“The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and he has to wonder through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end.”

I just returned from the Wings of Desire suspension convention in Oslo, Norway. Attendees from eight countries — Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, England, USA, and Russia — (and almost as many languages) met for lectures, performances, and suspensions.

Muffe Vulnuz, a self-proclaimed “crusty punk” from Denmark, is definitely one of the most interesting people I met while attending the Oslo Suscon. Muffe is the owner and piercer of Copenhagen’s Body Extremes as well as a suspension practitioner and performance artist. Honestly, there were too many wonderful people from convention to list them all, but if I had to narrow it down, I would say that Muffe was one of my favorite people I met that weekend.

Thanks as well to my hosts Håvve (iam:bleeding) and Christiane (iam:christiane).

The interview below was shot, edited, and conducted by Allen Falkner with additional editing by Shannon Larratt. Performance video footage (the intro and pip footage) is c/o Muffe — you can download it on its own and see other pictures at his website bodyextremes.com… or visit him in Copenhagen!

Allen Falkner (iam:Allen Falkner) is a body piercer with well over a decade of experience and is the owner of Obscurities in Dallas, TX. He is one of the founders of the modern body suspension movement as the progenitor of TSD (and now suspension.org). Allen is credited with the invention — and naming — of much of what people take for granted in modern suspension (including the knee suspension, his signature piece). He’s also a talented photographer and is married to his muse Masuimi Max.

Online presentation copyright © 2004 Shannon Larratt, Allen Falkner, and BMEzine.com LLC. Requests to republish must be confirmed in writing. For bibliographical purposes this article was first published online August 18th, 2004 by BMEzine.com LLC in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Interview took place in Oslo, Norway in August 2004.

On my first day of work at a stereotypical Wall Street law firm, four other lawyers took me for a fancy lunch to welcome me into the fold. All of us in dark suits and pasty white faces politely conversed about acceptable topics, all the while making sure we were using the right fork, until the moment when a man with neon hair, neck tattoos, and multiple facial piercings flashed before the window next to where we sat. The forks dropped. The man outside walked on. But his presence still lingered at our table.

“I don’t understand these freaks with all the tattoos and piercings,” started one at our table, and the discussion spiraled onwards towards burning the modified at the stake. Fortunately for me, my piercings and tattoos at the time were easily covered, otherwise I would’ve gotten singed.

…Or fired.

“A person can be fired because the company doesn’t like your shoes,” explains Robert D. Lipman, who manages the New York employment firm Lipman & Plesur, LLP, and is President of Interactive Employment Training, Inc.. I called Lipman to ask whether a person fired solely for having visible tattoos or piercings has any recourse under United States law. “We get a lot of calls like this,” he said. “People say ‘This is America. We should be able to do what we want.’ But I tell them that once you walk into a private employers workplace, your rights are limited.”

Limited, but not null.

Title VII of the US Civil Rights Act of 1964 says that a private company with more than fifteen employees cannot discriminate on the basis of religion, sex, race, color, or national origin. So company decisions to hire, fire, promote, shell out benefits or the key to the Executive Washroom must not be based on these “protected classifications.” To do so is illegal. Title VII is not the only law that protects Americans from job discrimination. Many state laws have extended protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, transgenderism, and even obesity. There’s also the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, Equal Pay Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Immigration Reform and Control Act, Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and the National Labor Relations Act.

Despite all these Acts, the curtain falls for those judged on their body modifications, no matter how good the performance. That is, unless you can make a claim under one of these classifications.

RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION

While employees generally have more success claiming that dress codes infringe upon religious beliefs, for the tattooed and pierced, success is unlikely.

But isn’t body modification a choice like religion?

“Absolutely, yes. But the Constitution specifically guarantees religious protection,” says California and New York licensed attorney John Thomure, who has represented pro-bono petitioners before the US Supreme Court on constitutional protection claims, as well as having contributed to amicus briefs challenging South Carolina’s ban on tattooing. Heavily tattooed himself, Thomure says:

“Although we might grant great spiritual significance to our own body mods, my sense is a court would cast a very skeptical eye on it as a religious practice. And since outside of perhaps indigenous cultures [...] there is no history or antecedents for the “religion,” it would certainly look as though the creation of the body-mod religion was for the purpose in part of creating legal claims under a freedom of religion argument.”

Case in point: The Church of Body Modification [uscobm.com]. The Church states on its web site that its purpose is “for our modified society to harmoniously return to its spiritual roots that have been forgotten.” It adds that “we are not here to offer spirituality to you so much as we are here because of the spirituality that is already in all of us; often expressed through what we do to our bodies.”

