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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Well another week has gone by which means it’s time for another edition of the ModBlog News of the Week.  After missing last week’s news there’s quite a bit to get caught up on, so lets get going.

Now a few weeks back I linked to a story about parents complaining that there is a Barbie doll being sold with temporary tattoos that is offending some parents.  Well those offended parents must not have been keeping up on the latest Barbie news as they’re only now starting to complain about the Tokidoki branded Barbie.

The Internet is abuzz with the news that a recently released Barbie designed by the L.A.-based Tokidoki brand comes complete with a pale pink bob, stacked bracelets, an annoyed-looking pet named Bastardino (seriously) and, oh yeah, a ton of tattoos on her neck and shoulders.  Media outlets such as U.S. News & World Report and The Telegraph have suggested (with meager evidence) parents are outraged that Barbie has been tattooed. And on television, concerns about the doll’s new ink and its impact on children have been raised on the “Today” show, “Good Morning America” and CNN.

But here in L.A., the folks at the Tokidoki offices are shaking their heads in wonderment at the media frenzy and fielding phone calls in amusement.  It’s a lot of fuss over a $50 doll that has been marked “For adult collectors only,” they say.  “The doll was meant for adult collectors. Only 7,400 were made; it’s only available online,” a spokesperson for Tokidoki told The Times. “It’s not like your kid is going to pick this up at Target.”

The Tokidoki Barbie, which became available for sale Oct. 6, is just one of a series of collaborations that Mattel has done with designers over the years.  On Mattel’s Barbie Collector website, buyers can purchase a Barbie clad in a full leather cat suit designed by Christian Louboutin ($150), and a Countess Dracula Barbie with a deep-V dress that descends to below where her belly button would be, designed by Bob Mackie ($150).

For any Barbie related questions, please direct them to BME’s resident doll collector, and current owner of the Tokidoki Barbie, Jen.

Alright, there’s much more news to come, including a video that has been sent to me over 20 times in the past week.

I’m not sure who came up with the idea, but you would think that even if you tattoo people out of your kitchen or living room, you would recognize that tattooing a nine year old is a bad idea.  Well, someone in Scotland disagreed and now the police have to issue warnings like this one regarding “tattoo parties”.

A warning has been issued over illegal “tattoo parties” after a nine-year-old child was given a permanent tattoo.  In another incident in the Falkirk area an adult gave tattoos to adults under the age of 18 at a party involving alcohol and drugs.  Central Scotland Police has issued a warning over the practice of tattooing children after they had received reports of both recent incidents.

Sergeant Allyson Blair, of the interventions, intelligence and information bureau, said that current laws only allow for under-18s to receive a tattoo to indicate a medical condition such as a chronic illness or allergy.  She added: “The legislation states that it is an offence to tattoo a person under the age of eighteen except when the tattoo is performed for medical reasons by a duly qualified medical practitioner or by a person under his direction.  “Further research is being carried out into the information we have received but we would strongly advise anyone who is carrying out such acts to think of the potential consequences both in legal and criminal terms as well as health implications.”

Speaking of bad ideas, a Wisconsin man was arrested last week after breaking into a tattoo studio in the middle of the night.

Over the weekend, police arrested an intoxicated man for breaking into a North Frances Street apartment and a tattoo parlor allegedly to “get a tattoo on his buttocks” at 1:24 a.m. Sunday morning.  When officers arrived, they found the suspect inside Big Guns Tattoo acting “agitated and confused,” according to the report from Madison Police spokesperson Joel DeSpain.  The report said the man “reeked of alcohol,” slurred his speech and claimed he was at the parlor “getting a tattoo.”

A concerned citizen alerted police early Sunday morning after witnessing the suspect “smash through two glass doors” in the 400 block of North Frances Street, according to a police report.  The citizen who reported the incident said the suspect was outside the tattoo parlor earlier in the evening “yelling something about needing to get a tattoo on his buttocks.”

Police arrested the suspect, 22-year-old Ryan Brennan, on two counts of criminal damage to property, two counts of entry into a locked building and underage possession and consumption alcohol off licensed premises.

For some reason I don’t think he used the word “buttocks” in his late night drunken ramblings.  There was no report on what design he was looking to get.

Police in Adelaide, Australia have turned to local tattoo artists to help find a suspect in a sexual assault case.

The victim, who was attacked on October 19 after the suspect broke in to her Croydon home, has worked with police and a tattoo artist to recreate the tattoo.  The victim saw a tattoo of a woman on her attacker’s inner left forearm.  Police have canvassed up to 30 tattoo parlours and studios across Adelaide in an attempt to identify any men with a similar tattoo.  Sexual Crime Investigation Branch Detective Sergeant Simon Bell said the tattoo was the police’s strongest lead to identify the suspect.  “The tattooist community that we have spoken to has been extremely helpful,” he said.  “We have had a great amount of assistance from the tattooist community where the artists have spoken with our victim, with our assistance, and they have created a likeness to the tattoo that the victim saw on the suspect’s arm.”

If you live in or around Adelaide and recognize this design, the article has a list of contact information you can use to get in touch with the police.

In legislative news, the Welsh government is looking to put in place age restrictions on piercings.  As it stands currently, Wales has no minimum age limits for any type of piercing.

Under-16s would be stopped from having cosmetic piercings without their parents’ permission under a proposal from the Welsh government.  It will consult on whether there should be a legal age of consent for piercings, including to ears.  Ministers fear young people being exposed to problems after being pierced, such as infections.  Health Minister Lesley Griffiths said there had been tragic cases when people had died after being pierced.  There is no minimum age of consent in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for piercing. Under-16s in Scotland need parental consent.  The Welsh consultation will ask whether new restrictions are needed and, if so, how they should be implemented.  In a statement to AMs on Tuesday, Ms Griffiths said: “If a minimum age of consent for cosmetic piercing were introduced in Wales, I would favour setting the age at 16 years.”

If you read the article all the way through, the comments section has some comedy gold:

“Tongue piercings are basically a sex aid, like nipple and genital piercings, and should be illegal for under-16s for this reason.”

The US Military is also looking to change some of their rules regarding modifications, in particular tattoos and manicures.

We don’t often think of strict military standards being decided over Facebook. But several weeks ago Sergeant Major Raymond F. Chandler III posted a proposal on his Facebook wall: do the army standards for personal appearance need to be stricter?

Over the next few months, we will be revising AR 670-1. We are especially looking at Chapter 1, which deals with grooming standards. What parts of that chapter do you want to see changed? Give me your thoughts on earrings for females in ACUs, or if French-tipped fingernails should be allowed. What about tattoos? Do visible tattoos in ACUs (neck, hands, etc.) keep us from being professional Soldiers? Thanks again for all who voice their opinions but remember to keep it professional.

