2006 BME YEAR END AWARDS

2006 BME YEAR END AWARDS

Let me first apologize for the terrible layout and style of this piece… I thought it was more important to get it online than to waste time prettying it up.

Thanks again to everyone for a year full of wonderful pictures, articles, and experiences. I think we (everyone from the person who helped financially, to the person who submitted a single navel piercing, to the megacontributors) did a great job bringing BME into it’s thirteenth year online, and continue to stay true to the reasons it was started in the first place… Essentially, to let people know that the way they feel is not just normal, but valuable.

For the second year in a row, our over top contributor was KitanoKaryuudo (who is pictured to the right) with a truly staggering 6,526 images submitted in 2006. What’s even more amazing is that Kokomi (another BME/HARD ultracontributor, and last year’s second place contributor) was only twelve images shy! Even outside of the BME/HARD realm, the top contributors submitted just amazing numbers of images. It blows my mind how generous everyone continues to be with their time. I can not thank you enough.

Anyway, I try to do these things a little differently every year. This year I decided it might be fun to do a regional breakdown, so I split the contributions into regions that roughly represented the number of contributions they generated… On the lists below you can see those winners along with their local and overall ranking. Links go to their IAM pages.


TOP IMAGE SUBMITTORS, OVERALL, BY REGION

ASIA
Regional
Ranking
Overall
Ranking
# Submissions Contact
1 1 6,526 KitanoKaryuudo
2 29 592 Crazy Glamour
3 37 507 Sui Otoko
4 61 304 nobcatz
5 62 300 BME/HARD – Anonymous
MAINLAND EUROPE AND SCANDINAVIA
Regional
Ranking
Overall
Ranking
# Submissions Contact
1 2 6,514 kokomi.3k
2 8 1,991 madmax
3 14 1,447 BME/HARD – Anonymous
4 15 1,391 bena
5 25 657 BME/HARD – Anonymous
6 33 547 babakhin
7 34 543 BME/HARD – Anonymous
8 40 480 BME/HARD – Anonymous
9 49 413 tan0k
10 53 403 Shadark
CANADA
Regional
Ranking
Overall
Ranking
# Submissions Contact
1 3 3,056 RussFoxx
2 6 2,362 Lexci Million
3 10 1,705 Holy Flesh
4 20 834 jasonvandervee
5 27 599 Efix
6 31 580 lilfunky1
7 35 521 Myke
8 55 387 Cerra
9 57 358 Vex Hecubus
10 70 258 JesseV
USA
Regional
Ranking
Overall
Ranking
# Submissions Contact
1 4 2,775 perk900
2 5 2,426 stainless
3 9 1,739 SteveBennett
4 16 1,372 Big Rick
5 17 970 KIVAKA
6 26 606 j_scarab
7 32 552 holeybody
8 36 507 BME/HARD – Anonymous
9 43 445 Allen Falkner
10 44 435 Shawn O’Hare
11 46 423 MUTE-ONE
12 46 423 Melissa
13 48 414 Zebra Tattoo
14 51 408 barryb
15 52 406 CaptNipp
16 56 372 HollywoodPiercer
17 60 306 toxicskin
18 69 265 Piercer Dave
19 72 250 phoenixxx
20 76 225 tattooedheart
CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
Regional
Ranking
Overall
Ranking
# Submissions Contact
1 7 2,323 Valnei
2 11 1,640 cutuvi
3 13 1,485 Joao_Caldara
4 22 725 Lucas Takano
5 39 487 UREA
6 41 460 peco
7 42 450 Freakboy
8 45 430 RAFAEL
9 58 341 deb
10 63 288 wild skin
THE UK, IRELAND, AUSTRALIA, AND NEW ZEALAND
Regional
Ranking
Overall
Ranking
# Submissions Contact
1 12 1,501 alienboy
2 18 967 Piercing Pete
3 19 877 dispel
4 21 797 Stretcher
5 23 723 holierthanthou
6 24 715 strawberry
7 28 598 joker
8 30 580 vampy
9 38 503 tattoodfreak
10 50 410 VEAL
THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
Regional
Ranking
Overall
Ranking
# Submissions Contact
1 134 138 dave


Admittedly, the race for the top few spots is daunting, but depending on where you live, submitting enough to win a placement is definitely doable… It’s also interesting looking at the breakdown to note that different types of pictures are dominant in different areas.

