Tag Archives: septum-piercing

Go big or go home

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Bigger is better right?  At least that’s what the media has been telling us all for years now.  Now granted that may just be a North American thing where people believe your success in life can be measured by the size of your bank account.  The “whoever dies with the most toys wins” mentality.  Now of course there’s always the other thing that “bigger is better” can be applied to, which is of course the size of your piercings.  User  Everhardnumdick is one guy who doesn’t shy away from a big piercing, as you can see in this picture of his septum piercing.

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Now this is clearly a case where bigger is pretty awesome.  As for better, well that’s entirely subjective, but I’m pretty sure that the owner of the nose is happy with how it looks.

As for you, do you think bigger is better?  The whole need to acquire wealth and possessions, to own the biggest things?  Are these things that are meaningful to you, or do you think that this mentality is a product of generations of successful marketing?  Companies wanting to make more money so they make you believe that if you own their product you will be better in some way, only to have another company say the same thing about their product which is slightly bigger.

Who am I kidding, of course you expected to see some form of genitals in a post about things being better if they’re bigger.  Well it turns out his septum isn’t the only thing that Everhardnumdick has stretched.  Keep on reading to see what else he has made bigger.

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You can check out a side view of this foreskin stretching over in the gallery.

Hush

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I try to post a variety of images every day to ModBlog.  And with every image I post, I try my best to make a story around it.  I see a tattoo of Prince’s love symbol, and I think of both the artist and the dedication of his fans.  I see a candid image from a pulling performance, and think of the outer expressions of inner pain.

Then I see an image like this…

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…and I’m at a loss for words.

Which of course got me to thinking, what is it about certain images and action that can take our breath away.  To render even the most expressive of us speechless.  Is it some base instinct that we have, like the fight or flight reactions, that when we are emotionally overwhelmed we react by silencing ourselves?  Or is it a cultural phenomenon, where we’ve been raised in a world where the effects of the Romantic period have permeated our collective consciousness.  The moment where our minds are presented with an overwhelming amount of emotional stimulation causes us to take pause and reflect on the images before we are able to express ourselves and our reactions.

Now that I’ve had a moment to reflect on the image, I think that it conveys exactly what I was just talking about.  We have this woman looking outwards her lips bound by a black ribbon woven through her piercings.  You see through her eyes that she has something to say, but for the moment she cannot speak.  It is only when the ribbon is removed, can she express herself fully.  So we too, in those moments when everything falls away and we get lost in the image, have our lips bound, not by ribbon, but by our own minds.  We pause, holding everything in until the right moment, when we can remove our own ribbons and are free to speak again.

I want to thank BMEzine.com member Scissor_Kitty for submitting this image to the piercing galleries.  So while you may not like every image in the galleries, there are certainly enough images in there that can take your breath away, simply through the story the image is telling.

Be still my beating heart

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Sometimes the daily grind can be overwhelming.  Work, family, friends, bills, kids, and more can all be a joy at times and a curse at others.  While we’re all flying through space on this spinning top we call home, sometimes it can feel great just to stop everything and be still.

To everyone the act of being still can mean many things.  To some it is a form of release, allowing the stresses of the world flow out of their bodies.  For others stillness can evoke feelings of anxiety, the calm before the storm as it were, the moment where everything just seems too good to be true.  Even in nature stillness can have many meanings.  Those early moments at dawn when a lake is perfectly still, just existing waiting for the world to begin again and reflect itself in its surface, the stillness of the night before still echoing across the glassy surface in the form of the mists.  Then there are the predator and prey.  The predator stalks its prey until it finds the perfect position to mount its attack, holding everything in and becoming a rock, immovable yet capable of motion.  The waiting, the thinking, becoming so still with focus that the rest of the world falls away.  While the predator waits, the prey becomes still as well, not with calm or focus, but with fear.  Knowing there is danger around and that the slightest movement will set in motion a cascade of events that could be the end of its existence.

The stillness of the world cannot exist without the movement.  The time after the world has stopped.  The first fish leaping from the water to eat an insect, causing the first waves to break the surface, waves that will continue to move until the next morning when the cycle begins again.  The moment where the stillness has fulfilled its purpose and the time to act is present, releasing all the energy locked within in one swift and sudden movement.  When the fear changes from the overwhelming power to be still, to the realization that by remaining still will be the end, and movement is what is necessary to survive.

