I’ve just posted another in my series of interviews on lip plates, a modification which I find absolutely fascinating because of how far it pushes facial aesthetics past our cultural norms. This time I talked to G.C. from the UK and Duff from Russia (both her and her husband have lip plates) for some additional viewpoints to the ones raised by Toph in the previous interview on the subject.
Click through to read the interview and then come on back here to comment!
Whenever the discussion turns to “can you still get a job with facial mods”, I always think of Bronte_1975 (I know this entry is a little repetitive), who covers up her facial tattoos for work. I know it’s not an option for piercings, let alone lip plates, of course.
When I was twenty in 1994, my 3/4″ earlobe piercing was shocking enough to the public that I was stopped regularly so people could take photos. Today, with a societal foundation laid where the public is “used” to seeing body modification, I doubt anyone would even notice — it takes something far more radical to turn heads. My friend Toph certainly falls into that category — with roughly an inch plug in each nostril and a nearly two inch lip plate, as well as a myriad of other modifations, he’s tormenting the programmers of facial recognition software by pushing the limits of a modern human face is. I’ve split this interview with Toph into two sections, beginning with a discussion of his amazing modifications, and with the second section being about him and his life. As well as via the comment forum at the end of the article, you can contact Toph via his IAM page, toph. – Shannon
 PART ONE How did you do your lip stretching? I got my center lip piercing done at a 16ga — I didn’t have a choice in the matter because the shop I went to only had that size, so when I went home I immediately put it to a 12ga. A few days later I put in an 8ga — my body stretches rather easily I think compared to most people. My steps were either every week or every other week until I got to 3/4″, which was done all with a taper up until that point. Once it got to 3/4″ it became loose every other day, and then I took my steps one millimeter at a time, every other day or so. By this time I was just “popping” them in without tapers or tape — I didn’t use tape until about 28mm. How long did the lip stretching take in all? My lip took a total of six months to go from 16g to 40mm (1 9/16″). How do you usually wear your lip? I wear it down 24/7, even when I eat, but drinking is always with a straw! How about your tongue stretching? My tongue was a different situation. I wanted to split my tongue, but I needed a good back brace, so at first I started my tongue off by scalpelling straight to 6mm, then stretching it up to 9mm the next day. I wore that for four days, and then scalpelled it to 16mm and stretched to 19mm the next day. By then I was ready for the split — I first cut it to 20mm, stretched it to 21mm, and used a scalpel and cut from the underneath up until the plug fell out and my tongue was split. And your nostrils? My nostrils were pierced when I was eighteen at a 10ga and immediately stretched to 8ga. I waited a good four months before going to 6ga, and then every month I went up to the next size until 16mm. Then about every week or so it was 1mm at a time until I took a long break at 22mm — about 5 months. I tapered them the whole way until 5/8″, then slide the next millimeters in by hand. I just recently started stretching them again.  Finally, tell me about your ear stretching? What happened to your ears? My ears have been a work in progress since I was sixteen, when they were done with a gun at the mall. I took it slow the most of the time, but I did stretch a few times faster than I should have. Unfortunately both my lobes were cut by a bad pair of eyelets at 19mm, and then thinned out pretty badly, so I had to take it really slow after that. Then last year I had plastic surgery on my left lobe due to a landscaping accident — I was weedwhacking a lawn at work and a rock got kicked up and split the 1 1/2″ lobe! What are the differences in stretching the different types of piercing? The differences I came across stretching the different types of piercing were that on the ears and lip weight worked really well, whereas the nostrils were all about time — if they didn’t have enough time they just wouldn’t stretch. My tongue was cut the whole time so it was a piece of cake, and I learned that if you really really want a 20mm tongue you can cut it there in a week without a hitch. Did you have any problems in your stretching? I did get some scar tissue on the front of my lip during my journey, which was cut off each time it happened and healed perfectly fine. I didn’t come across any problems with my nostrils, mostly because I was really careful. The have minor scar tissue but it went away with the pressure of o-rings in under a week. With my tongue I didn’t have one problem — besides blood and drool! You managed to upsize all of them incredibly quickly — did you have a secret to doing this or does your body just tolerate stretching really well? I think it’s a mixture of the two — on one hand my body handles stretching really well because I keep it on a basic schedule, and I think my body adjusted to it and went with it for the most part. My goal sizes are 28mm nostrils and a 63mm lip plate. My ears are as is and if they go bigger then good, but if not I’m still satisfied.  