As I mentioned back at the end of December, I was putting together a compilation of the top news stories from 2011.  I based the top 10 off of both the e-mails I received and the size of the discussion the story created.  So without further ado, here are the top 10 newsfeed stories of 2011.

10: Raid in Indonesia results in 75 Indonesian punk music fans being detained, having their piercings removed and heads shaved.

This story happened in the 2nd week of December, which you would think wouldn’t be enough time to break into the top ten, but the religious debate that the topic spawned pushed it on to the list.  Religion is always a touchy subject, but to hear it being used as the reason to remove modifications from people hit close to home for a number of you.

9: Moms should remove jewelry when breastfeeding their children.

This interview on a blog for mothers got a lot of attention from the Modified Mom brigade.  The common belief was that the woman being interviewed had probably never breastfed with pierced nipples, and was just spouting off common urban myths.

8: Doctors are referring patients to plastic surgeons for “Designer Vaginas”.  Some as young as 11.

This story from August wasn’t even the lead story of the week, but it did garner the most attention, prompting discussion on consensual female circumcision (in this case labia reduction, not hood/clitoral removal) and the role of England’s public health services.  There were questions raised as to why male circumcision is covered by NHS, but labia reduction isn’t, as well as how old a person can be before they’re allowed to go through the procedure, especially considering an 11-year-old was referred to a plastic surgeon.

7: A beloved teacher came under fire from a local politician for the horrible crime of “teaching while tattooed”.

This story hit home for me personally as I am I former modified teacher.  What stood out the most for everyone wasn’t the fact that the local politician went after the teacher, but rather the school, the kids, and the parents who all stood up to defend the teacher, saying his tattoos and piercings had no bearing on his ability to teach.  Once the politician was shut down by the school board, there were no more complaints filed.

6: Circumcision party!

Yep, back to circumcision again.  This time it was a Guinness record attempt by a city in the Philippines that resulted in hundreds of boys being circumcised over the course of a few hours.  The Guinness record people declined to recognize the event as they don’t endorse any kind of mass medical procedure records.

5: Zombie Boy becomes the new face of fashion.

It was a big year for Montreal’s Rick Genest as he went from virtual unknown to being on television sets around the world.  When Rick was chosen by stylist Nicola Formichetti to be the face of Thierry Mulger’s newest clothing line nobody expected him to suddenly appear in Lady Gaga’s newest music video.  Well nobody except for Formichetti who is also Gaga’s stylist and appointed Rick as her new muse.  Since the music video Rick has gone on to become the spokesperson for tattoo concealing make-up.

4: Tattooed Pigs.

It wasn’t really a surprise that this story is on the list, as debates about animals tend to get heated.  To some this was flat out animal cruelty, while others pointed out that all of the pigs had been saved from slaughterhouses and were now living a life of luxury (at least as much luxury as a pig can have).  Of course there was the 3rd opinion that couldn’t understand why the pigs weren’t on their plates.

3: TLC’s Tattoo School.

Yep.  TLC tried to put on a TV series about a “tattoo school” that could teach you everything you need to know how to tattoo in 2 weeks.  And by “everything” I mean “just enough to do some serious damage to a person and possibly infect them with some kind of disease”.  Thankfully TLC pulled the show from its line-up quickly.  Unfortunately the school itself is still in operation, and teaching more and more people how to be a scratcher.

2: ABC News publicly mocking heavy modification on air.

The subject of the story was supposed to be ear pointing, however with selective editing and commentary, it ended up just being a story ridiculing the entire body modification community.  Starting with calling it a “fad” and using the line “can’t people be happy with what they have?”, it was obvious that there was going to be nothing objective about it.

1: Mom shoots botox into her child’s face.

And your number one story for the year is this one.  In addition to injecting her child with botox, the mom regularly has her daughter’s body completely waxed to prevent hair growth later in life, and has promised to allow her to get breast augmentation and a nose job as soon as possible.  Response to this was overwhelming, not only on ModBlog, but all over the world.  Within a few days of the story going public child services swooped in and removed the child from her mother and placed her with other family members.  It’s safe to say her pageant career ended that day as well.

So that’s it for 2011.  Starting next week we’ll be back to news as usual.  So remember, if you find a story you think should be included in the news of the week, just send me an e-mail with the link.  Have a great weekend everyone, and I’ll see you back here Monday.

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