This may not cut it as “a bonafide church.” Lipman mentions a California 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case where a vegan filed a discrimination suit under religious classification. The Court rejected the veganism as a religion claim, holding that vegan ethics do not constitute a religious creed because (among others) it is not a comprehensive belief system that addresses “fundamental and ultimate questions having to do with deep and imponderable matters.” Moreover, it noted that some people were vegan for health and not spiritual reasons.

It is very clear that the Church of Body Modification does not offer an answer to that ultimate question: “Why are we here?” And it does state on its site that many people choose to modify their bodies for non-spiritual reasons. Nevertheless, that did not stop one 27-year old woman from filing suit against Costco claiming that, as a member of the Church of Body Modification, her eyebrow piercing was an essential part of her faith. The case is still pending [questions forwarded to her went unanswered], and while unlikely, if it succeeds it could set major precedent in employment law.

Don’t get your hopes up. As Thomure points out, “Think of Mormons […] their practice of polyamory has not been given protection because of a conflict with a larger public policy.”

Public policy is key here because even if the Church of Body Modification could be deemed a bonafide religion, is it reasonable to ask a company like Costco to potentially lose customers who are put off by visible mods, especially more extreme ones? Jewish yarmulkes, beards, and religious garbs are acceptable. Can we claim full-body lizard scales in the same category? And while performer and PhD candidate Erik “The Lizardman” Sprague is probably smarter than all of us, should Costco be forced to have him ring up bulk items for Brooklyn grandmothers (assuming that’s a dream of Erik’s)?

I say no, unless lizard scale tattoos are allowed on female employees but not male, which brings us to…

SEX DISCRIMINATION

If an employer’s dress code significantly differentiates between men and women, without being based on social norms, or poses a greater burden on women, then it can be deemed discriminatory. So, for example, a dress code that allows earrings for women but not men could be considered discriminatory.

Imagine a case where a company allows its male employees to sport visible tattoos, but, after reading in the Philadelphia Daily News that tattooed women are sluts, the employer decides that it’s best for public relations that female workers remain pure and unblemished: To that, one can hear a resounding “Sue their ass!”

Keep in mind that the US courts have often held that anti-discrimination laws are not intended to hinder employers who set reasonable appearance standards fitting for their business. In 1998, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Harper v. Blockbuster Entertainment upheld Blockbuster’s dress code that mandated male employees to cut their long hair, but not female employees.

Thus, even if there are different appearance standards for men and women relating to body mods, it’s still not an easy case to make out.

NATIONAL ORIGIN DISCRIMINATION

Employers cannot enact a dress code that treats certain employees unfairly because of their national origin unless it would result in undue hardship for the company. This national origin classification covers ancestry, language, accent, and culture, among others. So, for example, a Maori with a moko tattoo could have a claim under this provision as these facial tattoos are based on genealogy and tribal affiliations. Or an East Asian woman could fight to keep in her nose stud at work, claiming the cultural significance of facial adornment, such as in marriage ceremonies.

As a Greek-American, where my ancestors shunned tattooing except to mark the foreheads of criminals, it is improbable that I would fall under the national origin exception. In fact, it is my conservative Greek father who first voiced the claim that I must be crazy for having all my tattoos, which brings me to…

DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION

Tattoos as a disability? Is my ink a manifestation of some mental illness? Is it body dysmorphia? Narcissism? Was I not properly toilet trained?

It’s an unsettling argument with possible disturbing consequences.

Thomure agrees. He says that while the idea of body modification as a disability leaves a sour taste in his mouth, he adds that the claim “is not so far fetched.” He tells me to step back and ask “What do people tell you when you ask them ‘Why did you get heavily tattooed?’ Try drawing the real reasons out of people. Most will only answer superficially — ‘they’re pretty,’ ‘I like how I look’ — and hide the real reason.” In speaking with other heavily tattooed people he says that the motivations that are frequently mentioned are:

1. It’s empowering and liberating — reclaiming of the body.
2. Manifesting externally or physically strong sexual fetish in tattoos or piercing.
3. A general sense that one was compelled to get so tattooed to make oneself complete.

It’s that compulsion that could very well be defined as an illness. However, according to Lipman, it’s probably not enough to get you covered under disability protection. Lipman says, “A disability has to impair a major life activity. Does having a tattoo stop you from eating or sleeping?”

No. But other body mods do — self-amputation, for one more extreme example. I’m not suggesting that those who practice body nullification are mentally ill. Hell, “my best friends are [self-amputees],” but it’s not my opinion that counts, but the State’s.