Toph in the early stages of his modifications Are all of your piercings publicly visible, or do you have private mods as well? I have had a 00g PA, a 4ga scalped frenum, three ladders and two pubic surface piercings. I do my own genital mods and plan on starting my full subincision soon — I’ve already done the meatotomy. Do you have plans for further modifications? My future modifications will include more facial ink, full sleeves,scarification, and large conches. It’s a short list but over the years I’ve had a lot of different stuff done and I’m pretty satisfied with the way my image turned out.  Other facial configurations that Toph has tried And if you change your mind about all of it and want to go back, do you have a “Plan B”? If it ever came to a reversal, I would downsize the same way I went up and hope for the best — but I’ve never once seriously thought about changing my image. I’ve been planning this out and making it a part of my life, and plan on keeping it for life. How much do you think you’ve spent on jewelry so far — you must have gone through a lot? Over the years I’ve spent about $8000 on jewelry. That was another addiction — I collected jewelry, never thinking I would actually wear it all in multiple piercing over the years. I collected anything from normal stainless steel to one of a kind $200 plugs. Once I met Karl (iam:MobyK), he offered to make me Delrin plugs if I ever needed them. At first I was like “no thanks”, but the more I got into it… like you said, I went through a lot of jewelry. Karl became a mentor to me and a godfather — we have been very close friends for about three years now, and have never once met. I met Pauly Unstopable through Karl who showed me how big a nostril can go — he was my inspiration for that single piercing. Jesse (iam:pillpoppinfun, featured in BME’s first article on lip plates) was my original influence for the labret. He wore pins and plugs and it interested me. Throughout the years I’ve had a lot of positive influence through the industry, not to mention the movie ‘MODIFY’ which gave me the idea to scalpel my own frenum. PART TWO How old are you, what do you do for a living, and what “life plans” do you have? I am twenty years old, and currently unemployed. I worked restaurants for five years and landscaping for two before I moved to Oklahoma. Now I’m back at the challenge of finding a new occupation. My life plans are to find someone to apprentice me so I can take what I love and make it into a living. This is my life and it’s what I think about day in and day out. I’m just hoping for the opportunity to get into the modification industry to fulfill my life goal. Tell me a little about yourself in terms of interests? I am a big fan of extreme sports — skateboarding, aggressive inline, four wheeling, motor cycles, and jet skis. I’m big into nature and photography and consider myself a decent artist.  What’s your peer group like? I don’t have a big group friends outside the Internet and I like to keep my life limited to family and close friends for the most part. When I go out in public I like to inform anyone who has questions about myself and what and why I do this, to my best ability, to try to help the public understand that we’re not freaks or assholes. I do this mostly to help the next generation of modders so people don’t get the wrong idea about us — this is very important to me. How do people respond when they see you? When I’m out in public people freak out… when they talk to me, it’s very funny. Once they see I’m willing to talk to them they just let go and ask me a million questions. People jump up and down, spin and laugh, saying “oh my god, that shit is crazy!” I’ve found that I get more attention from middle aged and older African Americans than I do from white teens and young adults… I don’t know why but I like it. What got you interested in body modification originally? I was around fifteen years old and I was a troubled kid, and I met a body piercer named Paul Kriner. He changed my life. I had already had a major interest in body modification, and so when I met him I tried to spend all my free time up at the shop that he worked at. He taught me a lot about the industry, proper aftercare and stretching, and became my mentor and someone I could look up to no matter what. I learned a lot from a young and very talented artist (he was only twenty