As all years, there are prizes as well as recognition. This year there are three different prizes. First of all, everyone who places (on any of the lists here) gets either a staff shirt or a container (more about that below), or both if they place more than once. The staff shirts (which you may have already seen on my IAM page) are based on a sectional view of a head containing various body modifications, and their explanations in Latin. And of course he’s got BME on the brain…






TOP IMAGE SUBMITTORS, BY SECTION

As well as splitting up the results by geographic region, we generated them by section of the site again. Those lists follow:

TATTOOS
Ranking # Submissions Contact
1 910 Big Rick
2 479 babakhin
3 285 j_scarab
3 285 Joao_Caldara
5 278 Zebra Tattoo
PIERCING
Ranking # Submissions Contact
1 1,097 alienboy
2 724 KIVAKA
3 654 Lexci Million
4 529 holierthanthou
5 385 Valnei
SCARIFICATION
Ranking # Submissions Contact
1 641 Valnei
2 527 Lucas Takano
3 513 madmax
4 324 Lexci Million
5 318 Joao_Caldara
RITUAL
Ranking # Submissions Contact
1 2,614 RussFoxx
2 2,073 stainless
3 1,228 SteveBennett
4 1,092 cutuvi
5 964 bena
BME/EXTREME
Ranking # Submissions Contact
1 523 madmax
2 267 SLS-Frank
3 247 Valnei
4 181 old soldier
5 173 SteveBennett
6 169 RussFoxx
7 156 Stretcher
8 146 holierthanthou
9 126 Shawn O’Hare
10 122 Anonymous
BME/HARD
Ranking # Submissions Contact
1 6,517 KitanoKaryuudo
2 6,514 kokomi.3k
3 1,447 Urban Soul
4 832 jasonvandervee
5 609 Stretcher
6 592 Crazy Glamour
7 543 AvantGarde
8 526 Holy Flesh
9 507 Sui Otoko
9 507 Anonymous



As I mentioned earlier, as well as printing shirts, I’m also printing containers (sort of like a sharps or first aid container) with the same logo (although single color). Maybe a place to keep your jewelry, maybe a place to keep your play piercing needles… The exact style of container isn’t confirmed yet so I can’t show you a picture but it’ll be printed with the logo in one of these two ways:





THE SCRIBES OF OUR COMMUNITY

As well as pictures, personal stories and articles are the other core part of BME’s mission to inform and share experiences. The top writers wrote huge numbers of articles, with the top dozen all writing at least a full-length article a month.

EXPERIENCES AND ARTICLES
Ranking # Submissions Contact

1 50 Silhouettes
2 26 strawberry
3 24 broken_wings
4 19 Fuzzybeast
5 16 Caroline June
6 14 Ribibe
7 13 delusionalfairy
7 13 sweetcheeks
7 13 aniorange
10 12 MilllieB
10 12 deadly pale
10 12 kyo
10 12 rwethereyet
14 11 Bondage-Kit
14 11 Flutterfly
14 11 GucciGurl
17 10 Blackvampyremage
17 10 Kyrenna
17 10 ubergeekgawdess


SPECIAL RECOGNITION!

As well as the obvious submissions, there are many other parts of BME that are generated by the volunteer work of people who go largely unthanked (including quite a few that I haven’t even mentioned in this article!). For example, there’s BME’s newsfeed, which has been tirelessly maintained by volunteers even though updates have been sometimes sporadic (my fault).

NEWSFEED SUBMISSIONS
Ranking # Submissions Contact
1 909 deadly pale
2 758 rebekah
3 261 Ebowlotus1960


As well as obvious and “official” parts of BME, there are large parts of the BME community which are run wholly independently and autonomously that deserve recognition as well. I’m sure there are many more important ones that I don’t know about… I asked at the end of the year who had made contributions to this community (that isn’t otherwise mentioned here), and a few names stood out with regularity… These included:


  • Shawn Porter for organizing both fun events and the Scar Wars series of conventions, and his work in creating a cohesive scarification community both online and offline.
  • Monica for maintaining the series of IAM.Pregnant forums which have been invaluable resources to the many new parents on IAM/BME as this community ages.
  • Warren for his IAM.Learning forum for people learning to pierce.
  • Rebekah for her tireless work promoting IAM/BME members and for her hard work with Modified-News.
  • Anaesthetise‘s Postcard Exchange Forum on IAM is enormous fun for the many participants.
  • Wlfdrgn has undertaken the important task of managing the IAM/BME Scholarship Fund (see BME’s guest articles for more information, or visit his IAM page), now in its third year.
  • Havve and Christiane for their suspension work in Norway and elsewhere.
  • Allen Falkner for — among many other things — suspenion.org.
  • Vampy and Dispel for their many suspension events in the UK and their excellent documentation.
  • Perk900 for a series of great parties and a ton of photos.

I could really go on and on, and in a way I feel guilty stopping… There are so many other places people have contributed — reviewing experiences, helping me on technical issues, writing for and editing the encyclopedia, and more.



QOD STAFF

The core staff of BME’s QOD (Question of the Day — book coming soon!) continues to provide wonderful educational resource. They’re made up of Ryan Ouellette, John Joyce, Shawn Porter, Lori St. Leone, Sean Phillips, and Lassi.


