They call Amsterdam the “Ultimate City of Freedom”, or so the t-shirt I brought back for Shannon claims. The border crossing into the country didn’t involve being searched or questioned, and nothing more than pausing to get a Schippol Airport stamp in my passport held me from those freedoms — prostitutes, gambling, drugs, and euthanasia I suppose… but Jen Savage (my traveling companion and soon-to-be nurse) and I had come looking for another kind of freedom: medical freedom.

Most, if not all, of you have heard of the “JewelEye” implant that’s been upsetting conservative doctors lately — it is after all quite literally an implant under the surface of the eye. I decided to come see what it was all about… and to have it done on myself. As of Wednesday May 26, 2004, I am now the first person outside of The Netherlands to have it done.

After a short 30-minute train ride from Amsterdam to Utrecht, we stopped briefly at our hotel and then took a cab into the suburb of Driebergen where we arrived at the notorious Retina Total Eye Care. Far in fact from “notorious”, the clinic is located on a quiet shopping street open only to pedestrians and bike traffic, and looks every bit the designer clinic — walls covered with with Dolce & Gabbana, BVLGARI, Calvin Klein, and GUESS. The clinic’s center is a beautiful koi pond with bamboo growing up to the second story, and as we waited we were served apple juice and espresso.

The Retina Total Eye Care clinic, Driebergen  

When they were ready for me I went upstairs where they had the pre-op rooms and their full surgical suite. First I was given a complete eye exam to make sure there were no defects on my eye, and during this exam they determined the optimal positioning of the implant jewelry. The entire white of the eye is suitable for placement (so there was no “mapping of blood vessels” like in procedures such as dermal punching an ear), so the position is a combination of what I wanted and what they recommend — the goal was to have it subtle most of the time, but appear during conversation. Although one might assume it’s a hardcore mod, it’s not supposed to be “in your face”, even though it obviously is. Because we tend to look up when we’re talking, we decided to place the implant — a small platinum star — in the lower left quadrant of my left eye.

I was given a drop of anesthetic in both eyes — the eye not undergoing the procedure needed to be relaxed as well since our eyes move in unison. Two more anesthetic drops were put into my left eye, and an additional antibiotic drop was also given with the anesthetics. The drops stung a bit until they finally took effect. After that I couldn’t feel anything and my eyesight in my left eye became blurry. My hair was put into a hairnet and I changed into a surgical gown, complete with little plastic foot covers.

A sliding door opened and I was brought into an operating room. It was at this point that I really started to feel in good hands and at ease. Everything was top-of-the-line and matched the TV image of the perfect clinic. Everything was clean, white, and new. I got onto the operating table and my head was locked into place. I got another anesthetic drop, and my face around my eye was swabbed down with iodine — getting lots into the eye itself as well.

The table then rotated underneath some very bright lights and what I assume was some kind of microscope. A sterile drape was placed over my face except for a hole for my left eye. My eyelids and lashes were taped back and a claw was put under my eyelids to keep me from blinking (or “winkeling” as the doctors and nurses put it). If you’ve seen A Clockwork Orange you know what I’m talking about!

For most of the surgery I had my eye looking all the way to the right. I was convinced I wasn’t doing what they asked and was having a hard time keeping my eye in place, but they said I never moved once. I guess because my eye was moving due to the pressure that they were exerting on it, I felt that it was me moving it — but there was never any pain and hardly any pressure.

The procedure itself involved injecting a liquid to elevate and separate the layers of the eyeball, which helps the surgeon with the placement of the implant under the conjunctiva (in old age, many people build up calcium deposits in this area, so our eye is actually designed to handle material stuck there). A small flap is cut, and the implant is inserted. After it was in place, they began suctioning out the liquid that was used to elevate the layers. After a few weeks, the liquid will dissipate and the implant will become even more visible.

After removing as much of the elevation liquid (and the iodine) as possible, they removed the tape and sterile cover from my face. The tape being pulled off was actually the only pain that I felt for the entire procedure (I was worried about it pulling out my lashes, but it didn’t)! I can’t stand pulling tape off of myself after a tattoo either. It took about three minutes before I was able to sit up. I felt disorientated — staring into blinding lights while holding your eyes in an awkward position can take more of a toll on your entire body than you’d think. But still, the entire procedure from the start of the examination to getting off the table probably took less than half an hour.

I was taken back to the pre-op room where my face was cleansed of residual iodine and the surgeon gave me another exam to make sure that the implant was positioned properly. I felt very off balance because my left eye was so blurry — the fluid in my eye caused the distortion. In hindsight I’d have liked an eye patch and my eye felt much better when I kept it closed.

These pictures were taken the evening of the day of the procedure.
The surgeons were adamant that I call them if I was unhappy with the placement or if anything seemed wrong. I went back to my hotel to sleep, but woke up after two hours thanks to jet lag. I slept only off and on, even though I desperately needed a good night of sleep. By morning my eye had started to get quite red. It basically looked like I had pink eye, but with a lot less crusties and drainage. After the eyelid piercing article I was expecting pus, and to have to keep cleaning my eye but there was nothing more to do than my antibiotic drops three times a day. To be honest, I attribute the redness as much to lack of sleep as the implant — as soon as I got a night of sleep the redness was gone.

