I know, I know, I said today was going to have a religious theme, but bare with me. Steve was the founder of the Church Of Body Modification, so it ties in.
Here he is with a client immediately after pointing her ears, a procedure he pioneered. As more and more artist enter into the realm of “extreme modifications” it’s becoming more and more common for people to know about mods he invented without knowing about him, and thats a damn shame. Well, except for the people who know him as “that guy from the wierd documentary on netflix”, which I have heard several times recently.
Aside from being the single biggest innovator in the body mod world, he is also a super nice guy with an amazing bedside manner, so take a second to wish him a happy birthday.
So here’s the post a number of you have been waiting for. In what I believe is a ModBlog first, Samppa has sent in photos of a complete navel nullification. With posts like this I normally show you the before and after shots, but with the image of the procedure being so large it’ll be behind a click though so it doesn’t clog up the main page.
To start with, here is the end result, 3 weeks after the procedure.
Obviously healing isn’t complete, but it gives you a good idea of what it’ll look like. To see how this was done, just keep on reading.
Samppa is still on his US tour, so if you’re interested in this procedure or any of the other many thing’s he’s capable of, check out his website. He also has a BME portfolio gallery that’s filled with all sorts of other modifications.
Samppa Von Cyborg isn’t just a pretty face. He’s also a pioneer in the modification industry and is currently on tour in the US holding seminars, performing shows, and of course taking clients. Over the course of the week we’ll be taking a look at some of the newest things Samppa has been working on, as well as seeing photos from his tour. You can also take a look at some of his past works in his BME scarification portfolio gallery.
If you’d like to get work done by Samppa while he is stateside, you can contact him at [email protected]. He’s only going to be here until June. After that you can make a booking through his website, voncyb.org
In addition BME is happy to announce that we’ve expanded the portfolio sections of the galleries. Previously only tattoo artists and a handful of other people were able to have their own portfolio galleries, but now these galleries are available to everyone. So if you’re a piercer, a tattoo artist (or studio), a scarification artist, or a suspension crew, and you don’t have a gallery yet, send an e-mail to [email protected] and we’ll set one up for you.
Once upon a time, I was working in a bookstore and one of my coworkers saw my own tragus piercing and proceeded to inform me that the piercing was incredibly dangerous because there is a nerve there and if they pierce it, it will paralyze your face. “No, there isn’t,” I said dryly, trying to extract myself from her eager jabbering. She continued to explain that this was dangerous and then did something that I really, really hate. She reached out and put her grubby finger on my piercing while asking, “Doesn’t that hurt?” I actually flinched and likely responded by telling her that yes, it hurt terribly and I was in constant pain, followed by a roll of my eyes.
What’s the purpose of this trip down memory lane? Urban legends, myths and misconceptions. We’ve all heard them, I’m sure. The dreaded nerve that will paralyze your entire face. Piercing your tongue will cause you to lose all your sensation of taste. If you have a tattoo over your spine you can’t get an epidural. Some of them are funny, some of them are ridiculous but the point is, people believe them and that can have consequences.
BME has always tried to serve not only as a documentation of body modification but as a platform for education. Here’s where you come in readers. Tell me about what urban legends, myths and misconceptions you have heard regarding body modification and if you have the knowledge, feel free to also debunk the myth with solid facts. The information we all come up with is going to be included in the new Misconceptions FAQ on the BME Wiki.
So let’s have them! And just so you don’t think I don’t love you, here’s a gratuitous photo of a beautiful woman pulled from the moderation queue.
Meizy’s piercings were done by Mike French and Spider. Her stone trinity spirals are by Oracle.
The headline of this post is the exact same message that is featured in a number of ads put forth by breathe.sg. I’d like you to first watch both videos, as they’re the focus of the rest of the post.
Keep on reading to find out where these ads came from and why they were made. I’ve broken the post up because it is a long one, and I know how much you guys hate massive stories on the front page.
The last time I posted an ad that featured a heavily modified person there was a healthy debate over the implications from the ad. This time though, the implications are pretty clear. These two people, who have great stories to tell about their modifications and the meanings behind them, should be looked at negatively as they’re on the same level as a binge drinker.
