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In early November 2007, about 150 piercers, tattooists and other body modification artists came together to attend and participate in the first BMXnet Conference. This is an account written by one of the organizers, and was translated from German to English by Hillary. What / Who is BMXnet? It all began about a year before the first conference in the form of an "independent piercers’ meeting," initiated by a couple of friends who worked in the piercing industry and who felt it was important for industry professionals to convene without any preconceptions or limitations. After attending the Association of Professional Piercers conference (APP) for several years, the quickly growing BMXnet team felt it was important and necessary to keep up that level of dialogue with other people in the industry in Germany and throughout Europe. The first four meetings were quite small (only about 20 people) in Essen and Berlin and, though they were officially "piercing only," a wide range of topics ended up being covered. Another major influence was the 2006 Associazione Piercer E Tatuatori Professionisti Italiani (APTPI) Conference in Italy, which demonstrated how well piercers and tattooists can come together and learn from one another. (It also showed that it is possible to organize a well put-together event with only a few years of planning experience.) The event opened our eyes not just to the interest but the need for similar events throughout Europe.
With all this in mind, in 2007, it became our mission to put on an event in Germany. It was our goal not to exclude any discipline in modern body modification and made sure to include tattoo artists, piercers, scarification artists and suspension artists alike, and to develop an exchange within and across body modification practices with a standard of respect, acceptance, and tolerance for the work, art, and passion of others. The Conference The planning process began on very short notice (2-3 months), but, thanks to the main sponsors (Wildcat Germany and Industrial Strength Europe-Swiss), it was possible to finance the event and make it happen. (Many thanks also go to other associations -- such as APP, APTPI, OPP and UETA -- who supported the event by providing speakers, contacts and other resources.) Within a short period of time, 150 people were confirmed -- quite impressive for a brand new, quickly organized event. Along with allowing plenty of time for socializing, Friday (the first day) was a suspension day hosted by Wings of Desire (from Norway) along with the help of the Superfly Crew (Berlin), Thorsten (iSuspend), Muffe (Copenhagen Body Extremes), Jussi (Circus Mundus Absurdus) and many others. As one might expect, the first day was hectic and not without its difficulties, but with so many talented and experienced people on board, we were able to work through any major problems and learn from our mistakes for the following days. There was a very real "family" vibe that made the event special from day one -- everyone was relaxed and helpful and had the clear intention of making the event work.
Friday evening was the official welcome party, which featured two great shows by Operafication (professional opera singing mixed with fakir and suspension performance featuring Hillary) and Psycho Cyborgs (featuring Samppa and his famously intense performances). It was a great party and it was, of course, hard to kick everybody out once midnight midnight hit, but we all had to be up for Saturday’s breakfast -- as well as the classes, which started between 9 and 10 a.m. The Classes In two main rooms (which held 60-80 people each) and two smaller rooms (20-50 people), there were up to four classes being held concurrently. While the bigger rooms had lectures and speeches, the smaller rooms had roundtables and workshops, such as an introduction in microdermal techniques, in which a group of microdermal-savvy piercers demonstrated and assisted advanced piercer attendees with the different techniques, placements, and procedures for the popular procedure; this class was about four hours long. Running simultaneously was "Tattoo Machines and their Secrets," held by the Godoy Brothers, who wrote a book by the same name, about tuning and knowing your tattoo machine better. They held another class about tattoo machines on the second day, that one even more practical: they had tattooists bring their machines in to have them tuned, as well as to be shown new techniques to help understand everyday problems and misconfigurations of machines. Also well attended were the seminars held by Steve Haworth, who was teaching in Europe for the first time on his H2Ocean-sponsored tour. In these very detailed seminars, attendees were able to learn more about surface to surface piercing, genital beading and laser branding.  A microdermal class in progress There were always tattoo and piercing classes running concurrently in the main rooms, with topics ranging from "Validation of Autoclaves" and "Quality Management of Tools Processing" to timely classes dealing with the legal issues surround tattooing and body modification in general. Also present was Luis Garcia, who was on hand to teach both advanced and basic classes about surface piercing techniques. Additionally, there were two aftercare classes (one for piercing and one for tattoos) and "Safe Body Suspension Practice" held by Wings of Desire. To top it off, there were some great cultural and historical classes. Paul King held classes entitled, "History of Western Body Piercing" and "Sri Lankan Festivals of Suspension," and Prof. Palmisanos, a Professor of Anthropology from Italy who spoke at the 2006 APTPI Conference, held "Piercing and Tattoo Anthropology.”  Steve Haworth leads his laser branding seminar The Venue - The Unperfect House The location for the first BMXnet conference was unique compared to the traditional exhibition halls and seminar rooms typical of conventions and conferences. As a former convent and currently an art project, it offered a very special atmosphere that enhanced everyone's experiences and provided further creative and inspirational impulses to all those at conference. The following are excerpts from the house's founder, Reinhard Wiesemann, explaning his project:
Hopefully it is now clear why the Unperfect House was chosen for that event -- the parallels of their mission to the structure and idea of BMXnet are obvious. Everybody should share, give and at the same time benefit and profit from the BodyModification eXchange NETwork that just has been started.  A piercing class in seminar room 1 The Atmosphere The location and the mixture of so many international artists (from Italy, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, England, USA, and Germany, of course) from all areas of body modification created a very special proactive atmosphere. The discussions set a very high standard, and all involved were interested in and respectful of the experiences and opinions of their neighbors -- be they of the direct, European or "worldwide" persuasion. The venue’s cozy layout also helped people to get in contact with one another, as there were sofas, areas with pillows, candles and blankets on the floor. There were bars and food corners all over the house, so one could have a drink or two, clear one’s thoughts a little bit for the next class, discuss the information one got in a recent class or just relax and talk to some friends and maybe even make new ones. The Next Conference It may be hard to keep that same spirit and venue set-up for the next conference because, with an expected number of visitors in the 250-400 range, the Unperfect House will be much too small. So, we had to find a new location, and the 2008 conference will be held in a former town hall in a small city; it may not be the same, but we’re happy about the location. At the last conference, 60% of the classes were bilingual, aided by translators performing real-time translation from German to English and English to German. This year, we aim to have 80% of the classes in English and German, hopefully making it even more attractive for visitors. If you need a private place to stay or guest-spot to work the organizers will be happy to connect you with other BMXnet enthusiasts. Let's hope continued cooperation between associations and organizations will go on and grow strong. It is about time to unite and benefit from common practices and help each other instead of pointing fingers at others’ work, procedures or art.  Visit BMXNET.ORG for information about this year's conference, being held July 25-27 near Duesseldorf, Germany!
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