Clockwise starting at top-left: Shawn Porter, Sean Phillips, Ryan Ouellette, John Joyce, Lassi, Lori St. Leone.



CORE STAFF

Finally, let me mention BME’s core staff, some of whom you probably already know, and some of whom you may not be aware of… Without these people, it would be much more difficult to keep BME going. Rachel runs the business end of things. Phil processes pretty much every picture that’s added to the site. Rooraaah does the same, but for naughty videos. Jon keeps our UNIX servers going and develops new toys for BME’s users, and Mike helps me keep our Windows boxes alive and uncompromised. Jen handles the customer support, and finally, there’s me, Shannon. Mostly I just put out articles long behind schedule.


Clockwise starting at top-left: Jen, Roo (and me in the background), Phil, Mike, Jon, Rachel.

And that doesn’t even include the staff of BMEshop (primarily Ryan and Corrie).



NOTE TO CONTRIBUTORS

You’ll receive an email and/or IM on IAM from me in the next week with a form where you’ll need to fill in your address and shirt size and all that. I haven’t sent those out yet, but if you don’t hear from me within the week make sure that you contact either me or Ryan and Corrie so nothing gets missed… Other than that, I wanted to mention that there is one very special prize, sort of a secret talisman that will be going out to the very top contributors. Whether they reveal what that item is or not is up to them.


I won’t reveal it here, and probably won’t on my IAM page either, but let me say that (1) it’s very, very cool, and (2) it was created by an award winning butter sculptor.

Thank you everyone for another wonderful year. BME would be nothing without the community that surrounds it and creates it. If you’re reading this, there is a very good chance that you took part in creating this all… If so, thank you. You’ve helped me, and you’ve helped a lot of other people, and I hope you’ve helped yourself as well.


Shannon Larratt
BME.com

BMEZINE.COM 2005 Year-End Awards [The Publisher’s Ring



BME.COM 2005 Year End Awards

Thanks for another great year! With your help, BME continues to go strong as it enters its twelfth year. In this wrap-up article, I’d like to thank a few specific people who helped BME grow in 2005. These lists are just the best of best (or the biggest of the best if you’d like) — thanks must also go out to the thousands and thousands of people who made smaller but still important contributions, to say nothing of the paying members and BMEshop customers who make it possible to keep the servers online.

In 2005, BME received about 60 gigabytes of image submissions totaling approximately 300,000 files. Of those, 188,485 images met our standards and were posted to the site. These successful image submissions came from 24,257 people and were posted in 151 separate updates. Along with those pictures, 7,234 stories and articles were posted and reviewed by site members, and 4,803 articles were posted to the BME newsfeed — almost all by volunteers.

Overall top image contributors

The competition was fierce this year and the numbers are quite staggering. BME/HARD members were competing with both professional piercers and with event photographers for the top spot. Below are the winners for the overall top image contributor of the year:


1. 4,171 images


Big Rick


2. 4,159 images


stained steel


3. 3,733 images


kokomi.3k

4. 3,242 images


KitanoKaryuudo


5. 2,044 images


RussFoxx


6. 1,990 images


perk900

7. 1,523


vampy


8. 1,354


VEAL


9. 1,353


Allen Falkner


10. 1,229


peo52


11. 1,150


hypermike


12. 909


stainless

13. 872


dispel


14. 859


Lexci Million


15. 848


KIVAKA


16. 833


Urban Soul


17. 832


Joao Caldara


18. 824


bena

19. 762


jonathanpiercing


20. 712


Hornet


21. 708


giselle


22. 653


bastard


23. 612


Ars Bonus Gallery


24. 607


wildirishrose

25. 559


joker


26. 510


UREA


27. 507


freakypumper


28. 504


j_scarab


29. 501


Rings of Pleasure


30. 489


Anonymous

31. 475


Anonymous


32. 468


nobcatz


33. 450


Guerella


34. 441


Crazy Glamour


35. 434


RAFAEL


36. 431


Efix

37. 411


rwethereyet


38. 406


deb


39. 397


HeadlessLego


40. 391


mc4bbs


41. 384


Vex Hecubus


42. 354


holey13

43. 353


matt bruce

44. 336


Bea und Lehni


45. 326


Tranquility

46. 325


holierthanthou

47. 320


piercer_dave

48. 313


rollsplitt

Top image contributors per month

And let’s break it down by month as well:

January


1. vampy (871 images)
2. Big Rick (520 images)
3. matt bruce (216 images)
4. KIVAKA (210 images)
5. kokomi.3k (171 images)

