..so why would you get magnetic implants without giving them a try right away?
These magnetic implants were done by alienboy, who you may remember from one of his many modblog features or this interview.
On a side note: These magnetic implants were a fairly recent submission so I assume they are the newer generation of magnets that have not been known to have the same coating failure issues the initial batch did.
It’s that time again! What time? The time where I put things on sale to help you poke holes in yourself. We’re putting all of our dermal punches and microdermals on sale for 30% off with the sale code “dermal”. Visit BMEshop
Edit: The prices of microdermals have been dropped to $10.00 each before the discount! Get them while you can!
These photos are courtesy of Sean Dowdell.
Leave your bikes at home, folks – this is Germany’s premier Body Modification eXchange Conference.
Sure, the BMX reference is long since played out, but I must admit the first time I heard mention of “BMX network,” I envisioned a German X Games for modified people; for those that attended, some might agree that some of the performances qualified on that front. But I’ll get to that in a bit. For now, sit back, relax, keep reading and we’ll get to all the gory details soon enough.
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| The Saviours, Jussi and Lassi |
So, where do we begin? How about this: It was hot. And not in a Paris Hilton-esque “that’s hot” sort of way. No, I’m talking about sleeping-on-top-of-the-sheets, butt-ass-nekkid-with-the-windows-wide-open hot. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Texas boy that loves to vacation in the desert — I like the heat. (Although, I also like my air conditioning — something of which Germany and most of Europe has very little.) Actually, it was quite amusing how easily you could spot the Americans: We were the ones sweating to death and drinking copious amounts of water. If nothing else, you can say one thing about Europeans — they’re an adaptive people.
Then again, you would have to be. With so many different languages and peoples all coexisting, Europe is quite the incredible mixture of culture, innovation and ideas. Heat be damned, Germany was a perfect place to hold a body modification conference, even if it was in the middle of nowhere.
In all my international travels, I’ve learned one simple fact: Almost everyone in the world’s modern cities speaks English — so, as an American I’ve always had it easy. And, sure enough, the BMXnet conference catered to English speakers. Yes, there were many classes labeled “German Only.” But, fortunately for those non-Deutsch speakers, the organizers had interpreters on hand to translate via headphones. Granted, the system wasn’t perfect: Technical terms were often difficult to translate, and there were times when the lectures were better heard in the native tongue. But, overall, the information flowed smoothly and everyone came out better informed from the experience — and what an experience it was.
BMXnet was not a tattoo convention, nor even APP meets the EU. This conference was purely educational, with very little of the party atmosphere we’ve all come to expect from modification conventions. Which isn’t to say it wasn’t fun; there was, of course, plenty of socializing and some quiet debauchery that those who were there might speak of in blogs and forums … but don’t hold your breath. What happened in Germany stayed in Germany — unlike Vegas, where the pictures seem to hit the Internet only moments after the deed has been done. Plus, this crowd seemed a bit different. Rather than the week-long drink-fests I’ve attended in the past,this event seemed a bit more polished. The days were structured like college lectures and the nights were filled with some very cutting-edge entertainment.
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| Havve of Pain Solution |
You may have seen some of the images featured on ModBlog or the hundreds of images in the BME gallery, but photos and even the small bit of video that are floating around really do not do the performances justice. Operafication put on a show featuring suspension and Hilary’s beautiful operatic singing and visual imagery that as always, moved the audience. Pain Solution, with Havve’s quirky humor and some new twists on some classic sideshow acts, was definitely a crowd pleaser. Samppa von Cyborg put on a performance that was best described as bizarre and somewhat disturbing, but in this writer’s opinion, The Saviors stole the show. How, you ask? My friends, photos are worth a thousand words. (I’ll let ModBlog do the talking on that front, but … poor, poor Lassi.) Good times, folks, good times — but I digress. The real reason we were all there was for the convention itself.