Looking at this photo of IAM: Radical Kiba, you can see the stillness in her.  Lost within herself she is looking out on the world.  There’s no way to know how she is feeling, but you can feel the stillness.

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What is stillness to you?  Is it the calm of the water at dawn, the anticipation of the predator waiting to strike, or is it the fear of the prey?  Or is it something else, something that only you can feel?

The dragon tattoo and the girl

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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.

dragon

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?

Say, don’t I know you?

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This photo was submitted to BME by IndecisiveWeirdo out of Sydney. She reminds me of an actress but I can’t quite figure out who and it’s driving me crazy. Fortunately, I don’t have far to go to get there!

Over the weekend I’ve added about 600 new photos to the BME galleries and 50+ videos. Go check them out! Remember, you can sign up for a profile that will allow you to view even more photos for free.

Candy for the eye

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These septum piercing photos were submitted by Nix. When I was moderating photos for BME last night, I found myself drawn to this first photo. I admit, it was the glitter eyeshadow that sucked me in! There is something about the photo that intrigues me. I think it may be the serene look on her face and that slight Mona Lisa smile.

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Next photo after the break.


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I think this photo would make a great print. In fact, I’d really like to hang it up on my wall. The lips really make the photo pop and I love the simplicity of just having the one septum piercing and nothing else. I hope you all enjoy these photos as much as I do.

Best username on IAM, bar none

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The Wong Fucking Person

Really in almost 10 years of being on IAM, never have I come across such a wonderfully clever user name.

He sent me a picture of his septum sans jewelry to use as a “guess what” entry. Unfortunately, once I cropped it down it was just too small to post. So I will give you guys the full picture instead.

wong1

For a picture of Mr. Wong with a helluva “mustache” via his 15mm septum, keep on keeping on.

I tell you what, it’s been a crap-tastic week for me and I hear we are expecting more snow, which makes it even worse. Luckily for me this picture of Michael Wong, along with that damn clever IAM name of his, can’t help but make me smile. I hope it has the same affect on you guys.

wong21

You know what I hate about winter?

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The cold air hitting the metal body jewelry I wear. I usually take the plugs out of my ears, but the eyelet in my septum, that damn thing gets frigid!

Thinking of that, I couldn’t help but get a bit of a chill just seeing this pic of Hell’s Monkey with an icicle through his septum!

septumice

For a picture with another icicle through his labret, keep on keeping on.

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A conversation with BME’s punk rock anti-hero, perk900

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For all the people who have attacked me, for not featuring enough man meat on Modblog, I am proud to present Brian (IAM: perk900).

After we had our initial conversation on Skype, we messaged back and forth a bit on IAM to finalize some things. When I asked him if there was any last minute information he wanted me to include he humbly replied :

“That my dick is huge and that you can see it from space.”

And that my friends, is good enough for me.

Sure, there are  naked pictures on his IAM page, that would make his penis seem not quite visible by space, but until he post erect pictures we will have to assume he is indeed a grower and not a shower.

Little known fact, Brian is the Chuck Norris of BME.

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On a serious note, Brian is amongst the nicest and  most genuine people I have ever had the privilege of meeting. He has been a long time active BME member, and a top image contributor since 2003. He has also, busted his ass year after year putting on one of the most fun BME social events, Bowling With Weirdos.

Shawn Porter has this to say about Brian:

“Brian has been one of my best friends for going on a decade. The Dr. Gonzo to my Raoul Duke, if you will; the Ricky to my Lucy, the moral compass that always points to do it if it’s funny, don’t worry, well clean up the mess and more.”

For the full length, uncensored (and barely edited) look into the man behind the ballhair…. keep reading.

Sean: Let’s start basic, what got you into body mods in the first place?

Brian: There are multiple points to blame on that one. It mostly started in High School in the mid-90s. Piercing was just starting to make its way into the mainstream, and that is where I was first exposed to “abnormal” piercings. Then you can also credit the introduction of Punk rock into my life. Tattoos became a big fascination then as well.

Sean:  I kind of assumed punk shows were a big influence on you. That was a large part of my introduction to piercing and tattoos as well.

Brian: It was a lot of things at that time that were playing together, that were introducing me to that world. You can also blame movies as well. I’m a big movie nerd and that was another place where the interest came from. And I’ll say it, one of the first times i’d really seen larger piercings and more extreme Body Mod stuff was STRANGELAND. I mean a lot of this stuff was really foreign in the world that I was living in.