Yet another modified lawyer (yes, there are many of us) and tattooist, Devon, weighed in on the disability issue saying be careful what you sue for when discussing disability protection:

“If I choose to lop off a body part in the name of modification, should I then be entitled to ADA protection? Should I now be able to collect Social Security based on my ‘disability’? To me, the answer to that is a resounding “NO”!

You start to hit governments or corporations in the wallet based on your modifications, and just see how free you are to get modified in the future.”

It’s a strong point. The backlash for filing all these body modification discrimination claims may be the banning of the modifications themselves, as in South Carolina and Oklahoma. Or, even more extreme, involuntary hospitalization.

BRINGING AN ACTION

Still, if you feel strongly that you’ve been wrongly discriminated against for your body mods, you may file a charge with your local Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [EEOC.GOV] office, which may be found online or by calling 1-800-669-4000. An EEOC charge must be filed within 180 days of the date of the disputed conduct.

Outside of the EEOC, a claim for breach of contract can be filed for those who have employment contracts, such as union workers or some executives. According to Lipman, there must be “just cause” to fire someone under an employment contract, unlike “at will” employment — Lipman says that most Americans fall under “at will” employment. He does not believe that a tattoo or piercing constitutes “just cause.”

Lipman also points out that government employees have greater protection than private employees because they not only fall under all those anti-discrimination acts, but they have constitutional protections as well. So, hypothetically, a government employee fired for having tattoos may have a free speech claim. Although I do have a hard time envisioning Condoleeza Rice with a moko testifying on behalf of her boss — the irony of it makes me snicker.

However, employment discrimination is no laughing matter, and legal action should be considered very carefully.

Also ask yourself, is discrimination so bad?

If I was fired from that law firm on my first day, it would have saved me over two years of suffering in an atmosphere that was not right for me. But something good did come out of it: After covering my body mods for a while and proving myself as a competent legal thinker, I eventually revealed that I indeed was “a tattooed and pierced freak.” I was not fired. In fact, just before I came to my own decision to leave the firm, two out of the four lawyers at that first lunch asked if I would let them accompany me when I got my next tattoo. I did and it changed their minds completely.

While it did not change my mind to stop practicing law, I still like to fantasize about opening my own firm to serve the body modification community and discriminate with abandon: The Non-Modified Need Not Apply.

In addition to the people mentioned in this article, I would like to especially thank Rebekah [iam:rebekah] for her invaluable help in case law research, ServMe [iam:ServMe] for his editing prowess, as well as the many other wonderful people of BME who raised important issues in the forums that helped shape this piece. I’d also like to thank Dan [calypsotattoo.com] for making me beautifully less employable.   – Marisa Kakoulas

This article is not intended as legal advice. It is intended for only general information purposes. This article does not create any attorney-client relationship.

Marisa Kakoulas is a New York lawyer, writer, and muse of Daniel DiMattia of Calypso Tattoo, living in Liege, Belgium. She works undercover — or just covered up — as a corporate consultant: proof that tattoos and suits are not mutually exclusive. Her book “Tattoo Law”, an overview of US laws affecting the body modification community, is under way. IAM members can visit Marisa at iam:FREE.

Copyright © 2004 Marisa Kakoulas. Online presentation copyright © 2004 BMEzine.com LLC. Requests to republish must be confirmed in writing. For bibliographical purposes this article was first published online April 5th, 2004 by BMEzine.com LLC in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

In 1931, Tolkien wrote an essay about the somewhat peculiar hobby of devising private languages. He called it “A Secret Vice”. But in Tolkien’s case, the “vice” can hardly be called secret anymore.

What, really, is going on inside the head of a man who all his life is toying with enormous linguistic constructions, entire languages that have never existed outside his own notes? One thing that was important to Tolkien was that languages should be beautiful. Their sound should be pleasing. Tolkien tasted languages, and his taste was finely tuned. Latin, Spanish and Gothic were pleasing. Greek was great. Italian was wonderful. But French, often hailed as a beautiful language, gave him little pleasure, but heaven itself was called Welsh.

He stated that the Elvish tongues were “intended to be definitely of a European kind in style and structure and to be specially pleasant.”

While World War I was still raging, Tolkien’s linguistic constructions definitely became elvish languages. In 1916 he wrote that he had been working on his “nonsense fairy language — to its improvement. I often long to work at it and don’t let myself ’cause though I love it so it does seem such a mad hobby!” Mad or not, he was to give in to his longing and keep working on this hobby throughout his life.