Chandler and his fellow military leaders are looking to tighten up the rules, he told the Army Times. “I believe that we can better visualize to the American people and the Army what it means to be an American soldier than we’re doing now,” he said.

I’m not 100% of the legitimacy of this story simply because it came from The Huffington Post’s style section, and they spent more time worrying about the impact not having french tips would have on women in the military.

More news this week from Springfield, Mo.  As many of you know, the local AGRO chapter has come under fire by some city councilors and are facing the possibility of having suspensions forced indoors.  This week things have finally taken a turn in a positive direction as the local media published a story defending their right to suspend in their own backyards.

It must be our age showing, but we don’t get the Anti Gravity Relaxation Organization’s use of hooks threaded under the skin for suspension in the air. Heck, we don’t even like splinters.  But in any case, we don’t really believe this is such a popular and growing pastime in Springfield that a new city ordinance is needed at this time.  A proposed ordinance would follow the state’s lead and not allow the practice if the state prohibits it. The draft would also prohibit the use of public parks or property.  But the city’s action may have more to do with it being uncomfortable — not just for the practitioners, but observers.  A suspension session held in a nearby private backyard recently prompted concerns by neighbors Aaron and Cathy King. We can understand that it was a problem for these parents. But a bit of rope and some sheets by one party or the other after a brief conversation might have been the immediate solution.

No one is arguing that suspension practitioners don’t have the right to push pointy steel into their skin.  In fact, a quick Internet check finds that this practice of suspension appears to have followers not only in a number of states but around the world. Practitioners reference the spiritual as well as the social aspects to the activity. Addressing the health issues is evidently a real concern of the people involved — though you are still wounding your body.  The issue for us is whether this has reached the level of city involvement. We believe the staff and City Council time should be spent on more pressing issues. If there comes a time when suspension clubs proliferate in the Ozarks or fishing enthusiasts report a shortage of hooks, then it can become a matter of public concern.  Shane Shields, co-founder of the local group, has said AGRO will make some concessions. So for now, we urge AGRO members to be good neighbors. A less conspicuous site would be best.

I’ll continue to keep an eye on this and report back on any new developments.

To those of us that are tattooed, how long was your longest tattoo session?  6 hours?  8?  10?  Well if your name is James Llewellyn that number may soon be 50.

A charity fundraiser is attempting to break a world record – by going under a tattooist’s needle for 50 hours.  James Llewellyn, a 27-year-old call centre manager, will have a large and intricate design drawn onto his leg in a bid to set a new Guinness World Record for the longest tattoo session.  The extensive piece of body art, featuring scenes from the Bible and Milton’s classic Paradise Lost, will be completed by Blackwood tattooist Dave Fleet.  James, who lives in Cardiff, will put himself through the ordeal at the city’s Grosvenor Casino to raise money for Cancer Research Wales – a charity close to his heart.

James, who already has a number of tattoos, but has been on a healthy diet and has gone through hypnotherapy to help deal with the pain of the 50-hour-long tattoo session.  Tattooist Dave, who owns the Abracadabra parlour in Blackwood, has 33 years of experience with a needle, but has never worked on a tattoo for more than 10 hours.  He said: “I’m not nervous yet, but I may be when I’m there. I’ll do it though, no problem and long as James will sit through it.”  Most of James’ tattoo will be hand drawn by Dave, who will have to adapt the designs to fit onto the leg.

Honestly, I can’t even begin to imagine what that would be like.

Alright, for today’s last story, it’s the video that so many of you have sent to me.  Montreal’s Rick Genest, also known as Zombie Boy to many of you, has had a busy year.  After being selected by stylist Nicolas Formichetti to showcase Mulger’s spring collection, he was then featured in Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” video.  Now Rick has become the spokesmodel for Dermablend make-up, which has garnered him even more attention thanks to this brilliant piece of advertising.

And that’s all for this week.  Remember to keep sending me those news articles, and make sure to take lots of pictures this weekend.  Halloween is on Monday and I’m hoping to see some great costume and pumpkin photos!  Have a great weekend folks, and remember to be safe.

This week’s news post is going to be a short one.  It seems that there wasn’t a lot going on around the world this week, at least in terms of body modification.  That said, there are still a couple of stories for your reading enjoyment.

First up this week is Q&A with the author of Breastfeeding In Combat Boots, Robyn Roche-Paul.  This particular interview is target to women with nipple piercings who are worried about breastfeeding when they have children.

So if a woman wants a nipple piercing, should she worry that eventually she’ll want to breastfeed, and this’ll screw things up?

Robyn Roche-Paull: No. Chances are, she’ll be fine. Repeated piercings sometimes create scar tissue that can block milk ducts, but in general, a clean piercing by a reputable, professional piercer shouldn’t cause issues. Anecdotally, I have found that breastfeeding is not affected by established nipple piercings. However, some moms do find that they leak, copiously, due to the extra holes in the nipples … and some babies can find the extra flow difficult to manage. But nothing that isn’t manageable by breast pads and some positioning changes.

Will a nursing mother have to take the piercing out when she breastfeeds?

I would recommend that, yes. A baby could choke on a piece of jewelry if it comes apart. It can also cause mouth sores in the baby and harbor bacteria. The mom can take it out for each feeding, or just take it out for the duration of her breastfeeding. She can also use flexible Teflon jewelry while she’s breastfeeding.

The interview goes on to talk about when it’s a good time to get pierced if you’re planning a family.

There’s a few more stories to come, so just click the read more button to see the rest.

Next up, we head over to New Jersey where a group of students have come up with a way to use tattoos as a means of creating permanent empathy.

If typical internship activities include filing and making coffee, Stephanie Krivitzky’s 10 weeks with the BBH Barn were anything but orthodox.  The 22-year-old native of Montclair, N.J., dreamed up The Social Tattoo Project with fellow interns Jenn Huang and Haywood Watkins III. The three were tasked with a very brief mission: “Change perception famously.”

“We wanted to focus on changing perception, because we figured if we had a good idea we’d become famous anyway,” Krivitzky told The Huffington Post. They decided to focus on apathy and the expiration of empathy. Noticing that issues that remained pressing, such as the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Haiti, were no longer a part of the American consciousness, they set about finding a way to create a sense of permanent concern. The first five topics they chose to center on were the aftermath of Haiti’s earthquake, the Japan earthquake and tsunami, the Norway bombings, human trafficking and poverty.

Once the topics were chosen, the group sought out volunteers who would agree to get a tattoo that they had never seen. The tattoos would serve as a permanent mark of empathy for the victims of the five crises.

The Social Tattoo Project has inked five people, the themes of which were selected via voting on Twitter when followers would use hashtags to vote for a subject and the most popular subject would be the focus of the next tattoo. These tattoos cost them the entirety of their $1,000 budget from BBH. Sacred Tattoo in New York City provided the group with a 50 percent discount, which Krivitzky said saved the project.