Sean: How did you end up becoming involved with BME?

Brian: I first found BME while I was researching designs for my first tattoo, because it was the site that appeared in Google when you looked up Kanji tattoo. I found IAM months after that, when it turned out that my friend Kristen had an IAM page and she said it was a fun site. I’ve had an IAM account ever since April of 2001.

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Brian: I didn’t get a “heavy mod” until I got my septum punched at 00g.Which, I might add was very close to the same time that you had your septum punched. Same guy, too. (Shane Munce)

Sean: Yes, it’s true we were damn near septum twins for  a while. Except, I still haven’t ever gotten that damn double flared jewelry out that was originally put in mine!

Brian: Lucky for me, my septum is super stretchy and could take out the double flared jewelry almost immediately after getting it done. It wasn’t always a good idea, but I could do it. I don’t have to wear jewelry in it, and i can still fit about a 1/2″ piece of jewelry in.

Sean:..and speaking of putting things in places they don’t belong, let’s talk about your relationship with Shawn Porter.

Brian: Ha ha, let’s go there.

Sean: How did you first meet Shawn?

Brian: The first time I met Shawn was by complete accident on his part. I was going to my first IAM meet in Philly. 16 people signed up at the time and we were meeting at Market Street station. About 8 people showed up and we all just looked at each other and were like, “ok, what do we do now”. So we started heading towards a park and went walking through the Mall next to the station. Shawn, who happened to be shopping at the time, found himself in the middle of an IAM meet/ He followed us, and while going up the escalator looked at me and said, “Fuck you, you’re brian”.

Sean: Wow, that sure was random.

Brian: Very random. He knew who I was, because Shane had been talking about the first Weirdos event and how I was helping out. Shawn will still tell the story about how he told me to take over the event because the 15 year old girl who ran the Philly area IAM meet at the time, needed to be usurped.

Sean: Well she’s now merely known as “the 15 year old girl” and you sir are BME Royalty, so fine job usurping.

Brian: Ha. yup. But, in the grand scheme of things my royal status is mostly as the court jester, or the title I’ve grown more used to, Consigliere.

Sean: I still think of you more as security guard.  You have played the role as sober bouncer at several events at my old place , but the role of security protecting the sanctity of the “champagne room” at Shawn’s old apartment is when many may have first met you.

Brian: I’ve been the Straight Edge,  sober voice of reason for many years, and as Shawn would say, “Brian has forgotten more than you’ll know”. I am very much the behind the scenes man. The innocuous man who stands guard to a secret world.

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Sean: It’s true, in fact  you have been a part of some of the most exclusive body mod events in the world. Has this led to you getting any scarification or other heavier type mods done?

Brian: The heaviest work I have gotten was getting my septum punched to 00g and my nipples scalpeled to 2g. Other than that the work that i have gotten on myself has been pretty “plain” in comparison to my compadres.

Sean: I think that’s pretty awesome. Lot’s of people in your position would end up getting other heavier work just because they were around it so much and felt they pressured to get something.

Brian: Yeah, I stick to what I want to get, and am not easily swayed into getting something new just for the hell of it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t encourage others to do it, and convince them to let me take pictures. I did, however, take an interest in pulls and suspensions. Which the story of my first and only pull is a pretty funny one.

Sean: Was it the genital pull at my old house?

Brian: Yes, the 4 way genital pull would be the one.

Sean: Refresh my memory on that one? I think you were the only one actually pierced for that rather than using an existing hole?

Brian: Yes, I was the only one that took a fresh one that day. We did a frenum on the topside on me, while everyone else went through what they had. It was Me, Shawn Porter, Julie, and Michael. And to refresh your memory, Julie schooled all three of us.

Sean: ha ha I bet, she’s always been one tough cookie.

Brian: A destructive force that you just don’t see coming.

Sean: Not at all, the eeyore panties are  misleading

Brian: Very misleading.

Sean: So tell us about your suspensions.

Brian: My first suspension was a couple days before my 25th birthday at an ROP event in Emrys backyard. It was a 2 point chest suspension. I was warned before hand that a chest suspension was probably a bad idea for suspension.The only problem is, I’m a little stubborn and there really was no talking me out of it.

Sean: That is gung ho for damn sure. How did it go?

Brian: It was like riding a bull. I was up for about 8 seconds, and ended up with 32 stitches.

Sean: Wow. But you did it and that is far more than most in the world, or even this community have attempted, myself included.