at the time), and since the day I met him I knew what direction my life was going. I know the why question is hard, but “why?”, and can you think of earlier influences? This is my passion. It makes me very happy doing this, and it satisfies an empty spot in my life. I believe in concentrating and self-inflicting pain — it’s putting myself through more challenges in life… As if life wasn’t hard enough! I don’t think life should be easy, and if you’re doing something you love and it makes your life harder, and you have the ability to work through it, it only makes you stronger. This is the love of my life — more than family and friends even. If I wasn’t able to mod myself I’d feel as if I was walking around as a fake. I also find the way I look attractive — I’m absolutely amazed at what one can do to one’s body to make it completely change form. Really, why should everyone look the same? Like I said, my piercer was a big influence on me in my teens, but as a kid my uncle was in a state prison and all I could see were endless tattoos. He was a great guy — he just screwed up. I had a very positive image of body modification at a young age, although it went against everything my parents ever told me. As a kid I pierced my ears with safety pins and my labret with a sewing needle, as well as numerous surface temporary piercings. The more my parents said no the more I got into it… Then I discovered BME — oh my god, BME — once I was shown that site it was over. It was a candy store for me. I started hanging out at tattoo shops all summer long and every day after school for around five years until I went off on my own. All of this added to my obsession… The interest was already there, but when my eyes were opened to how far it can be taken I never looked back. I dedicated my life to it, and to this day still do and plan on doing it until I die. It’s a part of my life that’s too good to let go. What made you decide to start to push your modifications in a direction that’s far more extreme than most people can relate to? My interest got so deep into it I didn’t see a reason to stop at a certain size just because it was more accepted to stop there — being accepted by the community is something I can do myself no matter how I look. After seeing some of the famous modders like The Lizardman, Pauly Unstoppable, and the movie ‘MODIFY’, I knew I could put up the fight, and so far have succeeded. I take this part of my life so seriously, and I believe you can change the way people think with the right attitude and perspective. It’s all about being nice no matter what, and fully informing them no matter how unbelievable what they see is. Given that you’ve made these changes in such a short time, I’m sure you’ve got some remarkable insight into how people who look different are treated? My immediate family does not accept my body modifications at all, and still don’t completely understand me. I’ve done my best but they don’t want to believe this is who I am. My friends love it — they refer to me as a rock star when we go out in pubic because I have five to twenty confrontations each time I go to a store… nothing but tons of questions, excitement, and disgust. The public is very interested but not everyone can gather the courage to confront someone to ask questions and to fulfill their curiously. You’re always going to get bad attention, but there is a lot more good attention than most people would think. What advice would you have for people who are considering doing something radical like this? I would seriously encourage people to take a long hard thought before doing something like this. You receive so much criticism, and it’s a lot to deal with on a daily basis. It is very difficult to handle and you have to be emotionally strong to get through it all. But if it is a decision the new generation is willing to take, it is only going to get easier as time goes on. Since Valentine’s Day is coming up, would you like to meet and date someone as radically modified as yourself? I believe it would be so much easier to date someone that looked like Duff or Miss Kayteek Etemine because it would be easier to deal with the constant modifications and the public response as well because they would have already been use to it in their own lives, instead of having to adjust to an extreme amount of constant attention. It can be a lot for someone to handle who has never experienced it before. I recently lost my marriage over my body modifications — she told me it was her or the modifications…. I couldn’t believe my ears. I basically laughed, then cried, then said good bye. This path wasn’t meant for everyone and it takes extreme dedication to do what I have accomplished. Not to mention sacrifice…  Thank you to Toph for taking the time to talk to us! Please visit him at iam:Toph.
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The Worst and Tadd… I love modern lip plates.