I guess if they did this to become famous, it sort of worked.  I can’t fault them for trying to remind people that just because the media decided a story wasn’t worth following any more, it doesn’t make the people affected by it go away.

Scientists in The Netherlands have developed a synthetic skin combining human cells and spider silk.  This new type of skin is the first generation of what they hope will become bulletproof human skin that can be grafted onto soldiers.

A Dutch team created a piece of “bulletproof” skin from special, U.S.-made spider silk and human skin cells and found that it indeed can repel bullets — as long as they’re not traveling too fast.  The bulletproof skin showed its superiority over normal human skin by stopping a bullet fired at a reduced speed. But it fell short of surviving a shot at normal speed from a .22 caliber rifle, the benchmark for protection for a Type 1 bulletproof vest.

The special brand of spider silk came from genetically modified goats and worms at Utah State University in Logan. U.S. researchers have spent years harvesting the spider silk protein from the goat milk to try to make new types of super-strong fibers.  Essaidi combined the spider silk with human skin cells from Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.  Such skin is still a long way from adding practical protection to humans, but it gives a glimpse of what future soldiers or would-be superheroes might expect.

You know, as cool as this is, they could have saved a lot of time just by getting bitten by a radioactive spider.

Finally, if you’ve got 15 grand laying around, you can get yourself a pair of contact lenses encrusted with diamonds.

Creator Dr. Chandrashekhar Chawan told Today he got the idea for diamond contact lenses after his wife had the precious stones implanted in her teeth. His new La Ser eye jewelry line features contacts with 18 diamonds adorning a yellow or white gold ring around the lenses. He uses Boston Scleral lenses, which are typically used to treat eye illnesses, to prevent the lenses from touching the cornea. Only 3,996 sets will be made, and Chawan hopes to sell them outside of India. Experts, however, are skeptical about their safety.

Sal Riggio, a licensed optician at Manhattan Grand Optical in New York City had never heard of the diamond contacts until we brought them to his attention, but he dismissed them when he learned they were not FDA approved. “I don’t know if they’re comfortable and I don’t know if they’re healthy,” Riggio told us. “When they’re FDA approved and distributed in this country then we’ll learn about them, but it sounds ridiculous and unreasonable to me. Do I see a purpose? No, but today’s generation under 30, they do a lot of crazy things to their bodies. Tattoos, piercings—they probably would try it.” He laughed when we told him about the $15,000 price tag. “You’re going to have to call someone in Beverly Hills, because I don’t know anyone here willing to pay that. You won’t ever see them in my store.”

Today reached out to Dr. Rajesh Khanna, a cornea and refractive surgeon, who also had major misgivings about the glittery contacts, especially using the Boston Scleral lenses on patients who don’t need to wear them. “It’s a cumbersome, bulky lens, which has to be filled with saline solution and then inserted in the eye,” he told them. “The risk-benefit ratio is vastly different than for a person with healthy eyesight.”

Sure this may not be a permanent modification, but spending that kind of money to change the appearance of your eyes, is definitely a commitment, especially with the risks present.

Well, that’s it for this week.  I told you it was going to be a short news post.  If you’ve got a story you think should be included in next week’s news post, send me an e-mail or simply click this link.

Have a great weekend everyone, and I’ll see you back here Monday.

You know, every time I type in the headline for the news roundup I hear The Daily Show theme in my head.  Last week’s news went MIA when my internet decided to crap out on me for the weekend, however, this week everything is up and running, and there are some pretty interesting stories making the rounds.

First up is an interview with Baltimore‘s very own blue man, Mr. Bluecomma, Jim Hall.

Hall, 67, a recent retiree from Baltimore City’s Planning Department, stands 6-foot-3 and his cut-off jeans and T-shirt reveal shaved-head-to-toe tattooed skin, inked blue and swarming with black swirls and crescents. Hall proudly explains that his tattoo is singular, one big skin-adorning tapestry, much as a Miro extravaganza is one painting with lots of free floating forms. A skin-scape.  He is no less shocking on the streets of Baltimore than what the Romans encountered during their first failed invasion of the British Isles in the 1st century A.D. The Picts merely painted themselves blue for battle. Hall has inked himself blue for life.

Hall has lived in Federal Hill since 1972, but has kept his blue-skinned project a relative secret. In fact, Hall has been something of an urban hermit, avoiding publicity. But now Hall is interested in talking about his transformation into what he describes as “a new human species.” You see, Hall’s metamorphosis from a boxed-in city bureaucrat to a walking spectacle isn’t just skin deep.

What started out as a penis extension turned into three extra testicles, butt implants, chest implants, and more alterations to his penis, including a spike through it fastened by two rings the size of silver dollars. Not only did Hall have to endure the pain and the commitment of sticking with a body-modification plan 35 years in the making, also he estimates he has forked over more than $135,000.  “Most people are born freaks, I turned myself into one,” Hall says, laughing. There’s another catchy saying he repeats innumerable times over the course of several interviews: “I’m glad you have to figure it out and not me.”

It’s a fantastic interview with a heavily modded gentleman who has a great outlook on life, and his personal changes.

More news to come, including yet another salvo fired in the war over Hermosa Beach’s tattoo studios.

We’ll head right into the next story which centers on Hermosa Beach and their continual battle against the town’s tattoo studios.  This started early last year when the town banned any studios from operating.  The studios filed a suit which made it all the way up to the 9th circuit where it was ruled that tattoos and tattoo studios are protected under the first amendment.  Since then, the town has taken steps to marginalize the presence of the studios, while also paying the studio owners the judgement from the lawsuit.  While the town has waved the white flag, some of the citizens are still clinging to hope that if they make enough noise, the studios will go away.  Not likely.

The battle continued this week for Citizens United against Hermosa Beach, who are trying to force the city to create a more restrictive tattoo studio ordinance.  The group brought a lawsuit against the city on April 14, claiming it did not take the proper steps to zone for incoming tattoo shops after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled such businesses are protected under the First Amendment. Citizens United claims the city should have gone through its Planning Commission first, notified all residents near the proposed commercial zones and not adopted the new restrictions so swiftly.

Hany Fangary of Citizens United said the group plans to file the Second Amended Complaint that states the city did not properly publish notifications about public hearings on tattoo zoning and regulations before making them official.  He said the Hermosa Beach City Council “intentionally moved to cut out input from residents” while going through the motions of creating its tattoo ordinances. Fangary said Citizens United would ultimately like Hermosa Beach to keep tattoo shops 100 feet from residences, 200 feet from schools and parks, close by 9 p.m. instead of 10 p.m. and not offer body piercing. This summer the Planning Commission suggested adding those additional restrictions, but the council denied them.