It took a little digging, but I discovered that the breathe.sg campaign began in 2008 as an initiative put forth by the Singapore government’s Heath Promotion Board (HPB). In a press release dated Oct 9th, 2008, the HPB announced the creation of the Breathe campaign.
NHLC 2008: “Breathe”
2 The theme for this year’s campaign is “Breathe”. It seeks to encourage youth to choose (breathe in) life, truth and self-expression and not succumb to (breathe out) insecurity, pessimism, pressure and judgement. “Breathe” will also brand health as exciting, vibrant and an asset youth should treasure to help them achieve their fullest potential and ambitions in life.
3 “Breathe” is targeted at youth aged 12 to 23 and will be launched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the Padang on 7 November 2008.
“Breathe – Game for Life” – Launch Event
4 The campaign’s launch event, “Breathe – Game for Life”, aims to showcase non-conventional, youth-centric activities to encourage the young to cultivate healthy habits for lifelong health. These include Human Bowling, Human Table Soccer and remote control speed racing. Conventional games such as Captain’s Ball will also be given a new twist to demonstrate how these activities can be made more exciting to engage our young in an active lifestyle.
5 Strong elements of music – a universal language among youth – will feature prominently at the launch event. In line with this, the event will feature an exhilarating new dance fitness routine, a hip-hop competition with a healthy lifestyle theme and a dance party under the stars. All these will encourage youth to keep active while grooving to their lively beats.
Launch of “Breathe” Portal
6 A new “Breathe” portal (www.breathe.sg) will be launched to engage youth on various health issues and provide them with information on events and activities held in conjunction with NHLC 2008.
In December of that year, todayonline.com wrote an article describing the efforts of the campaign, as well as it’s initial goals. The article has since been removed, but there there is a cached version of it available on a blog located here.
HE GOT drunk at a friend’s house and ended up taking off all his clothes in the bathroom. “The next thing I knew,” said :student Mervyn Lee, 19, “I woke up in my friend’s bed wearing a fresh pair of shorts.” Tales like this may raise a titter, but the dangers of excessive drinking are all too real. That is why the Health Promotion Board (HPB) will embark on its first nationwide campaign against binge drinkingnext year, aimed at 18- to 25-year-olds. Binge drinking — consuming five drinks or more for males, or four drinks or more for females, within two hours — is an “emerging issue in Singapore”, said HPB in a tender document posted on the GeBIZ website.
The HPB intends to create awareness through student-led projects and educational material targeted at tertiary students, among other things.
– Alicia Wong and Sufian Suderman, todayonline.com
Finally, as part of the 2008/2009 annual report, the chairman of the HPB, Lucas Chow, goes on to describe just how positive the campaign is meant to be. The entire report can be found here but it is a large .pdf file, so just be aware of that if you want to give it a read.
The annual National Healthy Lifestyle Campaign (NHLC) took on a youth focus for the first time, with the theme, “Breathe”. It encouraged young people to appreciate health as an asset for them to achieve their fullest potential and ambitions in life through an array of activities and events.
Now with the mandate of the campaign being intended to bring a positive outlook on their health and lifestyle, I find it interesting that their initial ad campaigns were so negative. To be fair, in addition to the ads, the Breathe campaign does sponsor a number of youth oriented events such as a hip-hop dance competition, as well as other youth themed events. But the question still remains, if the purpose of the campaign is “ to choose (breathe in) life, truth and self-expression and not succumb to not succumb to (breathe out) insecurity, pessimism, pressure and judgement”, aren’t these ads completely disingenuous? When I see the people in the videos I see two people who have chosen truth and self-expression, and aren’t showing any form of insecurity at all. The ads themselves even run counter to the notion of preventing pessimism, pressure, and especially judgement. If anything these commercials are huge examples of judgments being passed on young people in order to put them down and discourage them.
While the 2009 programs seem to be targeted towards reducing the number of teen smokers, the binge drinking campaign is still being promoted on the site’s YouTube channel.
