News
Guess What?
Today’s guess what is an interesting one. Normally you only have to guess one body part, but for today, you have to guess three! Yep, three separate and distinct body parts are in the picture below.
Think you know what they are? Only one way to find out.
Well, if you guessed tongue, finger, and penis, you were right!
This was taken from one of the special bonus galleries available to BME Hard members. The Tester gallery is comprised of images sent in by a couple who love to share their torture/play sessions. You can see a better example of their sessions in this image.
This happy couple have been sharing their images with BME since at least 2001, and if my math serves me right, I believe they just celebrated their 35th anniversary together. I guess this goes to show, the couple that plays together, stays together. If you’re a Hard member, or have been thinking about getting a subscription, head on over to their gallery and wish them a happy anniversary.
Falling Angel
The tattoo in this post has me stumped. It comes from the religious and mythological tattoo gallery, and when I look at it, I see two different things, yet both have similar meanings.
On one hand, I see a falling angel, which naturally evokes the tale of the Morning Star, Lucifer. Depending on which version you’re familiar with, the Lucifer myth is often tied to ambition and downfall. When Lucifer rebelled against heaven, taking on God and the angels loyal to her, his ambition led to him and his followers being thrown out of heaven, to spend eternity in hell. The artists Bosch and Dore both have created images depicting the fall, which bear a similarity to the falling angel in the tattoo.
On the other hand, I can see this being an image of Icarus, and not the happy little guy with a bow from the NES game. Like the Lucifer story, Icarus tried to reach beyond his abilities which lead to his fall, and eventual death. Only in this case, Icarus was ignoring his father’s words of warning about flying to close to the sun, and ended up having his wings melt.
So what do you think is being depicted? Is this an angel falling from heaven, or someone who flew too close to the sun? Or is it something else entirely?
Horiyoshi III, Kaname Ozuma, and the BME World Tour
Hi everyone, I know many of you have been wondering what’s been going on with all the World Tour footage, so I’d like to share some of it with you today, as well as introduce you to a pair of artists that are true masters of their art.
As you may have noticed, a few days ago I posted about a gallery showing of Horiyoshi III and Kaname Ozuma’s art at the Known Gallery in Los Angeles. The show is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the works of these artists in North America, as their works are normally displayed back home in Japan.
As many of you know, the world tour kicked off several months ago and the tour members have since returned. Most of the tour was spent in Australia and New Zealand, with rescheduling occuring due to volcanic eruptions, political unrest in Thailand and Greece and ultimately a break had to happen because Rachel came down with pneumonia after recovering from a week long hospital stay in New Zealand. One she was given the OK to travel, she managed to hobble to Japan. While there, the BME tour was fortunate enough to meet with Horiyoshi III and Kaname Ozuma. This meeting resulted in individual interviews with both artists, but a joint interview was later filmed where they talk about their friendship as well as their inspirations for their art. A special thank you goes out to Hiro Hara & Horiren for arranging the interview as well as filming and editing it, Kana Nozaki for translating and Will Carsola for adding the subtitles.
KNOWN GALLERY presents OZUMA KANAME & HORIYOSHI III - IREZUMI BIJIN from Known Gallery on Vimeo.
During the initial interview with Ozuma, Rachel had asked where Ozuma had shown his work. The last time Ozuma had a show in the US was back in the 70’s in San Francisco. She jokingly asked if he’d like to do a show in the states now and to her surprise, he enthusiastically said yes! This meant she was going to bring an exhibit of Kaname Ozuma’s work to LA. In support of his long time friend, Horiyoshi III contributed some of his work to be shown at the gallery. The show will be running until September 18th, when sadly the art will be returning to Japan. So if you do get a chance to go to LA, you won’t be disappointed. All of the work from Ozuma is available for sale. Ozuma has been painting tattoos on women longer than most tattooers have even been alive today. He is a traditionally trained Japanese portraiture artist and his work is absolutely stunning. He’s published several book over the past few decades. Any tattooer interested in Japanese style of tattooing may not know his name but they will definitely know his work. His books can generally be found on Ebay (as they’re fairly limited edition) although he does have a new book coming out soon. We’ll update you on the details for it when it is released.