I’ll post some more tattoo entries later today, but as knuckle tattoos go, I like the one that IAM:pillpoppinfun got done. You may remember Jesse from the “Have Mursi!” lip plates article. Check out his page for lots of big stretching…
As I mentioned back at the end of December, I was putting together a compilation of the top news stories from 2011. I based the top 10 off of both the e-mails I received and the size of the discussion the story created. So without further ado, here are the top 10 newsfeed stories of 2011.
This story happened in the 2nd week of December, which you would think wouldn’t be enough time to break into the top ten, but the religious debate that the topic spawned pushed it on to the list. Religion is always a touchy subject, but to hear it being used as the reason to remove modifications from people hit close to home for a number of you.
9: Moms should remove jewelry when breastfeeding their children.
This interview on a blog for mothers got a lot of attention from the Modified Mom brigade. The common belief was that the woman being interviewed had probably never breastfed with pierced nipples, and was just spouting off common urban myths.
8: Doctors are referring patients to plastic surgeons for “Designer Vaginas”. Some as young as 11.
This story from August wasn’t even the lead story of the week, but it did garner the most attention, prompting discussion on consensual female circumcision (in this case labia reduction, not hood/clitoral removal) and the role of England’s public health services. There were questions raised as to why male circumcision is covered by NHS, but labia reduction isn’t, as well as how old a person can be before they’re allowed to go through the procedure, especially considering an 11-year-old was referred to a plastic surgeon.
This story hit home for me personally as I am I former modified teacher. What stood out the most for everyone wasn’t the fact that the local politician went after the teacher, but rather the school, the kids, and the parents who all stood up to defend the teacher, saying his tattoos and piercings had no bearing on his ability to teach. Once the politician was shut down by the school board, there were no more complaints filed.
Yep, back to circumcision again. This time it was a Guinness record attempt by a city in the Philippines that resulted in hundreds of boys being circumcised over the course of a few hours. The Guinness record people declined to recognize the event as they don’t endorse any kind of mass medical procedure records.
5: Zombie Boy becomes the new face of fashion.
It was a big year for Montreal’s Rick Genest as he went from virtual unknown to being on television sets around the world. When Rick was chosen by stylist Nicola Formichetti to be the face of Thierry Mulger’s newest clothing line nobody expected him to suddenly appear in Lady Gaga’s newest music video. Well nobody except for Formichetti who is also Gaga’s stylist and appointed Rick as her new muse. Since the music video Rick has gone on to become the spokesperson for tattoo concealing make-up.
4: Tattooed Pigs.
It wasn’t really a surprise that this story is on the list, as debates about animals tend to get heated. To some this was flat out animal cruelty, while others pointed out that all of the pigs had been saved from slaughterhouses and were now living a life of luxury (at least as much luxury as a pig can have). Of course there was the 3rd opinion that couldn’t understand why the pigs weren’t on their plates.
Yep. TLC tried to put on a TV series about a “tattoo school” that could teach you everything you need to know how to tattoo in 2 weeks. And by “everything” I mean “just enough to do some serious damage to a person and possibly infect them with some kind of disease”. Thankfully TLC pulled the show from its line-up quickly. Unfortunately the school itself is still in operation, and teaching more and more people how to be a scratcher.
2: ABC News publicly mocking heavy modification on air.
The subject of the story was supposed to be ear pointing, however with selective editing and commentary, it ended up just being a story ridiculing the entire body modification community. Starting with calling it a “fad” and using the line “can’t people be happy with what they have?”, it was obvious that there was going to be nothing objective about it.
1: Mom shoots botox into her child’s face.
And your number one story for the year is this one. In addition to injecting her child with botox, the mom regularly has her daughter’s body completely waxed to prevent hair growth later in life, and has promised to allow her to get breast augmentation and a nose job as soon as possible. Response to this was overwhelming, not only on ModBlog, but all over the world. Within a few days of the story going public child services swooped in and removed the child from her mother and placed her with other family members. It’s safe to say her pageant career ended that day as well.
