Be free all worthy spirits, and stretch yourselves, for greatness and for height.
–George Chapman
Today I’ve spent a bit of time focusing on the work of the artists that make up our community. Specifically the works of one artist, but the idea is there. What doesn’t get discussed a lot on ModBlog is the DIY aspect of the modification community. Now the DIY modification enthusiasts range from the simplest of piercings, to some of the hardest modifications and play sessions that are covered by BME. Due to the nature of the broad spectrum that DIY covers, it is impossible write a post about every aspect without getting complaints from people about writing the longest ModBlog post ever. What I do hope to do is feature DIY stories more frequently as there are a tremendous amount of photos of DIY modifications in pretty much every category of photo.
For today, I thought it would be nice to go with something simple. Now the headline may be a bit misleading but it will make sense if you follow along.
So, what would you say is the most popular form of DIY modification? In all honesty, I don’t have any numbers to back me up, but I think a safe bet would probably be lobe stretching. I think it is safe to say that the majority of people with stretched lobes have at some point performed the stretching themselves, probably without even realizing that they were adding their names to the list of DIY modified people.
A lot of what makes the DIY movement so significant is that it is taking the next step in control over the body. While everyone getting mods is doing it for their own personal reasons, they all are in essence changing their bodies to what they want, primarily through the help of practitioners. What DIY means to many is the opportunity to make the changes that they want but by their own hands. This means that by performing any mod by yourself, you are singlehandedly pushing the limits of control you have over your body, changing it to what you want it to be.
One person in particular who was kind enough to send in an image of a DIY modification is IAM: tiny.vertebrae.
From what I can tell, it appears she’s using a piece of wood to stretch out her own lobes.
So while lobe stretching is fairly common when it comes to DIY modifications, it is still a process that is being undertaken by those who are choosing to modify themselves under their own power. I know someone is thinking it, and yes this isn’t the limit in which a lobe can or has been stretched, but in the moment captured in the image, the stretching is pushing the limits of what came before.
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath (or polymathic person) may simply be someone who is very knowledgeable. Most ancient scientists were polymaths by today’s standards.
The terms Renaissance man and, less commonly, Homo Universalis (Latin for “universal man” or “man of the world”) are related and used to describe a person who is well educated or who excels in a wide variety of subjects or fields. The idea developed in Renaissance Italy from the notion expressed by one of its most accomplished representatives, Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472): that “a man can do all things if he will.” It embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance humanism, which considered humans empowered, limitless in their capacities for development, and led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. Thus the gifted people of the Renaissance sought to develop skills in all areas of knowledge, in physical development, in social accomplishments, and in the arts.
When I started writing today’s posts I had noticed that a few of the images I has selected were all from the same artist. We’ve already seen Gabor Zagyvai’s scarification work, as well as one of the suspensions he performed recently. Now for the final part of the trifecta, I present one of his tattoos.
This piece, entitled “Abstract Mistycism” (not my spelling), was part of the large image upload that Gabor sent in recently. This leg piece is just breathtaking in it’s intricacies. I love how you can get lost in the images, especially considering the monochromatic nature of blackwork.
I was to talk about the term “Renaissance Man”. The wiki definition above gives us the classical definition, and for the most part that definition still works today. I think that Gabor is a good representation of the Renaissance men and women that are so prevalent in the modification community today. While classical artists tend to favor one medium over other others, what we are seeing now is a large percentage of the modification artists branching out from one particular form of modification. Scar artists are also tattoo artists, piercers also suspend people, and even more, like Gabor, cover every aspect of the modification spectrum.
This then brings up the argument, is it now necessary in today’s world to become a master of multiple genres? Is wearing just one hat enough these days to become successful, or should artists work towards perfecting their art in different mediums? I guess the more important question is, have we as a community raised our expectations to the point that artists feel they must diversify to meet the needs of their clientele?
What do you guys and gals think? Does the future of modification lie in artists becoming polymaths, or are there enough people out there that specialization is still the preferred way to go?
Often I get to see an image that just delights me. Most people that know me know that I’m a big horror fan, zombies in particular. When I’m scanning the tattoo galleries for new images I always notice the horror related ones first, but today, when looking at the suspension galleries I was pleasantly surprised.
I had to shrink the image down to fit it on ModBlog, but the full sized version can be seen here. For those with keen eyes you can make out a couple of notable horror icons. I believe that’s Michael Myers on the left, Bela Lugosi’s Dracula on the right, and of course the woman in the middle is Lianna Quigley from Return of the Living dead. I think the reason I like this image so much is that you have all these horror movie related images blended together while blood is dripping down onto it.