February


1. VEAL (241 images)
2. Big Rick (232 images)
3. KIVAKA (173 images)
4. 667 (170 images)
5. Anonymous (137 images)

March


1. stained steel (276 images)
2. Big Rick (240 images)
3. kokomi.3k (174 images)
4. Anonymous (144 images)
5. Crumbs (132 images)

April


1. stained steel (1,268 images)
2. Allen Falkner (796 images)
3. kokomi.3k (337 images)
4. KitanoKaryuudo (318 images)
5. bastard (251 images)
May


1. hypermike (486 images)
2. stained steel (448 images)
3. kokomi.3k (419 images)
4. KitanoKaryuudo (271 images)
5. rollsplitt (201 images)

June


1/2. Big Rick (448 images)
1/2. stained steel (448 images)
3. kokomi.3k (419 images)
4. gastaum (221 images)
5. KitanoKaryuudo (191 images)

July


1. Big Rick (1,346 images)
2. perk900 (707 images)
3. RussFoxx (685 images)
4. KitanoKaryuudo (615 images)
5. Anonymous (454 images)

August


1. kokomi.3k (916 images)
2. Allen Falkner (553 images)
3. giselle (397 images)
4. dispel (356 images)
5. vampy (276 images)
September


1. stained steel (954 images)
2. Big Rick (436 images)
3. RussFoxx (348 images)
4. Anonymous (309 images)
5. dispel (256 images)
October


1. Big Rick (704 images)
2. kokomi.3k (412 images)
3. KitanoKaryuudo (322 images)
4. deb (277 images)
5. Crazy Glamour (160 images)
November


1. KitanoKaryuudo (767 images)
2. RussFoxx (580 images)
3. bena (488 images)
4. Anonymous (404 images)
5. mc4bbs (282 images)
December


1. stained steel (823 images)
2. kokomi.3k (624 images)
3. KitanoKaryuudo (433 images)
4. VEAL (304 images)
5. wildirishrose (243 images)

Top image contributors per section

To make it more fair, I’ve also broken down the winners per section. Most of the names are still familiar, but this also shows you some of the niche contributors who helped keep some of the more difficult sections alive:

Tattoos


1. Big Rick (3,528 images)
2. bastard (629 images)
3. j_scarab (260 images)
4. babakhin (186 images)
5. Efix (158 images)
6. Anonymous (152 images)
7. RAFAEL (150 images)

Piercing


1. stained steel (1,464 images)
2. KIVAKA (675 images)
3. Lexci Million (337 images)
4. piercer_dave (214 images)
5. holey13 (199 images)
6. holierthanthou (199 images)
7. alienboy (150 images)

Scarification


1. perk900 (433 images)
2. hypermike (360 images)
3. Joao_Caldara (318 images)
4. matt bruce (294 images)
5. stained steel (204 images)
6. UREA (152 images)
7. vampy (144 images)

Ritual


1. stained steel (2,090 images)
2. RussFoxx (1,930 images)
3. Allen Falkner (1,347 images)
4. vampy (1,115 images)
5. bena (718 images)
6. stainless (663 images)
7. dispel (661 images)
Culture


1. perk900 (1,145 images)
2. Big Rick (643 images)
3. newaddict (257 images)
4. spot (197 images)
5. Allen Falkner (176 images)
6. Lexci Million (169 images)
7. B-boy (162 images)
BME/extreme


1. jonathanpiercing (511 images)
2. mc4bbs (391 images)
3. emilio gonzalez (214 images)
4. old soldier (173 images)
5. stardust99 (165 images)
6. Anonymous (141 images)
7. Anonymous (124 images)
BME/HARD


1. kokomi.3k (3,733 images)
2. KitanoKaryuudo (3,218 images)
3. VEAL (1,264 images)
4. peo52 (1,229 images)
5. Hornet (712 images)
6. Urban Soul Bonus Gallery (692 images)
7. Ars Bonus Gallery (612 images)

 

Most diverse image contributors

While some contributors tended to submit in just a few categories of BME, other people submitted to many different galleries (piercers especially). In 2005, 739 galleries were updated at some point during the year. The following people deserve recognition for having an active involvement in a wide range of activities covered on BME:


1. stained steel (71)
2. holey13 (62)
3. KIVAKA (55)
4. Lexci Million (55)
5. Efix (50)

6. j_scarab (50)
7. alienboy (47)
8. babakhin (43)
9. holierthanthou (42)
10. redneckzombi (42)


11. HollywoodPiercer (42)
12. el tio pincho (40)
13. Joao_Caldara (39)
14. bob-omb (39)
15. RAFAEL (38)

Most consistent image contributors

Some people submitted only occasionally but in large numbers — for example, folks who documented conventions and events. Others contributed on a more constant basis, meaning that any given update was likely to have an image from them. Of the 151 separate updates posted to BME in 2005, the following people were represented in the largest number of them:

1. KIVAKA (61)
2. Lexci Million (60)
3. j_scarab (55)
4. alienboy (51)
5. Joao_Caldara (45)

Top experience authors

I was blown away by the number of articles some people wrote this year, with the top place being a tie of a story submitted on average every twelve and a half days for the entire year! Here are the top authors of 2005:

#1. 29 stories


kyo
#1. 29 stories


cuthalcoven
#3. 21 stories


aniorange


BlueStar (18)



psychonautje (15)



Lozza_mc (15)



\wolfbane (15)



Skip3s (14)


Paindreamer (14)



hunterjackson (12)


Anonymous (11)


Ebowlotus1960 (11)


WarMaiden (11)


Anonymous (11)


Flutterfly (11)

Honorable mentions (10 experiences): gothicphoenixx, d’Latta, and Orilind.

Top experience reviewers

When experiences are posted they first have to move through a moderation process whereby members of the site determine what should be posted and what needs to be sent back for revision first. Of the 7,526 experiences that were posted, the following list shows which reviewers were successfully involved in getting those ones posted (so this doesn’t include the experiences that were rejected):

1. Ebowlotus1960 (3,387)
2. deadly pale (2,759)
3. cuthalcoven (2,618)
4. Frisky_Vixen666 (2,608)
5. dressxupxdollie (2,442)
6. Yknits2001 (2,374)
7. Skip3s (2,159)

Top BME newsfeed contributors

BME’s newsfeed is maintained by a small team of volunteers (anyone can submit stories) who troll news sites finding any articles that might be of body modification interest to readers of BME. The following people posted the greatest number of stories to the newsfeed:

1. rebekah (2,337)
2. Ebowlotus1960 (881)
3. CajunChefClay (392)
4. piercedjenny (336)
5. Frisky_Vixen666 (334)

BME/News Interns and Staff

In 2005, BME brought on two interns to develop content for BME/News. Much thanks to them for their hard work and articles, and good luck on their future ventures, writing and otherwise:



snackninja
Read all of Jordan’s articles


typealice
Read all of Gillian’s articles

In addition, the following people maintained a column in 2005 on BME:



The Lizardman



Jim Ward



FREE



Fakir Musafar



Princess_Poop

QOD Staff

As it has for years now, BME’s QOD staff tireless answers body modification questions from the public. Here are the members who posted regularly over 2005:



MONTE



Gary



shawn.spc



spikesandstuds



amorphous


LexTalonis


vampy


The Fog


j_scarab


Lassi

BMEshop

BMEshop is a small family business that runs independently from (but is still partnered to) BME. Here’s who makes sure that your BME swag and body modification gear gets to you quickly and at a fair price:



badseeds


tcie

BME Core Staff and Volunteers

And, of course, BME’s core staff of volunteers and employees:



badur
Badur’s done a wide range of things for us including being held hostage by a hostile ISP!



CT
CT helps with server maintenance, especially with our IIS servers.



PhilipBarbosa
Phil does much of the day-to-day image processing.



1101001
Jon maintains and administers many of our UNIX servers and also does development work.


dita
Dita runs BMEjapan.com


Jen
Jen handles customer support email and manages the experience moderation system.


Rachel
Rachel runs the business and financial end of BME and also does server maintenance, installation, contracting, moving, and more.



glider
That’s me, Shannon!

I have almost certainly forgotten people from this list, and for that I apologize! I’ve also I’ve left off related projects like wlfdrgn‘s IAM scholarship, Shawn Porter‘s SPC, and Crow‘s Modified Mind, folks that contribute to ModBlog, that all deserve their own credit as wel.

But what did they win?

Everyone you saw mentioned on this page gets a limited edition 2006 BME staff shirt (in whatever color they’d like). The design is based on military unit shirts for those of you who don’t have family in the armed forces, and the latin on the front says “free will”. Anyway, if you see someone wearing one of these, you can bet that they made significant contributions to BME (or perhaps robbed someone who did), and thus influenced the future of the body modification community with their input (thus “PROPHET”) on the back.



But wait — there’s more! You know I love making t-shirts, so instead of just one staff shirt design for 2006, I’ve made two for winners to choose from. If they appear on this page once, they can choose one of the two shirts, and if they appear more than once, they get both. Shirt number two (available in any color but black or white) is a picture of BME’s pinup of the year, Eva (KitanoKaryuudo) — click here for a closeup:



In addition, the top five image contributors won $100 gift certificates to BMEshop, as did the top three experience authors. Oh, and everyone here got free access for a year (not that they need it since they contribute so often). I wish I could give out more prizes!