Some people have asked if the models are all tattooed or if Ozuma uses his imagination but the answer is that it’s both and so much more. Sometimes a model comes in and she has no tattoos at all. He will then use his imagination and paint whatever he envisions on her. Sometimes she is fully tattooed (by Horiyoshi III) and he paints her as is. One of the popular things to do in Japan though is that a couple will come in and commission a painting, the man has a full suit and the woman has none, Ozuma will then paint the mans tattoos onto the woman. As a thank you present to Rachel for curating the show, Ozuma painted a a portrait of her. He included her sleeves, hand and neck tattoos but as Rachel doesn’t have anything tattooed on her back yet, he painted a beautiful Japanese mermaid that goes from her shoulders to her back.
If you aren’t familiar with either artist, here’s a little background information on them.
Ozuma Kaname
Born in Niigata, Japan in 1939, Ozuma Kaname began studying traditional Japanese painting under his uncle, artist Sakai Soushi, from a young age. Moving to Tokyo at the age of 18, he trained as an art dealer while working at a printing company. Afterwards, he moved on to the publishing industry where he illustrated tattoos. The majority of his work continues to be tattoo-related along with other traditional Japanese themes; and often serves as a source of inspiration for master tattooist Horiyoshi III, whose clients in turn, are often depicted in Ozuma’s paintings.
Horiyoshi III
Born Yoshihito Nakano in 1946, Horiyoshi III is the second tattooist to be bestowed the honorific title—the tattooist affixation “Hori” means engrave—in a line started by his master, the legendary tattoo artist Yoshitsugu Muramatsu, or Shodai Horiyoshi of Yokohama (Muramatsu went on to dub his son Horiyoshi II, and later Nakano was named Horiyoshi III).
His images are classical Japanese woodblock print motifs such as the phoenix, dragon, snakes, tigers, samurai warriors, Buddhist gods to name a few as well as background images of waves, clouds and various flowers. Among Horiyoshi III’s published works are 36 Ghosts, 108 Heroes of the Suikoden, 100 Demons, and The Namakubi (severed heads), 100 Dragons and 58 Warriors. Horiyoshi?s artistic genius and generosity of spirit have had a defining impact on the world of tattooing, taking it to new levels in this new century.
Work is still ongoing for the rest of the tour videos, but we thought we should share with you some of the material that will be featured in the tour updates. This particular video is unique from the rest of the videos, as this is just a recording of two old friends reminiscing. Expect the rest of the videos to feature proper interviews.
Book Review "These Old Blue Arms: The Life & Work of Amund Dietzel"
The Big 2-0!
Ladies and Gentlemen and everyone in between, I’d like to present to you, hailing from Quebec City, in his twentieth appearance on ModBlog, IAM’s own Efix!
I’d say a round of applause is in order, not only for this being his 20th feature, but also for making such an incredible scar of the Ashtamangala, the 8 Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism. I could go on about the spiritual meanings of each of the symbols, but I think I’d rather just take a look at the scar, and congratulate Efix on reaching this milestone. You can see even more of his work over in his own scarification gallery. As for the owner of the scar, the only thing I know is that according to Efix, he is “one tuff motherfucker”.
Disclaimer: Efix may have been featured more than 20 times, I’m just going by his count on his IAM page.The Boy with Nails in His Eyes
The Boy with Nails in his Eyes
put up his aluminium tree.
It looked pretty strange
because he couldn’t really see.
–Tim Burton - “The Boy with Nails in His Eyes”
If you’re not familiar with Tim Burton’s book “The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories”, I’d recommend going out to a bookstore to pick it up. It’s a short collection of poems written by Tim himself back in 1997 with the illustrations done by him as well. As you can see, The Boy with Nails in His Eyes was the image used for the top half of the tattoo pictured below, as for the bottom half, you can see what I believe is the top of The Pin Cushion Queen’s head on the left, but I’m at a loss as to where the images on the lower right are from. I’m sure a more astute Tim Burton fan can fill us in. The only information I have on the image is that it was uploaded anonymously with the title “Droogie“. So please, when you’re uploading an image, remember to add some details so I can give proper credit if I post it.
Everyone needs their own booty call
I have gotten a bunch of emails and a few messages on IAM asking if I had quit writing for modblog. Of course not. I honestly plan to keep doing this so long as Rachel wants me here. However, since Rob’s here to pick up my slack and I am also involved in other blogs and projects that demand my time, I am limiting myself to post what I consider to be exceptional photos truly fitting of modblog. In fact I wasn’t going to post anything today, until I saw this tattoo that could redefine tattooing puns as we know them.