Exactly at this point, in 1916, while Tolkien was in the hospital having survived the Battle of Somme, the very first parts of his “mythology for England” were written — fragments of what would one day become the Silmarillion. At the same time, he wrote his first Elvish word-lists. One thing triggered the other: “The making of language and mythology are related functions,” he observed in A Secret Vice. “Your language construction will breed a mythology” Or again in a letter written many years later, shortly after the publication of Lord of the Rings: “The invention of languages is the foundation. The ‘stories’ were made rather to provide a world for the languages than the reverse. To me a name comes first and the story follows. Lord of the Rings is to me…largely an essay in ‘linguistic aesthetic’, as I sometimes say to people who ask me ‘what is it all about?’” Few people took this explanation seriously. “Nobody believes me when I say that my long book is an attempt to create a world in which a form of language agreeable to my personal aesthetic might seem real,” Tolkien complained. “But it is true.”

The years passed by and the stories of the Silmarillion evolved, but it seems that the relevance of the original dictionaries soon dwindled: Frequent revisions inevitably rendered them obsolete. In the second half of the thirties, however, Tolkien made a list of some seven hundred Primitive Elvish “stems” and some of their derivatives in later languages. It was apparently this list, the so-called Etymologies, he was referring to when he started to write The Lord of the Rings.

This brings us over to the technique used by Tolkien in devising his linguistic creations. How was it done? Christopher Tolkien, his son, describes his father’s strategy as a language-maker in one formidable sentence: “He did not, after all, ‘invent’ new words and names arbitrarily: in principle, he devised from within the historical structure, proceeding from the ‘bases’ or primitive stems, adding suffix or prefix or forming compounds, deciding (or, as he would have said, ‘finding out’) when the word came into the language, following it through the regular changes in form that it would thus have undergone, and observing the possibilities of formal or semantic influence from other words in the course of its history.” The result: “Such a word would then exist for him, and he would know it.”

Throughout his life he kept revising, revising, revising. In the words of his son, “The linguistic histories were…invented by an inventor, who was free to change these histories as he was free to change the story of the world in which they took place, and he did so abundantly… Moreover, the alterations in the history were not confined to features of ‘interior’ linguistic development: the ‘exterior’ conception of the languages and their relations underwent change, even profound change.”

Sindarin is a good example of changed ideas about the outer history of the languages. The scenario set out in the appendices to Lord of the Rings is that this is the language of the Sindar, the Grey-elves — the Elves that came to Beleriand from Cuiviénen, but did not go over the sea to Valinor. But in Tolkien’s pre-Lord of the Rings notes, Sindarin is called Noldorin, and before that Gnomish, for this was the language of the Noldor or “Gnomes”, the “Wise Elves”. It was developed in Valinor, while Quenya in the former scenario was the language of the Lindar, the first of the three clans of the Eldar (to complicate matters even further, the Lindar were later renamed and became the Vanyar, while Lindar became a name of the third clan, the Teleri). But then Tolkien must have realized that the Elves, immortal and all, would hardly develop radically different languages when they lived side by side in Valinor. So according to the revised scenario, both the Vanyar and the Noldor spoke Quenya with just minor dialectal differences, while the “Noldorin” language that Tolkien had already made was simply re-christened Sindarin, transferred from Valinor to Middle-earth and relocated to the mouths of the Grey-elves there. It was, of course, far more plausible that they had developed a language very different from Quenya, having been separated from their kin in Valinor for thousands of years. Christopher Tolkien comments, “So far-reaching was this reformation that the pre-existent linguistic structures themselves were moved into new historical relations and given new names”. The various “flavors” of Elvish in body face above will later connect directly to various writing styles Tolkien invented. It is interesting to note that as he invented these languages and allowed them to age and morph together he continually left the original constructs alone. His language, therefore, has dialects spanning hundreds of years.

How, then, do Tolkien’s languages fare today, when a quarter of a century has passed? Some of us have embarked on the study of Elvish, perhaps with somewhat the same attitude as people enjoying a well-made crossword puzzle: The very fact that no real Elvish grammars written by Tolkien have been published makes it a fascinating challenge to “break the code”. Many simply enjoy the Elvish languages as one might enjoy music, as elaborate and (according to the taste of many) gloriously successful experiments in euphony. During my 40-year study I never actually tried to pronounce Elvish. It wasn’t until the movies were released that the music of Tolkien’s language came through for me. For those of you who are interested you can find an online Elvish Pronunciation Guide [dcs.ed.ac.uk].

My own story started 40 years ago. I personally made a serious study of Elvish from 1964-1968 while attending the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University. It was a very complex game that allowed me to get lost in the Appendices of Lord of the Rings while surviving Calculus and Physics. In 1966 I switched from pure math to the then very new study of computers and proceeded to absorb my first computer language, Fortran II. Quickly added was Fortran IV (later to morph into Fortran 77 with BASIC as a subset), COBOL, SNOBOL, ALGOL, LISP, PL/1, and, of course, the very elemental assembly language (first for the Control Data 6600 mainframe, then 6502 processors). I don’t think I realized it then, but the study of elvish constructs prepared me for my initial forays into computer language. Tolkien’s language was perfectly created, few holes, strict rules, and logically bound. Just like computer languages (which didn’t exist when Tolkien invented Elvish).