So that’s it for 2011. Starting next week we’ll be back to news as usual. So remember, if you find a story you think should be included in the news of the week, just send me an e-mail with the link. Have a great weekend everyone, and I’ll see you back here Monday.
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So it’s thanksgiving up here in Canadaland, and from what I understand it’s Columbus day south of the border. So here’s some eye candy for the holiday in the form of 1DeX6 from the Lip Plate gallery.
I’m fairly certain every single person with a large lip plate has been asked that very same question at least once in their lifetime. When Sean chatted with Jenya a little while ago, the question came up, and sure enough he has no problems eating at all. So why am I bringing this up now? Well, Pavel_Zhilenkov sent in some great photos of his upper lip to the lip plate gallery, and as you can see by the photo below eating isn’t a problem for him either.
This week’s news is coming to you from Chicago. As the first stop on my trip around North America most of the time has been spent getting ready with my road trip buddy for the coming months. Just because I’m on the road, doesn’t mean the news is going to stop. So, with that said, let’s see what has happened in the world since last week’s update.
We’re going to start this week by taking a look at how modified people are making a positive impact in their communities. Be it through their art, setting an example for others, or taking time to help out those who can’t help themselves, all these individuals have taken their modifications and used them for something positive.
First up we have Wafaa Bilal, an Iraqi artist who is using his skin as a canvas to bring attention to the continuing loss of life in the war with Iraq.
Over the next 24 hours, they would be barraged by dots of ink, thousands and thousands of them — each representing a casualty of the Iraq war. The dots are tattooed near the city where the person died: red ink for the American soldiers, ultraviolet ink for the Iraqi civilians, invisible unless seen under black light. “We are talking about 100,000 Iraqis who have died and 5,000 American soldiers,” Bilal says. “They’re not visible. Many people don’t even know the number.”
Continue reading to hear about more people like Wafaa, as well as some followup to stories from the past few weeks, some interesting perspectives on religion and body modifications, and the return of the celebrity roundup!
In New Hampshire Steve Manchini, a high school drop out, has returned to school and is proving to his community that heavily modified young people can succeed when given the opportunity to.
Manchini wears glass earrings that are nearly 3 inches in diameter. His first piercing came at age 14. He has six tattoos. And no matter the weather, he wears flip flops. Despite quitting school his sophomore year, Manchini will graduate this month with honors, placing him closer to a goal of attending medical school. He wants to major in neuroscience, the study of the brain and nervous system.
A little south of Steve, in Ashville NC, Freaks & Geeks Tattoo Sideshow is holding their annual “Tattooing Paws for a Cause” event this month.
The centerpiece of the campaign is a 12-hour pet paw print tattoo and body piercing marathon from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday, June 27, at Freaks & Geeks. During that day, patrons may choose from four paw print tattoo designs for the deeply discounted price of $40. Diamond Thieves Body Piercing owner Daron James will provide above-the-neck and belly button piercings during the daylong event for the reduced cost of $15. All clients will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis. Proceeds from the marathon will benefit the Humane Society, which will have a number of pets up for adoption on site during the event.
In addition the shop will act as both a donation center for people looking to donate to the Humane Society, as well as providing information regarding adoption. If you’re in the area and have some time, swing on by and either get some work done, or make a donation.
Finally we have an interview with Dawn Kasper, an LA based artist that incorporates branding and scarification into her performance art.
In one performance, she branded the word “love” onto the skin of her inner bicep. (She followed with “truth” on the other bicep several years later.) In another, she carved the shape of a heart into the middle of her chest, an unsettlingly visible expression, one could say, of wearing her heart on her sleeve. The scars of both remain.