BMXnet was an incredibly well structured, highly organized event dedicated the sharing of information pertaining to the body modification industry, hence the name Body Modification eXchange Network. During the day, the lectures and demonstrations all flowed like a well-oiled machine. There was a small area where vendors sold supplies, equipment and even a decent selection of body jewelry. However, the main focus was on the classes. Every attendant was an established body art practitioner that was there to teach, share ideas, learn and ultimately network. Yes, there were older, fairly famous people that many people considered mentors, but generally the participants viewed each other as equals. In every class I attended, the audience sat attentively, soaking up all the information and asking well-informed, highly intelligent questions. The general attitude was definitely serious, but also pleasant and relaxed at the same time. Of course, there were some differences of opinions, but everyone listened and there never seemed a point when voices were raised or egos were bruised. In fact, I know this may sound hard to believe, but I swear I sat amongst several hundred well established and highly acclaimed body modification professionals and for the most part there seemed to be no ego at all.
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| Hillary of Operafication |
With any good review there should always be positive and negative points. However, it’s honestly hard to find problems. There was a free buffet available all day. Beds — yes, beds — were set up in different areas for people to sit and relax; I managed a quick nap while waiting for the magnetic implant lecture. We were even shuttled back and forth from the hotel to the venue. Truly, the crew of BMXnet were very gracious hosts that went above and beyond the call of duty to make everyone feel comfortable and welcome. If I had to point out any potential changes for next year, it would be the input of more opposing views. Maybe we have just evolved as an industry, or possibly it’s that Europeans are so courteous, but this author loves nothing more than a good high-spirited debate. Yes, I’m known for being the devil’s advocate, and I do have a history of provoking arguments. However, there is a method to the madness. If there is one thing the body modification industry has been guilty of doing, it’s accepting knowledge without question.
Doubt me? Well, here’s a simple fact that was often discussed during the conference. Over 95-percent of the world’s piercings that are done with threaded jewelry are healed using externally threaded jewelry. Now, it has been commonly accepted — at least by the Association of Professional Piercers, of which I am a founding member — that only internally threaded jewelry is suitable for new piercings. Sorry, the numbers don’t lie. Yes, there are many factors that make one piece of jewelry better than another, and I still stand by the quality of several of the internal manufacturers, but it’s time to look at the statistics and accept the facts. The days of, “We’ve always done it this way” and, “This is how we were taught” are long since over.
[Steps off the Soap Box]
OK, it may seem that this article has gone off course, but nothing could be further from the truth. Statements like the paragraph above were the true foundation of BMXnet. We were there to challenge each other. Once you know it all, there is no more room to learn, and if there’s one thing this experience has taught me, it’s that there is so much experience and knowledge that far surpasses my own. I went to teach a class on Laser Tattoo Removal, co-present a suspension safety seminar and further participate in a suspension roundtable, but I walked away with so much more.
There were questions asked that made me rethink many of my fundamental ideas of both my past experiences and my future direction. I saw many new techniques and learned interesting new facts on topics I once thought there was little left to know. I watched amazing practitioners work and put faces to names that were once just photos in magazines. I got to know colleagues that were at best acquaintances, and earned new respect for people I have known for many years. I gained more confidence in my personal accomplishments and was humbled by the skills of others. Treated as an equal and indulged like a guest. If you can stand the heat, this is the best kitchen this author has visited in a while.
Fred‘s recently been getting involved with his local indoor climbing club (that’s chalk, not cocaine) and adds “It just goes to show that even with a magnetic implant, you can still use your fingers to their fullest!”
That said, there are still a lot of risks involved and much more research to be done on magnetic implants.
I went away for the weekend. It wasn’t worth the stress and the headache of knowing I wouldn’t be updating. At least the site only had to go 3 days without a massive update. This update is full of tattoo goodness. The missing May 24th images should be resurrected by this update. Not sure what happened. It’s most likely an error in the zip file that didn’t unzip properly causing the HTML files not to be updated. The search engine on the main page is also working again.
The cover for this update is unmistakably work by Cere on MagneticDistortion. Not only is Cere BME, you are. I am. We all are. If it wasn’t for the community. Where would any of us be?