Looking back at the ads, the question arises if the individuals in the ads knew exactly what the campaign was about. I find it hard to believe that two people with such high self-esteem would allow themselves to be used as a metaphor for an unhealthy activity. What I also find interesting is that the 2009 campaign against smoking had a fashion show event where you can obtain temporary tattoos that you’re encouraged to show off, as well as receive discounts at stores for wearing the tattoo. So while in 2008 having a lot of tattoos is equivelant to binge drinking, in 2009 suddenly it’s cool to show off a tattoo, even if it is temporary.
If the comments for the videos on YouTube are any indication, I’m not the only one who finds these ads offensive in they way they portray heavily modified people. It’s a shame that they took this approach because they may not receive the results they intended.
So ModBlog readers, what are your thoughts on this campaign? Is there a big enough cultural difference between how we see these ads, and the target audience would, that our perception of it is skewed? Or did the HPB completely miss the mark, and put out a campaign that will infuriate more people than it could help?
With a positive or healthy body image, a woman has a real perception of her size and shape. She also feels comfortable with her body. With a negative body image, a woman has a distorted perception of her shape and size, compares her body to others, and feels shame and anxiety about her body. Being unhappy with your body can affect how you think and feel about yourself as a person. A poor body image can lead to emotional distress, low self-esteem, unhealthy dieting habits, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. Developing a positive body image and a healthy mental attitude is crucial to a woman’s happiness and wellness.
I had a conversation with an ex-gf last night. We were out with a group of old friends, and someone handed us a picture of the two of us from when we were dating. She looked pretty much the same, which is impressive as the picture was over 10 years old, while I looked substantially different. Sure my head is shaved now, I have a beard, and I wasn’t even modded back then, but the thing I noticed most was my body. I’m not an overweight guy, I’m a little on the big side of average, but nowhere close to being an unhealthy weight. In my mind, I’ve always been roughly the same size. It turns out, I’ve been wrong. You see, in the picture I was a stick figure. I started asking around, “was I really that skinny?”. I was holding a photograph of myself, and I still couldn’t believe it.
It really got me thinking about how we perceive ourselves by our body image, as well as how much we rely on others to judge us. While I don’t want to get too deep into a discussion about eating disorders and the like, I did want to talk about how we, as people who go to great lengths to modify our bodies, feel about the judgments and stigmas that arise when discussing body types.
We as a community are a very unique bunch. We all do things to achieve what we perceive as the way we want our bodies to be. We push the limits every day of what the human body can take in terms of modification. We stretch, pull, poke, cut, and more, all in the goal of getting self satisfaction.
So given all that, what makes us different from those with eating disorders? I’m not trying to make any accusations here, I’m just throwing some ideas out there to discuss. Think about it. To a person who has a negative body image, like the quote above describes, they are not happy with the way their body appears. These people will then go to extremes to try to force their bodies into how they believe it should appear. Crash diets, excessive exercise, eating disorders, all of these are what people (and yes this goes for men as well as women) go through to change themselves. The sad part of these behaviours is that often when the person reaches their initial “goal”, they will find something else wrong and continue the behaviour.
So where does the fault lie? Where do these people get the notion that they need to change themselves to fit a specific ideal? This is where the line gets very blurry. We as a community are continually changing ourselves. Some more than others, and some even feel the need to continually change as they can never quite attain their goals. Plus there are a number of modified people who also suffer from a negative body image, and do have the same problems that an unmodified person may have. I think the answer may lie in the motivations. With modifications we deviate from the “norm”. What may be considered unacceptable in some places, is celebrated here. We have bonds with each other where we can get together and discuss our progress. We talk about new techniques, new ideas, ways to make our changes even better than we could imagine. We have support.
Yet when it comes to issues of weight and body image, things become slightly different. To discuss one’s modifications with other modified people is the norm in our community, to someone suffering from an eating disorder, talking to someone about it can be the hardest thing in the world to do. To talk to someone means that you first must accept that you have a problem, but then you have to do the unthinkable, which is go to someone and say out loud that you have a problem with your self-image and you need help. There is no stigma in our community towards getting modified, yet for some reason when a person chooses to alter their body shape, or suffers from an eating disorder, there is still a negative stigma attached.