While you may not be familiar with Return of the Living dead, it is the movie that you can thank for creating the famous zombie quote “Brainnnssssss”.
Now, if you were in this position, what image would you like to see your blood dripping down on to? Which I realize is a somewhat morbid phrasing to a question, but hey, we are talking about the walking dead are we not?
Oh, one more thing, while not scarring people up like in the previous post, Gabor also spends some of his time rigging people up. There are a few other happy Hungarians hanging from hooks over in the suicide suspension galleries.
Update: Didn’t realize the meaning behind the original image that I used. I’ve since replaced it with the current image.
So I’ve had a few Soundgarden songs stuck in my head ever since I’ve heard the band was getting back together. It got me wondering how a song can be crafted that gives it a timeless quality, like how their songs from 20 years ago still sound fresh today. While pondering this, I was browsing the scarification galleries, when I cam across this image by Gabor Zagyvai.
Which brings me back to Soundgarden. While you may or may not be a fan of theirs, any songwriter will tell you how difficult it can be to craft a song, let alone one that an audience will enjoy. So for the purpose of this discussion, just replace Soundgarden with your favorite musician/composer/band. Like the process in creating a scar, time is meticulously spent over every aspect of the scar. Width of the lines, depth, getting the design perfect, choosing the right blade, and then the placement on the body. All of those factors are considered well before the first cut is made. The same can be said about a piece of music. The right notes, lyrics, tempo, instruments can make the difference between a horrible piece of music and a beautiful one. Like scars, these pieces of music will live on well past the time they were created.
Of course this can be said about any form of art, which is exactly what Gabor has done here with this piece. This piece is only one of several that were uploaded in the past day. Gabor’s own gallery has the entire collection, where many of them have healed images alongside the fresh ones. So while this scar may not be your cup of tea, there are a lot of other beautiful scars you can check out.
Tattoo Hollywood and Known Gallery are also hosting a once in a lifetime opportunity to view works by Kaname Ozuma and Horiyoshi III, appropriately titled: Irezumi Bijin. If you were at the Tattoo Hollywood convention last week you had the opportunity to get a sneak peek at the works by these brilliant artists. Tomorrow night the show begins and will be running until Sept. 18th. I urge you to do whatever is in your power to get to Los Angeles and see this show before it is gone for good.
When:
Opening Reception: Thursday August 26th, 2010 | 8pm-11pm
Show Runs: August 26th – September 18th
Where:
Known Gallery
441 North Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
About the artists:
Kaname Ozuma
Born in Niigata, Japan in 1939, Ozuma Kaname began studying traditional Japanese painting under his uncle, artist Sakai Soushi, from a young age. Moving to Tokyo at the age of 18, he trained as an art dealer while working at a printing company. Afterwards, he moved on to the publishing industry where he illustrated tattoos. The majority of his work continues to be tattoo-related along with other traditional Japanese themes; and often serves as a source of inspiration for master tattooist Horiyoshi III, whose clients in turn, are often depicted in Ozuma’s paintings.
Horiyoshi III
Born Yoshihito Nakano in 1946, Horiyoshi III is the second tattooist to be bestowed the honorific title—the tattooist affixation “Hori” means engrave—in a line started by his master, the legendary tattoo artist Yoshitsugu Muramatsu, or Shodai Horiyoshi of Yokohama (Muramatsu went on to dub his son Horiyoshi II, and later Nakano was named Horiyoshi III). His images are classical Japanese woodblock print motifs such as the phoenix, dragon, snakes, tigers, samurai warriors, Buddhist gods to name a few as well as background images of waves, clouds and various flowers. Among Horiyoshi III’s published works are 36 Ghosts, 108 Heroes of the Suikoden, 100 Demons, and The Namakubi (severed heads), 100 Dragons and 58 Warriors. Horiyoshi’s artistic genius and generosity of spirit have had a defining impact on the world of tattooing, taking it to new levels in this new century.
I’m definitely trying to put plans together to put myself on the road again sometime before the show ends just so I can check it out. Who knows, maybe I’ll see you there.
