when I graduated high school. A degree in English or Journalism probably would have helped me succeed at this job. I’m sure that attending some BME events or gotten more modifications, witnessed a suspension, seen a split tongue in person (none of which I’d done previous to getting the job) — generally gotten more involved with the community as a whole would have helped. I came into this position with my eyes wide open, but in some ways I felt more out of touch with the body modification scene than ever. I’d never heard of some of the most popular IAM members, I didn’t know what events were coming up and any BMEfest or Bar-B-Q stories were totally lost on me. I probably had Shannon and Rachel worried that they’d hired the wrong person when they noticed that I wasn’t following the conversation when it came to BME and IAM gossip or news. At the same time, I came into this position unbiased towards people and eager to learn without having preconceived notions about anything or anyone.
GOAT:  What did you not enjoy about working for BME?
GILLIAN:  The pressure was the hardest thing to deal with. I work with some very talented writers, and I came into this job never having interviewed someone before and never writing more than essays in university six years previous. BMEzine.com gets millions and millions of hits a day, so there was always a lot of internal pressure to write about interesting things in an interesting way. I wanted to impress people and for the first couple of months I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, which was extremely frustrating. Now that my internship is over, I feel like I could easily continue— I’m pretty comfortable writing now, and for that reason, it’s a little sad that it’s coming to an end.
IMMORTAL BELOVED:  How did you choose the topics for your articles?
GILLIAN:  At the beginning of our internship, Shannon gave Jordan and I a list of about a hundred people that he was interested in featuring in an article. We scavenged that list and checked off the people that we wanted to do interviews with. If I found someone or something myself that I thought was article-worthy (the Taking it to the Next Level, Marked For Life: Tattoos Behind Bars, Quilt of Life, No Boys Allowed — Introducing the All Grrls Suscon and the All Grrls Suscon 2005 Video Report articles were my ideas), I would approach Shannon with the idea and he’d either approve or deny it.
ATHENA:  How did you go about research, building, editing and reworking a piece?
GILLIAN:  I was always working on at least three articles at a time. I loved researching. I’d usually start by talking to Shannon about the person or idea, and he’d suggest different things to ask and tell me a brief background of the person or topic. Once I had a bit of direction, I’d read as much as I could about it; if they had an IAM page, I’d read every diary entry and create questions around the information Shannon had given me and what they’ve told the online public. With the exception of Quilt of Life and Kivaka: Bedside Manner Like a Nun, as they were both phone interviews, I’d email an initial set of questions to get a feel for what direction the article would go in. I’d usually have an idea about how the article was going to go before writing the first set of questions, but generally I’d wait until I got back their answers to focus on one area. The email interview process would normally be composed of three different sets of questions and answers and depending on people’s schedules, they’d often take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to get back to me. Once all of the answers were in, I’d read everything over several times, write an intro and format the Q&A section so that it looked like we were having a conversation, which was very important because it added fluidity to the article. It involved rearranging, cutting up or combining answers and rephrasing questions or answers. After the article was complete, I’d put it into HTML and edit the photos and insert them into relevant parts of the final draft. Each article took anywhere from twenty hours and up, the most time consuming part (outside of waiting for answers) was proofreading and editing.
GLIDER:  What skills do you feel that you developed while writing/interviewing, and what skills do you feel didn’t develop as much as you’d have liked?
GILLIAN:  My ability to go into depth in my articles has improved. I had a hard time asking tough questions, or trying to push people out of their comfort level in order to get the whole story. It’s very difficult for me to pry, especially over email. I didn’t want to piss people off, so I ended up asking a lot of safe questions— which didn’t always work when people want to read about controversial topics. I think that my style of writing and chosen topics appealed to a certain demographic. Jordan, you (Shannon) and I all have very different techniques of writing, and we’re all interested in writing about different things. I think that a few of the people that I interviewed wouldn’t have been as comfortable talking to men about some of the topics as they were with me (Quilt of Life and No Boys Allowed — Introducing the All Grrls Suscon and the All Grrls Suscon 2005 Video Report would have been impossible, for example). I would have loved to be more of a versatile writer, but I am happy with who I spoke with and what I wrote.
GLIDER:  If BME runs another ‘Intern Search’ what advice would you have to people applying?
GILLIAN:  Stand out. Let Shannon and Rachel know how you’d like to see BME improve, and convince them that you’re the best person for that job.

Love the industry. Know as much as you can about the people, events and practices— anything that has to do with body modification.

Have an open mind at all times. Don’t be judgmental about anything body modification related. You don’t have to participate in it yourself, but you have to accept that other people may do it and it’s probably important to them.

Ask interesting questions. Don’t be afraid to push people’s limits.