The eyes have it
“Ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi” (The face is a picture of the mind as the eyes are its interpreter)
–Cicero (rough translation)
We’ve all heard the phrase “The eyes are the window to the soul” in some variation, yet what does it really mean? Have you ever looked into someone’s eyes and were able to know everything about a person in an instant? The concept of love at first sight is often linked with the soul quote. People claim they knew they were soulmates the moment their eyes connected.
It is true that our eyes are probably one of our more expressive features. With a single look a person can convey pretty much every emotion possible, just ask Tyra Banks how important “smiling with your eyes” can be. Which could be the reason behind the quote. Or is it something more? An eye is like a fingerprint, or at least that’s what every spy movie that uses a retinal scanner tells me. With so much detail and nuance stored within the eye, is there some form of unknown code that we can unconsciously translate? Who we are as a person is somehow imprinted into the structure of our eyes, and no matter what we do physically with our eyes, there is a truth that cannot be hidden from others?
What do you think it is? While you ponder that, check out this eye tattoo that Questionable uploaded.
I like that it is incomplete so you can really see the steps the artist is taking to put the eye together. It makes you wonder what part of the wearer’s soul this third eye is revealing.
Questionable also uploaded an image of an incredible Nyarlathotep tattoo, that you should check out as well.
Go big or go home
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.
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.
You can check out a side view of this foreskin stretching over in the gallery.
Like a moth to a flame
Missmarymac graciously submitted the following image to our nature and wildlife galleries the other day. I wish I could provide more information on the tattoo, unfortunately all I have to work with is her name.
Which is what I’d like to talk about. BME’s galleries are all user generated, which means we rely on you, the members to send us in images of your modifications. You’ll notice after every ModBlog post a link to submit pictures. If you’ve never submitted an image before, there are a number of different boxes you can fill out when uploading your pictures. The one in particular you should pay attention to is the artist information. We feature quite few images on ModBlog every week and the question I get asked most often is “who performed that modification”. Sometimes the answer is right there next to the photo, other times the artists submit the images themselves so it’s easy to guess, if its an IAM member I can check their page to see if they wrote about it, but a lot of the times I don’t have the information to share.
So next time you go to upload an image, remember to think of your practitioner, I’m sure they would love to credited for their work, especially if it’s being seen all over the world.
One final thing before I get to the image. When BMEzine.com switched over to the new gallery format, a new feature was added; The ability to add comments to an image. So if you see an image you like, feel free to say something about it on the gallery page. Users are able to see the comments people add about their mods, so go ahead and let them know what you think. So if you happen to like Missmarymac’s moth tattoo, just add a comment here.
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Twinkle, twinkle, little star
The blending of multiple forms of modification into a single piece is hardly something that is new. Heavy blackwork tattoos with scars cut into them, implants under tattoos to make them stand out, the list can go on and on. Sometimes the results can be drastic, and other times it can be subtle, such as the case with the following photo submitted to us by Steven Cool from Almighty Tattoo in Flint, MI.
I think what I like most about this piece is just how well the surface anchors blend in with the stars. Granted the triangle design does stand out a bit, but as a whole the concept works.
What I am curious about is to what you think of the blending of styles. For the most part there are two categories, multiple modifications that compliment each other really well, or pieces like this that are (or at least appear to be) created with the intention of blending the modifications together. Or is there really a division between the two? Should we just look at the overall package when it comes to modifications and see the entire body as a single piece, or is it ok to judge each individual mod on its own merits?
P.S. Apologies for the large watermark, that was how it was submitted to the site.
This… is… Scarification!!!
There’s just some internet memes that are just too easy to use. The “This is Sparta!” one, while long dead, still rears its ugly head from time to time, especially when you get a glimpse of something like this scarification piece that IAM: Eroswastika recently cut into one of his clients.
It’s hard to say if the owner of the scar is a fan of the comic or the film (or perhaps both), but it’s reasonable to assume he is a fan of Miller’s work.
In case you can’t tell by the photo, the scar is located on his bicep, right above the ditch. You can get another look at it from a different angle by checking out the skin removal scarification gallery.
Guess the Reference
Hush
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…
…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.
It’s Story Time!
