Not-so-fun Email

Sometimes I get email that's not quite so fun to receive. I feel that the following letter deserves to be publicly addressed. I do think that while it's well-meaning, but rather misguided, it is also an opinion held by a large number of people who don't really understand what body modification is about.

Dear Mr. Larratt:       I understand quite well that you might think this is a "funny" email and put it on your "funny email" board. Okay. I am one of those ridiculous "prudes" who has never been pierced in any way. The interesting thing is that I never had anything against piercing or tattooing and was even considering delving into it-- until I met up with my dear friend and consequently your e-zine. My friend, you see, is one of your more famous "sculptors". He is torn between seeing his predilection as a problem or as a form of "art." He is currently in therapy to solve the conflicts in his past that may have led to his fascination with this form of "sculpture." But of course, here you are, with your videocam and your "modcon" and all those precious little baubles that masquerade as fifteen minutes of fame. Frankly, I can't understand you at all-- or maybe I can, which is even worse. You make money out of other people's desperation/misery. You call it "art," which sanctifies your greed and your repulsive curiosity. But if this were truly "art," there would be no need to hide out in some crappy e-zine, begging approval from similar sufferers. Real art has a way of making itself known, even to the great unwashed-- and I suppose you would call us the great unwashed, those of us who don't get off on lopping off fingers and hands and toes-- that's your way of justifying your capitalization of self-injury. But those who actually have to live with the results-- and I don't mean friends and lovers like myself, but those who actually perform their mutilations for your greasy camera-- those folks are your victims. You take their pictures and then write up a cute little blurb in your "newsletter" confident that you have another credit card number in your "extreme" section. And then you rush off to the next confused bloke who wants to cut off something, reassuring him/her that it's "art, art, I understand, the rest of the world are assholes. Where shall I set up my camera?" Well, Mr. Larratt, you are taking advantage. Naturally you will dismiss this letter-- why not? After all, the mindset here disagrees with your career move. But you are a fairly young guy-- I take it-- and, hopefully you will mature and see how unconstructive this all is. No, sir, this is not art. No. No. You encourage people to resolve their problems in the most self-destructive way and you call it "art." You do this to make money. You should be ashamed of yourself. You should hang your head in shame. You have exacerbated my friend's troubles and you have wreaked havoc with our relationship. I don't care if you did it inadvertently. Responsibility involves thinking and it is time that you woke up and thought about what you are doing.       Respectfully Yours,       Jean       [email protected]

There are of course a number of things I'd like to address. First of all, it is extremely difficult for someone who doesn't feel a need to even be pierced to understand the drives behind heavier modification like (I assume) amputation. It's almost impossible to understand that there are legitimate and healthy drives to the extreme forms of body sculpting. I think that what it boils down to is that not everyone has an internal body image which matches their actual external body image. Until these two images match, a person can't truly be happy with themselves. Attempting to change the internal image is often more difficult (and unhealthy) that manipulating the external image. Society accepts transsexualism, body building, breast implants, and nose jobs -- why not amputation and subincision?

As far as the accusations of me being in it for the money or fame, anyone who's been around me or BME for long enough knows that's simply not true. (Click here to read a USENET posting addressing the history of BME). BME was free for as long as I could afford to keep it so. It costs an incredible amount of money to maintain such a high-volume, high-bandwidth site, so I have no choice but to charge. I would be making far more money, and working far less hours if I stopped doing BME. If you don't believe me, search for me in COMPUTER TELEPHONY, WIRED, VIDEOTEXT JOURNAL, and other telephony programming journals -- these are not articles about BME, but about my traditional programming work, which has always been very profitable. This is a labor of love -- I am not in it for the money. People who know me can also tell you that I'm not in it for fame -- I'm a recluse, and do not generally even go to tattoo conventions. I turn down the majority of interviews.

Because I am friends with a significant percentage of the people who are featured on BME, I know that it is constructive. Yes, I can not deny that there are a certain percentage of readers who are extremely unhealthy individuals that use BME to drive their neurosis, but most are not. The vast majority of BME/extreme readers draw strength and a feeling of community from it. It is not about manipulating people into something that they're not, it's about helping people feel happy with who they are, and letting them know they're not alone. Anyone that can't understand that may be the real negative influence.

Anyway, I hope that clears up some of that. If you have similar concerns, feel free to email me at [email protected]