June also appears to be a good month in the news for artists that incorporate tattoos into their work. In Hammonton NJ, the Noyes Museum is hosting an exhibit entitled “The Art of Tattoo”, featuring not only photos of tattoos, but also original sketches and paintings. Melbourne tattoo artist Jessica Swaffer, is featured this week in on thevine.com.au. Jessica’s watercolors are a modern take on late 1800s pornography, mixed with classical tattoo imagery. Over on the west coast, OCWeekly has done a photo essay on local chefs and their body art. And really, who doesn’t love good food mixed with a splash of color.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago about how three Canadian provinces have no regulations in place when it comes to any form of body modifications. Well it seems that those provinces aren’t the only places that are looking at doing something with regards to regulations. In Florida, governor Charlie Crist signed into law new legislation dealing with age restrictions, as well as health standards.
Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law Friday a bill that bans children and teenagers younger than 16 from being tattooed and requires those 16 to 18 to bring a parent to give permission before they get inked. The law (HB 729) also regulates tattoo artists for the first time. They must get a license, take an infection control course and pass an annual test.
The only downside I’m seeing to this is that the law doesn’t take effect until January 2012, which means for another year or so Florida will still be following the old rules. While Florida is taking steps forward, it seems California is digging its heels in and not making any progress.
Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, who was born with hepatitis B, stepped in, introducing a bill to codify the standards. Supported by health officers, blood banks and the body-art industry, it sailed through the Assembly and Senate in 2009 with virtually no dissent. But when it landed on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk, to the astonishment of all, he vetoed it, saying he didn’t see the point.
There currently is another bill pending, being supported by even more groups, so hopefully the Governator will allow it to be passed instead of arbitrarily vetoing it again.
Taking a quick look at some of the stories that I mentioned in the past, the student that was assaulted by his classmates and forced to have his ass tattooed has relocated and plans to finish out the school year at a new school. The jury has begun deliberations in the case of the father who tattooed a gang symbol on his seven year-old son. While the prosecution has presented the case as a straightforward assault/child endangerment suit, the defense is claiming “the jury has to find Gonzalez and Gorman not guilty if they are not willing to convict a parent for piercing their kids’ ear or getting them circumcised”. Now I can’t recall if I mentioned this story before, but Curtis Allgier, who has been charged with killing a prison guard, is asking for permission to cover his extensive facial tattoos while in court. so that he can get a fair trial.
In certain cultures and religions, body modifications are frowned upon, and in some cases considered a sin. This week I came across two articles about modifications and religion, that surprisingly don’t take a negative turn. In the first article two Rabbis answer the question “What should I do about my tattoos before converting?”
Moreover, the tattoos condemned by the original ban were carried out either as a form of self-harm as part of excessive grief over a bereavement, or they were a religious rite belonging to a pagan faith. These are not in the same category as the ones you bear, which were probably done for decorative reasons. I also assume they are permanent and cannot be removed, otherwise that would be an easy solution. Still, by definition, the act of conversion implies both “turning away from” a certain lifestyle and “turning towards” a new path. You cannot undo your past, either the visible bits or the invisible aspects, but what counts is the person you are now and who you wish to become.
The second story is about a Christian church in Springfield MO that has taken a significantly different stance on body modification than the majority of Evangelical churches.
“In the lobby of the south-side Springfield church, one wall is covered with photos of members proudly displaying their tattoos. “
The church has taken the position of embracing the modifications of it’s parishoners as something to be celebrated, not condemned. For me personally, this sounds like a great step forward and hopefully more churches follow suit.
Now I know everyone’s favorite section is the celebrity roundup, but I’ve got two more stories to go before we get to the good stuff.
On Judge Judy recently a tattoo artist was being sued by a former employee. Unfortunately he made the mistake of trying to tell Judge Judy how to do her job.
In my favorite article I found this week, an author holds nothing back in describing his feelings towards tattoos. I’ll just let him speak for himself, I’m sure you’ll have some choice words for him by the time you’re finished reading it.
And now ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the celebrity roundup!
Well, it turns out that all of us tattooed Modblog readers have gotten our ink because we’re following the trend set by pioneers such as Megan Fox, Angelina Jolie, and something called a Justin Bierber.