To further my ability to deal with Elvish I took a college course in phonetics. (My NYU advisor had fits with me. I was a math major, taking a minor in English Literature, with Greek and Roman mythology, art history, and phonetics as electives). With a solid background in phonetics I was able to transcribe English into Elvish. You first break down the English into pure phonetic constructs. There is a whole separate compendium of characters to describe how words are actually pronounced (far past what’s in the dictionary). The beauty of phonetics is that the same constructs apply basically to all languages. Tolkien used these sale constructs to build his elvish language. There are direct correlations between the constructs and the written elvish letters.

So with a lot of study I was able to convert words into elvish script. Now back then, of course, it was all done by hand and mind. A long tedious process. I used to hand letter custom t-shirts for people as a way to pay the bills (somewhere along the way I took up the study of calligraphy). Fueled with copious amounts of drugs I got through college, picked up a Master’s degree in Computer Science, and started teaching. I was a High school math teacher, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Visiting Lecturer, and now a network and Internet consultant. Along this 35-year odyssey, computers developed, and fonts came into being (it may not seem so, but True Type computer fonts are a very recent development).

Turns out that there a lot of other fanatics like myself out there! Computer tools have been developed to transcribe the root English to phonetic constructs. True Type Elvish Fonts are developed. Photoshop provides the art space. Now I can transcribe rather quickly. Late last year, with the movies being so popular, I offered BME members a free transcription of anything they want. I create a hi-res JPG in one of the many elvish fonts available.

The artical title at the top of the page, “ELVISH SPOKEN HERE,” is transcribed just above it into the Tengwar cursive form of Elvish. The intermediate phonetic construct is written “jRrdT 8qzY5$ 96RO”. The construct is then converted to the correct Elvish font. The form of Elvish as created by Tolkein is known as Tengwar. This is a family of written languages belonging to the elves. The common style is called Sindarin and is the language of the Grey-Elves (i.e. Rivendell), another style is Quenya belonging to the “High-Elves”. There are numerous written variations, with some in the cursive style above and some in a more Runic style (as is the Cirth language of the Dwarves).

Frederick G. Volpicelli, CCP

What follows is the phrase “Elvish Spoken Here” transcribed into Tengwar in different styles.

Sindarin Basic
Sindarin Type 1
Sindarin Type 2
Sindarin Cursive
Quenya Basic
Quenya Type 1
Quenya Type 2
Noldor Basic
Noldor Type 1
Noldor Type 2

Note: The Tolkien backstory detailed above is largely paraphrased from articles at the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship, the Tolkien Society, and the introduction to “Tolkien’s Not-So-Secret Vice” by Helge Kåre Fauskanger.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”

– Margaret Mead

 

(CLICK PHOTOS TO ACCESS IAM PAGE)  Kyle is an eighteen year old male from Barrie, Ontario, Canada. He currently lives at home with his parents and due to him recently relocating he is unemployed. He co-founded Skate-4-Cancer with his friend Rob Dyer in July 2003. He currently has four piercings (tongue, nipples, and his lobes stretched to 00 gauge). He has three tattoos: words on his stomach, Sailor Jerry flash on his back, and stars on his arms. The co-founder of the Skate-4-Cancer charity has stretched lobes, a nipple piercing, and multiple tattoos including a 3/4 sleeve in progress. Liz is a 35 year old female real estate broker who formerly worked in the music business for Capitol and Virgin Records in NYC. She graduated with a BA in Media studies and currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts, USA with her husband. Liz has approximately 60 hours of tattoo work, she has half sleeves, a nostril piercing, and a vertical hood piercing. Nick is a 45 year old male and living in New York City, New York, USA. He has a degree in Architecture from New York’s Cornell University and is currently a very successful and sought after architect. Considering Nick only started his journey into modification in 2003 he is heavily modified with 52 tattoos including full sleeves, and multiple piercings including a 0 ga Prince Albert, 0 ga labret (recently retired due to gum recession), and 3/4″ stretched lobes — When asked why he got his mods so late in life he replied, “It just felt right, and of course a lot of iam people inspired me! My parents were dead against it, so I waited till they were dead.”

This article is not here (only) to showcase these individuals. It’s here to say, “hey, maybe it’s fun to get involved in my comunity” — and more importantly, that it’ normal to be involved!