Mayor Howard Fishman voiced his displeasure for having to fight lawsuits that continually chew up municipal funds.  “They have the right to pursue a legal action,” Fishman said of Citizens United. “However, I dislike lawsuits and spending taxpayer money to defend the city’s interest.”

At what point do you think they’ll finally give up?  The studios are there to stay, and there’s only so much the courts will put up with before they shut down this group.

Another case of NIMBY is happening in LeRoy, NY where a pastor who operates a small church out of his living room was recently permitted to run a tattoo studio out of him home, but is encountering difficulties with having his home recognized as a church.

It’s difficult to overlook Eric Schultz in a small community. He is 7-feet tall, wears a clerical collar and has a tattoo that covers the left half of his face.  Schultz, 40, also known as Father Eric, is founder of the months-old Church of Clarity in the Word of Christ, a small congregation based in his village home, 23 Lincoln Ave, where he also runs a body art parlor, Zoo Tattoo.  Now, Schultz is seeking from the village a special use permit required for running a church in a residential neighborhood, but the request has encountered opposition from neighbors, several of whom spoke out at a public hearing this month.

Schultz and his wife of six months, Jean, 42, established the Christian church, which has about 15 members, in January.  “God said to. God made it very clear to me,” Schultz said.  The church has adopted teachings and theology from Catholicism and other Christian faiths. One of the texts it uses is the Catholic edition of the New American Bible.  “We don’t subscribe to a denomination. That gets into a whole big area of semantics,” Schultz said.

His neighbors, however, are adamantly opposed to Schultz conducting services in his house.  “There’s not one in favor. It would not help the community at all,” said Richard Schimley, of 20 Bradnell Ave., a block away from Lincoln.  Schimley, a retired financial adviser, questioned Schultz’s credentials.  “He’s a self-proclaimed priest, minister, pastor or whatever it is,” Schimley said.  He believes one of the reasons Schultz has organized a church is to obtain tax-exempt status for his house. He suggested Schultz conduct his services by renting space in another church in the community.

Schultz said the concerns of his neighbors are based on incorrect assumptions.  “They thought that we were a church that worshipped tattoos,” he said. “There was a lot of opposition to having a church in the house.  “Really, we’re not doing anything.”

The Rev. Schultz emphasized tattooing is his trade but is separate from his church teachings. Body art is not required and the congregation doesn’t judge people about choices they’ve made in the past, he said.  Schultz’s own facial art has no religious significance. He said it’s similar to tattoos the Maori, indigenous natives of New Zealand, put on their faces.  He said he had it done years ago for its “shock value.” Schultz said he was “lost” and exploring various belief systems.  The Bible doesn’t address the issue of tattoos and has less in it about body art than it does about haircuts, Schultz said.

Over in South Korea, tattooing is still fairly taboo.  In fact only doctors are legally permitted to tattoo anyone.  However, with the popularity of tattoos on the rise, a number of artists are coming out of hiding with the hope that attitudes will change.

There are no signs indicating that a three-story building in the fashionable Hongdae area in western Seoul is home to a busy tattoo parlor. After walking up three flights of stairs to Tattoo People, one is greeted only by a large, black door, and, before walking through it, is required to change into slippers and make as little noise as possible as not to disturb the artists who may be inking skin inside.  It’s not illegal to get inked in South Korea, but hundreds of tattoo shops operate underground and outside the purview of the law. Many of them are run by artists who openly advertise their services online and in magazines despite frequent government crackdowns.

In Korea, only licensed doctors can ink skin. Violators can be fined up to 20 million won ($18,939).  This outdated medical law has caused much debate: If skin ink is an art, then how is it possible that only doctors can give tattoos? Many argue that doctors do not have the skill it takes to be tattoo artists.  Historically, criminals were stigmatized with tattoos and cast out from society in Korea. Tattoos have often been associated with criminal behavior as well as membership in the Korean mafia, known as “kkangpae,” or “gangsters.”  Aerok Kim is an influential tattoo promoter and founder of Korea’s most well-known tattoo shop called Tattoo Korea. He has had his parlor raided by police on separate accounts.  “I called my lawyers who came in and asked the officers to leave,” he said.  Most owners are not as lucky. Many tattoo artists cannot afford lawyers and live life on the run, setting up shop in a new location every couple of years to avoid run-ins with authorities.

Last year, the famous Korean singer Park Jae-bum, a former member of boy band 2pm, visited Tattoo Korea to request three tattoos: one behind each ear and one on his chest.   “The next day, we received over 100 phone inquires and a lot of people were requesting the same tattoos,” Kim said.  Tattoos have also been popularized through sports.  Well-known Korean football player Ahn Jung-hwan flashed his tattoo to the world when he revealed it at a soccer match in 2003.  When South Korea hosted the World Cup in 2002, it was evident that a few soccer players were sporting tattoos, helping to make it a more culturally acceptable trend.

To keep up with customer demand, Kim hopes to see changes in the laws restricting who can give tattoos and hopes that necessary changes will be made in order for industry standards to be raised.  “Right now there are no sanitation standards set up in Korea and many unqualified young artists are working without a license because there isn’t any training available,” he said.

Moving on to the UK, police officers in Kent are being ordered to cover up any tattoos they may have.

The Police Federation, which represents officers, objected to the guidance and said tattoos could be an “ice-breaker” between the police and young people.  Assistant Ch Con Allyn Thomas said staff were expected to look professional and smart while on duty.  Kent Police Federation chairman Ian Pointon said the guidance highlighted “a generational gap”.

A statement issued by Kent Police said: “The policy at Kent Police is that some tattoos could potentially offend members of the public or colleagues, or could bring discredit to the police service.  “Staff with tattoos that detract from displaying a professional image may be asked to cover them. A tattoo is deemed to be offensive if it is rude, lewd, crude, discriminatory, violent or intimidating.”  Mr Thomas said: “As has always been the case at Kent Police, there is an expectation that officers and staff maintain a standard of appearance and dress considered professional, smart and approachable, whilst on duty.”  Kent Police guidance on tattoos states: “Tattoos which may be considered to be offensive to any person, and/or are excessive – for example, covering a large area – will remain covered.”

Maybe the next generation of officers will finally be able to work without having to hide who they are.

Just a couple more stories to go, and then it’s off to the weekend.  Philly.com did an interesting piece last week on the artists who donate their time to provide breast cancer survivors a replacement nipple.

Her wholly round 36Cs exposed, Paula Johnson watches Rose Marie Beauchemin mix pigment – first a little brown, then a little pink.  Through the magic of permanent makeup, Beauchemin is about to tattoo nipples on Johnson’s reconstructed breasts.  “It’s all about creating the illusion of protrusion,” Beauchemin said one recent Monday afternoon at her Mount Laurel office as she gradually shaded in Johnson’s areola and nipple area.  After just three sessions, Johnson’s nipples look like the work of Mother Nature rather than Beauchemin’s deft use of an electronic magic marker.  “This was the last step for me,” said Johnson, 55, a trace of relief in her voice. The grandmother from Cherry Hill endured a double mastectomy two years ago after she was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. Johnson’s mother died from the disease.

