I have gotten a bunch of emails and a few messages on IAM asking if I had quit writing for modblog. Of course not. I honestly plan to keep doing this so long as Rachel wants me here. However, since Rob’s here to pick up my slack and I am also involved in other blogs and projects that demand my time, I am limiting myself to post what I consider to be exceptional photos truly fitting of modblog. In fact I wasn’t going to post anything today, until I saw this tattoo that could redefine tattooing puns as we know them.
“Ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi” (The face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter)
–Cicero (rough translation)
We’ve all heard the phrase “The eyes are the window to the soul” in some variation, yet what does it really mean? Have you ever looked into someone’s eyes and were able to know everything about a person in an instant? The concept of love at first sight is often linked with the soul quote. People claim they knew they were soulmates the moment their eyes connected.
It is true that our eyes are probably one of our more expressive features. With a single look a person can convey pretty much every emotion possible, just ask Tyra Banks how important “smiling with your eyes” can be. Which could be the reason behind the quote. Or is it something more? An eye is like a fingerprint, or at least that’s what every spy movie that uses a retinal scanner tells me. With so much detail and nuance stored within the eye, is there some form of unknown code that we can unconsciously translate? Who we are as a person is somehow imprinted into the structure of our eyes, and no matter what we do physically with our eyes, there is a truth that cannot be hidden from others?
What do you think it is? While you ponder that, check out this eye tattoo that Questionable uploaded.
I like that it is incomplete so you can really see the steps the artist is taking to put the eye together. It makes you wonder what part of the wearer’s soul this third eye is revealing.
Questionable also uploaded an image of an incredible Nyarlathotep tattoo, that you should check out as well.
Bigger is better right? At least that’s what the media has been telling us all for years now. Now granted that may just be a North American thing where people believe your success in life can be measured by the size of your bank account. The “whoever dies with the most toys wins” mentality. Now of course there’s always the other thing that “bigger is better” can be applied to, which is of course the size of your piercings. User Everhardnumdick is one guy who doesn’t shy away from a big piercing, as you can see in this picture of his septum piercing.
Now this is clearly a case where bigger is pretty awesome. As for better, well that’s entirely subjective, but I’m pretty sure that the owner of the nose is happy with how it looks.
As for you, do you think bigger is better? The whole need to acquire wealth and possessions, to own the biggest things? Are these things that are meaningful to you, or do you think that this mentality is a product of generations of successful marketing? Companies wanting to make more money so they make you believe that if you own their product you will be better in some way, only to have another company say the same thing about their product which is slightly bigger.
Who am I kidding, of course you expected to see some form of genitals in a post about things being better if they’re bigger. Well it turns out his septum isn’t the only thing that Everhardnumdick has stretched. Keep on reading to see what else he has made bigger.
You can check out a side view of this foreskin stretching over in the gallery.
Missmarymac graciously submitted the following image to our nature and wildlife galleries the other day. I wish I could provide more information on the tattoo, unfortunately all I have to work with is her name.
Which is what I’d like to talk about. BME’s galleries are all user generated, which means we rely on you, the members to send us in images of your modifications. You’ll notice after every ModBlog post a link to submit pictures. If you’ve never submitted an image before, there are a number of different boxes you can fill out when uploading your pictures. The one in particular you should pay attention to is the artist information. We feature quite few images on ModBlog every week and the question I get asked most often is “who performed that modification”. Sometimes the answer is right there next to the photo, other times the artists submit the images themselves so it’s easy to guess, if its an IAM member I can check their page to see if they wrote about it, but a lot of the times I don’t have the information to share.
So next time you go to upload an image, remember to think of your practitioner, I’m sure they would love to credited for their work, especially if it’s being seen all over the world.
One final thing before I get to the image. When BMEzine.com switched over to the new gallery format, a new feature was added; The ability to add comments to an image. So if you see an image you like, feel free to say something about it on the gallery page. Users are able to see the comments people add about their mods, so go ahead and let them know what you think. So if you happen to like Missmarymac’s moth tattoo, just add a comment here.
The blending of multiple forms of modification into a single piece is hardly something that is new. Heavy blackwork tattoos with scars cut into them, implants under tattoos to make them stand out, the list can go on and on. Sometimes the results can be drastic, and other times it can be subtle, such as the case with the following photo submitted to us by Steven Cool from Almighty Tattoo in Flint, MI.
