You might feel a little pressure

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Normally when you see a photo of a suspension, you’ll see one of three things.  The first and obvious one is the person in the air, the second is after they’ve landed, and the third is of the moment before lift-off where the person is preparing themselves with the rigging and hooks all in place.

Well this photo doesn’t fit into any of those three categories, yet somehow it is still one of the most significant moments in the ritual of a suspension.  I use the term ritual intentionally, as modern suspension has strong ties to rituals from all over the world, but also because it has become its own modern ritual.  The person suspending is preparing to enter another state of being, as their flesh is pierced and they are lifted from the ground, suspended by only their own body.  The practitioners are modern day priests, there to ensure the ritual follows the rites that have been set down before them.  They prepare the individual mentally, by talking them through it.  They facilitate the ritual itself, by throwing the hooks, setting up the rigging, and observing to ensure everything is done safely.  Finally they are there for the person when they return to earth, to guide their transition back into world that they had left.

So while to some it may seem like a suspension is just some guy hanging from hooks, to the people involved it can be a very spiritual and powerful experience, one that can change someone’s life, even if it is just for the time they are in the air.

I want to thank IAM: oOunbekanntOo for sharing this image with us.

hooks

You can check out the suspension itself over in the suicide suspension gallery.

Do you have any images from a suspension you’ve done?  What about a story to tell of a time that you suspended?

If you do, head on over to your account page on BMEzine.com and send in your pictures and stories.  Don’t have a subscription yet?  You can get a free one today so you too can submit content.

Sometimes bigger is better

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IAM:Twosteps sent in this shot of himself the other day, and unless I’m missing something it looks like he’s managed to stretch all of his piercings above the neck.

twosteps

I know that the concept of “bigger is better” has been discussed on ModBlog recently, but in the case of Twosteps here, he shows off that for him, bigger is definitely better.  When it comes to stretching out any piercing, there’s a degree of commitment made towards an eventual goal.  I use the term commitment because the act of stretching is a long and involved process.  Of course it can be sped up at points with the assistance of a skilled practitioner, but over time there is only so much outside assistance one can get.  In the end it takes both mental and physical commitment to the goal for it to be realized.  So in addition to the time it takes to stretch something out, there is also the need for patience, because we all know what can happen if a stretching is rushed.

Thankfully for Twosteps here, it looks like everything is going well on his part.  I don’t know if he’s done with everything or not, but the matching jewelry, combined with the placementof the piercings, really make the big piercings look great on him.

Magnets, how do they work?

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Apologies for the ICP lyric, but it’s been a while since we’ve had a story about magnetic implants I couldn’t help myself.

Rata, from Rata Body Art Studio in Buenos Aires, recently spent a couple of months working in Florida as a guest artist.  On his last day in Florida, Pinhead and Johnny Vilonius decided to surprise him by giving him some magnetic implants as a parting gift.  Rata has had his work featured on ModBlog before a couple of times, but I believe this marks the first time that he’s been the subject of the photo, not the artist behind the work featured.

Thanks to Johnny for sending in the photos.  According to him the procedure only took 10 minutes, and he was on a plane back home the very next day.  The first image is of Rata looking at his fingers, and the second is of Pinhead inserting the magnets.

Rata

Pinhead

You can check out the rest of the images in the discreet implants gallery.

Points of Symmetry

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Symmetry gets mentioned often with relation to modifications.  I’ve seen countless comments on ModBlog praising a person whose facial piercings are matched up perfectly.  A while back The Discovery Channel did a documentary on sex appeal, where it was mentioned that people find others more attractive the more symmetrical their faces are.  I believe there was a BBC documentary on something similar as well.

The point of all this is to look at why the same trends towards physical beauty carry over into the modified community.  Is it just that we’re programmed genetically to see something symmetrical as aesthetically pleasing, or is it a conscious choice on our part.  Of course this doesn’t apply to everyone, as there are a great many people who find things that are asymmetrical much more appealing.

Take this play piercing session as an example.  IAM: oOunbekanntOo submitted this image of his first ever play piercing session to BME’s play piercing gallery.

play

Given that the design was intended to be symmetrical, do you think you would feel differently about it if it were an asymmetrical design?  In the lower right hand corner you can see a couple of needles have shifted direction (probably when he stood up).  Is your eye drawn to this point because of the flaw in the symmetry, or does the overall image supersede an unintentional shift?