Thanks again everyone for a great year. Big things are in store in 2006 on a lot of levels; a new content management system, a rewrite of IAM, some new sociopolitical projects, tons and tons of free stickers, and more. I think you’ll like what’s coming…


Shannon Larratt
BME.com

BME 2004 Year-End Awards (Top Contributors of 2004) [The Publisher’s Ring]


2004 Year-End Awards

“Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”

– Special Olympics Motto

For the past few years (2002, 2003) I’ve cataloged the top contributors every year. I don’t know if it’s related, but every year since doing that the number of contributions from the top people has escalated — it was absolutely staggering just how much some people helped out. This article recognizes those people who went above and beyond in contributions to BME, as well as giving public thanks to the many “pseudostaff” members that actually keep the site alive and running… and as I finish up this article, I already have thousands of submissions in my queue for the 2005 awards. Let me begin by showing you what the people on this page got for their work (other than warm feelings of course, but that won’t keep you clothed).

One of the prizes for making it to the list of people in this article is that you get a staff shirt. These staff shirts are utterly unavailable in any other way and are never reprinted or offered for sale. So if you see someone wearing one, they’re someone you can say “thanks” to (either that or they killed someone you can say thanks to and stole their clothes).

The shirt is meant to be reminiscent of a classic sacred heart, although in truth, like most things on BME, the reality is much dirtier. If you won one, if anyone asks, I’m sure you can concoct your own “if you don’t know, you don’t want to know” answer, but in truth it’s a rendering of the amazing Enpassant’s heavily modified (and in this case saline inflated) genitals that appeared on the cover of BME. You can visit his BME/HARD gallery as well if you’d like.

If you are on the list of people on this page, you should have received a message on IAM and via email explaining how to get your shirt (and possibly other prizes). If you didn’t, drop me a line ASAP to make sure your shirt is in the print run!

And now on with the awards!

   

Experience Review Team


2004 saw 9,081 new articles and experiences posted to BME. Before being added to the site they are moderated (reviewed) by a panel of IAM members — they read everything that’s submitted, and then decided which should make it to the site. A total of 1,386 individual IAM members took part in the review system, but the following reviewers approved the most number of experiences to the site in 2004 (this doesn’t include the ones they rejected).

Note: Links go to IAM pages and/or BME/HARD galleries as relevant.

first place second place third place

IAM:Don
Don, rather appropriately a librarian from Coventry, UK, does much of the running of the experience review system for me. With 2,666 experiences personally approved this year he’s reviewed almost a third of all experiences added.

IAM:BlueStar
BlueStar, a twenty year old Photonics Engineering student from Niagara Falls, Canada approved 2,348 experiences this year.

IAM:deadly pale
Deadly Pale’s 1,917 approvals this year put Poland on the top-three map as well, so you won’t be hearing any “but you forgot about Poland” coming from BME’s competitors.



IAM:Cerra
Cerra is in the #4 spot, representing Halifax, Nova Scotia with 1,631 approvals.



IAM:xPurifiedx
Rounding out the top five with 1,525 approvals is Buffalo, New York’s xPurifiedx.



IAM:rebekah
Rebekah (who’s also the queen of the BME newsfeed) places sixth with 1,497 approvals.



IAM:purrtykitty4m

Just squeezing past a thousand is New Orleans’ Purrtykitty4m with 1,046 approval reviews.



IAM:drip

With 1,010 reviewed stories posted this year, Drip ensures that iam:Christian is well represented in spot number eight.

The folks above are all in the “over a thousand” club in terms of successful positive reviews for the year. Below are the runners up (who also deserve a lot of thanks for their help) — each of them reviewed over five hundred approved experiences this year:

  1. der_narr (903)
  2. The Stolen Child (891)
  3. WasabiTurtle (694)
  4. instigator (679)

  1. Fuzzybeast (635)
  2. seahorse girl (613)
  3. Bear151556 (551)
  4. Uberkitty (539)

  1. Shit Disturber (520)
  2. Doldrums (509)
  3. cuthalcoven (505)

Top Experience Authors


Those 9,081 experiences had 7,277 distinct authors, many of whom wrote more than one story. The top BME authors of the year 2004 in terms of number of stories written were:

first place second<br />
place third<br />
place

IAM:Uberkitty
Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s Uberkitty wrote a truly staggering thirty one experiences for BME in 2004. That’s more than one every two weeks!
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

IAM:Dawnie
Dawnie, a charming (and kind of pervy) Southern Belle, is responsible for a total of twenty five experiences, many in BME/HARD, putting her in second place.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

IAM:BlueStar
Rounding out third with an incredible twenty two stories is BlueStar, who’s also a medal-ranked winner on the review team.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22



IAM:der_narr
With seventeen stories written this year, Duisburg, Germany’s der_narr ties for fourth place.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17



IAM:mythernal
Also with seventeen stories this year and tying for fourth place is Michigan pagan Mythernal.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17