The next image update should include more work by Cere as well. Hopefully some great photos out of Texas and I know I’ll have convention coverage from NIX after the convention in the middle of June. I’m going to have a booth there which is nice. Notice the banners? If you’re in the Toronto area, hope to see you there.
The only thing I need now is a great convention banner. Anyone feeling creative?
So, it took magneticdistortion over two years to finish her laundry, and now she’s tackling her next task. Everything!
I’m much more efficient, today I splashed out on a stick of 1GB DDR RAM for my (borrowed) computer, what does this mean for you? It won’t take five minutes for Photoshop to resize an image I’m editing for ModBlog. 256MB just doesn’t cut it.
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– Dr. Foster, Dawn of the Dead
After rejecting art school for a stint in the Navy, DJ Minor commiserated a few bad jobs at a tattoo shop near the base, and not long afterwards found himself tattooing tribal armbands on GIs… He just “kept waking up as a tattoo artist”, and the rest is history. You can find him at TastySquirrels.com and KantReed.com, and on Myspace as djminor.
* * * BME: How did you get into art and tattoos? I wasn’t drawing portraits of my friends at age three or anything, but I was steadily drawing from the third grade on. I got into photography and technical illustrations in high school due to a very persistent High School Art Teacher. She got me all revved up about a serious art career — as long as it wasn’t photographing kids at SEARS she would be excited. Time goes on and I got a full scholarship for an art School in Savannah, GA, which I turned down for a trip to boot camp. This threw me into a different art reality of the tattoo parlors beside the base. I would have been awesome at SEARS though. BME: Were you also exposed to tattoos as a kid, or were the base parlors the first time? My uncle was in the Navy and was covered with little demons, and flowers from all over the world. It was really interesting since South Carolina, where I am from, didn’t have legal tattooing, or many heavily tattooed people. When I got out of the Navy myself I was covered in the kind of tattoos that make laser treatment techs rich — but visibly covered none the less. Living in the southern heartland didn’t really take well to a twenty-something all sleeved out with naked ladies and skulls. After a few bad job decisions, I decided to take a few hours break at a local tattoo shop with an artist named Crenshaw. Knuckle head thought I was still enlisted, and was crackin’ on me for my lovely collection of art. Next thing you know, I am rewiring broken power boxes and tattooing GIs from Fort Gordon with Crenshaw! I really don’t know what happened after that — I just keep waking up as a tattoo artist. BME: Tell me about your first customer? So my first customer walks in, and throws down with some seriously sweet red tribal arm band action. Oh yeah! After probably two and a half hours longer then he was ready for, we wiped off my glorious red masterpiece. The client base at the time was a lot different from the tattoo show watching public of today, a little less informed about current trends in magazines and the art behind tattoos — they really liked tribal and Old English tattoos!
BME: Obviously your uncle doesn’t mind, but what about the rest of your family? My grandfather was a Pentacostal preacher from the South, and my mom still thinks one day I’m gonna wake up and decide against them. Most of my family just doesn’t care anymore and it’s just who I am to them. The South isn’t like the rest of the country as far as ink and body mods go — I’ve been on the road for many years traveling, and I’m really happy to be away from the negativity from all of that Bible Belt mentality. BME: Did you teach yourself to tattoo when you, I guess, just started doing it? How do you improve your work? Tattooing was a sink or swim atmosphere and very intense. I quickly realized I needed more training, so I started traveling more and more until I just became a gypsy. I’ve been to every corner of this country I could, trying to learn more, and immersing myself into tattooing around as many talented artists and tattooers as possible. I owe any successes I have had over the years to my friends. Tattooing was a very private affair a few years back. The open ideas, and willingness to trade information of the last few years has really helped increase my tattooing technically. Lots of practice, and lots of technical critiques really have helped me push my tattooing to some very different places compared to when I first started. Fortunately the ability to tattoo more technically opened the arena to better art, so I worked on drawing and painting. Both mediums helped push the other. It’s kinda nice working with different mediums. You get stale and bored if you don’t. Recently, my wife has been pushing to work with oils more and more, and I’ve been on an art vacation the last three months while my the shop is being refitted. I really get super critical with my work. I learn from each piece — little things to make it better, cleaner, and more crisp than the one before it, and improve on the next one even more. I try to outdo myself each time. Critique from others is a large part of how I get better, so I don’t much care for open forums. You get a lot of washed out opinions on the Internet from people trying to be nice. I keep mine for artists I respect and that influence me. No matter how good you are, or think you are, outside eyes often can pick up things you never see yourself — whether it’s line weight, or contrast, you often just need a little extra outside opinion to help. I also often try to incorporate as much non-tattoo art influence as possible too. There are so many possibilities with this medium that it just seems a waste not to.