Work independently and work hard. Shannon and Rachel work very hard on their responsibilities within BME, the last thing they want to do is to have to worry about whether or not their employees are doing their job. BME should be your life, just like it is theirs. Shannon and Rachel’s lives revolve around BME and have for over ten years, so they want people who will work just as hard as they do.
MONICA:  What is the “behind-the-scenes” at BME like?
GILLIAN:  Surprisingly normal and often boring! Most of the time that I lived in Mexico I spent ignoring Mexico and lived in my computer instead. Clive once said, “Working in Mexico is a lot different than vacationing in Mexico.” Working for BME required us to be online for the majority of the day. If any of us needed to talk, we’d be more likely to IM each other rather than call or visit the person. The entire BME family (Shannon, Rachel, Nefarious, Jon, Jordan, Clive, and I) would meet for dinner every night. We ate a lot of tacos. Occasionally we’d have chili, but ninety-nine percent of the time we’d eat tacos. You can tell there’s a good cook in the house when you can eat tacos every night and not get tired of them. Over dinner we’d gossip about IAM members or work on our ideas for articles, talk about current events or past experiences. Sometimes we’d drink and talk for hours.
PERK900:  The All Girls Suscon article that you wrote seemed to be a heavily debated topic, both online and off. Did the fact that it would be a “controversial” topic make it more appealing to write? Did you find it difficult to “step back” writing this one specifically?
GILLIAN:  Both of the All-Grrl Suscon pieces were my favorite ones to do. I knew that they’d be controversial and it definitely made it more appealing to work on. I was able to “step back” while writing the first article because at the time I’d never seen a suspension before and I didn’t attend last year’s event. The fact that I am a woman could only take me so far in defending the event because I didn’t personally know how women were treated in the suspension community, but I really enjoyed being able to voice the opinion of some women who felt that they were being oppressed. I hope that the articles can bring a positive change to the community and allow men see that women don’t always feel like they’re treated like equals.

It was a lot harder to “step back” from my video-article because I specifically wrote it from my point of view as a first-time-Suscon-attendee. I went to the event hoping to capture the emotion and vulnerability that goes hand-in-hand with suspensions, and I think I accomplished that. I wanted to do a video of the day’s events so the people who felt excluded (men, specifically) would feel better about the event and so they could get a feel for the atmosphere when it’s just women involved.
HOLYJESUSBONER:  Did you ever (somehow) walk in on Shannon and Rachel naked? Did you try?
GILLIAN:  I’m happy to say that I’ve never seen Shannon or Rachel naked, but I didn’t live with them so it was fairly easy to avoid. I did live with Jordan however, but all of my plans to see him naked were foiled by my other roommate, Clive.
HOLYJESUSBONER:  Were you friends with Shannon or Rachel before the internship?
GILLIAN:  I’d never spoke to either of them on the phone, let alone met them previous to flying down to Mexico. I don’t think I ever spoke to Rachel online before the application process, and had only ever private messaged with Shannon a few times.
PERK900:  What was the most rewarding experience of your time spent as a BME intern?
GILLIAN:  BMEfest. I loved meeting everyone who came to Mexico. I hadn’t met many IAMers before, and at the end of June I was overwhelmed with new faces. The entire day of BMEfest was special— from swimming with the sea lions, to visiting the deserted beach, to the after-party. I met wonderful people and had really interesting conversations and drank too much and had a lot of fun.

I also loved seeing the feedback in the forums after each article was published. The act of having my work published felt like an accomplishment alone, but to have people say such positive things about my work (on BME and on other sites) was really wonderful, in a completly narcissistic way. Any criticism I received allowed me to fix the things that needed it and made me work harder.
ERICA:  Why are you leaving BME?
GILLIAN:  My internship position was only ever planned to last six months, which is now complete. I’ve moved to the British Virgin Islands and don’t really have the time necessary to write full articles consistantly. You haven’t gotten rid of me yet though! I plan on writing the occasional piece work for BME, but I will be taking a break for a while.
BMEfest, one of the best days of my entire internship.
PERK900:  Not to sound derogatory, but one would say you’re “lightly modified.” Did you find this debilitating as you were now a voice of the “modified” community?
GILLIAN:  I figured someone was going to bring this up. To be honest, I was concerned about my “under-modification” hindering my ability to get this job, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I represent a large part of this community. Not everyone on IAM is heavily modified— there are a lot of people who look like me and it doesn’t make me less a part of the community. I am knowledgeable about body modification and most importantly, I am open-minded about it. I don’t find my lack of modifications “debilitating” at all.