Communities tend to react to “aberration” with distrust and ostracism. This ostracism can result in an individual or group being perceived as responsible for the problems in the community, greedy consumption of charitable services they don’t need, behaving in a manner the majority of the community feels is unacceptable, and having an unacceptable appearance.

We in the body modification community have all experienced this ostracism for being “different”. People think we’re violent, mentally ill, unemployed, and addicted to all sorts of illicit drugs simply because of the modifications we’ve made to our bodies and how we dress. Our appearance seems to give those who don’t understand permission to label us with various negative and undeserved attributes.

Historically, while community service and volunteerism has always been a valued trait, actual practice has lagged in recent years, and organizations in need of volunteers often find themselves short-staffed and under-funded as a result. Since his inauguration, American President George W. Bush has issued repeated challenges to the American people to increase the amount of volunteer work being done in the country. Nothing much happened, although the events of 9/11/01 saw volunteerism rates peak for a few months and then slowly decline to the present.

People in the mainstream tend to expect the modified to be among the least likely people to provide any type of community service or volunteer work. However, a surprising number of people involved in body modification feel the motivation to give back to their communities; communities that to a large extent tend to discriminate against them. The people in this article go above and beyond to provide invaluable volunteer services in a variety of areas to the communities in which they live.

They have not only helped their communities but they have gone well beyond the expectations of others by founding a variety of charities and organizations and continuing to work in the non-profit or volunteer sector while maintaining active participation in the modified community. While non-profit work and volunteering isn’t for everyone it does strike a chord with these individuals. At the foundation of all of these people is a willingness and desire to help others through any means possible.

BME: How did you originally get involved with non-profit volunteer work and what was your role in the groups you were with?

Kyle: I never really did much charity work, just the usual stuff they made me do at school: cleaning up roads, picking up litter, and so on. I went down to Toronto once for three days to help feed homeless people and help out at some shelters as well. Up until when Skate

4Cancer was started, I had never really done anything on my own time.

My friend, Rob Dyer, and I started Skate4Cancer together back in July of this year. He originally had the idea about two years ago, and actually tried to start it up but it never took off because he didn’t really have anyone helping him. He mentioned the idea to me during the summer, and I decided I really liked it and offered to help him out by building a website. From there, it just sort of progressed into what it is now.

Skate4Cancer is a charity that was started to raise youth awareness and fund for cancer research. Starting in March of 2004, we will be skateboarding from Los Angeles to Toronto. The entire trip is roughly 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) in length.

My role now is maintaining the website, and I continue to help plan what we will be doing and helping out as much as I can at fundraisers and various publicity events. Once we get started on the trip, I will principally be the bus driver and webmaster of the site.

Liz: In 1999 I co-founded a group called Fanseverywhere as a result of the rapes and sexual assaults that happened at Woodstock ’99. I still, to this day, answer email from young girls and women who have been sexually molested and raped at rock concerts.

“I was so offended by what was happening to the women at Woodstock ’99.” 

The police weren’t any help and women (some as young as thirteen) were being assaulted while crowd surfing or sleeping in their tents. It was outrageous and these women needed somewhere to go to, someone to speak with. I was the Co-Founder and main contact for these women. I conducted letter writing campaigns to NOW and RAINN to alert them of the issues and to record labels and concert promoters urging them to be aware of what was going on at many shows.

Nick: I serve as a Board Member on the NYC City council, for community Board 9, I serve on the Landmarks committee for Manhattan, NYC District 9. I am completing my Police Officer Training, and will serve in the NYPD auxiliary program, walking a beat as a cop in Manhattan.

“I wanted to give to my community.”

BME: Have you been involved in other non-profit work other than what you described above?

Kyle: Honestly, I have never done anything like this before. I mean, I’ve given to food drives and donated some money before, but nothing really significant to a non-profit organization.

Liz: I started working with the Milarepa Group to help the Tibetans in 1996 working at the Tibetan Freedom Concerts in SanFrancisco, NYC and Washington DC. I moved on to help an agency called the Tibetan Refugee Health Care Project. I was motivated by my desire to help people in need. I know that I am lucky to have the things that I have and some aren’t so fortunate. I felt compelled to help out where I could.

I volunteered my time with the Milarepa Group from 1996-1998 and assisted with the development of the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. I worked with the Tibetan Refugee Health Care Project from 1998-2000.

The Tibetan Refugee Health Care Project is a non-political organization funded entirely by private donations. It was created in response to the dire and growing need for public health care for the Tibetan community-in-exile, living both in resettlement camps in India, and throughout the world, and to be a support for The Tibetan Government-in-exile, His Holiness The Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Department of Health. All projects are reported to them.