After all, Beauchemin points out, it’s the nipple that makes a breast a breast. This is why Beauchemin offers her tattooing services free to breast cancer survivors at her Beau Institute.  “I don’t want women walking around without something that’s so important to them that takes me less than an hour to do,” said Beauchemin, who normally charges $300 to $800 per tattoo for women who have scarring from breast reductions or men who have had fat removed from their breasts. Beauchemin, with perfectly cut black hair and unsmudged eyeliner and lipstick, worked as a makeup artist for most of her career. Then in the early ’90s, a surgeon friend of hers suggested she learn the art of permanent makeup to help him with his trauma practice. He would reconstruct limbs lost in car and lawn-mower accidents, and she would use permanent makeup to cover up the scars.

This next story was sent to me by Jeanne who used “Can you read French?” as the subject line.  While my French has all but left me, I was still able to piece together enough to tell you this next story is pretty cool. About an hour north of Montreal lies the small town of Val Morin, which is home to a world renown Hindu temple and yoga center.  It is at this place in the mountains of Quebec that people gather to celebrate Kavadi every year.  Please excuse the very poor translation of the article, as I used an online translator which doesn’t differentiate between Quebec French and France French.

Smile at the lips, Mr. Tavakumar shows its bloody wounds to the movie camera. On his face, no sign of pain or of sunstroke. One feels it fresh as a rose. It nevertheless has just passed five complete hours suspended in the airs, with hooks in the back.  Mr. Tavakumar was the one of the participants of Kaavadi, the Hindu festival that took place last Sunday to Valley morin. Each year since near of 20 years, the small city of the Laurentides welcomes thousands of Tamouls of origin sri-lankaise, come from as far as Toronto and Ottawa to pay homage to the God Muruga.

In 1962, the guru of the yoga Swami Vishnudevnanda had a heart blow for Valley morin in the Laurentides. Listening only his intuition, it there was founded a yoga center that is again today a high place of the meditation to Canada, indeed to the world. At first years 90, it let a temple construct to the same place, while dedicating it to the Hindu god Muruga. The place became a pilgrimage place for the Tamouls of North America, that there celebrate since the festival Kaavadi. The first years, it was necessary to agree with the resident of Valley morin. But today, the party more better is organized: the SQ checks the crowds and the volunteer ones of the center of yoga clean the town once the past parade. Swami Vishnudevnanda, that devoted a passion to the aviation, deceased in India in 1993, but his airplane is exposed to Valley morin close to the temple Subramanya/Ayyapa.

Again, that’s a horrible translation and I’d be more than willing to change it up if any of our Quebec readers could provide a better translation.

Today’s final story is from Esquire, where a professional Tumblrer (is that even a word?) interviews himself about why tattoos are stylish, and how to dress to impress.  For the record, Rachel sent me this story and we both got a pretty good laugh at it.

It started for me in 1993 or 1994. I was in Miami — and this is a bad, clichéd story: I had a pair of white Dries Van Noten sailor pants. So I thought I had to have a sailor tattoo: a heart with a dagger through it that said MOM on my left bicep.

My mom was not impressed, by the way.

What people say is true: The first one is a gateway drug. It will lead to another: “Oh, shit, I want something else.”

I was 39 when I did, essentially, a three-quarter sleeve on my left arm. It was very late in life, which is good: I can’t think of any decision I made at 19 that I’d be happy with at 39 or even now, at 51.

What will they look like at 80? You can’t think about it. Look, if I’m still standing at 80, that in and of itself will be a miracle. However I look will be just fine.

Yes, there are probably too many tattoos. But there are too many bad haircuts, too many bad shoe choices, too many bad jeans.

Because it’s so permanent, that’s a filter.

That’s so scary to me. You can tell when someone has them removed. It’s like plastic surgery. You’re not fooling anyone.

It goes on, but I could only stomach so much.

That’s it for this week everyone.  Have a great weekend and remember to keep sending in those stories.

It’s time again for the weekly news round up, and as always I’ve got a nice little variety of stories this week.  Before I get to those, I wanted to give a quick update on Ran Maclurkin, who as you may know was injured in an accident a few weeks ago.

Here is a picture of Ran up and about on day release from the rehab hospital. An amazing result considering only 2 weeks ago he endured an 8 hour surgery on his spine. The best news is that they are sending him home permanently mid this week. He does need to wear a back brace and neck brace for the next 2-3 months. On behalf of Ran I would like to thank everyone that was so nice as to donate him a few dollars to help him while he recovers.  -Pete Sheringham

BME would also like to thank everyone who was able to send some support Ran’s way, and we all wish him the best on his road to recovery.

On a somewhat unrelated note, Pete had this story to share about an experience he had with a client recently:

Just had the most amazing phone call, 12 months ago today a lady came to get her nipples pierced at The Piercing Urge, while marking out her nipples I noticed a large lump in her breast, I thought that this should be looked at by a GP so I stopped the procedure and advised her of the lump and to see a GP, I felt a little strange doing this as I did not want to panic her in case it was nothing but felt she should at least get it checked out. She went to the doctors and after some testing was told it was aggressive breast cancer and she had 2 months to live. After almost a year of chemo and a mastectomy she is now cancer free.

She called to tell me I had saved her life and told me that she would call each year on the anniversary of her being clear of cancer.

I could be wrong, but I think it may have been a little dusty in the shop when he received that call.  I know I had something in my eye when I read it.

There’s not a lot of news this week, but there are a couple of stories to get you through the weekend.  Keep on reading to see what’s in store for you.

Well, it’s finally over.  The long and publicly drawn out battle between Warner Brothers and Victor Whitmill over the use of Mike Tyson’s facial tattoo ended in the way pretty much everyone expected it to, an out of court settlement.

A Missouri tattooist who claimed Warner Bros. infringed his copyrighted tattoo in The Hangover: Part II settled his lawsuit with the studio Wednesday.  Terms of the settlement, approved by U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry in Missouri, are being kept confidential as part of the deal.  The settlement comes two weeks after Warner Bros. acknowledged it might be liable for infringement, and announced it would remove the tattoo from the December DVD release if a deal was not reached.  The lawsuit, brought by tattooist Victor Whitmill, asserted the comedy features a “virtually exact reproduction” of a copyrighted tattoo he inked on former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson in 2003. The tattoo appears on the Stu Price character played by actor Ed Helms.

