Remember when 80′s hair bands toured the world to spread glam and STD’s….

……this is like that, except  less glamorous, and without the disease transmission.

Ron Garza, as I have mentioned in previous post, LIVES body modification. He often travels the world to personally experience  the other cultures rituals and body modification practices. Currently though, he is out on tour not to experience things for himself but to help others have their own experiences and to spread his knowledge.

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Ron has 2 days still open in Prague and  some appts. left in Croatia also, where he will be teaching as well.
He will also be teaching in Mexcio city APP also and taking scar appointments in Mexico City as well. If your in any of these areas and want to take some of his classes, get cut or just shoot the shit with a guy who lives for body modification, definitely hit him up.

Another way to improve upon a not so nice tattoo

So you  have a tattoo, conceptually you like it, but the execution wasn’t so great. Like this camera tattoo, the lines are blown out and the design was done way to small, but it’s still a camera and it still expresses it’s wearers love of photography.

So what can be done about a tattoo like this? You could have it covered, but the coverup would likely be far larger than what you wanted. You could laser it off……or you could accentuate it with a microdermal, such as this young lady had Mike Knight do for her.

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I think this beautiful princess cut stone  threaded end from Anatometal, definitely adds some much needed pizzaz to this otherwise underwhelming tattoo.

It’s my crack head tattoo….

I know, I am kind of a tool for pretty much abandoning modblog as soon as Rob jumped on board and then coming back only to post a tattoo that I got last weekend. However, had I seen this tattoo on someone else, I would have quickly jumped to post it, especially seeing that it came from a relatively unknown artist out of Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Sometimes, I work conventions, but not this time. This convention was purely about hanging out with friends, enjoying some time off from my usual responsibilities of work and parenting and to get a “little” tattoo. Usually, when I go to conventions I just cruise the show floor looking at portfolios and “convention specials”. Convention specials are tattoos the artist really want to do, either for their portfolio, to enter in tattoo of the day or just because it’s such a ridiculous design no one outside of a convention would likely ever get it. I usually go for the latter. At the recent Philly convention I got a traditional style tattoo of a hand being held in a cup shape that read “cup the balls”, of course I got this on my inner thigh as close to my balls as possible so it could act as a fully functional instruction manual for how to properly handle my balls.

I had every intention of getting an equally, or possibly even more, stupid  tattoo at this convention. Then I saw this design and instantly fell in love with it. After talking to the artist, Matti Hixson, I realized this was the guy who worked at Cherry Bomb In Martinsburg, WV.  I first discovered his work on Sketch Kult and was instantly impressed, and SHOCKED that this kind of work was coming out of WV a mere 20 minutes from my home. After realizing this was the same guy, I almost decided to opt out of the tattoo. “Why get work from a local guy when there are all these amazing artist from all over?”, I thought to myself. I decided to check out the rest of the convention floor. There were some awesome designs but none that drew me in like this one from Matti, so after realizing someone else might actually want this piece, I hauled ass back over to his booth to book the appointment.

I was a bit disappointed to find out  this design would fit nowhere on me (except my left rib panel that I am saving for a bigger piece) that was even remotely visible, but it did fit well between the random tattoos on my upper right thigh. As he started the first things I noticed were that he was incredibly light handed and his machines were damn near silent. It was almost surreal as the two sensations, pain and noise, that I normally associate with tattooing were not present. As the hours went on (6 total) it did get a bit more painful but never unbearable.

The background is one of my favorite parts, it was 100% freehanded on, and while it was being done, I have to admit I had my doubts. I thought to myself,  ”Dots? Big fucking dots? If I wanted dots, I would have gotten a traditional tattoo”. However, I had faith in him, and I kept my thoughts to myself. As it came together, I grew to love these dots. The give the design movement and flow and the muted colors of the background really make the main design pop. When the piece was finished I was blown away. The drawing was rad but the finished tattoo was absolutely incredible. I was not the only one impressed either this piece got second place for Tattoo Of The Day on Saturday, a day full of awesome tattoos.  The girl who took first that day had a bad ass Velociraptor on her thigh and really can you argue with a chic with a velociraptor? I think not. To sweeten the deal, third place went to my wife’s rad tattoo by Josh Payne.

Anyhow, like I said, I feel like a bit of a tool for posting a tattoo that I have, but I really think Matti deserves some recognition for his talents, and this post is the best way for me to do that.  If you are within a few hours of Martinsburg, WV and are interested in a low pain, high quality color realism style tattoo, at AMAZINGLY REASONABLE West Virginia prices  definitely get in touch with him.