Its mission is to facilitate medical treatment of the Tibetan people as well as to educate them about disease prevention. One of the goals of the project is to encourage Tibetans to learn skills that enable them to help other Tibetans. This is done by training qualified Tibetans so that they may become practitioners, skilled laborers, or volunteers who go back to work in their communities. I volunteered my time to help with anything that needed to be done. I sat in protest of the Chinese government. I ran sound and lights for speeches. I coordinated email campaigns. Helped in the offices. Passed out flyers. For Milarepa, I donated my time to help coordinate other volunteers for the Tibetan Freedom Concerts. This came out to about fifteen hours a week.

BME: What originally prompted you to choose the groups you ultimately worked with?

Kyle: I chose to become involved with Skate4Cancer because I felt it was a worthy cause, and I believe that we can make a difference in the world. I decided early in my life that I would not just be one of those people who graduate high school, maybe go to college and then work a desk job for the rest of their lives. I feel that this might be something I could do for the rest of my life, and this will allow to wake up every morning believing that I have a purpose in my life and I ’m making a difference in other peoples lives.

Liz: Passion. Passion to try to make things better for someone other than yourself. Bring issues to the public eye.

Nick: My architectural background enable me to help the landmarks committee, and the community board, I really wanted to prove to myself that I could become a cop, and am just about complete with my training.

BME: Have you ever had any memorable reactions to your modifications during your volunteer work?

Kyle: Besides the, “Oh, cool tattoos!” comments that are fairly usual, I personally haven’t, but I know Rob (the co-founder of Skate4Cancer) has. I know he’s experienced some negative reactions to his tattoos and even the way he dresses.

Liz: Never anything negative. I would say it has been pretty neutral territory as far as my charity work has been concerned.

Nick: Well, the NYPD did ask me to remove a lot of the metal, but I was more than willing to do that! For my police training I keep the tatts generally covered as much as possible.

BME: Have you found that your modifications have helped or hindered you in this work?

Kyle: I think that they help more than they hinder, because we’ve found what’s key to making Skate4Cancer work is getting the kids to notice it, and then they tell their parents about it. Tattoos are noticed alot of the youth of today because they are ‘in’, most of the youth think they are cool, so they may notice us for our mods, then hear about what we are doing and really like the idea, then helping us spread the word. But on the other side, they have hindered us at times because for the most part, the older generation isn’t too keen on body modification, and thus they don’t think we are serious about it, making them reluctant to donate or preach to others about us.

Liz: Definitely helped for Fanseverywhere. The girls would see the tattoos and would feel comfortable because I was “one of them”

Nick: Neither really. I like trying to break though peoples perceptions of what a tattooed person should or shouldn’t do. But actually no, no problems at all. Everyone remembers me, and that might not be bad!

BME: Why do you donate your time, energy, and resources? What is the primary reason?

Kyle: The main reason I do this is to help myself feel good. As I mentioned before, I want to make a difference to people in my life, and I think this could be something that really changes people and makes them examine themselves.

Secondary to that, I believe that cancer is an epidemic that has to be stopped. SARS was made into such a big deal by the media, but it wasn’t as bad as they made it seem. I don’t want to make it seem like I’m belittling SARS, but on average 185 Canadians die of cancer each day. That’s just in Canada, just think of how many die worldwide. I don’t think many people realize how bad cancer really is.

Liz: I am fortunate in my life, and sometimes someone just has to show you the way up and out of a bad situation. I hope that I have offered that kind of assistance to just one person. Life is what you make of it.

Nick: I love to help others!

BME: What is one thing that stands out that you have learned from your volunteer work that has helped you in other aspects of your life?

Kyle: I’ve learned that no matter how bad my life seems, there is always someone who is worse off then me. I shouldn’t complain about the little things that don’t matter, when my little things are a life-or-death matter to someone else.

Liz: Compassion to others. You never know when your situation is going to become bad and you will need the help of kind strangers. Everyone deserves a chance.

Nick: That I’m a really fortunate guy!

BME: If you could create your own charitable organization what would it be?

Kyle: I haven’t thought about creating other charities at this point, one is enough work right now! but we have a couple ideas on how to expand Skate4Cancer after this initial run, and that should keep me and everyone else busy enough for a little while at least haha.

Liz: To provide inner city school children with all the resources they need to learn music and art. Those programs are being taken away and need to be given back to those who could benefit from them the most.

Nick: I would like to create a foundation to help people to decide to do the right thing, so they can have productive lives.