The Whitmill lawsuit focused on the esoteric debate about whether a work first rendered on the human body can be copyright protected. Whitmill testified he created the image directly on Tyson’s skin.  There has never been a court verdict about whether a copyright on a tattoo could be enforced.

As you can tell, I’m not surprised at all by this turn of events.  Although I know a couple of armchair lawyers who will be disappointed to know that there still has yet to be a definitive court ruling one way or the other.

In sports news, an Australian footballer was given a red card the other day for having his penis pierced.  I know, I had to read the article twice just to be sure that was the actual reason.  Luckily there’s video of the event!

Macclesfield-born Aaron Eccleston, of Melbourne side Old Hill Wanderers reserves, was red-carded at the weekend for having his penis pierced.  Little Aaron’s bling was deemed so offensive that the referee decided to send him off.

The player can be heard to comment: “I’m making a complaint, ref. It’s not right looking at my c*ck.”  We’re inclined to agree with you, Aaron. And yet you went to dressing room of your own accord and got your tackle out for him!  If you are anything like OTP you are probably thinking ‘how did the ref know about it in the first place?’. The answer, it seems, is that Eccleston took a blow to his privates as he jumped for a header and pulled his shorts down to check he hadn’t lost anything, anatomically or piercing-wise.  He’s no doubt now thinking that check could have waiting until half-time, in which case he would have saved himself from YouTube humiliation.

I wonder if there is a specific rule on the books against that, or whether it’s just a general “no piercings” rule.

Every once in a while we feature amputation photos and stories on ModBlog.  The ones we feature are mostly DIY, and would be considered “successful”.  By successful I mean that the person doing the amputation achieved their goal of removing a part of their body.  Sadly this next story is about someone who wasn’t successful.

A DEPRESSED former property consultant bled to death in his London home after trying to amputate his own legs with a hacksaw, an inquest heard. Barrie Hepburn, 65, was confined to a wheelchair after being shot in the legs during an argument with a neighbor at the couple’s holiday home in France in 2000, the London Evening Standard reported.  He tried to commit suicide twice following the incident, and researched self-surgery on the internet.  Last August he almost completely severed his right leg with a hacksaw in the kitchen of the couple’s residence in London’s exclusive Mayfair neighborhood, the inquest was told.  Hepburn called paramedics and said he was suffering from heavy bleeding, but died before an ambulance could reach him.

His wife Susan – who runs a high-profile hypnotherapy clinic and counts British singer Lily Allen among her clients – told the Westminster coroner’s court that Hepburn’s depression lifted in recent years.  The coroner recorded a verdict of misadventure, noting, “I think it is quite clear he had no intention of taking his own life. This was a tragic turn of events.”

This is one of the main reasons we tend to post warnings with amputation posts and other heavy modifications.  While Barrie may have done research on the internet, the activity was extremely high risk (especially considering it was an entire limb), and sadly he didn’t survive.

As I said, this is a really slow news week, so we’re already at the last story of the day.

Vice Magazine, the publication that is always on top of the newest trends, reported on the new Japanese “bagelhead” phenomenon that is sweeping the nation.  Oh, wait, did I say new?  What I meant was they wanted to seem like it was a new practice, when in reality it was something was picked up 2 years ago by mainstream news, and it features Ryoichi talking about the forehead saline injections he’s been doing for many years prior to that initial news report.

Obviously, it’s now huge there. Saying that, even though it’s exactly what you’d expect from the country of loo-roll dispenser hats, apparently body modification is still somewhat of a taboo out there, with journalists who choose to cover it usually doing so at the risk of their own careers. I had a chat with Ryoichi to try to help me understand why people are choosing to inject themselves with fluids in order to temporarily change their appearance.

When did saline infusions start to get popular?
Well, actually, I happened to meet Jerome, who was the person who pioneered saline infusions, at Modcon in 1999. Modcon is an extreme body modification convention and it just happened to come to Japan that year so I went to cover it for Burst. I got talking to Jerome and we stayed in contact, then eventually I experienced saline with him in 2003 and he gave me permission to bring it to Japan, so I set up a team in Tokyo to administer infusions for other people. That’s been going since 2007.

I figure in another 2 years we’ll see a story in the NYPost about how this is a breaking new trend first featured in Vice.

And that’s it for the news this week.  Remember, if you find an article you think should be included in the weekly news post, just click here to send it in.

Oh, and remember, next weekend is BMEFest!!!  Sign up today!

I’m going to start this week’s news with a story that I’m sure you’ve all heard of by now.  The reason I know most of you have read it?  I received more e-mails about this story than any other one to date.  Heck even Rachel e-mailed me about it.  Then I got an even larger number of e-mails when it was revealed that the entire story was faked.

A video of a woman having her 152 Facebook friends tattooed on her arm has been unmasked as a hoax after it became a viral hit around the world.  A woman in the Netherlands claimed to have created a permanent reminder of all her Facebook friends and posted a video YouTube that got over 1.5 million views.  But the bizarre stunt was revealed to be a fake after the supposed tattoo artist admitted it was just a temporary tattoo.

Lots of news this week, including a couple of follow-ups to previous stories, and the return of the celebrity news (well, maybe just one or two stories).

As I mentioned, today has a number of follow-up stories, and this first one is pretty big.  Over the past year I’ve linked to articles discussing Ariana Iocono.  If you recall, Ariana was the student in North Carolina who was suspended for refusing to remove a small stud from her nose on the grounds that she’s a member of the Church of Body Modification.  This week the school board finally backed off Ariana and allowed her to return to school, piercing and all.  The Washington Post summed up the full series of events, and even talked to one IAM: TrickyDick, about the church and Ariana.

The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented Iacono and her mother in the case, said the settlement was a vindication of the family’s right to determine its own religious practice.  “We’ve believed from the beginning that the Constitution protects a parent’s right to direct his or her child’s religious upbringing,” said ACLU Legal Director Katy Parker. “We’re very happy with the settlement.”

Under the terms of the resolution, Iacono can wear the nose stud as long as she remains a member of the Church of Body Modification, a little-known religious group that claims about 3,500 adherents nationwide and considers practices like tattooing and body piercing to be elements of spiritual practice.

The Iaconos and their Raleigh-based minister, Richard Ivey, said part of the problem last fall was that school officials dismissed the Church of Body Modification faith as not a real religion.  “Obviously we’d like them to apologize, but we’ve been tied up in court with this for months now, so quite honestly, we’ll take what we can get,” Ivey said. “This was always about Ariana’s right to go to school and practice her religion, and she’s got both those things now.”

I think it’s great that the ACLU not only got on board with this, but they were able to get a resolution.  Although I’m still puzzled as to how a nostril stud somehow makes it impossible for all the students to learn something.