Every once in a while I find it nice to sit back and let someone else do the work for me. If you’re a new reader of ModBlog, you may not know that in addition to all the photo galleries BMEzine.com offers, there is also an entire section dedicated to the stories told by members of the community. With over 50,000 stories published you can read about pretty much every single topic related to modifications, all of them created by readers like you. We’re always looking for more stories to publish, so if you have one you’d like to share, please do.
For today’s story we have BMEzine.com member Ohmymaddies sharing her journey in getting her first microdermals.
Just click the button to read her story.
My Lovely Little Hip Microdermals - OhmymaddiesThe first time I had seen hip piercings was when I was 13. Needless to say, I immediately fell in love with the piercing, but had strict parents, so even asking for them was completely out of the question. So I settled on admiring them, and after about a year, I stopped thinking about them for the most part.
However, five years later, my little obsession had resurfaced. By the time I was 17, I’d had my bellybutton pierced and my lobes stretched to 1/2”, and at 18, I’d found myself dying for another piercing. My boyfriend, who surprisingly liked my bellybutton, and, even more surprisingly, LOVED my lobes, hated piercings and tattoos, and any piercings I’d wanted, including my septum, which I could hide easily, he found disgusting. After shooting down any and every piercing under the sun, I found myself quite annoyed with him, and itching even more for another beautiful piercing. It was then that hip piercings had floated back into my thoughts, and I knew that I had to get them. They were beautiful and perfect for my body shape, and I was almost certain that my boyfriend would like these, even if it took some convincing.
Before I even brought the piercing up to him, though, I ran into some problems with the piercing. At my age, I was entirely too smart to get a surface piercing that would almost surely reject, especially in such a high impact area as my hips. After some thought, I’d come up with the possibility of microdermals, but almost immediately ruled them out, because they were semi-permanent, and I wasn’t completely convinced that that was a great idea. Over the next week, though, the thought of microdermals kept popping up, and as unsure as I was of them the previous week, they seemed like a very plausible solution to the surface bars.
The day I absolutely decided on them, my boyfriend picked me up and when we got to his house, I immediately began babbling about them, and wouldn’t shut up. He saw pictures of them and was immediately opposed to them, but for the next few days, I wouldn’t shut up about them. He, however, wouldn’t budge his opinion on them, and I let up on getting them for a while.
About a month later, I brought it up again, and to my surprise, he seemed a bit more receptive to them. He’d decided that they’d actually be “sexy” on me, and he’d even gone so far as to research the procedure of the piercing, look into the jewelry they’d use for it, and watch videos of actual piercings. We’d decided that we’d go to get the piercings two days after my graduation party.
The days quickly passed, and I found myself in his car, on the way to the piercing parlor much sooner than I’d expected. I was completely nervous about the procedure, and my hand was shaking a little bit as I filled out the forms for the piercing. The wait for the piercer seemed like forever, and when it was time to go back for the piercing, my legs felt like jell-o. The piercer had asked if I’d wanted one side done, or if I wanted both sides done, and I’d opted for one side- my right. She’d marked the spot where the microdermal would sit, and had me sit down. Once in the chair, I relaxed completely. I closed my eyes as she unpackaged the punch and jewelry and cleaned the spot on my hip. I turned my head in the opposite direction, keeping my eyes closed out of fear for the big pinch. The piercer began massaging and pinching my skin in the area, which was the most painful part of the entire procedure, in all honesty, and it wasn’t even entirely painful. After 10 or 15 seconds of pinching, she held the skin and picked up the punch. She pushed the punch into my skin and moved it around a bit, but I hardly even felt that, other than a sharp sort of pressure. The next thing I know, she’d pushed in the jewelry, which I knew was in from the popping sound it had made, and she was wiping the blood off from around the new piercing. I stood up, feeling amazing, and looked at it in the mirror. It was perfect. After hearing the aftercare and receiving H2Ocean, I was on my way home.
The piercing bled for two and a half days, but was fine after. If I had put pressure on it, it was a little sore, and there was bruising around the piercing for about a week (from the massaging and pinching), but I had absolutely no problems with it. I went a week later to get the other side done, and now both are healing quite smoothly. As long as I wear low cut jeans, they never get caught on anything. These are by far my favorite piercing. I love them, my boyfriend loves them, and even my parents love them. I don’t think I could have picked a better piercing.