Brian: That’s right. I made it up and the only reason that i came down was because my chest started to open up like a zipper. I didn’t even realize it was happening.

Sean: If you have to come down early, that’s about as good of a  reason as  I can think of. Did you an to do any more suspensions in the future?

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Brian: Yup, I did two more. My second suspension was in NYC at Brian Decker’s apartment, which was a 1 point suicide.

Sean: How was that?

Brian: This time the suspension went a little bit longer. I lasted halfway through a Minor Threat song, and ended up with only 5 stitches.

Sean: You’d think all that bacon in your diet would make your skin a bit more elastic.

Brian: You’d think that I would have stronger skin, but strong skin can’t over come bad ideas.

Sean: You definitely make for good quotes! So, how was the third suspension?

Brian: The last was the most successful. It was at the 2009 ROP suspension BBQ in Pittsfield. It was a 2 point Suicide with the new Gilson hooks.

Sean: No ripping I take it?

Brian: I lasted longer than anyone expected, and I didn’t tear one bit. It was great fun. I finally got to swing around and feel that sense of euphoria.

Sean: Awesome, that is what it’s all about man. You really are a shining example of why I got into wanting to suspend people.

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Sean: I imagine a lot of the readers of this blog that know of you probably do so from your role as host of  the annual Bowling With Weirdos event. Tell  me how that all started.

Brian: The first Weirdo event was in September of 2002. It was inspired after I had gone to my first July 1st Canadian BBQ in Shannon and Rachel’s backyard. I had talked to Shane Munce about doing something in the Philly area because there wasn’t much going on at the time. There happened to be a park down the street from the shop that he was working in at the time. The idea was simple. Keep it cheap, Keep it simple, Keep it fun. The event was originally called, “Philly Area BME BBQ/Bowling Event”

Sean: It really has become one of the defining annual BME events. I remember the first year, and it has only gotten better through the years (at least the every other year I make it up for).

Brian: It’s one of the longest running consistent IAM events. It’s always a good time. It’s amazing looking at the pictures from the first year and then every year after that.

Sean: But it wasn’t that event that made you the legend you are, it was a sticker that read ballhair… why don’t you explain to the younger readers what that was all about.

Brian: Ahhh. The ballhair sticker. I had actually started getting those printed right before I joined IAM. It was a fun little experiment. There is a company out there called Sticker Guy. I always saw ads in punk rock zines about getting stickers printed and this guy would do 250 of them for $20 So, at the time I of course wanted to get something printed. My friends at the time were just in love with screaming out Ballhair (thanks to the classic Rob Schneider movie “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo”).

Sean: Very cool, kind of like the obey stickers, except with no redeeming social value.

Brian: It was very much inspired by the OBEY stickers. I used to see them all the time in Philly and wanted to do one that was a little less serious. I’ve done a LOT of prints of that sticker.

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Sean: And then there was the sequel, what was it, cunthair?

Brian: No, it was Cuntbag. I only did one run of those.

Sean: Ooh limited edition, I think I still have one on a tool box too. That may be worth something after this interview gets posted!

Brian: It could definitely be. I still find handfuls of stickers here and there. When I do, I usually end up sending them to someone. I have probably printed thousands of them.

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Sean: Aside from the Bowling event and the stickers the one thing that comes to mind when I think of you is food. Good, greasy, meaty food. What role exactly does food play in your life?

Brian: It’s a pretty large part. Almost every person in my family has worked in the restaurant industry in some part. Hell, my father even cooked for Reagan when he was still president.  My mother was a photographer, my Dad was a chef,  I think that pretty well explains me.  I also have two food related tattoos.

Brian: I have my Sacred Bacon tattoo, but  I also have a rib piece done by Dave   of a beautiful scantily clad young lady wearing only an apron grilling with some script that says, “Daddy’s lil Grill”.

Sean: That’s right I forgot that amazing piece!

Brian: It came out great.

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Sean: Anything you want to make sure gets included, that we didn’t already touch on?

Brian: Just tell anyone that meets me to ask for a story. Whether the infamous “Get It” story, the “Indestructable” story, or any other fun tale. At East Coast events we call it story time.

Sean: What’s the “indestructable” one I don’t know of that I do not believe.

Brian: Its the story of the misspelled tattoo across my chest, it makes me “a table that can’t be destroyed” Told correctly it will make you laugh, cry, and then probably put out.

And that, dear readers, is Brian in a nutshell.

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