IAM:purrtykitty4m
Placing fifth with a still impressive sixteen stories written this year, Purrtykitty4m ranks as both a top writer and top reviewer on BME.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16



IAM:cuthalcoven
Placing sixth with fourteen stories in 2004 (plus an interview she did with her mother) is Toledo’s Cuthalcoven.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13



IAM:porcelina
Ranking lucky number seven is Porcelina from Perth, Australia.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

The runners up for top experiences are as follows (many are tied, thus the repeating numbers):

8. Flutterfly (11 stories)
8. KoLdFroNt (11)
8. Cerra (11)
9. hunterjackson (10)
9. The Stolen Child (10)
9. Marsdweller (10)
9. rwethereyet (10)
9. DirtyPrettyThings (10)
10. JuanKi (9)
11. Orilind (8)
11. Asurfael (8)
11. SadisticSarah (8)
11. Shamus Greenman (8)

Top Image Submitters
Warning: This part of the article contains some
adult photos!


This is where things really get crazy! Of course the largest section of the site is the image galleries; this year 130,319 pictures were added by a total of 14,668 separate people. The top submitters donated truly staggering quantities of images, and competition was tight and fierce. Skipping over Kokomi’s almost ludicrous quantity, the next three were separated by only fifty images! The top BME image submitters of 2004 are:

first place second<br />
place third<br />
place

Kokomi
Writing anonymously from Germany, Kokomi has this year submitted 3,170 new images to his popular bonus gallery in BME/HARD — and he’s ranked every year we’ve tracked submissions!

IAM:rwethereyet
Not only did Walkerton’s rwethereyet submit 1,881 images to both his bonus gallery and other parts of BME, but he also designed a BME shirt based on his interests!

IAM:KIVAKA
A generous person and talented piercer, as the number three image submitter and the top piercer for 2004, Kivaka represents Lockport, IL’s Tattoo City. 1,844 images have been added by him this year.



IAM:MWM416
With 1,828 Marty came so close to the top three, and were it not for being fired for refusing to pierce a minor, he’d be there. He currently pierces at Worcester, MA’s Piercing Emporium.



Bea & Lehni
With 1,368 new pictures added to their gallery, these kinky German swingers stay quite popular!



IAM:nobcatz
Perhaps tired from submitting well over two thousand images last year (he was the top contributor of 2003), with 1,366 pictures in 2004, Japan’s Nobcatz again ranks among BME’s most prolific photographers.



IAM:HeadlessLego
With both a popular bonus gallery and images in nearly all sections of the site, Andie has sent us 1,288 photos this year.



IAM:Efix
With 1,277 photos this year both in his ritual gallery, his scarification gallery, and across the site as a piercer, D-Markation, Quebec City’s Efix is eighth on our list of contributors and the third piercer on the list.
 



IAM:dispel
With 1,227 photos this year, this UK photographer (watch out for him at conventions!) has extensively documented BE and Vampy’s work.



Ars
Having added 1,124 to his creative bonus gallery in BME/HARD, Ars rounds out tenth place on our contributor’s list.



IAM:perk900
Always gonzo, Philadelphia’s Perk900 has added 1,084 pictures to BME this year, the last on our list to crack a thousand.



WenchyBev & Neil
With 933 new pictures resurrecting their gallery in 2004, WenchyBev and Neil’s bonus gallery in BME/HARD continues to grow.



IAM:dsw
At the core of Brasil’s +3 suspension team, dsw has contributed 821 pictures over 2004.
 



IAM:x31337x
Photographer x31337x has contributed 784 images this year, many of them documenting Rites of Passage.



IAM:Cerra
The only person to be a ranking experience reviewer, top writer, and image contributor for 2004, Cerra added 821 images.



UrbanSoul
My kinky friend UrbanSoul from Italy has added 671 new pictures to his BME/HARD bonus gallery this year.



IAM:Asurfael
Scandinavia’s Asurfael has contributed 670 image in 2004, injecting some much needed rock’n’roll into BME/HARD via her bonus
gallery
.



IAM:VEAL
The naughtiest housewife I know, VEAL has added 652 images to her bonus gallery and elsewhere in
2004..


The runners up for top image submitter were as follow:

  1. Codezero (644 pictures)
  2. jonathanpiercing (640)
  3. AlmightyStudios (629)
  4. MontanaPiercer (623)
  5. Joao_Malabares (587)
  6. lilfunky1 (552)
  7. stainless (551)
  8. j_scarab (540)
  9. Cenobitez (536)
  10. shadow (523)

  1. babakhin (505)
  2. (anonymous) (490)
  3. glider (467)
  4. Kirsten (451)
  5. Vex Hecubus (427)
  6. theSearcher (422)
  7. MiZ C (413)
  8. inksation (412)
  9. Alcan (387)
  10. hypermike (379)
    vampy (379)

  1. Big Rick (362)
  2. Sicklove (360)
  3. Foxx (341)
  4. LargeGauge (331)
  5. mac13mac13 (318)
  6. brian (303)
  7. ScabBoy (285)
  8. PiercedPuff (283)
  9. peco (281)
  10. la negra (279)
  11. luvpain99 (269)

BME/News Team


BME/News is one of my favorite sections of BME. It includes a number of columns and articles from the top body modification writers (and doers) around the world, as well as a newsfeed which tracks articles in the mainstream news that are of particular relevance to BME readers. Below are some of the people who more actively made BME/News possible in 2004.