When you look at someone who is overweight or obese, your first thought probably is “they should lose some weight”. Yet to many people they feel that they themselves must lose weight, even if by society’s standards they aren’t overweight or obese. There have been many studies and books written talking about how over time the media and society have crafted what would be considered the ideal standard, which to many people is an unrealistic standard. We’re now in a world where more and more people are doing drastically unhealthy things just to meet this falsified standard.
Which brings me back to us. Do we as a community hold a double standard when it comes to body types? We’re a global community that willingly welcomes people with open arms, regardless of what they look like in terms of their mods. Yet when we discuss body type and body image, do some of us forget how we’re all here because we are taking control of our bodies, which means accepting the way we look? The reason I’m asking these questions stems from an older ModBlog post that was brought to my attention. Last December IAM: Botexty submitted an image of her newest tattoo. She just sent in a healed image which I want to share with you now.
Going back and looking over the comments, you’ll find a mixed bag of reactions. Some discuss the tattoo, others compliment her on her ass, and some do the exact opposite. And while most of those people were chastised, I found it a little upsetting that readers of ModBlog, who are some of the most open-minded people I have had to privilege to know, can possess the capacity to judge a person simply on their body shape. Isn’t that part of the reason we’re all here. This community is built as a safe haven for those sick of being judged out in the world. A place where they can be who they want to be without fear of negative comments about their bodies.
I pose this question to you now ModBlog readers? Are we truly an accepting community, one that ignores the “faults” in others, or are we just a microcosm of the larger world where we have members that find it acceptable to pass negative judgement on a person’s body, while expecting approval for their own body?
Back in February, our very own Tristan made generous offer. He would paint a commissioned portrait and in return donate the funds to the BME Legal Defense Fund. Tristan sent me some photos of one such portrait to share with all of you.
Detail shots after the jump!
Don’t forget to check out Tristan’s website to see more of his amazing work!
Check out some of the people who have applied for the BME World Tour so far. The following are a random selection of audition videos we’ve received so far. Remember you have until Saturday so there’s still time to submit your application.
Remember Taryn? Thanks to all of you, she’s currently in the number one spot, but the competition isn’t over yet. She needs to be in the top 3 by February 28th to be one of the finalists. Through your efforts, she could win the opportunity to volunteer, through ONEXONE. Show your support for Taryn and for this wonderful cause.
And don’t forget folks, the World Tour Internship Contest closes on Saturday (we all know what Saturday is, my birthday). Get your applications in and don’t forget to include a link to your audition video! I’ve seen all of the applications so far and now I know how it feels to be a judge on a reality show. If only we could take everyone who applies!
Also, whether you’re applying or not, you can help us out! If you’re from Europe/Asia/Australia/Africa, we would really appreciate it if you could list your country, the cities in that country that you think we should visit as well as the names (url, location, etc) of the best shops in town! Help us locate the best places near you! Maybe we’ll even get to see you there! (Well I won’t since I’ll be managing the tour from my igloo in the frozen wasteland that is the east coast of Canada, but the rest of the group will!) You can post below or, feel free to email us at [email protected]
What’s that you say? I can have my portrait painted and help BME at the same time? Tell me more! That’s right readers, our very Tristan, who you may remember from such posts as this one, has sent us the following:
Elation
A portrait of Robin Henry-Wilson
11 x 14
oil on board
I finished this painting in under 20 hours; record shattering speed for me. I’ve never painted someone while they were around to watch the progress or even stand over my shoulder. It was surreal. I loved watching the look on her face as she’d run by and point, “that’s me!”
I’m donating my time to help the BME Legal Defense Fund. For $200 + s/h, I’ll paint a 9″ x 12″ portrait from a photo. 100% of that $200 goes to the BME Legal Defense Fund and you keep the original painting.
I understand money is tight right now for everyone so this is a test. I’m doing one painting on a first come first serve basis. After that painting is complete, If others would like to participate I’ll paint more. If you have any questions please email me at thewhiteleaf at gmail dot com.
You can see more of Tristan’s stunning work at his website. IAM members can contact him directly through his IAM page. Non-IAM members can use the email listed above or through his website.
