We’ve seen Adhara doing a bit of dancing before, but it seems that wherever she goes she’s got a great photographer following her every move. And can you blame them? You get a beautiful girl like Adhara dancing with a giant sword, and people are bound to take notice.
You can check out more photos of Adhara in the labret and earlobe galleries, and you can also check out the sword dance in the video below.
Rachel (aka Snake Woman) has sent in yet another series of pictures that showcase just how great the BMEGirls tag can be. This time around she’s showing off her half-sleeve by Frank Pirrone.
There’s one more photo to check out, so keep on reading.
Check out the rest of the photos in the photo galleries.
Now before you get upset that I’ve been posting more BMEGirls than BMEBoys, I pick the images from the submissions sent in by you, the ModBlog reader. So boys, send in those photos. I’m 100% certain there’s a lot of people out there wanting to see some BMEBoys.
Don’t have an account to submit photos? Sign up today for a free membership. Just remember to include all the information about your photos so everyone can get proper credit.
Oh yes, there will be blood when your ear is cut like the image below.
Now, if you’re like me and only took a quick glance at the image, you’re probably thinking right now “holy crap he cut his ear off!”. Well, that isn’t the case today. DorianVilify uploaded this image of a large gauge helix piercing he performed recently. From the angle of the image I can’t tell if he used a punch or scalpel to cut it out, but in either case, there was definitely a lot of blood involved. You can get a better look at it from the side in the cartilage gallery.
It’s interesting to think of how the image of blood affects different people. For the squeamish, this image probably creeped them out, to others this is just an average picture and nothing to be concerned with, and yet for some, this is a huge turn on. What are your thoughts about the image itself? Does the blood make the image stand out? Or is it just a distraction from the ear?
I’ve intentionally been avoiding writing a story about the Millennium Trilogy for a while now. While I haven’t read the books, I have seen the films which are believably good, but despite the title, the tattoo in question doesn’t really play a major role in the films. Sure the character of Lisbeth sports a massive back piece, but seeing as how you only see it a couple of times and the actress, Noomi Rapace, didn’t actually get it tattooed on herself I just assumed that the entire thing was a non-story.
Today I was pleasantly proven wrong.
Before we begin, here’s the trailer for the first film: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
I use Google news alerts to flag stories that have specific key words in them. Tattoo of course being one of them. So you can imagine that with these films gaining international acclaim, the books being bestsellers, and casting rumors flying around for the American adaptations, my inbox has been filled for the past few months of stories about the trilogy. For the most part I just dismiss them, but since they finally got around to casting the role of Lisbeth in the American films, the e-mails have died down.
Yet here I am today, talking about the thing I promised not to discuss on ModBlog. The reason I’m bringing it up now? Well, I’ll let this article from The Mirror fill you in.
Winning a career-making role in the Dragon Tattoo films brought a strange mixture of pleasure and pain to rising star Noomi Rapace. The 30-year-old actress knew she had to nail the part of androgynous anti-hero Lisbeth Salander – or risk offending the many fans of the creator, best-selling author Stieg Larsson. So to really convince as the punky, chain-smoking, kick-ass computer hacker, Noomi embarked on a remarkable transformation. She went on a strict diet, trained in kickboxing and Thai boxing and even took her motorcycle licence. A non-smoker, she began puffing her way through “thousands of cigarettes” both on-set and off it. And she wouldn’t even consider faking all those piercings in Salander’s ears and nose because, as Noomi puts it, “I wanted to feel those piercings in myself.”
You’ll often hear of actors undergoing massive physical changes for a role. De Niro gained a significant amount of weight for his role in Raging Bull, while Christian Bale lost a frightening amount of weight in a short period of time for his role in The Machinist, only to gain it all back plus more in a couple months to be ready for his role in Batman Begins. Actors are required to change themselves to some degree for a role, sometimes it’s simply a costume, and others require a lot more commitment. So for Noomi Rapace, in order to fully transform into the character of Lisbeth she drastically changed not only her physical appearance, but also her behaviour months before filming.
While the diet and smoking is one aspect of the transformation, this being ModBlog I wanted to focus on her mods. You get a brief glimpse of them in the trailer but having seen the films it is obvious that she didn’t just opt for one or two piercings to personify the character. I counted about 10-12 seperate piercings spread out over her lobes, cartilage, nostrils and septum. While by ModBlog standards this isn’t anything too significant, to see an actress portray a character so well, and commit to that many mods is something significant. While the character of Lisbeth is certainly troubled, and goes through several drastic events over the course of the series, what we’re seeing is essentially a mainstream film that doesn’t treat modifications as some form of joke or used as shock value.