Left: the morning after, Right two pictures: the evening of the day after.
The redness above the implant is bruising from the incision and will go away.
So the morning after having the implant, my eye felt sore, but not uncomfortably so. Looking to the right for too long (posing for pictures!) made the soreness more intense but that would be expected — it felt similar to having an eyelash stuck in my eye. At my initial follow up exam Thursday morning the doctors said everything looked fine, although I did feel my eyes were dry. I asked if I could put saline drops in, and the doctor gave me an ointment for dryness instead and we made one final appointment at their second clinic in Rotterdam for the morning of our flight home.

The remainder of the week was to be spent doing some whirlwind traveling (“ah, an American vacation” a few people remarked; “next time you need to stay a little longer”). First to Liege, Belgium where we met with Marisa (who you know from her legal articles here) and Dan DiMattia of Calypso Tattoo (also no stranger to BME readers). My only problem with Belgium is the sidewalks — they are only about two feet wide! It’s hard to walk in a group, let alone side by side. Conversations have to wait.

I haven’t written much about the aftercare of the JewelEye because it really was a non-issue. Other than the very slight inconvenience of having to complete my course of antibiotic eye drops over the first week, there was barely any discomfort. A scratched eye hurts worse than this did.

Left two pictures: two days after, Right: four days after.  

After Liege, we traveled on to Antwerp, and then up to Venlo on the high-speed train (a big let-down on which we were served some sort of vomit-based dish) where we met with Kor and his Truth Seekers Syndicate for their ritual event which had drawn people from as far as Norway (Håvve Fjell, who you know from Ten Years of Pain) and Brazil. But it was all over so quickly — next time I will try and take the advice to stay longer.

You can also download the video:

Video (WMV): Hi-Res | Low-Res (High resolution clip is 2 MB, low resolution clip is 0.5 MB. Both are Windows WMV video files).

 

But, the trip was over and all that was left was my final appointment with Dr. Melles. He seemed very concerned that the star was a little lower down on my eye than he’d wanted, and asked me to let him know if I ever became unsatisfied and wanted it shifted slightly. He even gave me a note to take to an ophthalmologist locally. But, other than his concern about the aesthetics of the placement, there were no problems and everything seemed normal and healthy.

I want to say that Dr. Gerrit Melles (who developed this procedure as well as being the one who performed it on me) has a really wonderful bedside manner. He treated me kindly and with respect throughout our entire interaction — sadly, not the response a young, heavily tattooed woman is used to getting in this world. He took the time to explain everything in detail before, and as it was happening, which helped keep me calm. I felt like he was talking to me and not “at me”. He went out of his way to make sure I knew to contact him personally if I had any concerns.

As of today I’ve had a platinum star under the surface of my left eye for six days. Healing has been uneventful, and at 750 Euros (about $900 US), even with the price of the airfare and accommodations it cost no more than a large tattoo would. I don’t really know why I wanted it — something about it just struck me. Why do I like a certain hair style, or why do I like a certain song? I thought it was pretty. Whether it comes to mean more or less to me in the future, time will tell, but, I think Dr. Melles put it well when he explained that in all of human history, people have decorated themselves with jewelry. Of all our organs, one can argue that the eye is the most important in social interaction — now that we can do it safely, is eyeball jewelry really that strange?

     Rachel Larratt
BMEzine.com

 

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Rachel Larratt is the copublisher of BMEzine.com, the largest and oldest full-spectrum body modification publication on the planet. Her background is as diverse as one would expect of BME’s coowner, and includes everything from body piercing to developing technology for high-bandwidth media distribution..

Copyright © 2004 BMEzine.com Requests to republish complete, edited or shortened versions must be confirmed in writing. For bibliographical purposes this article was first published June 1st, 2004 by BMEZINE.COM in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

“Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.”

– Ecclesiastes 7:29

A long time ago I made the mistake of answering the question “is there anything that can’t be pierced” with “eyelids.” A few days later, Kelly from Yonge Street Tattoos in Toronto showed me a photo she’d taken while at a convention in Florida. She told me that he said the piercings didn’t bother him, but that she thought his eyes did look pretty irritated.

I pretty much wrote it off as a “stupid human trick” and so did most of the piercers I knew. Even though I later tracked down that person’s story — their red eyes were due to allergies, and that’s why they took the piercing out — I don’t think I ever took it seriously. They said they’d get it redone when allergy season was over. I never heard from them again so I assumed it didn’t happen, probably wasn’t viable, and it had become one of the many “tried it once, but never again” stories we seem to enjoy here.

However, more eyelid piercings have come out of the woodwork, and I’ve had a chance to talk to some of the clients and piercers doing this unusual procedure. First, meet Joe Amato of Tatts Taylors Tattoos in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (1929 S Federal Hwy, 954-525-7910). On St. Patrick’s day this year he performed an eyelid piercing on his friend Kevin Magee.

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BME:	What was the procedure you used for this piercing? What steps did you take to minimize the risks?

JOE: When we did Kevin’s eyelid, we put serious thought into not just doing the piercing but into how he was going to take care of it afterwards to make sure that first, it did not damage his eye, and second, that it would heal quickly and comfortably. To approach actually piercing the eyelid I used a small set of sponge forceps that I polished the grips off of so I wouldn’t scratch or damage the inside of the lid. I handmade “shorty” needles about 3/8 of an inch long so I could pierce from the inside out and not have to cause any extra trauma to the eyelid itself by pulling out enough to get a 2” needle through it.

