News

I’ll admit that I love the Iron Chef.  Both the original, and the US version.  Heck I even watched the specials hosted by William Shatner.  So it should come as no shock that I think this story is pretty cool.

While frat guys have their secret handshakes and makeout parties, the modern-day chef has chosen a little more permanent insignia of their brotherhood: tattoos. This distinguishing feature pops up on plenty of chefs both nationally and locally, bringing a touch of rock-star flare to the back of the house.  Tattoos — whether used as a means to cover up scar tissue from years of kitchen work or a means to pick up chicks – are as much a part of today’s chefs uniform as a toque or an apron.

You can check out the rest of the gallery here.

The last time I was in Kansas City, I had dinner at a fantastic pizza place that had some great vegan pizzas.  I can’t recall the name of it right now, but I’m sure someone in the comments section can enlighten me.  If you do get a chance to hit up this pizza place, I highly recommend getting a pizza with mushrooms, garlic, and roasted potatoes.  I’d drive down there again just to eat that pizza.

Any ModBlog readers chefs?  Or just someone who likes to cook?  Got any tips/recipes to share?

My favorite Aussie newsfeed submitter Botexty sent me in this story of a community pulling together to help someone close to them.

Mrs Hearnden suffered terrible injuries when she fell from a cliff in Dubrovnik, breaking both her arms, her jaw, hip and rupturing internal organs.  Her kidney and spleen were removed and she faces many more operations.  She and her husband, Gareth, were just a month into a five-month world tour when she fell 14m on to rocks last Monday.

This Friday, Tanya’s cousin and tattoo studio manager, Stacey Todd, has asked tattoo artists at 100 tattoo studios throughout the country to ask clients to donate the cost of a tattoo.  She has asked tattoo artists to contribute designs to a book, the online sale of which will help pay the family’s expenses.

I know, I’m a sucker for stories like this.  It’s a mix of knowing people are out there willing to help others, especially in today’s world, and seeing positive press about the modified community.  There are just way too many stories printed with a blatant bias towards modded people that it’s refreshing to see a story that doesn’t demonize us.

So help me out ModBlog readers.  Tell me a story of how you’ve seen good in the world stem from someone’s mods.  Or at least a story where you personally weren’t treated like crap because you choose to alter your body the way you see fit.

ModBlog reader Brendan sent me this link of a news story NBC posted recently.  It seems that a plastic surgeon has invented a “new surgery” that can reverse the process of stretched ears.

When Daniel Bocchino was 16, he started stretching his ear lobes, expanding them until he had an inch-wide hole in each lobe. But by the time he was 19, he was so over the piercing trend known as ear gauging.  He removed the thick plugs from his lobes and slathered the holes with all kinds of weird ointments and creams, hoping the stretched-out skin would just shrink back up. But that’s not how it works — once that hole is stretched any wider than 6 millimeters, there’s no going back.

Glatt, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Morristown, N.J., says he’s seeing more people — mostly young people, and mostly men — who started gauging their ears as teenagers and are now joining the military, seeking a professional job or, like Bocchino, are simply over the fad, and are trying to figure out how to fill that hole back up.  The surgery takes about half an hour per ear, and costs anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000, which Bocchino paid for himself with the money he makes as a tattoo artist. He says he’s happy about the results — the worst part of it all was probably telling his parents he regretted gauging his ears in the first place.

So it seems the good doctor, and the reporters at NBC have found a way to save all of the people with stretched lobes from the future embarrassment of facing the world when this silly fad is over.

Excuse me while I slam the palm of my hand into my forehead.

Color me shocked that a news outlet wouldn’t do research into a story before going to print with it.  Aside from the obviously degrading language being used towards those with stretched lobes, there’s also the fact that the article is claiming that this doctor is the first person to figure out how to “fix” the lobes, and charges quite a bit for the reconstruction.  It’s ok NBC.  Everyone makes mistakes.

For those of you who don’t feel that your choice of modifications is part of a fad, then kindly enjoy this image of a woman who is obviously upset with her lobes and is regretting ever having stretched them.  You can see the sadness in her eyes that tell the story of how the only job she can get because of her lobes is that of a cutlery rack.

Seriously.  That’s the saddest face I’ve ever seen.  There’s no way I could make a mistake about that.  Could I?

First things first.  Take a minute to enjoy the Al Green.  Now think to yourself, how does one mend a broken heart.  The sarcastic ones out there will naturally say “bypass surgery”, but to anyone who has ever suffered having a broken heart, there is no one single answer.  Some people find solace in food.  Others in the company of friends and family.  A lot just need the passage of time to help heal their wounds.  But for a great many, music is the cure for their ails.  If you think about how many songs have been written about lost loves and heartbreak, you’ll spend months trying to finish the list.  I’m pretty sure the entire country music industry wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for heartbreak.