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PS: Now that I am back in town and things have settled down a bit I am going to try and put out at least one modblog post a day, to take some of the burden off Rob.

PPS: On a totally unrelated note. Does anyone know the older gentleman who is tattooed all blue with tribal tattoos that was running around the convention? I tried to peg him down for an interview, but I never saw him except when I was stuck in the tattoo chair. He seemed like a super nice guy and it’s odd for me to see someone with that heavy of a transformation and not at least know of them.

Everyone needs their own booty call

I have gotten a bunch of emails and a few messages on IAM asking if I had quit writing for modblog. Of course not. I honestly plan to keep doing this so long as Rachel wants me here. However, since Rob’s here to pick up my slack and I am also involved in other blogs and projects that demand my time, I am  limiting myself to post what I consider to be exceptional photos truly fitting of modblog. In fact I wasn’t going to post anything today, until I saw this tattoo that could redefine tattooing puns as we know them.

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Oh, I see what you did there!

The dynamic duo of Mr. Decker and Miss. Nae are back on ModBlog with an interesting look into Nae’s hand implants that you may have seen before.

It seems Nae was in a bit of a fender bender the other week, and while she is fine, she did get a few x-rays taken just to be on the safe side.  Now I know we’ve all seen images of mods appearing in x-rays before, but I think this is the first time (at least that I could find) where a large silicone implant came up so noticeably in the image.

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I guess this really does prove that over time Brian can really get under your skin, and stay there.  I kid of course, otherwise Brian’s better half will come knock on my door and kick my ass.

Anyway, I’m always intrigued as to what the doctors say after looking at an x-ray and someone’s mods show up.  Anyone have any good war stories from the ER?

Did someone say BBQ?

“Grilling, broiling, barbecuing – whatever you want to call it – is an art, not just a matter of building a pyre and throwing on a piece of meat as a sacrifice to the gods of the stomach.” James Beard, ‘Beard on Food’ (1974)

So rumor has it that SoCal BME members have been getting together once a year for the past decade to enjoy an afternoon around the grill.  Another rumor floating around is that this year’s BBQ is happening THIS WEEKEND!

So whether you’re a long time BME vet, or brand new to the community, you’re more than welcome to stop by Presidio Park in San Diego this saturday and partake in the festivities.

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If you have any questions, feel free to drop Midian2000 or Shaman a line on IAM, Facebook, or e-mail.

It’s too bad I won’t be in town.  I would have loved to have the chance to cook up another Bacon Explosion for people.

Congrats, Timothy and Elki!

After making such a sad post this morning, I felt obliged to offer up a much happier one this afternoon.

BME has been a meeting place for like minded individuals for a long time. Countless couples and families got their start as strangers behind a keyboard with a common love of body modification. In fact there is even a whole gallery dedicated to couples who have met through BME.

Today I found the wedding pics in the couples gallery from one such couple, Timothy and Elki.

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RIP Liberty

Today, I read the sad news that IAM member rebekahsXrevenge succumbed to her long time battle with cancer. I did not know her personally, but she meant a lot to several people  on here and she was a valued member of this community. From what I have read, she seemed like an amazing, strong and inspiring person that any of us would have been lucky to know.

She left behind her husband wmassXedge, as well as countless friends and family, please keep them all in your thoughts.

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If anyone who knew her personally cares to share anything, please feel free to do so.

Jane says…I know that chic!

Who’s that chic hanging behind Perry Farrell as he performs with Janes Addiction? It’s no other than Miss Crash! You probably remember her as the girl I featured just a few days ago who I said uses a combination of shock and sexiness to captivate audiences? Well apparently, Jane’s Addiction found her captivating enough to want to include her in a recent performance. Suspension artist performing with nationally touring bands is nothing new, hell even I have done it a few times. However, this is the first time I have seen it done with such a hugely popular band, not to mention a band with a fairly mainstream audience.  If anyone else has any celebrity suspension or body mod performance tales to tell, feel free to do so in the comments.

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I apologize for the double feature on Crash, I normally try to not include too much of one person or group in a short period of time. This was just too cool not to post though! For more pictures of this and to check out the man behind the hooks, go to her  boyfriend’s IAM page.

I love it when a plan comes together

Nothing is quite as lovely as a modded wedding, and Cucuy’s and SteelGirl’s wedding was exceptionally so. Not only were his lovely wife and him sporting stretched lobes and other assorted visible mods, but so was their minister!  When I found the wedding photos in the culture gallery, I had a damn hard time deciding which one to use. If you like cool wedding pics, I highly advise you flip through the other ones in the gallery or on Cucuy’s IAM page.

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