BME: What was the piercing like?

KEVIN: It was scary as hell, but there was very little pain. It was noticeably uncomfortable immediately afterwards and throughout the night. The next morning it was pretty swollen, uncomfortable, and slightly annoying. I had redness on my eye, and a little crusting and dry blood… but it was only slightly painful when my eye dried out.

BME: Did you take anything?

KEVIN: An Aleve, 50mg of zinc, and H2Ocean throughout the day.

JOE: The primary aftercare agent we used was H2Ocean, which really was the biggest reason this healed so well.

The salinity in this product is measured off of tears to be as close to the body’s natural level as possible; so spraying it in his eye every day never burned or caused any damage. In addition, we had him using a saline rinse three times a day to remove any debris inside the eyelid itself, and Renu eye drops to keep the eye as moist as possible so it wouldn’t hurt his eye, or the contacts he wears. Lastly, we had him take zinc daily throughout the healing to help it along and Aleve for the first couple days to help minimize any swelling, so there would be no extra pressure from the ring on his eye.

BME: What was the healing like?

KEVIN: The second night I had no trouble sleeping, but when I woke up in the morning there was a large amount of pus under my eyelid. It was easily cleaned out with H2Ocean and a Q-Tip, and didn’t happen again. My eye was swollen and felt bruised, and it was mildly painful to close my eye tightly or open it widely. The redness was starting to fade though, and it mostly just felt like an eyelash caught in my eye.

BME: Did you take any other steps to monitor the healing?

JOE: I checked his eye every day with a 10x jeweler’s loupe to make sure there was no damage to the white of his eye. And, to this day, it has never scratched one of his contacts — which anyone who wears contacts knows is unbearable and impossible not to notice! I had Kevin make a journal of his experience with healing it, and made sure he paid great detail to writing down everything he used.

KEVIN: By the third day of healing, the redness was gone and there wasn’t any crust. It still felt bruised and it was still a little swollen… I was beginning to get used to the eyelash feeling, but it was still irritating. The day after that the swelling went down some more, and it didn’t hurt any more except when I closed my eye really tight.

Over the next few days I got more and more used to the feeling of having something this close to my eye. By the end of the first week of healing I was used to it, and at two weeks in it was totally comfortable.

BME: Do you still have to do anything to take care of it?

KEVIN: I still use H2Ocean several times a day to stave off infection, and Renu eye drops when necessary. I have had no problems with my vision, and all in all it has been a good experience. It’s been two months since I got it pierced and I’ve still got it and I don’t even feel it.

…The only problem I’ve had is people shrinking away from me in horror in the elevator!

BME: No doubt! Thanks for talking to us.

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We also had the opportunity to chat with our old friend Nick Anzalole at Under the Needle in Seattle, Washington (2511 6th Ave, 206-448-6613). Like nearly every piercer I know, he wasn’t able to shake the idea after seeing that first blurry picture from the tattoo convention. His friend Ty, also fascinated by the piercing, volunteered.

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BME:	So, what made you think this was a good idea?
NICK:	Ty already had extensive mod work, including a split tongue, so I told him we would try it, but that it would probably be very uncomfortable, and might have to be removed very soon after being pierced. He said that was fine and we went ahead with it. This was back in June of 2002. He was lucky enough to have sort of a little free space in the corner of his eye.
BME:	What do you mean by that?
NICK:	As in his eyelid didn’t touch his actual eyeball in the corner — I thought this would be the best place to pierce it.
BME:	What was your procedure?
NICK:	I placed a small Pyrex glass receiving tube under his eyelid so as not to nick the actual eyeball — I warned him that if he jumped the needle might just go straight into his eyeball! Then, using a 14 gauge needle, I simply pierced into it, following through with a 14 gauge 5/16” captive bead ring. I held tight onto the eyelid to make sure the skin didn’t “roll” with the needle. It was over quickly, and only a single tear had left his eye. The ring itself appeared to not even touch the actual eyeball, and just kind of float in mid air.
BME:	How did the healing go?
NICK:	I kept in good contact with Ty for several days afterwards to monitor him. He said it didn’t really bother him all that much — only when he woke in the morning did it irritate him. He took care of it like you would any other piercing, and soaked it in warm saline solution several times a day. He still had it in about twenty days later, when, after a night of drinking, he stumbled and fell, and kind of caught it on a nail in a doorway! It was still in, but bleeding and had torn a little. I was there and told him it should probably come out. He wanted to try to leave it in, but after about three more days he took it out… I believe there was a very good chance it may have healed, but his was too damaged from the fall. I may do it again some day. I do still enjoy the fact though that as far as I know, I was the second piercer ever to pierce an eyelid.
BME:	Do you think people should be doing this piercing?
NICK:	Well, this is the kind of thing you really should never try, nor should you ever ask your piercer to do it for you. The man who I did this on, Ty, was a good friend of mine, and I did it only after he bugged me for a very long time, and I was sure he understood all the risks involved. If someone without the needed skills tried this they could easily blind their friend.
BME:	Thanks for talking to us about this!