There are some stories that as controversial as they may be, do need to be told. Before I begin, it’s important that you know a few things about the subject matter of the post. First off, the current Republic of Turkey wasn’t always a democratic nation. The area known today as Turkey was home to one of the earliest human settlements. Over the centuries many empires have risen and fallen, with the most notable being the Ottoman Empire, which ruled over 6 centuries until WWI. Following the first world war, and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire a military commander named Mustafa Kemal Atatürk led the country to become a democratic and secular nation. The Ottoman Empire had previously ruled under Islamic law, and when Atatürk became the first president of Turkey he moved towards the western style of democracy with the separation of Church and State. In the years following the foundation of the new Turkey, Atatürk pushed through a great many reforms to every aspect of life in Turkey. Civic courts replaced Islamic courts, women were grated equal status, and the official language was changed from Arabic to Turkish.
In the decades following Atatürk’s death, he has been acclaimed time and time again for his contributions towards cultural reforms. As for the Turkish government, it continued on following in the footsteps of it’s first leader. Over time the parties in power have changed, and currently the party in power wishes to revert the changes that Atatürk made, and return Turkey to an Islamic republic. The conservative Justice and Development (AKP) party has presently put forth a motion for a constitutional referendum that would allow them to alter the structure of the government.
As for which side in the debate is right, it is not my position to judge.
What I am here for is to share with you the reactions that of some of the Turkish people are having to these proposed changes.
More and more Turkish people, from all walks of life and socio-economic standings, are emblazoning their appendages with the signature of the controversial Turkish trailblazer Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who made Turkey the secular nation it is today. The tattoo reads simply enough “K.Ataturk” in a scripted text. The history behind the specific Ataturk signature that is used for the tattoos is as politically charged as the man himself. According to popular belief, it was the same signage that Ataturk used when he signed legislation to annihilate the Ottoman alphabet, which was in classical Arabic, in favor of a Latin alphabet that was in line with secular European nations.
The resistance to the AKP is so fierce in Turkey, that many tattoo parlors offer discounted prices for the Ataturk tattoo and some offer it entirely for free. Apparently the price for government-supported religious freedom is a price that some people are willing to pay for in blood.
I think this is the first nation-wide protest that I’ve heard of that is being spread through tattoos. Whether you agree with the position that the protesters have or not, the key thing to remember is that these people are showing to the world what their beliefs are, in the form of a permanent modification. As someone who has attended protests in the past, I’ve seen varying levels of commitment to the causes. From extremists who smash window and light cars on fire, to grandmothers holding up a sign on a lawn. I honestly can say I don’t think many of the people I have met are so passionate about their causes to have them tattooed on their bodies.
The thing to remember is that these tattoos are not just being done in protest. Many of the people getting them feel that Atatürk was the man that brought their country to the place it is now, and for them, their national identity is as much a part of them as their own skin.
Like I mentioned before, this subject isn’t one I can comment on, but what I can comment on is the level of commitment these people are displaying. Would you be willing to get a tattoo for similar reasons as these people?
Tattoos can have many different meanings to the wearer. Sometimes those meanings can even change over time. For example a tattoo that was done with a friend present may one day become a memorial tattoo if the friend passes away. Tattoos can mark significant events in a person’s life, the birth of a child, or journey taken. They can be about something the wearer is passionate about, or has played a major role in that person’s life.
Whatever the reason a person has for getting a tattoo, most of the time there is a story to be told. A while back I talked about modified members of the armed services. Today I found a story about one serviceman that I thought would be nice to share.
Sergeant Matthew Jackson, a bomb disposal expert from the 1st EOD Company, likes to quote Charles Manson in relation to his job – “total paranoia is total awareness.” It helps to keep his mind focused when he and his explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) team are working on one of the countless IEDs they have come across during their deployment in southern Afghanistan.
Jackson, on first meeting, looks just a tad eccentric. An English major at college, he is a big Hemingway fan. He wears thick black-rimmed glasses, and along the length of his left arm are a series of tattoos of the molecular structures of different types of explosives. Some call it his crib sheet, but he regards it as a portrait gallery of close friends, whom he refers to fondly as he lists their explosive properties and relative levels of oxygen content. In the center of his forearm is TNT – “the base of all explosives,” by his wrist are blasting cap explosives, nitroglycerin is further up his arm, but his personal favorite, he says with the enthusiasm of a professional collector, is RDX – the main component of C4 – “it’s just neat, it’s sensitive, it’s powerful…”
While Sergeant Jackson goes on to describe how the life of an EOD tech isn’t anything like it is in the film “The Hurt Locker”, he still is responsible daily for the lives of his company, and everyone else serving in Afghanistan. So while the sergeant’s tattoos are jokingly called a “crib sheet”, those chemical compounds are responsible every day for injuries and possibly death for any number of troops or civilians.