What about those who prefer asymmetrical designs, is there anything you would prefer to see different about the design, or should this session just be viewed for what it is; a great play piercing session that a member of the community shared with us.

Lock and Key

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“To hide the key to your heart is to risk forgetting where you placed it.”

–Timothy Childers

It seems that ModBlog regular IAM: Efix has been pretty busy the past few days.  With the Montreal Tattoo convention, and several guest spots finished, Efix has come home and has uploaded to BME some of the wonderful work he has done recently.

heart lock

I’m not sure exactly where this cutting is placed, but what I do know is that he pulled off a beautiful cutting, while maintaining the symmetry of the design.  Hopefully we’ll get to see more images of this design as it heals, as I’d love to use it for one of the Friday Follow-ups.  In the meantime, you can check out more of Efix’s work in his BME gallery.

Worst case scenario

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The often quoted Murphy’s Law says something along the lines of “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong”.  When it comes to modifications, we always hope that nothing will go wrong with anything we get.  Now I’m not talking about the procedure, more along the lines of what can happen down the road.  You could be getting dressed for work when you suddenly snag a microdermal and tear it.  You could be riding a bike down a moutainside when you fall and scrape up your arm so badly it ruins one of your tattoos.

In the case of Nikita IAM: 9sbg-av4372071, he got into a fight a little while ago and ended up tearing open his medusa stretching project.  If he looks familiar to you, that’s because he was the young man who attempted the single point elbow suspension that ended in a nasty tear.

27mm

Here’s how it looked last year when he had it up to 24mm.  There are other images of it in the lip plate gallery.

24mm

Prior to the fight Nikita’s had stretched his medusa all the way up to 27mm.  If you head over to his IAM page, you can see pictures of how it looked before he lost it.

Hopefully Nikita continues to upload images of how he’s fixing it to the lip disc reversal gallery.  And let’s hope he manages to go a long time before anything else traumatic happens to him or any of his modifications.

It’s my crack head tattoo….

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I know, I am kind of a tool for pretty much abandoning modblog as soon as Rob jumped on board and then coming back only to post a tattoo that I got last weekend. However, had I seen this tattoo on someone else, I would have quickly jumped to post it, especially seeing that it came from a relatively unknown artist out of Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Sometimes, I work conventions, but not this time. This convention was purely about hanging out with friends, enjoying some time off from my usual responsibilities of work and parenting and to get a “little” tattoo. Usually, when I go to conventions I just cruise the show floor looking at portfolios and “convention specials”. Convention specials are tattoos the artist really want to do, either for their portfolio, to enter in tattoo of the day or just because it’s such a ridiculous design no one outside of a convention would likely ever get it. I usually go for the latter. At the recent Philly convention I got a traditional style tattoo of a hand being held in a cup shape that read “cup the balls”, of course I got this on my inner thigh as close to my balls as possible so it could act as a fully functional instruction manual for how to properly handle my balls.

I had every intention of getting an equally, or possibly even more, stupid  tattoo at this convention. Then I saw this design and instantly fell in love with it. After talking to the artist, Matti Hixson, I realized this was the guy who worked at Cherry Bomb In Martinsburg, WV.  I first discovered his work on Sketch Kult and was instantly impressed, and SHOCKED that this kind of work was coming out of WV a mere 20 minutes from my home. After realizing this was the same guy, I almost decided to opt out of the tattoo. “Why get work from a local guy when there are all these amazing artist from all over?”, I thought to myself. I decided to check out the rest of the convention floor. There were some awesome designs but none that drew me in like this one from Matti, so after realizing someone else might actually want this piece, I hauled ass back over to his booth to book the appointment.

I was a bit disappointed to find out  this design would fit nowhere on me (except my left rib panel that I am saving for a bigger piece) that was even remotely visible, but it did fit well between the random tattoos on my upper right thigh. As he started the first things I noticed were that he was incredibly light handed and his machines were damn near silent. It was almost surreal as the two sensations, pain and noise, that I normally associate with tattooing were not present. As the hours went on (6 total) it did get a bit more painful but never unbearable.