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Now, I need to be very clear and upfront and say that this is not yet something I’d consider a viable piercing. It shows a lot of promise and it may well be possible to safely do these, but the jury is far from in. That said, until about 1980 people thought that tongue piercing was absolutely insane and that it would cripple a person… but as it’s turned out, it’s one of the safest and most common piercings out there.

Risks from eyelid piercing are largely centered around infection from the damage to the eyelid (risk to the scelra or white of the eye is minimal assuming proper jewelry is used). The main risk is bacterial conjunctivitis, better known as “pink eye”, a bacterial infection. If the eye becomes increasingly swollen and red, or the infection spreads to nasal or ear congestion accompanied by fever or cold and flu symptoms, this could be escalating into a serious problem. If yellow or green discharge is present you may need antibiotic treatment, and if it gets worse, surgical intervention is not unheard of. It is important to note that while this risk is most prominent in the first few days, it will never entirely go away.

I should also note that if you have any jewelry allergies, you’ll show the symptoms above for as long as you have the piercing. In my opinion anyone who suffers from allergies should not attempt this. Finally, styes, infections in the glands at the edge of the eyelid are also possible. If this happens you’ll note swelling, pain, and itching right in that area — warm compresses can help.

Modification of the eyelid and eye itself is on the verge of erupting. Eyelid tattooing is a common cosmetic procedure these days. Even eyeball tattooing (where the white of the eye is tattooed) is considered a “safe” procedure, as is the implantation of metal designs under the white of the eye. It makes sense though — the eyes are the focal point for all of our social interactions. We can sense where someone is looking from across the room, and we can express some of the most subtle emotions through our eyes alone. “You have beautiful eyes,” is a compliment that crosses all cultures and is one of the few universal truths in aesthetics.

So for those of us who think piercing is beautiful, maybe a pierced eyelid makes sense?

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

“Humans are ends in themselves, but that does not rule out the use of oneself as a tool to achieve oneself. In fact, one of the best ways of preventing humans of being used as means rather than ends is to give them the freedom to change and grow.”

– Anders Sandberg

From a talk at TransVision 2001, Berlin

Tori Swanson, 12, wanted a nostril piercing. Her parents both supported her in this wish, and, wanting to ensure that it was a safe and positive experience,

Want to give your feedback on the abuse of power going on? Here’s some contact addresses for you. Sadly this is far from a unique incident, but we have to tackle them one at a time. Please let them know what you think. Dr. Judy F. Pippen, Principal at Bailey Middle School [email protected] or 850-479-6479 Jim Paul and Norm Ross, Superintendent’s Office 850-469-6131 voice, 850-469-6479 fax Norm Ross told me that feedback could be faxed to this number and it would be passed on to the appropriate committee. Dr. Allen Scott, Director of Secondary Education [email protected] Scott is currently chairing the committee that is setting the dress codes for secondary students.

Her father took her to a professional studio where he signed the release forms and she was pierced. However, when she returned to Jim C. Bailey Middle School in Pensacola, Florida, the principal, Dr. Judy F. Pippen, suspended her and told her she would stay suspended as long as the jewelry was in her face. The school argued that Tori’s nostril piercing was so destructive to the other students’ ability to learn that they had no choice but to expel her.

It took a bit of bouncing around — no one wanted to take responsibility for the act or even explain it at first — but eventually I managed to talk to Norm Ross at the superintendent’s office who confirmed the story’s veracity (I’ve put various contact addresses in the above/right sidebar if you’d like to comment after you’ve read this).

BME:	I don’t entirely understand why she was suspended. What exactly was the issue?

“The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.”

– John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty” (1859)

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Note: If you’re reading this “live” as this incident is playing out, you can visit the website of The Piercing Experience, a Georgia studio (and one of the nation’s best) that is actively following this case and posting to-the-minute info.

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Thanks to Republican representative Bill Heath, a man who many believe had part of his penis mutilated in a bizarre religious ritual*, Georgia (as in the US state, not the communist republic bordering Turkey) is getting ready to pass a new law banning genital piercing for consenting adult women. This law would dictate mandatory two year prison sentences for any piercer that does these piercings, with a maximum punishment of twenty years in state prison simply for doing a hood piercing. Shockingly, this law unanimously passed the House (160-0!) and is now seeking approval from the Senate before being signed by the Governor.

* It’s called circumcision, silly… but you have to admit that chopping off a part of a baby’s penis to appease your God is a little more messed up than adult women enjoying sex.

Bill Heath sponsored the law as an amendment to an existing FGM bill, slipping it into an unrelated bill at the last moment after someone mentioned to him that female genital piercing existed — “What?” the moron replied (“slack-jawed” were the words of the Associated Press reporter). He continued, “I’ve never seen such a thing… I, uh, I wouldn’t approve of anyone doing it. I don’t think that’s an appropriate thing to be doing.” Later, after jotting down a quick anti-woman, anti-freedom rant, he explained, “[I am trying to] make illegal the voluntary piercing of female genitals for decorative purposes.”

This bill is fundamentally wrong. Honestly, it’s so wrong it’s insane. You know, I’ve seen politicians do some stupid things, but I’m still always amazed when someone’s hatred and closed-mindedness can so void any semblance of intelligence and leave them as nothing more than a hollering buffoon. Let’s take a closer look.

There has been no public or private debate on the subject.