Sergeant Jackson’s arms tell a story. The story of a man who puts his life on the line every day to make sure people get home safely. I know that there are ModBlog readers who have served, and I can think of a specific IAM member that ended up coming home after being wounded by an IED. The stories that Matthew has are his own to share. So while we can see part of the story on the surface, it is what is underneath that carries the full tale.
This story is just like everyone else’s. Not everyone with a tattoo has a story that is tied to life or death, but we all have a story to tell. The ink is just the surface, the outer shell of the person inside. The tattoos are the story from inside being reflected on the outside. They are as much a part of ourselves as the stories that make up our life are.
Sometimes the daily grind can be overwhelming. Work, family, friends, bills, kids, and more can all be a joy at times and a curse at others. While we’re all flying through space on this spinning top we call home, sometimes it can feel great just to stop everything and be still.
To everyone the act of being still can mean many things. To some it is a form of release, allowing the stresses of the world flow out of their bodies. For others stillness can evoke feelings of anxiety, the calm before the storm as it were, the moment where everything just seems too good to be true. Even in nature stillness can have many meanings. Those early moments at dawn when a lake is perfectly still, just existing waiting for the world to begin again and reflect itself in its surface, the stillness of the night before still echoing across the glassy surface in the form of the mists. Then there are the predator and prey. The predator stalks its prey until it finds the perfect position to mount its attack, holding everything in and becoming a rock, immovable yet capable of motion. The waiting, the thinking, becoming so still with focus that the rest of the world falls away. While the predator waits, the prey becomes still as well, not with calm or focus, but with fear. Knowing there is danger around and that the slightest movement will set in motion a cascade of events that could be the end of its existence.
The stillness of the world cannot exist without the movement. The time after the world has stopped. The first fish leaping from the water to eat an insect, causing the first waves to break the surface, waves that will continue to move until the next morning when the cycle begins again. The moment where the stillness has fulfilled its purpose and the time to act is present, releasing all the energy locked within in one swift and sudden movement. When the fear changes from the overwhelming power to be still, to the realization that by remaining still will be the end, and movement is what is necessary to survive.
Looking at this photo of IAM: Radical Kiba, you can see the stillness in her. Lost within herself she is looking out on the world. There’s no way to know how she is feeling, but you can feel the stillness.
What is stillness to you? Is it the calm of the water at dawn, the anticipation of the predator waiting to strike, or is it the fear of the prey? Or is it something else, something that only you can feel?
I’ve intentionally been avoiding writing a story about the Millennium Trilogy for a while now. While I haven’t read the books, I have seen the films which are believably good, but despite the title, the tattoo in question doesn’t really play a major role in the films. Sure the character of Lisbeth sports a massive back piece, but seeing as how you only see it a couple of times and the actress, Noomi Rapace, didn’t actually get it tattooed on herself I just assumed that the entire thing was a non-story.
Today I was pleasantly proven wrong.
Before we begin, here’s the trailer for the first film: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
I use Google news alerts to flag stories that have specific key words in them. Tattoo of course being one of them. So you can imagine that with these films gaining international acclaim, the books being bestsellers, and casting rumors flying around for the American adaptations, my inbox has been filled for the past few months of stories about the trilogy. For the most part I just dismiss them, but since they finally got around to casting the role of Lisbeth in the American films, the e-mails have died down.
Yet here I am today, talking about the thing I promised not to discuss on ModBlog. The reason I’m bringing it up now? Well, I’ll let this article from The Mirror fill you in.
Winning a career-making role in the Dragon Tattoo films brought a strange mixture of pleasure and pain to rising star Noomi Rapace. The 30-year-old actress knew she had to nail the part of androgynous anti-hero Lisbeth Salander – or risk offending the many fans of the creator, best-selling author Stieg Larsson. So to really convince as the punky, chain-smoking, kick-ass computer hacker, Noomi embarked on a remarkable transformation. She went on a strict diet, trained in kickboxing and Thai boxing and even took her motorcycle licence. A non-smoker, she began puffing her way through “thousands of cigarettes” both on-set and off it. And she wouldn’t even consider faking all those piercings in Salander’s ears and nose because, as Noomi puts it, “I wanted to feel those piercings in myself.”
You’ll often hear of actors undergoing massive physical changes for a role. De Niro gained a significant amount of weight for his role in Raging Bull, while Christian Bale lost a frightening amount of weight in a short period of time for his role in The Machinist, only to gain it all back plus more in a couple months to be ready for his role in Batman Begins. Actors are required to change themselves to some degree for a role, sometimes it’s simply a costume, and others require a lot more commitment. So for Noomi Rapace, in order to fully transform into the character of Lisbeth she drastically changed not only her physical appearance, but also her behaviour months before filming.