Last week I linked to a story from Thailand about the government’s plan to ban tourists from getting religious symbols tattooed.  This week a group of tattoo artists went before the cultural ministry and pleaded their case.

The meeting came after Culture Minister Nipit Intarasombat said he would seek to ban Thai tattoo artists from using images sacred to Buddhism or any other religion in their patterns.  The tattoo artists at the meeting said they understood the problem, but urged the government to use persuasion rather than new laws to tackle the problem.  They pointed out that it is not only in Thailand that people can get tattoos featuring religious symbols, so bringing in a law in Thailand to ban such tattoos would not solve the problem of people being offended at seeing the face of the Buddha or Ghanesh tattooed on someone’s body.  They advocated cooperation between tattoo artists and the government as preferable to the imposition of controls.

The assembled tattoo artists agreed to make no religious tattoos lower than the recipient’s waist, and to make sure the customer understands the image’s significance before starting work.  Ministry man Mr Somchai agreed that legislation might not be the answer – though he did not rule it out – but said that the ministry felt it had to discuss the matter with the tattoo artists so that everyone was on the same page.  “A law might be ineffective in stopping this practice, but the artists must be ethical. They must educate their customers and not [tattoo religious images on] improper areas [of the body],” he said.  The tattoo artists also asked that the government provide them with some sort of professional licence to distinguish them from the amateurs. Mr Somchai said, “I accept your proposal and I will discuss it with the relevant authorities in the Ministry of Commerce, Public Health and Culture.”

While these artists are looking to get licensed, artists in Toronto are possibly facing the possibility of being licensed as well.  Normally I only link to one article, but because I know some of the people involved I’ve got a couple of different links for you to check out.  The first link is from the CBC, discussing the potential legislation.

Toronto Health wants to license the city’s spas and tattoo parlours.  Health Canada provides what’s called infection control guidelines and cities have to inspect all spas and tattoo parlours once a year. But outside of these annual inspections, it’s a self-regulating industry and Toronto Public Health has decided that’s not good enough.

Under the proposed licensing rule, studios and parlours would have to be registered before they can open.  Owners would also be required to post the results of their inspections inside the store, as restaurants have to do now.  Proposed licensing rules are welcome news to Ian Nicolae, owner of Black Line studio, a tattoo parlour on King Street West.  “We’ve seen a lot of fly-by-night shops that open up for the busy season such as the summertime,” he told CBC News. “There should be some sort of regulation to filtrate the bad shops from the good.”

Greg Taylor of Lucky 13 tattoos and piercings on Bloor Street said he’s hopeful the new rules are not simply intended to fill the city’s coffers.  “Are they doing it for a money grab? I hope not,” said Greg Taylor. “I hope they care that they want to do this because I think most reputable shops want to do it.”

Now the way the city handles tattoo studios presently is that they’re mandated by Health Canada to meet certain health and safety guidelines.  Each studio that is registered with Health Canada is supposed to receive an annual inspection.  What the proposed legislation does is require studios to pay an annual licensing fee.  That’s it.  Licensed studios won’t receive any further inspections beyond the Health Canada inspections.  Jesse Kline at the National Post summed up a lot of the concerns in this commentary.

Indeed, licensing schemes usually produce negative health and safety outcomes. This is because licensing standards are often arbitrary and give people a false sense of security. They also make it more costly for people to enter the industry legitimately, something we should be trying to make easier while recovering from a recession. The result is that more people end up performing services on the black market to avoid the licensing fees.

Because tattooing equipment can be obtained fairly easily and with relatively little cost, many tattoo artists already perform their craft in basements and garages. But there is a real risk of transmitting infectious diseases if tattooing is performed with unsterilized equipment. It is, therefore, far better to have them done in reputable facilities, rather than driving the industry underground by imposing new fees and standards.

In fact, the only groups that generally benefit from professional licensing are the industries that are being licensed and the governments that are collecting the revenues. Most new licensing programs grandfather existing practitioners and serve to prevent new entrants from competing against them. It is also a nice way to get around the city’s inability to levy taxes on goods and services. “Why, it’s not a tax. It’s a license. And we’re doing it for you.”

Finally an artist I know well, George Brown from Seven Crowns Tattoo, went on CBC radio to discuss the legislation, where he talks about the incident that may have led to this sudden push for licensing, the impact it will have on clean established shots, whether this is just a cash grab by the city, and how this won’t prevent people who are already dodging inspections from being caught.  Personally I agree completely with George in his belief that this may just be a cash grab for the city.  While licensing sounds good on paper, when it comes to implementing it, what will be the conditions to receive a license?  Will artists have to provide portfolios of the quality of their work, or do they simply need to show up and state “I’m a tattoo artist”?  Will the new law increase the number of inspections (something most studios have no problem with), or will it simply be a piece of paper stating they agree to have the already mandated health inspection take place? The thing to take from this is that reputable studios are all for making things safer, they just don’t like the idea of having to pay money when there is no benefit given.

Moving on, a new Guinness record was possibly set earlier in the week.  The record Staysha Randall was aiming to break was the most number of piercings done in one sitting.  With Bill Robinson and SwingShift SideShow’s Jenn O. Cide performing the piercings, they were aiming for 3600 needles, but stopped at 3200 when Staysha finally tapped out.

For this was not the finishing touches of a tattoo for Las Vegas performer Staysha Randall but a bid to break the record for the most body piercings in a single sitting.  Staysha, 22, who performs in shows across the strip, was attempting to have 3 600 piercings in her back, arms and legs but decided enough was enough after 3 200 had been put in at Inktoxicated Tattoos in the Nevada city.  Helping in her bid was body piercer Bill “Danger” Robinson and his piercing assistant “Jenn O Cide”. The record attempt is still awaiting confirmation by the Guinness Book of Records before it becomes official.

Coincidentally (well probably not) this week was also the annual APP convention.  I’m sure the stories of debauchery are already making the rounds, as are photos of the convention making their way to the BME Galleries, but for today we look at things through the lens of the mainstream with this article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

But for many of the exhibitors at the annual Association of Professional Piercers conference at Bally’s, terms such as “upscale,” “mainstream” and even “organic” punctuated the sales pitches more often than “extreme.” The conference, with about 900 attendees, focuses many of its seminars on health issues, but also covers business issues.  The market for body jewelry has now matured to the point where vendors find a significant demand for $150 hand-carved wooden gauges — large discs used to stretch holes in the ear lobes — instead of just plain metal rings that go for $30. Other types of body jewelry have followed the trend.

Although the show focused on body piercings rather than tattoos, the two are almost synonymous to many consumers, an exhibitor said.  The sector has also started to follow the classic path of pushing up a product’s price by added aesthetics instead of just remaining plain and functional, said Sim.  Further, some of the people who started decorating themselves when they were young are now sprouting gray hair.  “The whole business has changed in the last 10 years,” said Scott Collins, who started Body Gems in Feasterville, Penn., in 1994 and has turned the business over to son, Josh.