The reasons why I’m not more heavily modified are because I have a hard time committing to things, I’m a minimalist and I travel too much. I haven’t lived somewhere for longer than eight months since I was sixteen. I have never owned a cell phone or a car. I’ve broken every lease I’ve ever signed. I don’t currently own a plant, a table, a television or any of the other things that most people own, and I love it. If I can’t even commit to those things, I certainly cannot commit to a tattoo or other major work.

Because I don’t spend a lot of time in one place makes it hard to find professionals that I can trust. I don’t want to be tattooed by a stranger and it’s hard for me to find symbols to put on my body that represent things in my life because I’m constantly changing.

My lifestyle requires a lot of money, so when I have it I’m more likely to spend it on plane tickets or other travelling expenses. The things I’m most proud of having in this world are my ticket stubs, my journals and my photographs.
PERK900:  Did this illicit any kind of adverse reaction from interview subjects or “heavily modified” individuals whom you came in contact with during your internship?
GILLIAN:  None at all actually, and it surprised me. Until you asked me this question, no one had said anything about me being only “slightly” modified. I think people realized that BME had hired a writer, not someone who looked modified. I’ve been a member of this community for longer than a lot of people who are more modified than I, and I feel comfortable where I am modification-wise. Which brings me to this question…
Some of my “minimal” modifications.
CERE:  Who had the first tongue split you ever saw?
GILLIAN:  Yours, baby! You’ve never let me forget it and you felt it necessary to tell everyone about it during BMEfest, which was slightly embarrassing! I can still hear your voice yelling, “You work for BME and you’ve never seen a split tongue? You live next door to Shannon, who has one, and you’ve never seen one? How in the HELL did you get your job?”

Cere was the first and only person to react to my lack of experience and mods (at least to my face), but I expected it from him— and I was honestly glad that someone finally brought it up, because I knew he wasn’t the first person to think it. It was nice to have it out in the open.
REBEKAH:  Are you considering more mods? If so or if no, because of anyone you’ve interviewed?
GILLIAN:  I am planning on more modifications, specifically more tattoos. I plan on starting a comma trend on my body. My only tattoo is of a comma, which means “silent pause.” It’s the only symbol I’ve found that truly represents something consistent in my life: the moments where everything changes. It’s the before, comma, after moment. The comma on my lower abdomen represents my first time travelling when I was getting frustrated with the fact that I was just another tourist, looking at all the same monuments that millions of other people had seen before me. It wasn’t until my “comma” moment that I realized that it didn’t matter how many other people had seen the same things that I was seeing— I was the only person in that space and time, and that’s all that mattered. From then on, my entire trip changed, and my addiction to travelling began.

I’d love to get a ribcage piece of a large baobab tree with a comma incorporated to represent the time I spent living and working in West Africa’s The Gambia.

I’ve nearly run out of places to pierce, but I love nape piercings and will probably get it done at some point.

My dream modification is to get my ears pointed, though I’m not sure if I’ll ever go through with it. I love the way it looks and I’ve got small ears and I think it’d suit me.

My only opinion that’s changed is about suspension. Before working for BME, I had no interest in suspension and basically no knowledge about it because of my complete lack of curiosity. After meeting Clive (of the Uvatiarru and one-hook, one-elbow suspension fame), things changed. I became more and more interested in it, and have basically decided that I’m going to do a suicide suspension the first chance I get. After seeing my first suspensions during BMEfest (most memorably the one by IAM:spot and IAM:brion), I was convinced it was something I’d like to do, and this need was increased when I went to this year’s All Grrls Suscon.
DRAGON:  Is there any mod that makes you squeamish?
GILLIAN:  Having a boyfriend who spent hundreds of hours editing videos for BMEvideo, I’ve seen things that I never thought I’d see in my life. The only thing that I got squeamish about was, surprisingly enough, finger amputation. Everything else— castration, nullification, skin peeling (though I admit, I was a little short of breath when I watched Lukas Zpira’s Like a Butterfly within the first couple of weeks of my internship), vacuum pumping, CBT— all of these things are easy to watch, nightmare-free.
PERK900:  Are there parts of BME that you disagree with or consider going too far?
GILLIAN:  The only thing that I don’t agree with is self-cutting as a way for people to deal with problems. It’s a hot topic on BME, but my stance is that it shouldn’t be considered “body modification” unless it’s done primarily as beautifying scarification. I don’t think cuts from anger or frustration or sadness should be encouraged as a positive coping mechanism, mostly because it’s done out of rash feelings that will change over time. Emotional scars are hard enough to deal with, let alone physical scars from those emotions.
THE LIZARDMAN:  What opinions or ideas you held about BME, modification, modified people, etc (if any) have been changed as a direct result of your internship experience?
GILLIAN:  It’s really hard to remember the way I thought eight months ago because my entire world has been flipped upside-down, but the things I’ve learned are:
If you meet someone who’s green and you’ve never seen them in any other colour, they don’t actually look different than anyone else.
Even misspelled tattoos can have meaning.
People in the body modification community are some of the nicest, open-minded and beautiful people in the world— but I didn’t need the internship to tell me that.
SOMETRIPE: 