The Lizardman
The incredible, amazing Lizardman, Erik Sprague, writes both a monthly column for BME and a regular “ask the Lizardman” Q&A. Visit him on IAM or at his website for more on his adventures (and his tour
schedule)

Jim Ward
Jim Ward, founder of both the world’s first piercing studio and piercing magazine, documents that history in his fascinating Running the Gauntlet. Visit him at Gauntlet Enterprises.

/>
Fakir Musafar
I’m deeply honored to have the legendary Fakir Musafar, who should need little introduction, writing for BME. Visit him at BodyPlay.com to learn more about his many other projects.

(The late) Cora Birk
You feared him as yttrx and then cried with him as he transitioned to a woman under the name Cora Birk. This gender swap, documented in his Shapeshift column, was ultimately cut short as he became Jamix.
Stay tuned?

Marisa Kakoulas
Marisa’s new column Legal Link addresses legal issues for the modified community, and is a companion to her upcoming book on tattoo law. And yes, she’s a real NYC lawyer, so don’t mess with her.

IAM:rebekah
While other people help as well, Rebekah’s contribution of 2,256 stories to the BME Newsfeed were absolutely essential in keeping it running (and put her nearly two thousand stories ahead of any other person).

QOD Staff


BME’s “question of the day” service remains hugely popular, having been asked thousands of questions over the last year. Not including me, the following staff members helped out this year by each answering over two hundred questions a piece from readers:


IAM:Vampy
This years most prolific QOD answering, slightly exceeding “of the day” with 387 answers in 2004, performance and body artist Vampy is currently best known for her work with UK
suspension team Body Evolution.

IAM:Lori St. Leone
One of BME’s many expats, Alaskan Lori St. Leone owns Darwin, Australia’s Vogue Body
Piercing
. She’s answered 375 questions for BME readers (and her fans) this year.

IAM:Derek Lowe
Derek Lowe, APP piercer at Saint Sabrina’s in Minneapolis masculinizes our top three
by answering 238 QODs in 2004.

Additional work was done by Gary, Sean Philips, Monte, Shawn Porter, Rachel Larratt, Phish, and Ryan Worden.

Other BME Staff


Finally, the people below are some of the core individuals who kept BME running in 2004.


IAM:>glider
Hey, it’s me! I think you know what I do already, right?


IAM:Rachel
My beautiful and brilliant wife Rachel writes and photographs for BME, handles all of our
finances, and is the publisher of her own magazine LOOSE.


IAM:Jen
Jen handles all of BME’s online customer support, out of a cold, cold office in the Maritimes.


IAM:CT
Apparently having forgiven me for endangering his wedding ceremony, Mike takes care of many of the emergency technical issues on BME and IAM and helps keep everything online (either that or he’s planning the greatest revenge of all time).


IAM:Dita
For years now Dita has worked hard to maintain the BME
Japan
portal and has brought BME to hundreds of thousands of new readers through it.


IAM:1101001
Jon has written (and maintains) many of the software tools on BME like the link engine and
iam.crush2. He’s also one of the core forces behind Fishing Fury.


IAM:Badseeds
Ryan and Corrie Worden run BMEshop start to finish. I don’t know if that makes them “staff” or not, but they deserve to be here!

IAM:Vanilla
Not quite so “vanilla” in real life, Danielle not only provided essential help on IAM management in 2004, but she also maintains the wonderful IAM:INFO help site.

IAM:badur
Hailing from exotic Madagascar, Toronto designer Badur is responsible for the better looking
parts of BME’s look, was half of the BME Road Trip, co-organized BMEFEST 2004, and more.

There are a lot of people I’ve missed I’m sure (and if you think I missed you and you want
your shirt, don’t be afraid to write me — I’m talking to you, Blake, co-organizer of BMEFEST 2004).
You’ve seen the numbers though — you know that this is only the tip of the iceberg when
it comes to BME’s nebulous staff of hundreds of thousands of contributors around the world. I
wish I could thank every one of those people here, but clearly that’s not possible. However,
BME stands as a legacy to their efforts, and everyone who’s helped make it happen deserves
thanks.

See you in 2005!


Shannon Larratt
BME.com