Bill Heath wasn’t elected to introduce this ban — he’s not acting on his constituent’s wishes. He introduced it on a whim, after hearing about a subject he knew nothing about. I’ll ignore spending much time asking you whether you really want a politician that rashly forces through law, without consulting experts, the public, or anything other than his bigotry. Even if you agree with his conclusion about female genital piercing, his way of reaching and enacting it spits in the face of liberty.

The House never debated this amendment, and neither did the public — this was forced through so quickly that the media didn’t even report on it until the House had already approved the law. That’s just not how democracy is supposed to work!

This bill is fundamentally sexist and anti-woman.

A bill that bans a unisex activity (since both genders enjoy genital piercings) for only women is sexist. Remember, this bill only bans genital piercings on women — men are still permitted to have them. Saying that women can’t have piercings says that women don’t have a right to their bodies, since every woman I know with genital piercings got them consensually, and usually totally independently of anyone else. The supplemental argument — one that’s currently playing out in the California courts with Todd Bertrang — is that women are so weak that they can’t stop piercers forcing modifications on them, an equally insulting claim.

I don’t know if Bill Heath has fundamental shortcomings in his manhood that make him so terrified of female sexuality that he’s trying to ban it at all costs, but it’s not his place and it’s not his right. Especially given how many women use genital piercings as a way of claiming their own bodies back from male-dominated culture, Bill Heath’s attempt to violate women by taking away that right to their bodies is despicable. His attempt to introduce such legislation via a rider on a bill essentially designed to protect women makes it even more sickening…

This bill ignores thirty years of culture and research.

Genital piercing has been popular and at least partially above-board in Georgia for about thirty years, and publicly accessible commercial body piercing studios have been doing genital piercings for a decade and a half in Georgia. Tens of thousands of women in Georgia have genital piercings and are very happy with them, and complications are virtually unheard of (it’s not as if this is tongue splitting, or a procedure with real risks). There have been no studies suggesting that female genital piercings are anything except healthy, stimulating, and extremely positive.

This bill is unfair to business.

This bill tells companies with a decade and a half of successful and appreciated history in the community that, without space for debate or negotiation, they have to cease operating or face prison time. Government has no right to arbitrarily put people out of businesses they’ve held for most of their lives simply because some small-minded legislator decides to scribe his hate-filled whims onto a larger bill.

This bill violates citizen’s privacy and overextends government’s reach.

The simple fact is that this is none of the government’s business. We’re not talking about minors. We’re not talking about danger. We’re talking about a safe, positive, and private activity between consenting adults. This isn’t like drugs or guns or any of the other hot topics politically — there are no societal risks or dangerous cultural side-effects from allowing people to have happy lives. The government simply has no right to intrude on people’s private lives and tell them how to enjoy and decorate their genitals.

This bill does nothing to protect the safety of the public. It is nothing more than an attempt to enforce one specific moral code, and, even if Bill Heath is right and women with genital piercings are an affront to God, it’s not government’s place to write laws about it. Henry George said it far better than I could — “It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve.”

This bill is fundamentally unamerican.

This bill takes the shockingly backwards view of a tiny minority and attempts to force it on the majority. America, at least in theory, is a place where you can be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do, as long as you’re not hurting anyone else. Your own thing in your own time. America isn’t a country that passes laws putting people in prison for having the wrong political views. It’s not a country that tells people what they have to believe. It’s not a country that would send people to prison over body piercings for longer than they’d get for most armed robberies… or is it quickly becoming that, thanks to traitors like Bill Heath?

In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”

So let’s be real clear on this:
Bill Heath isn’t just a moron and a bigot. He’s also a traitor.

Bill Heath is involved in an active conspiracy to strip American citizens of their fundamental civil rights and freedoms. Mask it in moralism all you want, but you can’t get rid of that core truth. Even if you think female genital piercing is sick and perverted, are you comfortable living in a country where the government is so controlling and invasive that they even tell you how to have sex?

Bill Heath thinks that’s what America should become. You can reach the treasonous bastard via email at [email protected] or via his homepage at billheath.net. In addition, here are three more direct methods:

HOME	OFFICE	CHURCH
2225 Cashtown Road Bremen, Geogia 30110 770-537-5234 770-537-6383 (fax) (his wife Susan will answer — she probably does not have genital piercings)	Suite 501, Legislative Office Building 18 Capitol Square Atlanta, Georgia 30334 404-656-0177 (his secretary Pat Alexander will probably answer — chance of genital piercings also extremely low)	Abilene Baptist Church

3917 Washington Road
Martinez, GA 30907
706-869-1774

Be sure to let him know what you think — in the form of words though, not the bullets he deserves. Or, if you think you can contain your rage better than me and you think you can get through, try and explain to him or his wife why genital piercing is important to you and why you hope he’ll recant his crimes against humanity.

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

PS. You can also contact Governor Sonny Perdue himself at 404-656-1776 or online by clicking here. In addition, here’s a list of all the email addresses for Georgia’s Senators (who have to sign off on the bill next, although since it’s obvious that this ludicrous law would never stand up to a challenge in court, I’m hoping they’ll have the sense to remove it) — you can paste list this into your email and urge them to vote to remove Bill Heath’s anti-piercing amendment to House Bill 1477 (Senate Bill 418):

“When truth is discovered by someone else, it loses something of its attractiveness.”

– Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Some people tell me that the problem with BME is that it’s very “us and them”. It’s true. There’s a strong separatist movement on BME, and when it comes down to it I don’t trust people without body modifications. I’ll even go one step further — I don’t believe that people without body modifications are really even fully birthed and evolved humans, because I believe that communication, expression, and self-improvement are core to what a human is, and I believe that body modification (in one form or another, including everything from body building to transhumanism) is the purest form of these traits.

There’s an old saying that the difference between people with tattoos and those without is that those with tattoos don’t care if you have tattoos or not. I’d like to expand on that by adding that the difference between people with tattoos and those with fake tattoos is that those with the fake tattoos are losers that are not only making themselves look like idiots, but make real tattooed people look bad as well.

A lot of people have been sending me links to the site above (www.sleevesclothing.com), a new business venture by the folks at Tinsley Transfers, a temporary tattoo company. Basically they’re flesh-tone shirt/stockings with high quality prints of large tattoos on them. Unlike fashions that simply co-opt tattoo designs (which I have no fundamental problem with, and think is flattering), the goal of these is to actually make it look like you have large-scale tattoos — it’s a costume. I’m certainly not doubting the quality of their product technically — it looks quite well made. However, when you’re talking about an “I’m an idiot” sign, quality really isn’t your core problem.

At it’s most basic, shirts like these show a fundamental lack of respect for people with tattoos. It’s basically stealing tattoo culture in a way that would be no better than stealing the religious icons of another faith and turning them into some sort of disposable pop culture reference (an ironic analogy given that this is one of the sins of the tattoo community in many people’s eyes).

To me the issue is in the conversion of a permanent message into a transient message (to say nothing of the elimination of the “message of the message” altogether) — the exchange of commitment and loyalty for transience and whoring. Most people with tattoo sleeves take them quite seriously. After all, they’re there for life! Sleeves shirts on the other hand can be taken off, discarded, and swapped for another one as easily as any t-shirt, and because of their “it’s better than a real tattoo” stance it’s a slap in the face of anyone with genuine tattoos. Not only are they being crass and ignorant, but people wearing these shirts are making the public statement that their definition of self is a deception (ie. “I am a lie; I am not what you see.”) — and that tattoos are a part of that lie.

The fact is, the type of expression you get from fashion is fundamentally different than the type of expression you get from tattoos. Tattoos say “not only do I believe in this message, but I AM become this message,” whereas images on a piece of clothing (or makeup) simply say “here’s the lie of the day” — at best they are decorations without meaning or value, part of an elaborate social bluffing game. Now, maybe you’re asking why I have to take this all so seriously, why does it matter if someone likes the way tattoos look but doesn’t want to actually have them? The reason it matters is because they are stealing and then damaging — the only reason they “look cool” is because of the hip cachet that we (the tattooed people) have created by the way we collectively lead our lives. They want to be us, but they don’t have the commitment to be us. It’s not so much that they don’t have a right to share that look, it’s more that they don’t have a right to destroy it through devaluation (as they take a permanent fashion and turn it into the look lie of the month).

In any case, these shirts are incredibly lame, and even if the fashion world loves them briefly, they’ll be spit out as the remnants of a now uncool trend a few months later… tagging all tattooed people with that brush as they fall — after all, if fake tattoos are passé, how lame are real tattoos?

Now, I promised you this was going to be about COINTELPRO tactics and the elimination of the tattoo menace. COINTELPRO was an FBI program between the 1950s and early 70s that sought to “neutralize political dissidents”. This included everyone from communists, socialists, and union activists to influential anti-war and pro-civil rights celebrities like Jane Fonda and John Lennon, the Black Panthers, the KKK, the Yippies, and so on. One of their most effective strategies, far more effective than assassination and more brutal suppression, was simply to discredit. Instead of killing the speaker, or logically debating their politics, they simply used media actions to paint them as buffoons (watch Steal This Movie for a decent fictionalized account how COINTELPRO eventually pushed Abbie Hoffman to “suicide”).

Being painted as buffoons is what these “Sleeves” shirts do, and it’s a growing media trend when it comes to the coverage of tattoos. Take a look through the BME newsfeed and you’ll regularly see articles on people regretting their tattoos (or other mods) and having to get them removed in shame. Here’s a sampling of headlines:

• Tattoos: Decoration or tacky?
• Tattoos that are not for life...
• Geri Halliwell removes old tattoo
• Americans Likelier Than Italians to Regret Decision to be Tattooed
• Doctor Removes Obsolete Tattoos
• Think before you ink: Tattoo removal on the rise
• Christina Aguilera removes most of her piercings

The casual mainstream reader gets the impression not that tattoos are dangerous or “underground” in some way, but instead that they’re simply a stupid mistake, and that people getting them regret it because tattoos are lame and become dated fast. Basically, the current media premise is that tattoos are for buffoons — prompting a friend of mine to make a sign for the door of his new tattoo studio reading “if you’re not a criminal or a drug addict, you’ve come to the wrong place.” In the past, tattooed people were frightening, but these days they’re simply pathetic and laughable… or so the media would have you believe.