How did moving to and living in La Paz affect your internship experience? Furthermore, was this effect positive or negative?
GILLIAN:  Moving to La Paz was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I drove scooters and a dune buggy, I saw the Pacific for the first time and swam with sea lions, I was near the beach and fields of cacti, I rescued kittens and avoided rain for the entire four months that I lived there, but the best thing to come out of La Paz was finding the love of my life, Clive (IAM:Rookie).
Gillian and Clive
HOLYJESUSBONER:  Why bother moving to Mexico to work for BME; would you rather have stayed home (could you have stayed home and still have managed to write all the articles you did)?
GILLIAN:  Who in their right mind would pass up an opportunity to live in Mexico for six months? One of the reasons that I’ve travelled so much and have had such an extensive range of experiences is because I never pass up a good opportunity. Sure, I could have stayed in Canada to do the job, but the fact that part of the internship was to move to Mexico was one of the reasons I applied for the position in the first place.
VOLATILE:  What’s next?
GILLIAN: 

One of the main reasons why Clive and I left Mexico early was because we wanted to move to the British Virgin Islands. Clive was born there and feels a strong connection to the island on which he was born, and I love anywhere that is hot and has the ocean, so it sounded like a good plan. We planned to stay in Canada until November and save some money, but because of some very cheap plane tickets, we flew down on August 30. We camped for a week and we’re currently renting a small apartment on the top of a mountain. We’d love to have visitors, so contact us if you’re up for a trip!

Clive will be working at a day job while I focus on various web development work. (Shameless plug: if you’re looking for a web designer, please contact me!)

My long term goals are to settle down a little bit. I’d love to own a sewing machine again and have a garden with peas and carrots. I want to have cats. I really want to live in a farmhouse somewhere near the ocean.
GLIDER:  Will you and Clive be doing writing/video on your own projects in BVI? (ie. an expat’s magazine, whatever)
GILLIAN:  I’d love to. Clive’s done a lot of video work and with my recent All Grrls Suscon mini-documentary, I feel confident that he and I could create another installment for Uvitaritu, or do something on our own. I plan on writing online about our time here, similar to MyGambia blog.
SOLARIS:  You’ve been to all these amazing places and done loads of exciting things but is there any place or thing that you would want to do or go so badly that if you did it or went there that you could be content if you never travelled again after that?
GILLIAN: 

I don’t think any one place can really make you want to stop travelling. If anything, a terrible experience would make me want to stay in one spot for the rest of my life. Visiting different places makes me want to keep doing it— it never has the opposite effect. In the past six years I’ve lead a very full life.

I’ve seen volcanoes in Italy, visited fetish bars in France, gone shopping in London, lived amongst some of the poorest people in the world in West Africa, worked for billionaires in Florida and millionaires in Luxembourg, gone on countless road trips through the United States and Canada, smoked hash in Amsterdam, sunbathed on black sand beaches in Greece, and most recently, camped in the jungle in the British Virgin Islands… I never want to stop, but I’ll probably slow down. My lifestyle is often exhausting.
CERE:  If a dildo is inserted in a man’s ass but the words “good game” are uttered afterwards, is it still gay?
GILLIAN:  No, it’s not gay. You can do anything as long as you say “good game” afterwards. If I grab your balls it’s not considered cheating on my boyfriend as long as I say “good game.” If you grab my boobs or ass, I’m only allowed to enjoy it if you say “good game,” etc etc. The power of “good game” is limitless.

My experience working for BMEzine.com has been wonderful. I’ve been able to talk to the most interesting people, live in Mexico and work for a company that has changed the body modification industry. I’ve been a small part in something very big, and I have every one of you to thank. Thank you to those who agreed to be interviewed by me and let everyone take a peak into your life. Thank you to Shannon and Rachel who saw something in my writing and took a chance on me, and thank you, most of all, to the people who read my articles and supported me along the way.

“For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.”
—Judy Garland


Signing off,

— Gillian Hyde (IAM:typealice)
Gillian Hyde (IAM:typealice) is a vagabond, though her roots run deep into Nova Scotian soil. She’s lived and worked on three continents since 2001, and has never lived anywhere for longer than eight months since the age of 16. She loves fonts, puns, being barefoot and office supplies. Calm to her is the roar of the ocean.

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