I’m sure we’ve all seen films where a “punk” character appears on screen wielding a vast array of facial piercings simply to appear intimidating to the viewer, yet in these films the piercings appear to be just a natural extension of the character. In fact, in the scenes where she isn’t wearing her piercings you get a sense of discomfort looking at her, as if something is missing. Which of course there is. I think an accurate analogy to this would be the NYC skyline post 9-11. The image of the skyline had been etched into the minds of millions of people, and now, looking at it, there is something missing. I’m not making any political statements or anything like that, but the idea that something is removed from an image that everyone was used to seeing makes one feel that sense of “not right”. Of course the NYC skyline itself evokes a lot of feelings, but I think you get where I was going with this. I really think that with Noomi Racpace’s commitment to the role, combined with a skilled filmmaker, that this may be the first portrayal of a modified person that actually captures the essence of the modified culture. Where the focus is on the character, and not the mods, yet when the mods are removed you can tell something has changed not only on her physical exterior, but something inside her as well.
If you were to take a look in a mirror one day and all of your mods were gone, how would you feel? What about those close to you, how do you think they would react if a modification you’ve had for years was suddenly gone without a trace? Because we don’t treat our modifications as something other than what they are, an extension of our ideal selves, we can sense the incompleteness that occurs with a mod is removed. Yes I realize people retire mods all the time, but even then, those first few days really can reveal how much our mods are a part of us.
Looking back at these films with the knowledge of the actor’s commitment to the part, it really shines a light on how a person who is modified isn’t defined by their mods, but by who they are as a person. While this isn’t anything new to us, there still is a large portion of the population that doesn’t realize it. Given that the titular dragon tattoo is the one modification in the film that isn’t a real mod, I thought I should close this post out with a real dragon tattoo from the BMEzine.com tattoo galleries.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who has seen the films. Can anyone else who has seen them weigh in? Did Noomi Rapace actually getting the piercings done change your view of the films and her portrayal, or does her performance stand out on its own without the piercings being a factor?
I love the rare times when I run across a picture of a piercing and I am not exactly sure what to call it. This was in the transverse and vertical lobe gallery and it was labeled only as a transverse lobe. However since it exits in the anti-tragus area and not in the lobe that name seems a little generic and non-descript. Anyhow, I am sure it’s been done before and possibly even named before, so if anyone has any knowledge or clever suggestions, you should share them in the comments.
This piercing was done by David St-Arnaud, Zeplace Tattoo, Québec city.
Well, it is as far as my modblog post for the day. Why make Thursday January 28th ear mod day? Simple, because I have my son with me at work and he’s being a little too needy for me to go searching for pics and it just so happens, I have some cool ear stuff in a folder ready to go.
To start off ear mod day I have a cool bent bar industrial by Vern K. who works at Steve’s shop Ascension Body Modifications in New Mexico.
When the discussion about the trickiest piercings each of had done came up in the IAM: Learning Piercing forum, where we mentioned the uvula piercing, and Seth D. mentioned a 3 point orbital he had done. Well, that discussion had me feature a uvula piercing here, but I didn’t think to feature the orbital. Then I ran across it when perusing the galleries looking for possible features and damn was I impressed! Regular 2 point orbitals are a technical piercing, but this 3 point orbital is a master piece.
For 2 different perspectives on this piercing, keep on keeping on.
Oh, hello! Slightly irregular ear project operative “Marcellus” checks in from Carmarthen, UK, with this slightly irregular ear project by Mike Davies at Nobbys Tattoo Parlour. Sure, transverse lobes may just wash up on the beach these days, but we thought stretching it to 8 mm. was a unique touch we don’t see too often. Also, in the attached e-mail, the industrial is referred to as a “scaffold”—is this a common regional thing? Maybe we are out of the loop (we are almost definitely out of the loop), but this is new to us.
See more in “Transverse and Vertical Lobes“ (Ear Piercing)
Well, it hasn’t even been a week since we first noted Micah‘s pretty ingenious prostheses he developed to address a necessary but unfortunate lobe split (we also shamefully misspelled his name not once, but twice. Guhhh), and now, be it inspiration or coincidence, Helsinki-based klitoris has fashioned himself a similar set-up. He, of course, has opted for some danglier (or “blingier,” to hear him tell it) jewelry. The original posting was a bit controversial among the commentariat, and the fact that this idea is SPREADING LIKE WILDFIRE is sure to fire up some lively debate, so let’s do our best to set the terms, shall we? Is this an example of the cleverness and ingenuity that makes this community great, or is it an insidious trend that will destroy body modification as we know it? The truth is likely somewhere in between. (Or maybe just the first one.)
See more in “Ear Stretching (past 1/2″)“ (Ear Piercing)
Good morning, ModBloggers! Hope the day finds you well. Let’s kick off the week with this fine ear project all the way from Kunming, Yunnan, China. I initially assumed the screws in the cartilage were some sort of custom jewelry, but, as the post-jump photo will show, those are some real screws. Probably not terribly comfortable for long-term wear, but if the structural integrity of your ear has been compromised? Can’t be too careful. Or something.
See more in “Misc. Ear Cartilage Piercing“ (Ear Piercing)