Just a quick post to help a couple members of the community. Just as I normally get a lot of media requests and post those, these are geared more towards higher education and helping specific members of the community with their degrees!

Hi, my name is Alisha Gauvreau and I am a fourth-year Anthropology student at Laurentian University. As an anthropologist, I study human variation and adaptation, both currently and through time. I also study the central concept of anthropology, which is culture. Culture consists of all behaviour which is learned and transmitted to new members of a group.

As a member of the body modification community, I have always been fascinated by our culture and the various rituals practiced by many members of this important community. Of particular interest is the practice of body suspension and I have had the opportunity to observe suspensions and flesh pulls. Although there is historic information about body suspension among the Mandan and Lakota First Nations people in North America, I have yet to find any academic documentation about this practice in contemporary North America. Thus, I decided to document it.

For my fourth-year university thesis, I am studying suspension as practiced by members of the body modification community in Canada. The primary purposes of this research are:

• Documentation of the subculture of body suspension in Canada.

• Documentation of the ritual aspects of body suspension.

• Documentation of the physiological and psychological aspects of body suspension.

• Education of medical practitioners about the physiological and psychological effects of body suspension.

• A cross cultural comparison of body suspension in Canada with other groups who have been documented to practice body suspension — for example, the Mandan and Dakota people of North America.

• Education of the general public about body suspension.

• Helping to eliminate misconceptions and ethnocentric viewpoints about body suspension.

• Practical applications for the health care community and for other public agencies.

I am currently recruiting individuals who are interested in being interviewed about their perspectives and experiences with respect to body suspension. If you are thinking about suspending, have suspended only once, or have suspended numerous times, then you are eligible to participate in this important research. I have transportation and am willing to travel so I can conduct face-to-face interviews. Telephone interviews are also an option. Participation in my research is entirely voluntary and all data is kept confidential. If you chose to participate, we will both sign a form agreeing to the aforementioned terms. Permission forms for telephone interviews will be handled by fax.

If you are interested in participating please contact me at: [email protected]

The second one comes from another student working on her thesis as well. She’s created an online survey but did not include a photo of herself for me to run some Photoshop filters on and water mark.

“I want to hear your story!

I’m a graduate student with the UCCS sociology department and I’m working on my masters thesis on non-mainstream body modification.

That’s where you come in! (In other words, I need fabulous bodies to study!)

I’m particularly interested in hearing from those of you with “extreme” body modifications/practices, but Mods of all sorts are welcome to participate, of course.

If you’re interested in helping me out please follow this link to take the survey (easier than a DIY job during a 3am power outage, right?)

Tell me your body’s story!

If you have questions, please contact me at [email protected].

Thank you!”

Morgen

If you’ve got the time, please take a moment to help out!