BME: You said you’ve traveled and worked with a lot of people — who are your influences as an artist? Tattoo-wise, it’s always been Joe Capobianco, Josh Ford, Josh Carlton, and Eric Merril — guys like that have been on my radar since before I was a tattooer. Recently, people like Gonz, Jason Wheeler, and a lot more West Coast artists have been drawing my attention to more traditional themes and styles. I am looking forward to going back out to Reno and LA to work around them as much as I can. Currently, I am in Houston. Obviously Nate Beavers is a name heard a lot lately, and working down there with those guys was a pleasure. Rick Clark and CMFL are workaholics and make you feel guilty for not painting and working more. But, in this business, there are always amazing artists popping up out of the woodwork making your jaw pop. However, in saying that… I’m still gonna cut off Kyle Cotterman’s hands — maybe just his fingers, haven’t decided yet. BME: Who would you choose to tattoo you? Josh Carlton, Joe Capo, and my wife Jen — but I could name lists of people if I had more skin and time. Joshua is a quiet tattooer with loud ideas, and just slick tattoos. His Alla Prima Ink just really looks cool healed. I’d glady trade my black arm for a sleeve from Josh — might be time for some more laser removal? I still have a lot of open skin and I have barely been tattooed at all in the last few years… I would love to get some pin-up action from Mr. Capo. Finally, my wife is my new live-in tattoo artist. I love her work, and we are about to start my back project. I’m super-excited, but she is super-preggo, so I have to wait a little while longer. Once we move back to Reno, we will start on it. BME: What have your favorite places been to work in your travels? Each area I travel to really helps me expand. Hawai’i was still the most awakening experience I have had artistically, but the majority of my education was in Atlanta. However, every pin-poke on my map has increased my artistic vocabulary. I really can’t say enough about traveling — I made myself a promise, and this is my last year of being a gypsy full-time. I’m turning into a homebody as of late, so you’ll see me on the West Coast as a fixture not just a glimpse.
BME: What kind of machine do you use? You can tattoo with a quill from a sea urchin with black soot from a fire, but I’m too lazy for all that. I still run electromagnetic tattoo machines. I haven’t given into the air machines yet, but who knows. Most of my machines are just random one-offs from different machine builders like Dave Riegel, Josh Ford, BadBrass, and what-not. I wish had more, but my buddy Jay in Atlanta talks me out of most of my irons when I go home for a visit. I have a huge ink rack from several companies, but ink brands don’t matter much. You just have to apply the ink to make a tattoo bright and solid. I got one of the fancy Eikon meter power boxes. I never really used the meter, but it glows all pretty in my booth. BME: What kind of tattoos are your favorite to do? Tattoos without a huge back story. I am sure that everyone could come up with the most meaningful tattoo ever to be on TV, but there is nothing as fun or rewarding as doing a tattoo just because. No reason or rhyme — just a tattoo because it looks cool. I got an elephant shitting out a Dorito on my neck. It doesn’t mean anything but the fact that I have a nacho flavored chip on my shoulder. Most of my clients are pretty chill. I do a lot of odd zombie stuff lately. Not because I want to; people just like dead shit. Who can blame them? BME: What do you think of those TV shows? They certainly push the idea that everything needs a long story behind it. Would you appear on one? Hell yeah I would be on a show! I’d be the jerk from any reality show. I love the interest that the shows have brought to tattooing. I am just not really happy about the side they show on TV — any business will have drama. You don’t get a real sense about what is really going on tattoo-wise… “Come back in five minutes, I’ll have that sleeve drawn up and stenciled for ya.” Um, yeah, sure. It may take a little longer in reality. Oh yeah… And you will not find a cat running around in my shop, or a tiger, or a bear, or even an alligator, oh my. I got a zoo at the house for that. The other shows like that Versus show were awesome, but didn’t have the drama the seventeen year-old MTV crowd wants to see like on Big Brother or what-not. Tattoo shows need to show more art — more conventions and art shows. Follow an artist from two weeks out till the day after a convention. That would make for a better show.