While Vegas was a party city this week, over in the UK things were definitely not in a celebratory mood for Mike Prentice, owner of Andy Jay Tattoo Studio in Rochester.  Understandably so, as an online rumor is threatening his entire business.

A tattooist fears his business could be ruined by a smear campaign wrongly accusing his studio of infecting more than 100 people with HIV.  Worried customers of Rochester’s Andy Jay Tattoo Studios have been rushing for emergency tests at Medway Maritime Hospital as malicious rumours spread like wildfire across the Towns.  Owner Mike Prentice said trade has already begun to suffer, with people boycotting his High Street business all week.

It is not clear who started the rumours, but they appear to have begun on social networking site Facebook with claims someone working at the studio had been jailed for 10 years for infecting 102 people with HIV.  Frantic customers have prompted environmental health officers at Medway Council to issue a reassurance the rumours are false.

A Medway Council spokesman refused to comment to the Messenger, but customer service staff were freely issuing the denial to customers.  One told a Messenger reporter posing as a customer: “The rumours are competely untrue.  “We are investigating how they started, but it is safe to go to this tattooist.”

In tech news, a recent invention could change the way people see tongue studs permanently.

Researchers have tested a tongue piercing that’ll allow paralyzed people to steer their wheelchairs in any direction. All they have to do is move their tongue a specific direction and the wheelchair will follow.  The tongue piercing initiative is being run by the Northwestern University School of Medicine and they pierced the tongue of Martin Mireles, a former church youth leader who got shot in the neck. He was able to navigate his wheelchair through an obstacle course with his mouth closed (and his tongue waggling around, of course).

Basically Mireles was pierced with a magnetic stud through his tongue. In order to make the wheelchair move, he had to wear a headset with sensors that could pick up the magnetic waves from the tongue ring. To go forward, he would move his tongue to the upper left corner of his mouth. Easy enough.  Why a tongue ring? Because researcher says the tongue doesn’t tire easily and is usually not affected by a spinal cord injury because its connected to the brain through the cranial nerve. And the tongue ring is more effective than when they glued a magnet to a test subject’s tongue (which would eventually fall off). In the future, they imagine this technology could be implemented to differentiate each task by touch of a tooth. One tooth could mean opening a door, other could mean flipping on the TV.

It makes one wonder what other body modifications could be adapted in a similar manner.  Now raise your hand if you instantly thought of something genital related.

Over in China, suspensions are making headlines after an artist named Nutter held an outdoor suspension and published a video online.

A controversial body-modification process that appeared in Chengdu’s Sansheng Xiang on 14 May shocked onlookers, who described it as ‘offensive’, ‘disgusting’, ‘sick’ and ‘perverted’.  The process, called “body-piercing suspension,” involves suspending participants in mid-air with metal hooks pierced through their skin. Chengdu Economic Daily got up close with the operator and participants to find out more about their personal lives and inner thoughts.

He had been invited to Chongqing and Chengdu by local tattoo parlors which arranged the event and the venues. Then he posted the call for participants and onlookers online. Those who are willing to be hanged do not have to fork out a single cent for the service. But audience members paid RMB40 each. He said there were about 50 people watching in both cities respectively.  However, the piercer does not see body suspension as a commercial venture, because he did not make any monetary gain after deducting expenses for medical equipment, travel and other costs.  Nutter did not inform any media although they always manage to track him online. In response to comments that the activity is ‘sick’ and ‘perverted’, Nutter feels that body modification and body suspension are not meant for everybody. However, he asserts that participants are willing and have thought through their decisions and are exercising their rights over their own bodies.

The article does spend a lot of time focusing on the families of Nutter and the girls who suspended, but they do get bonus points for actually doing research on suspension.org.

In wedding news, Elaine Davidson, whom many know simply as the world’s most pierced woman (I’m guessing they don’t count Staysha’s play piercings) got married this week in Scotland.

Deemed as the “world’s most pierced woman,” Elaine Davidson married Douglas Watson, a conservatively-dressed, piercing-free civil servant, at a low-key wedding ceremony in Scotland, the Telegraph is reporting. The Brazilian-born Davidson, 46, opted for a flowing white dress and floral tiara, but offset the traditional look by painting her face — already studded with 192 piercings — green, blue and yellow.  At a recent count, Davidson, who lives and works in Edinburgh, had 6,925 piercings, included 1,500 that are “internal,” according to the Daily Mail. Despite his bride’s unconventional look and lifestyle, Watson, 60, couldn’t help but gush after the 35-minute ceremony. “Elaine looked astonishing,” he said. “People see the piercings, but I see the amazing personality underneath. We have known each other for a long time.”  Davidson was reportedly first certified as a Guinness World Record holder in 2000, when she had only 462 piercings. According to her website, Davidson never removes the rings and studs, which she estimates weigh a total of three kilos, and insists she is able to sleep soundly with all of her piercings in place as there is no pain involved.

Now that The Hangover: Part 2 has been in theatres for a while, the lawsuit against the studio is moving forward.  Warner Brothers, the studio behind the film, may be in the process of conceding the case by digitally altering Ed Helms’ tattoo for the dvd release.

Warner Bros. has told a Missouri judge that if it can’t resolve the ongoing legal fracas over the tattoo on display in the mega-grossing comedy by the time it comes out on home video, the studio will digitally alter the controversial mark on Helms’ face.  As you’ll recall, Warners was sued by a Missouri tattoo artist who claims he owns a copyright on the unique tattoo worn by former boxer Mike Tyson and Helms in Hangover II. The tattoo’s owner, S. Victor Whitmill, attempted to stop the film’s release but was denied a preliminary injunction. Hangover II has since grossed $350 million worldwide and counting.

The ongoing debate regarding this story is a combination of who owns the rights to the tattoo, and whether the use of the tattoo in the film constitutes “fair use” as it is a parody.  With a February court date, it may still be a while before we finally get an answer.  Unless of course the studio settles out of court.

Finally, as you may recall a few months back I mentioned that actress Rooney Mara, in preparation for her role in the American remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, got several piercings, including her nipples.  With this week’s release of the international movie poster, it turns out that the story was true.

Good for her.  She could have taken the easy route and just used make-up and fake piercings, but for her to go and actually get pierced means she’s taking the project very seriously, which is never a bad thing.

Now if you were looking for more celebrity news, well, that’s it.  Ok, so maybe Bieber got his ears pierced and Chris Brown got a smiley face tattoo, but I couldn’t even stomach clicking the links, let alone reading them, so you’ll just have to take my word on it.

And that’s it for this week’s news.  Keep on sending me those links, either by clicking here, or sending me an e-mail.  Have a great weekend everyone.