In my last column I pointed out that the best way to get young people covered in tattoos is to tell them they’re dangerous, edgy, and underground. Conversely, the best way to get them away from tattoos is to try and trick them into thinking they’re lame and less meaningful than they actually are — and that’s why we need to worry when we start seeing these COINTELPRO-type tactics being used. Now, I’m not proposing that this is some grand conspiracy where some secret anti-tattoo illuminati is meeting to orchestrate this whole thing. The media is doing their normal coverage cycle where something goes from scary to cool to mainstream to lame to forgotten, and the fashion world is simply latching onto that to try and make a quick buck. But when it comes down to it, it’s the attack’s end result that we need to worry about as much as the motivation or lack thereof.

So how do we make this a non-issue?

I suppose the simple answer is that we need to put outlaw culture back into tattooing. So if you’ve got a tattoo, make sure you kick someone’s ass at least once a week — preferably while you’re rip-roarin’ drunk — and do at least a little prison time.

Seriously though, some people have suggested that it’s quite wonderful that the mainstream has gotten into tattooing with such gusto. In some ways I agree, and it’s been wonderful to watch so many human flowers bloom. Additionally, the mainstream attention has resulted in a lot of money flowing in this community and great things are happening because of it. But the mainstream is fickle and looking at even just the last forty years of Western history, it’s obvious that the mainstream’s sensibilities shift radically every decade or so… and we’re starting to approach the end of the “tattoo decade” in terms of mainstream acceptance. It’s possible that we’ve hit a threshold where there’s no going back (15% of Americans are tattooed), but we’re still a tiny minority when you look at it objectively, especially when you only consider those that are heavily or publicly tattooed.

Tattooing as expressed by Western culture is nearly unique historically in its level of variation. No other culture in history that we know of has allowed for this depth of personal expression (indigenous cultures usually used tattoos to emphasize social structures and offered little in the way of personal variance). Not only for our own good, but for the good of the human race, we must embrace this individuality and fight anything that tries to commodify it and make it mundane. Tattooing should be an expression of self; a carnal message rather than some banal false-individuality of a temporary mask. Maybe the truth of the matter is that most people simply don’t have anything to say (but desperately want to), so they are drawn to this “prepackaged mass-produced individuality” that mainstream tattooing (and fake tattooing) gravitates to. Maybe the mainstream drones can’t appreciate the meaning of tattooing, because they don’t have a meaning themselves?

Keep your tattoos real and believe in them. Get your tattoo, not someone else’s. Like the ancient gods, tattoos gain their power from faith, sacrifice, and belief. Tattoos are power sigils, personal magic that can help rocket a person to their full potential. They’re not buffoonery, and they’re most certainly not something you can take on and off like makeup or clothing.

The mainstream never got it, and they never will.

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

Next column: Applications of body modification in modern magick.

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Photos of “Sleeves” clothing (including cover image) property of Tinsley Transfers Inc. (http://tinsleytransfers.com/), reproduced under fair use doctrine.

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“All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.”

– H.L. Mencken

The media has been full of stories recently warning parents and teens about the dangers of home-made tattoos, but they fail to realize what’s going through the minds of teens when they see these stories. Instead of discouraging do-it-yourself tattoos, these articles make them even more desirable.

The man: Do-it-yourself tattoos are dangerous and look bad.

Teen: Tattoos? Cool!

The man: Maybe you didn’t hear me. They’re dangerous.

Teen: My middle name is danger. Bring it on!

The man: They look bad though. Look at this tattoo!

Teen: If by “bad”, you mean “BAD ASS!” See you later dad, I’m going to my room… to get a tattoo.

So basically these articles tell kids that tattoos, especially DIY tattoos, have an underground or outlaw status, and then top it off by showing the kids a super-cute skull and crossbones tatty as a “warning”. If I was still a teen, articles like these would make me head out to the garage and take file to coat hanger to make myself an impromptu tattoo torture device and then scrawl out some hip little icon on myself.

But lets look at the truth of it instead.

When I was a teen I was enamored with tattoos. While he was in college, my father won a panther tattoo in a wrestling match and I remember how proud I was to show it off to all my friends at school. As a teen I thought tattoos were tough — signs of manhood — and they appealed to my sense of rebellion and individualism. After little to no planning I went to a pharmacy and bought a small box of insulin syringes, after which I went to an art store and bought some India Ink. Sitting on my bed, I drew a one inch by five inch “tribal” design on my bicep with a blue ballpoint pen. I filled up one of the syringes, pushed the plunger a little to form a bead of ink on the tip of the needle, and began poking the tattoo into my arm. Every time the ink was used up I wiped my arm clean, pushed some fresh ink from the syringe, and kept going. Within half an hour the small tattoo was complete. Within a week I also had a small Eye of Horus on my shoulder and a cat skull on my calf.

Good, bad, and terrible tattoos. Which do you want?

After a brief period of showing off though, the coolness was gone and I was left with three crappy tattoos. The first still takes up valuable real estate on my bicep (you can see it above-right), and is complicating getting a proper sleeve done. After taking a high school art course as rehabilitation made him consider a career as a tattoo artist, the second was covered up with a dragon by a friend who had recently been released from prison. That cover up was later covered up again, and I now have a huge blob of scarred up color on my shoulder that I don’t know what to do with. The third was covered up with a thick black band around my calf and shin.