So when I saw this tattoo in the galleries I thought to myself, what music do I turn to when I’m down?  I couldn’t really pinpoint a single song, but I’m pretty sure it’s something loud and obnoxious.  For others, it could be a soft pop song from the 80s that John Hughes used in one of his films.  I’m sure those who enjoy country music have an ample supply.  The point is, everyone deals with heartbreak differently.  To mtpchick18, music is what helps her through a breakup.

What about you?  What music do you listen to when your heart is lying shattered on the floor?

We've written about the wonderful Tattoo Education site before but I thought I'd revisit it in this post to update you on some new and interesting info recently posted. In the latest entry, Hyperspace Studio's Guy Aitchison discusses how... Marisa Kakoulas DiMattia http://www.needlesandsins.com/marisa.html

I need to say something first before the die-hard comic fans storm my place with torches and pitchforks.  I know that the character’s name is Captain Marvel, but dagnabbit, “Shazam!” makes for such a better headline!

Let me share a story with you.  A long long time ago, I had to do some form of assignment for my grade 4 class.  The details are exceedingly fuzzy, but I do know that Captain Marvel was the subject, and for some reason I recall hounding some guy at a local comic book shop for days, grilling him on everything Captain Marvel related.  In the end, I somehow convinced him to come to my class and do a talk on The Big Red Cheese.  Since then, I haven’t really given much thought to Billy Batson, other than seeing an image of him here or there in my travels.  So imagine my surprise when I saw this image of Captain Marvel in the cartoon tattoo galleries.

I think what I like most about the image is that it’s closer to Alex Ross’ take on Captain Marvel, as opposed to the traditional “cartoony” feel that is normally associated with him.

It’s pretty interesting to think that there’s an entire generation’s worth of superheroes that never made the transition to modern popular culture.  Be it simply because the publisher shut down, or the rights were never picked up by Marvel or DC when they took to the forefront of the industry.  All the independent/small scale publishers fell by the wayside over 60 years ago, and anything that wasn’t bought up has slipped into obscurity.

Do you have a tattoo or something else related to an obscure comic/cartoon/other?  Send it my way.

The first thing you’re going to notice about this post is that the image is behind the “read more” button.  There’s a reason for that, and I’ll get into it momentarily.

ModBlog readers and BME members alike are very familiar with the human body.  Every day we see an image or hear a story about someone pushing their body to the extreme.  The surgical and hard galleries are a prime example of this.  It’s safe to say that the average ModBlog reader isn’t really the squeamish sort with it comes to modifications, which is why the majority of us have no problems looking at images of all sorts of mods.

The image you’ll see below would hardly be classified as an extreme image.  In fact it’s pretty tame compared to most of the “Guess what?” images that get posted (especially today’s), but what the image lacks in it’s overt graphic content, it makes up for it the viewer’s mind.

What I suppose I’m getting at here, is that no matter what images we see on a day to day basis, the mind can always come up with something that goes beyond the content of the image.  Often times the images on ModBlog are the “after” or “during” photos, where we get to see the process and the end result of the subject matter.  In the image below, we’re seeing what is potentially a “before” image.  It’s these images that the mind can have a field day with.  You can see the potential outcomes, and it is your mind that fills in the blanks.

Like the image I posted last week of a girl moments away from suspending, this image has captured a moment in which the anticipation can be felt.  The moment where you know something is about to happen, where you hold your breath and the adrenaline begins to flow.  That is precisely what this image says to me.  And while I look at images daily that would make a surgeon cringe, this is probably the first image I’ve come across that really made me put my mind in the place of the person who took the picture.  I was right there, in the moment, and my mind went into overdrive producing exactly the type of reaction one would have in a moment such as this.  I held my breath, and braced myself for what was about to happen.  Of course it didn’t, but in my mind it sure did.  Which of course made me want to share this with you, the ModBlog reader.

Now as you can probably assume by now, the image definitely has genitalia, so I’ve placed it behind a link so those of you browsing at work won’t get into too much trouble.  So without further ado, the image in question…

So as I said, the image itself is pretty tame compared to most ModBlog images, but the anonymous uploader has really captured a great moment in his frenum piercing play.  It’s interesting because I know in my mind that if it had been any other object placed in the piercing, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.  With the scissors though, you can guess where my head (ha!) went.

What about you?  Does the image do for you what it did to me?  Or am I just a big wuss?

I’m 100% positive I’m not the only True Blood fan that reads ModBlog, as evidenced by the following photo uploaded by Gabriel Cece.  I just finished watching last Sunday’s episode when I saw this image had been uploaded to the fantasy tattoo galleries, and I immediately had the urge to re-watch the entire series from the beginning all over again.