I think what I like most about this piece is just how well the surface anchors blend in with the stars. Granted the triangle design does stand out a bit, but as a whole the concept works.
What I am curious about is to what you think of the blending of styles. For the most part there are two categories, multiple modifications that compliment each other really well, or pieces like this that are (or at least appear to be) created with the intention of blending the modifications together. Or is there really a division between the two? Should we just look at the overall package when it comes to modifications and see the entire body as a single piece, or is it ok to judge each individual mod on its own merits?
P.S. Apologies for the large watermark, that was how it was submitted to the site.
There’s just some internet memes that are just too easy to use. The “This is Sparta!” one, while long dead, still rears its ugly head from time to time, especially when you get a glimpse of something like this scarification piece that IAM: Eroswastika recently cut into one of his clients.
It’s hard to say if the owner of the scar is a fan of the comic or the film (or perhaps both), but it’s reasonable to assume he is a fan of Miller’s work.
In case you can’t tell by the photo, the scar is located on his bicep, right above the ditch. You can get another look at it from a different angle by checking out the skin removal scarification gallery.
I try to post a variety of images every day to ModBlog. And with every image I post, I try my best to make a story around it. I see a tattoo of Prince’s love symbol, and I think of both the artist and the dedication of his fans. I see a candid image from a pulling performance, and think of the outer expressions of inner pain.
Then I see an image like this…
…and I’m at a loss for words.
Which of course got me to thinking, what is it about certain images and action that can take our breath away. To render even the most expressive of us speechless. Is it some base instinct that we have, like the fight or flight reactions, that when we are emotionally overwhelmed we react by silencing ourselves? Or is it a cultural phenomenon, where we’ve been raised in a world where the effects of the Romantic period have permeated our collective consciousness. The moment where our minds are presented with an overwhelming amount of emotional stimulation causes us to take pause and reflect on the images before we are able to express ourselves and our reactions.
Now that I’ve had a moment to reflect on the image, I think that it conveys exactly what I was just talking about. We have this woman looking outwards her lips bound by a black ribbon woven through her piercings. You see through her eyes that she has something to say, but for the moment she cannot speak. It is only when the ribbon is removed, can she express herself fully. So we too, in those moments when everything falls away and we get lost in the image, have our lips bound, not by ribbon, but by our own minds. We pause, holding everything in until the right moment, when we can remove our own ribbons and are free to speak again.
I want to thank BMEzine.com member Scissor_Kitty for submitting this image to the piercing galleries. So while you may not like every image in the galleries, there are certainly enough images in there that can take your breath away, simply through the story the image is telling.
When looking for a video to open this post with I came to understand exactly why I’ve always thought Prince Rogers Nelson is one of the greatest musicians of all time. There isn’t anything he can’t do. Although to be fair, I’ve never seen him cook an omelet. Think about it, this little dude from Minnesota has over the course of his life (so far) has put out 10 platinum albums and over 30 top40 singles, not to mention the hundreds of awards he’s got lining his walls.
Granted The Artist hasn’t gone without his share of controversy. In the early 80s it was his song Darling Nikki that prompted Tipper Gore to push for explicit lyrics sticker that everyone who has owned a CD should be familiar with. Of course nobody can forget when he changed his name to which caused writers everywhere to go crazy trying to figure out how to spell his new name. His record label troubles made front pages everywhere, especially after he started appearing in public with the word “SLAVE” written on his face. There was also the rumors that always circulated about him. How he would change his clothes 20 times a day, how he has this vault of thousands of songs that are locked away, and of course his “awakening” (his words) which led him to become a Jehovah’s Witness, which Kevin Smith mocked mercilessly during one of his Q&A videos.
So is it any wonder that his fans are so passionate about him? The Purple Yoda has consistently produced incredible works of music, and in 2007 performed that Superbowl half-time show in the video that people describe as the best show ever. While some may only think of him for his pop songs from the 80s and 90s, others for his soul albums, some admire his films, and well, some just love The Bat Dance, many people tend to forget that he is consistently rated one of the top 10 guitarists ever to perform.
