(Photo of Damien and new-to-the-world Harley Jade by AngelinPayn.)

Three points of interest:

1. BME SHOP. Hey, have you heard? BME Shop is back up and running, with all the apparel, jewelry and other supplies you would expect from BME. But you know what would really lift our spirits? Pictures of you lovely people wearing or using the gear. Just get your hands on a new shirt? Or a kick-ass set of plugs? Send us a picture! It warms our hearts to know that they’re not being used to even out the legs of wonky tables and such.

2. DAVID VIDRA. The original plans for this ran into some delays, but we are now ready to announce a brand new advice column coming to BME, fielded by none other than David Vidra of Health Educators fame! (And also for having been in the body modification community since, well … forever, pretty much.) He’ll be answering your questions about body modification, aseptic technique and all that good stuff, but really, feel free to ask him anything you want. About anything. There’s really not much about which he can’t (and won’t) go off on a tangent (in a good way!), so get your questions in. (Think of him as BME’s own Dan Savage.) For now, send them over to me (and include “David Vidra” in the title), and the sooner we get some in, the sooner you’ll get your first helping of “Big Mama” Vidra.

3. BME NEWS ARTICLE ARCHIVES. You may have noticed some articles aren’t where they used to be on the main BME page, but fear not! We’re slowly but surely transferring things to WordPress, just for the sake of cohesion. This will all be done more neatly soon, but for the time being, here are direct links to some of your old favorite column archives:

And once again, this is a work in progress — it will all be pretty and easily accessible sooner rather than later!