The people we’ve talked to above are only a brief mentioning of the many volunteers we know that are also BME members. It seems despite the undeservedly grim and often outright bigoted opinions in many articles published in the mainstream media it seems that the modified are doing more than just volunteering in their communities; they are starting organizations to help others, extending their own resources to give others a chance.

They are most definitely not apathetic or “not playing the game of life” as has been suggested, but are instead giving back in ways the “average person” seems either unwilling or unable to do. The communities to which these individuals belong would do well to respect, admire, recognize and aspire to the shining example these people represent not only to their communities, not only to the modified, but to humanity in general.

[Ed note: This is an abridged version of this column; click here for the “director’s cut”]

It’s not unusual for me to get photos and stories submitted to BME of subjects that most people will assume are “self-injury” or “cutting” in the clinical sense of the word. It will come as no surprise that these stories are almost universally rejected by the review team, and when I post the pictures they’re met with complaints ranging from “these people are sick” to “these people will make us look bad”… But I think if we’re to play that game fairly, we have to call a spade a spade — all of us body modifiers are demented sick-in-the-head self-mutilators that ought to get psychiatric help before we hurt ourselves.

But that can’t be true, can it?

Self-injurers tend to describe their acts as a stabilizing force in their lives. It grounds them, and keeps them sane. While it is true that for many there are less physically damaging drugs available which can help them cope, these often come with mental “zombie” side-effects that many find unacceptable. To put it simply, many self-injurers cut not simply to hurt themselves, but to heal themselves — on some levels, the cutting improves or even saves their lives.

Now let’s take a cold look at body piercing and tattooing. It is a painful act done without anesthesia or pain control, often in unregulated and unsanitary situations that put the wearer at needless risk, to say nothing of the long term potentially stigmatizing and life-destroying effects. If we are to judge ourselves by the same standards, that is… And what of suspension, pulling, and play piercing? Or even SM sex play where people “get off” on pain? Clearly on an objective level these are sick people hurting themselves for no good reason.

But we know that’s not true because we’ve been there. After all, we hold up as a hero the woman who reclaims her body with a genital piercing after being raped. We don’t even think to point out that maybe she’s now a headcase that’s carrying on the abuse by mutilating her genitals — because we know that’s not true. We’re thrilled to read the story of the young down-on-his-luck man who’s feeling “reborn” after his first suspension — we would never say “well, if you thought he was messed up before, look at the sick stuff he’s doing now, hanging from hooks!”

Maybe you’re telling yourself that you and the folks I’ve just mentioned in the previous paragraph are “better” than self-injurers because you’re wearing marks of “something good” (which you probably can’t put into words, let alone prove to a psychiatrist). Ignoring the fact that to some self-injurers the cuts represent survival (“something good”), and ignoring the fact that many “normal” people see all modifications as marks of “something bad”, plenty of modifications are very specific markers of problems — after all, “Born to Lose” and “Life is Pain” are two of the most persistent and popular classic tattoo designs.

…and you’re telling me that saying “I’m a survivor” is somehow worse than “I’m a loser”?

(Let me just be clear so there’s no hurt feelings: I don’t think there’s anything wrong with these tattoos either and I think they’re perfectly legitimate statements on the part of the wearers!)

It should come as no surprise that many people see pain as good and life-affirming. “No pain, no gain” is the motto of a vast number of self-improvement schemes — we understand that facing and surviving pain is a part of bettering oneself and of facing life’s challenges. Even “love hurts”. Extreme athletes and thrill seekers describe feeling more and more alive the closer they get to death. We make heros of people who’ve lived through painful accidents, and reward those who endure painful trials of fire. Pain may hurt, but all of our legends and myths tell us that it’s the path to divinity.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that we should encourage people to see injuring themselves as a solution. If someone is hacking up their arm to get through life, then there are very likely problems in their life that need fixing — but don’t ever assume that the injury is the problem. At best it’s a symptom, and no one was ever helped by trying to suppress their symptoms. And guess what — sometimes tattoos and piercings are also symptoms of a problem. So are lots of things.

If self-injury helps a person improve their lives, then it’s a good thing in my books, and every bit as valid as an injury that you happened to pay someone else to do to you. Personally, I even think it can look good. So try and treat them with the same respect and caring as you’d expect from some mundane about to approach you about your facial piercings.

Be healthy,

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

Participants will be known as “words.” Only the death of words effaces them from the text. As words die the story will change; when the last word dies the story will also have died. The author will make every effort to attend the funerals of her words.

Readers interested in becoming words should visit Shelley Jackson’s website at ineradicablestain.com and visit the “SKIN: A MORTAL WORK OF ART” subpage. There are also additional writings on the page if you’d like to see what she’s all about first. As of this writing there are still words available.