IAM: mook is one such fan of Prince, and recently got a tattoo that shows her love of His Purple Badness.
I’ll admit I did giggle a little when I saw it next to the bat symbol.
But mook here does show her passion for one of her favorite artists. Music is a powerful thing, it can bring about feelings of love, sadness, anger, and more, simply by listening to it. If tattoos are meant to be an external representation of our inner feelings, to identify with a particular artist is something that can seem natural to some people. I can’t count the number of Nine Inch Nails, Misfits, or Tool tattoos I’ve seen over the years, so the band tattoo is hardly a new thing. Just take a look at the music galleries on BME and you’ll see artists and musicians from all genres represented.
I suppose the question that could be asked it, what is it about a specific band or artist that can touch your soul to the point that you need to have them become one with your skin?
I’m probably the furthest thing from a religious scholar you will find, but during my years in university I did come across a large number of texts that were either directly tied to the church, or at least were influenced by it. Now the term “gargoyle” refers to any sculpture (usually in the form of an animal or person) that is designed to allow water to fall away from the edges of a building to prevent erosion. Over the years people have just adopted the term to apply to any decorative sculpture on the roof of a building.
The reason I bring up the religious side of gargoyles is that centuries ago, when being illiterate was the norm, the church needed ways to convey their stories and rituals to the masses. What better way to educate an illiterate crowd than through images. It was here that the myth of the gargoyle began. As the story goes, St. Romanus encountered a monster in his travels, your typical dragon type creature that breathed fire. Well when Romanus defeated the creature, he brought its body back to be burned, but discovered that the head wouldn’t burn because the dragon breathed fire and the head was adapted to heat. So he hung the head on the outside of the church to ward off evil spirits. Over time the churches would add their own stone gargoyles to the outside of the building in order to let people know that outside the church evil lurks, but inside they will be protected.
Now of course when I was growing up gargoyles were just scary looking statues that eventually came to be “cool” in my young eyes. I suppose that was aided by the Disney cartoon. Of course I’m not the only person walking the planet that enjoys looking at gargoyles. Bromley_Daz submitted this image to BME the other day, and I think it’s safe to assume he enjoys gargoyles as well.
It’s always nice to see images added to the mythological and religious gallery, because often there is a good story behind the designs. This image in particular reminds me that every culture around the world has developed their own wards against evil. Be it symbols or rituals, these wards have become much more than just a repellent to evil. The gargoyle being a prime example of that. What first started as a way to protect buildings from erosion, a practice that pre-dates Christianity by centuries, eventually became a symbol of warning to people. As time passed, these statues became the guardians of the the buildings they were installed on, until eventually they were regarded primarily for their historical significance and their art.
Now while I don’t feel the need to possess any particular wards against evil, I do own a Rangda mask that hangs on my wall, that I really like the aesthetics of. How about you? Do you possess any symbols that can be attributed to warding off the evils of the world?
One of the perks of having a membership to BMEzine.com is that you gain access to the Surgical and Hard galleries. For those that have never had the opportunity to see these galleries, may not be aware that there are special bonus galleries that are dedicated to individual members. No topic is taboo, and these individuals are continually pushing the boundaries of modifications and mod-related play. Often you’ll get a glimpse of some of these sections in ModBlog’s regular “Guess What?” feature. Today I opted for just sharing a simple picture with you. Now while this is probably on the very tame side of what you can expect to see, it is still an interesting image to share.
To be on the safe side, I’m going to hide it behind a clickthrough just in case a co-worker happens to be walking by.
See, I told you it was tame. But like I also said, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what you can see.
My only concern about this play piercing session is wouldn’t it be difficult to sit down with all those needles poking out?
Ok, fess up, what did you think was going to be behind the clickthrough based on the headline?
which caused writers everywhere to go crazy trying to figure out how to spell his new name. His record label troubles made front pages everywhere, especially after he started appearing in public with the word “SLAVE” written on his face. There was also the rumors that always circulated about him. How he would change his clothes 20 times a day, how he has this vault of thousands of songs that are locked away, and of course his “awakening” (his words) which led him to become a Jehovah’s Witness, which Kevin Smith mocked mercilessly during one of his Q&A videos.