The background is one of my favorite parts, it was 100% freehanded on, and while it was being done, I have to admit I had my doubts. I thought to myself,  ”Dots? Big fucking dots? If I wanted dots, I would have gotten a traditional tattoo”. However, I had faith in him, and I kept my thoughts to myself. As it came together, I grew to love these dots. The give the design movement and flow and the muted colors of the background really make the main design pop. When the piece was finished I was blown away. The drawing was rad but the finished tattoo was absolutely incredible. I was not the only one impressed either this piece got second place for Tattoo Of The Day on Saturday, a day full of awesome tattoos.  The girl who took first that day had a bad ass Velociraptor on her thigh and really can you argue with a chic with a velociraptor? I think not. To sweeten the deal, third place went to my wife’s rad tattoo by Josh Payne.

Anyhow, like I said, I feel like a bit of a tool for posting a tattoo that I have, but I really think Matti deserves some recognition for his talents, and this post is the best way for me to do that.  If you are within a few hours of Martinsburg, WV and are interested in a low pain, high quality color realism style tattoo, at AMAZINGLY REASONABLE West Virginia prices  definitely get in touch with him.

screen-shot-2010-09-14-at-54626-pm

PS: Now that I am back in town and things have settled down a bit I am going to try and put out at least one modblog post a day, to take some of the burden off Rob.

PPS: On a totally unrelated note. Does anyone know the older gentleman who is tattooed all blue with tribal tattoos that was running around the convention? I tried to peg him down for an interview, but I never saw him except when I was stuck in the tattoo chair. He seemed like a super nice guy and it’s odd for me to see someone with that heavy of a transformation and not at least know of them.

The Guess What Game (Results)

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Well, the moment you’ve been waiting for all day is here, the results from today’s Guess What game.

First a quick re-cap of the images.

Round 1

guesswhat11

Round 2

guesswhat21

Round 3

guesswhat32

So, if you haven’t had a chance to guess, here’s your last chance.  If you think you know what all three are, keep reading to find out!

If you guess a stretched labia for round one, give yourself a pat on the back.  IAM: Jay-Z is the proud owner of this genital project, and you can see more images of it in the female piercing gallery.

round1

Round 2 was probably one of the easier ones, but for some people it may have gotten them bent out of shape trying to figure it out.  From the hard galleries comes Falica’s CBT play.  For the life of me I can’t figure out how he did this, but it is an impressive use of piping.

round2

And finally, the third round brought us probably the trickiest image to figure out.  From the extreme gallery comes this image from Rogerdaily.  What you’re seeing is an extreme vacuum pumping session on his nipple.  Obviously this is something that shouldn’t be attempted unless you’re well aware of the risks involved.

round3

So how many did you get right?  Were you close on a couple?

These three images show just how big a range some of the BME galleries cover.  If you don’t yet have a subscription, you can sign up for a free one today, or if you’re interested in a subscription to the hard/surgical/video sections, you can do so as well on the sign up page.

The Guess What Game (Round 1)

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I normally post the weekly “Guess What?” image on Tuesdays, but today I thought I would make things a little interesting.  Over the course of the afternoon I’ll be posting 3 separate images, and providing some clues as to what they are.  Make your guesses in the comment section, and later in the day I’ll post the full uncropped images to see how many you got right.  In the interest of fairness, I will say that all three images are of different body parts, it’s up to you to guess the correct ones.

So, first off we have we have an image that involves a lot of metal.  What I can tell you is that at some point in the creation of this mod, it took two separate individuals working in tandem to get it just right.  Also, the owner is a member of IAM.BMEzine.com.

guesswhat1

Think you know what it is?  Make a comment below.  You’ll find out if you’re right later in the day!

As a side note, IAM is open again for new memberships, so if you’ve been thinking about joining the community, just head on over and sign up.

Update:  You can see the results from all 3 rounds here.

Beeing at one with nature

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This late summer piece is by none other than Fabrizio Divari, from Toronto.  This work in progress features apples, poppies, as well as a couple of bees.  The time when the apples in an orchard are changing color, and those big lazy bumblebees are flying around, spreading the last of the pollen for the season.

bees

Head over to the nature and wildlife galleries to check out more images like this one.

Remember, ModBlog relies on images submitted by you, the reader.  So if you have something you’d like to share, upload it to BMEzine.com, fill in all the boxes so the artist can get credit, and who knows, it may appear on ModBlog one day.