While the diet and smoking is one aspect of the transformation, this being ModBlog I wanted to focus on her mods. You get a brief glimpse of them in the trailer but having seen the films it is obvious that she didn’t just opt for one or two piercings to personify the character. I counted about 10-12 seperate piercings spread out over her lobes, cartilage, nostrils and septum. While by ModBlog standards this isn’t anything too significant, to see an actress portray a character so well, and commit to that many mods is something significant. While the character of Lisbeth is certainly troubled, and goes through several drastic events over the course of the series, what we’re seeing is essentially a mainstream film that doesn’t treat modifications as some form of joke or used as shock value.
I’m sure we’ve all seen films where a “punk” character appears on screen wielding a vast array of facial piercings simply to appear intimidating to the viewer, yet in these films the piercings appear to be just a natural extension of the character. In fact, in the scenes where she isn’t wearing her piercings you get a sense of discomfort looking at her, as if something is missing. Which of course there is. I think an accurate analogy to this would be the NYC skyline post 9-11. The image of the skyline had been etched into the minds of millions of people, and now, looking at it, there is something missing. I’m not making any political statements or anything like that, but the idea that something is removed from an image that everyone was used to seeing makes one feel that sense of “not right”. Of course the NYC skyline itself evokes a lot of feelings, but I think you get where I was going with this. I really think that with Noomi Racpace’s commitment to the role, combined with a skilled filmmaker, that this may be the first portrayal of a modified person that actually captures the essence of the modified culture. Where the focus is on the character, and not the mods, yet when the mods are removed you can tell something has changed not only on her physical exterior, but something inside her as well.
If you were to take a look in a mirror one day and all of your mods were gone, how would you feel? What about those close to you, how do you think they would react if a modification you’ve had for years was suddenly gone without a trace? Because we don’t treat our modifications as something other than what they are, an extension of our ideal selves, we can sense the incompleteness that occurs with a mod is removed. Yes I realize people retire mods all the time, but even then, those first few days really can reveal how much our mods are a part of us.
Looking back at these films with the knowledge of the actor’s commitment to the part, it really shines a light on how a person who is modified isn’t defined by their mods, but by who they are as a person. While this isn’t anything new to us, there still is a large portion of the population that doesn’t realize it. Given that the titular dragon tattoo is the one modification in the film that isn’t a real mod, I thought I should close this post out with a real dragon tattoo from the BMEzine.com tattoo galleries.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who has seen the films. Can anyone else who has seen them weigh in? Did Noomi Rapace actually getting the piercings done change your view of the films and her portrayal, or does her performance stand out on its own without the piercings being a factor?
Well it turns out that when Jennifer Love Hewitt appeared on a talk show ranting about her vajazzle, it was only a matter of time before someone thought to get creative with paint instead of jewels.
A while back I brought you some interesting news on the fine art of Vajazzling, which as we all know now, is the act of adorning one’s vagina with little Swarovski crystals. Enhancing the mons pubis has since been an explosive trend in 2010, and I’m happy to bring you the latest installment: vatooing (also spelled “vattooing!”). Vatooing, is also known as “twatooing,” “vatuing,” or simply “vagina tattooing.” Except these tats (vats?) aren’t painful because they’re applied painstakingly with an airbrush
So while this isn’t a permanent (or even semi-permanent) mod, it is always interesting to see what people will do to modify themselves when they know it has 0 chance of being permanent. The Completely Bare chain of spas in NYC are the ones trying to make this fad as popular as the gluing of crystals to your nether regions. Although after watching the video, I’m not completely sold on the “painstakingly applied” technique. As far as I can see they’re limited to using a pre-made stencil with an airbrush.
I know I’ve posted about body painting in the past, and in a lot of cases an argument can be made that it is a form of art. Can the same be said for this procedure? Or do you think that this is just a quick way to cash in on the fad of women who want to live on the wild side, but not have any real permanence to it? This also begs the question, is this trend limited to women? Essentially they’re only adding gems and paint to the area around the vagina, couldn’t men get something done down there as well? There’s already a debate going on as to whether this should be called “Vattooing” or “Twatooing”, if we add men to the mix, should it be called something else? Possibly “Dattooing”, no, that name is taken by the guys trying to create digital tattoos. What about “Cockattooing”, I think it has a nice ring to it.
Now if this temporary tattoo/gemming business really isn’t your cup of tea, there’s always our genital tattoo galleries where you can go to see the real thing.