His Royal Badness, The Purple One
When looking for a video to open this post with I came to understand exactly why I’ve always thought Prince Rogers Nelson is one of the greatest musicians of all time. There isn’t anything he can’t do. Although to be fair, I’ve never seen him cook an omelet. Think about it, this little dude from Minnesota has over the course of his life (so far) has put out 10 platinum albums and over 30 top40 singles, not to mention the hundreds of awards he’s got lining his walls.
Granted The Artist hasn’t gone without his share of controversy. In the early 80s it was his song Darling Nikki that prompted Tipper Gore to push for explicit lyrics sticker that everyone who has owned a CD should be familiar with. Of course nobody can forget when he changed his name to which caused writers everywhere to go crazy trying to figure out how to spell his new name. His record label troubles made front pages everywhere, especially after he started appearing in public with the word “SLAVE” written on his face. There was also the rumors that always circulated about him. How he would change his clothes 20 times a day, how he has this vault of thousands of songs that are locked away, and of course his “awakening” (his words) which led him to become a Jehovah’s Witness, which Kevin Smith mocked mercilessly during one of his Q&A videos.
So is it any wonder that his fans are so passionate about him? The Purple Yoda has consistently produced incredible works of music, and in 2007 performed that Superbowl half-time show in the video that people describe as the best show ever. While some may only think of him for his pop songs from the 80s and 90s, others for his soul albums, some admire his films, and well, some just love The Bat Dance, many people tend to forget that he is consistently rated one of the top 10 guitarists ever to perform.
IAM: mook is one such fan of Prince, and recently got a tattoo that shows her love of His Purple Badness.
I’ll admit I did giggle a little when I saw it next to the bat symbol.
But mook here does show her passion for one of her favorite artists. Music is a powerful thing, it can bring about feelings of love, sadness, anger, and more, simply by listening to it. If tattoos are meant to be an external representation of our inner feelings, to identify with a particular artist is something that can seem natural to some people. I can’t count the number of Nine Inch Nails, Misfits, or Tool tattoos I’ve seen over the years, so the band tattoo is hardly a new thing. Just take a look at the music galleries on BME and you’ll see artists and musicians from all genres represented.
I suppose the question that could be asked it, what is it about a specific band or artist that can touch your soul to the point that you need to have them become one with your skin?
Stone by day, warriors by night
I’m probably the furthest thing from a religious scholar you will find, but during my years in university I did come across a large number of texts that were either directly tied to the church, or at least were influenced by it. Now the term “gargoyle” refers to any sculpture (usually in the form of an animal or person) that is designed to allow water to fall away from the edges of a building to prevent erosion. Over the years people have just adopted the term to apply to any decorative sculpture on the roof of a building.
The reason I bring up the religious side of gargoyles is that centuries ago, when being illiterate was the norm, the church needed ways to convey their stories and rituals to the masses. What better way to educate an illiterate crowd than through images. It was here that the myth of the gargoyle began. As the story goes, St. Romanus encountered a monster in his travels, your typical dragon type creature that breathed fire. Well when Romanus defeated the creature, he brought its body back to be burned, but discovered that the head wouldn’t burn because the dragon breathed fire and the head was adapted to heat. So he hung the head on the outside of the church to ward off evil spirits. Over time the churches would add their own stone gargoyles to the outside of the building in order to let people know that outside the church evil lurks, but inside they will be protected.
Now of course when I was growing up gargoyles were just scary looking statues that eventually came to be “cool” in my young eyes. I suppose that was aided by the Disney cartoon. Of course I’m not the only person walking the planet that enjoys looking at gargoyles. Bromley_Daz submitted this image to BME the other day, and I think it’s safe to assume he enjoys gargoyles as well.
It’s always nice to see images added to the mythological and religious gallery, because often there is a good story behind the designs. This image in particular reminds me that every culture around the world has developed their own wards against evil. Be it symbols or rituals, these wards have become much more than just a repellent to evil. The gargoyle being a prime example of that. What first started as a way to protect buildings from erosion, a practice that pre-dates Christianity by centuries, eventually became a symbol of warning to people. As time passed, these statues became the guardians of the the buildings they were installed on, until eventually they were regarded primarily for their historical significance and their art.
Now while I don’t feel the need to possess any particular wards against evil, I do own a Rangda mask that hangs on my wall, that I really like the aesthetics of. How about you? Do you possess any symbols that can be attributed to warding off the evils of the world?
Juggalo Tattoos
Crappy Cinema Council