The problem with teens’ thinking isn’t that they’re ignorant or short-sighted. The problem is that teens are excited and full of life and tend to be impulsive, especially when adults dangle carrots of cool in front of their noses like these articles do (and like buddies with needles and ink, as well as unscrupulous scratchers, are more than willing to facilitate). Now, personally I have an agenda to see as many tattooed people in this world as possible, but really, I’d rather if they had good tattoos that they’re happy with in the long run!

So here’s my advice to young people who want tattoos:

1. Your tattoo is a reflection on you.

Not only is the subject matter of your tattoo going to communicate with the rest of the world what you stand for and who you are, but so is the quality. A bad tattoo is like dirty unwashed clothes that don’t quite fit right, but are stuck on you for life — or like an essay that hasn’t been properly proofed for spelling and grammar… It just doesn’t communicate its message well. The effort you put into getting a high quality tattoo is a direct reflection of what you think about yourself and how much you care about yourself.

A bad tattoo might make you look tough to people who are suffering under the stereotype that criminals and tattoos go together — in fact, the worse the tattoo is, the more likely they are to assume you’ve “done time”. But is this really something you want? Some sort of mock balls? All that’s going to do is make you look like a fool to people who actually have been in prison, and make the rest of the world look down on you (especially when they realize that you’re faking it).

2. If you’re too young, suck it up and deal with it.

The unfortunate truth is that if you’re under 18, the vast majority of reputable tattoo artists on this planet will not tattoo you. That’s not because they don’t think you’re ready for it, or because they have some sort of uppity over-30 attitude toward teens — it’s because they own a business and can’t risk losing it over a violation of some stupid law.

Yes, you will find artists willing to bend the rules. They are out there. But the truth is that they’re not the best artists, and they’re not the artist you should be going to if you want the best tattoo. If you’re underage, take the time to search out the best artists, and when you’ve found one, you can make an appointment for your 18th birthday and work with them on the perfect design beforehand.

3. Save your money and do it right. Go big!

One of the most common regrets people have with tattoos, as with many things, is “I wish it was bigger.” Too many people make the mistake of getting a small tattoo on a large piece of skin. Common mistakes are a small logo on the shoulder, or a band around the arm which later interferes with getting a full-sleeve piece.

A large tattoo is bolder in a graphic design sense, and moves with your body — it becomes a part of you far more than any “patch” could. Additionally, it forces you to think about what you’re doing on a more profound level, and the result is almost always far more satisfactory to both the person wearing the tattoo, and the general public viewing the tattoo.

4. Think about it; what do you want to say? Who are you?

If you had to wear one outfit of clothing for the rest of your life, and it had to suit you in all situations that life throws at you, what would you choose? That’s basically what you have to decide when you’re selecting a tattoo.

Try to articulate why you want a given image tattooed on you for the rest of your life. If “because it looks cool” is a good enough answer for you (and it surely is for some tattoos), please consider that “cool” has a radically different definition now than it did in 1975, and you can bet it’ll be different again in 2025… Just remember that your tattoo should be cool in relation to who you are, rather than in relation to what society is at that moment.

5. Educate yourself.

Knowledge really is power. A lot of people make the mistake of getting tattooed at the first tattoo shop they step into, without ever seeing another. This is inexcusable in my opinion. Absolutely inexcusable. Of all the things you buy in your life, a tattoo is one you should definitely do your research on, for one simple reason:

There are a lot of bad tattoo artists out there!

Even ruling out the artists that don’t meet health board approval (want to find someone who will tattoo minors? look for the shop without an autoclave!), there are a multitude of dudes with tattoo machines that are anything but artists. So go to every studio you can and look through the portfolios. Buy tattoo magazines and browse online portfolios and see just how good a tattoo can look.

Looking at the tattoos in this article, can you tell which ones are good and which ones are not? If you can’t, then you’re not ready to be tattooed yet.

6. Resist the impulse buy.

There are exceptions to all of these rules, but if you want to have a good tattoo that you’re going to be happy with for the rest of your life, here’s how you can be fairly sure you’re making the right decision: don’t get it the day you think of it.

If you can get the artist (or a friend, or yourself) to stencil the tattoo onto you or paint it on, take a picture of yourself with it. You can also do this by drawing it on yourself in a paint program or sketching it onto a photo of yourself. Put this picture by your mirror or by your computer or somewhere that you’ll see it every day — how do you feel about yourself with this tattoo? If it still looks as good to you at the end of six months (or whatever you feel is a good time), then you can be a lot more sure that you’ve come up with something with meaning that you’ll appreciate for life.

The suggestions above are far from teen-specific. If people of all ages listened to them, we’d have a world with a lot better looking tattoos. Perhaps I’m betraying my art school background here, but I really believe the value of a society can be gauged by the diversity and perfection of its aesthetic landscape — so in my world anyway, when you put effort into tattoos, you are being patriotic.

In a twisted sort of way, teens are at a huge advantage when it comes to tattoos — they have a forced waiting period. Certainly many don’t take advantage of this and end up with bad hand poked tattoos followed up by poorly done tattoos by sub-par scratchers like I did… but more and more teens are using this time period to save up the money for a good tattoo (they are expensive after all — $500-$1000 is a good starter budget for a mid-sized tattoo), plan the perfect one for themselves, and go to the best artists. The 21st century is going to be a colorful one, so I hope everyone does their part in making sure the future is as beautiful as possible.

Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com

Next column: COINTELPRO tactics in eliminating the tattoo menace.