BME: Will you tattoo faces and other “public” skin? An eighteen year old walks in and says, “Hey, tattoo this name on my neck…” Well, he probably won’t be getting tattooed. But if you have a fair share of ink, and understand the responsibility of a body mod, then it’s your choice. Don’t think there isn’t a price to pay. Walk up into any store with huge piercings or tattoos and you will quickly learn. People are less shocked these days, but sometimes, you still got to warn or educate a client before they take on certain work. BME: Do you turn many people away? Not too often… most of the clients I turn away are actually just referred to someone else who would be better suited for what they want. Most of my clients are here because they are open to my work already, so most often, people who come see me get me. If that Polynesian back piece is still on your mind, then I’ll hand you Ronson’s info and get you out to Oahu though. BME: What’s the best way for someone to get into the industry these days? Any advice for wanna-be tattoo artists? Be a well rounded artist way before you try to be in this industry. Make your own path, and don’t look for a quick fix. BME: What do you think you’d be doing if it weren’t for having fallen into tattooing? I would have to marry a rich girl to afford my Xbox addiction! Maybe a porn star… who doesn’t wanna watch a chubby guy wiggle on an ugly chick for fifteen seconds? BME: Think you’ve found your life-long calling then? Tattooing for my whole life? If this old body will hold up, I will. My tattoo retirement plan is a little lax right now, but my wife is younger, so I’ll just make her work when I get old. BME: Is your body starting to give you problems? Yeah, I got some nifty glasses — I look like an old man creeping up with my newly founded gray sprouting hair. My back is ok as can be from sitting on painfully flat chairs for the last decade. I would really like to see some major advancements in tattoo chair technology. BME: Finally, what do you think about scratchers and their role in tattoo culture? Trick question, right? BME: Haha, definitely not… thanks for talking to us!
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For those that didn’t see the links on boingboing yesterday, Quinn posted her slides from the talk, and there’s also a video of it that you can watch. The slides are probably old news for anyone that’s been around BME for a while, but the video of the talk is very interesting and while it covers functional modification (Quinn also has magnetic implants), I found her comments on cutting and other things in that realm very insightful.
You know, as problematic and non-longerm-viable as they are, magnetic implants are really one of the coolest modifications that have come along in the last decade. Here’s Jymmi‘s magnets by Steve Haworth (who has decided to call his new blog “ModBlog”, so I should mention that they’re not related sites other than in subject) at about five months old, showing off their strength…
See also: my magnetic implants and their removal.
…and more importantly, how you’ll handle them. Because if you don’t think you have the resources to deal with potential problems, you should strongly consider whether those risks are worth it.
Although the experience of having magnetic implants is remarkable — you can literally reach out and “feel” power running through cables, engines spinning inside harddrives, power leaks in the surface of electric stoves, and much more, all without physical contact — the experience of having to remove the implants is all too common and extremely unpleasant.
The majority of silicone dipped mangetic implants (which as far as I know are no longer being made) installed so far have ruptured and broken down (which happens within a week of the shell opening), and removal requires a large flap and the excision of some tissue because of how dramatically the magnetic disintegrates — as you can see it’s essentially a powder.
This magnet was installed by Steve Haworth (to be very clear I understood the risks and removal procedure and have no hard feelings toward anyone about how it turned out) and removed from my finger by Tom Brazda. For me the experience, while rather unpleasant at the end, has definitely been worth it.
See also: Initial BME article on magnetic implants, my magnetic implants (getting them), and the removal of my first magnets.