Speaking of Megan Fox, everyone’s favorite toe-thumbed, robot fighting, motorcycle riding, starlet has gotten herself tattoo number nine (I know I shouldn’t be shocked there are people keeping count, but really?)
When I say the words “rugby player” what are the first things you think of? Maybe it’s Matt Damon in Invictus, or is it the sterotyped image of a huddle of the toughest guys on the planet beating the shit out of each other. Well, it turns out some of those guys just aren’t that tough.
A new tattoo is understood to be behind Jake Friend’s latest brush with the law, with the Sydney Roosters hooker arrested for possessing two valium tablets without prescription after being searched by police in Coogee on Saturday night. The Herald was told Friend had the tablets to relieve pain from tattoo work done last week, as well as help with anxiety, and will plead not guilty to the charge.”
Supposedly there’s some books about vampires that have gotten popular in the past couple years. I’m not entirely sure what they’re about, but I think glitter is involved. Well, I guess these books have gotten the actors in the films based on the books famous. So famous that the fans are getting themselves tattooed with their autographs. After looking at the pictures, I just have one question, isn’t that Shark Boy on the right?
Finally, it turns out that a rock star getting tattooed is news. I know, I was shocked too. Well, thanks to twitter, we can all see Courtney Love‘s latest pieces of art. Also, the rock and roll lifestyle has taken it’s toll on Metallica’s James Hetfield. After getting his latest tattoo, he’s looking to make himself the new poster boy for the straightedge movement. Any straightedge types have any thoughts on this?
So that’s it for this week’s news. Next week I should be somewhere in Colorado, so once I get to a wifi hotspot, you can expect to see the latest collection of mod related news from around the world.
Thanks again to Botexty for the Aussie submissions, and if anyone else comes across a story you think should be on Modblog, feel free to submit it here. Have a great week everyone, and take care.
This was originally posted on BodyTwo, but I was asked about it again this morning, and I thought it related well to the lip disc posts.
One of the most asked-about members of the modification community is “Fishmaul” (“Fishmouth”) or “Zygzag”, who is said to wear massive plugs in stretched cheek piercings. Here’s the photo set that most people have seen reposted over and over:
Some people claimed he was part of the German street punk scene in Aachen, others claimed he was Russian, and others claimed it was simply a fake Photoshopped picture. As it turns out he’s Polish, and quite real. A reader wrote me about him,
Hi Shannon. That “Fishmouth” is from Poland and everyone calls him “ZygZag”. For now he lives in Germany in a punk squat or something. I don’t know him but he’s a Polish BodyMod legend. For now he doesn’t wear his plugs. I’ve got different photos of him without plugs.
Here are the photos that came with that email:
He was drinking a beer at the time, so clearly he’d figured out how to live with giant holes in his cheeks…
Not long afterwards I received this photo of ZygZag with his plugs in at an event, wearing his cheek plates and other piercings:
As I wrote at the time, I can’t begin to express the admiration that I have for ZygZag’s dedication to developing this look… He’s got to be the only person on the planet, maybe the first in history, to push cheek stretching like this, and the degree he’s done it to is staggering. It’s really amazing to me, and the first time in a long time that I’ve seen something that’s genuinely new.
Unfortunately not much information on ZygZag is out there, as another Polish reader explains,
In January I discussed with my friends the subject of cheek stretching. Someone said that Zygzag is the only person in Poland with stretched cheek piercings so we started to look for his pics. After a few months of searching some guy contacted us and said that he knew Zygzag, and we wouldn’t find anything because he never wanted to have his pictures published. We also came to know that he removed the plugs because his eyes were constantly irritated and he couldn’t speak properly cause of the facial deformation. He had his skin transplanted few times to make the holes smaller. I don’t know how much of this is true, but it’s some additional info about the guy anyway.
So there you go… It won’t surprise me if he ends up being the only person to do this, ever. If anyone knows more (or knows anyone else that’s done this), please do write me!