I have a feeling that the comments section will probably be filled with comments about the show, so while I can ask that nobody posts spoilers from the most recent episode, I can’t guarantee it won’t happen.  So consider yourself warned.

To those of us who have also read the books, what are your thoughts on the differences between them and the TV series?

I think it’s safe to say the following story can be filed under the “That’s so freaking cool” category.

It seems a design firm has started to make headway into what can best be described as interactive tattoos.  The theory behind the tech is that the electronics are printed onto a person’s skin (in the form of a tattoo design) and the body’s energy fuels the devices so that you can essentially turn your body into an interactive computer.  No need for a cell phone when you can tap your arm and it will make the phone call for you.

The DNA Tattoo, or Dattoo, could include printable input/output tools such as a camera, microphone, or laser-loudspeaker – it would be up to the user, as would the Dattoo’s aesthetics. Most intriguingly, it would capture its wearer’s DNA, to ensure an intimate user/machine relationship.  This meant that the body itself would need to become the interface, and would supply the required energy. Because Dattoos would largely replace three-dimensional tools such as smart phones or laptops, the environment would be spared the costs of producing, transporting and disposing of those items.

Despite evoking creepy Matrix-like images of permanent implants, Dattoos would actually be temporary and minimally-invasive. They could even be applied to clothing or other objects, instead of the skin. At the end of the day, they would simply be washed off. The next day, depending on what the user planned to do, they could order up and apply a new one.

The long term goal of the project is to be able to incorporate LED screens into the designs so that your body will completely replace your cell phone and laptop.

I have a bit of mixed feelings on this one.  While on one hand this looks really cool in theory, in practice, I’d be a little scared to be linked to a computer through my DNA when SkyNet goes live and judgement day hits.

What about you?  Would you be willing to use a stick-on tattoo design computer if it meant you could replace all your portable technology?

Now I’m going to preface this guess what with an acknowledgement that the cropped image isn’t giving too much away (not to mention it’s also slightly blurry), but I think that adds to the challenge.  There is a method to my madness, I promise.

So without further ado:  Guess what?

Think you know what this is a picture of?  Keep reading to find out!

You thought it was a penis.  Didn’t you?  Get your minds out of the gutters!

What you’re looking at is the final image in a series of photos uploaded by Copy.  He’s been documenting the anti-tragus removal process that Mike Knight from Velvet Grip Family in Hollywood has done on him.  With all cartilage removal/reshaping projects, a skilled hand can really make the difference between a mangled ear and a clean reshaping.

Plus he’s also got a bunny holding a cupcake on his neck, and who doesn’t love bunnies and cupcakes?

An exciting painter, tattoo artist and new dad, Chris Dingwell, recently rolled into Brooklyn on his way to a painting jam, and I managed to pin him down for brunch to chat about his work, tattoo law, convention gossip... Marisa Kakoulas DiMattia http://www.needlesandsins.com/marisa.html

We spend a lot of time on ModBlog talking about the image galleries, and the wide variety of images contained within them.  In addition to the galleries, the stories, and ModBlog, BMEzine is host to it’s own Wiki.  It’s a great resource to get information regarding all sorts of topics that cover the entire spectrum of the body modification world.

Today I wanted to share with you an article about an unusual form of scar that at one point was extremely popular in certain parts of the world.

What you’re seeing here is what is known as a dueling scar or Renommierschmiss.  I’ll let the Wiki explain.

At the turn of the 20th century, the dueling scar (or bragging scar, or Renommierschmiss) was popularized by upper-class Austrians and Germans who saw it as a mark of their class and honor, due to the social importance of dueling societies at Austrian universities at the time. If you were a doctor, lawyer, or professor, the dueling scar was a tattoo that signified your inclusion in an elite social rank, and visitors to university cafes would expect to see young men with bandaged faces.

The sport at the time was very different from modern fencing. The men used heavy sabers, and took turns chopping at each other five times apiece repeatedly. While padding was worn, the goal was to be injured. Kevin McAleer (author of Dueling: The Cult of Honor in Fin-de-Siecle Germany) writes,

The idea was to stand your man and show courage—not to inflict a wound, but to be wounded. That’s the very strange part of it—the true winner was he who walked away with a nice juicy scar, to show that he’d stood the test. The point was not to get the other guy, but to show that you could take it. You’d get these guys who looked like they’d walked into a propeller. It was pretty gnarly, but the guys were damn proud to look that way.

The scars showed you had courage and education, and were good husband material. A lot of these kids were rather good-looking, and you didn’t have to ruin your whole face in dueling. The scars usually accumulated on the left side of the face, so from the right profile, he still looked good. And even if it was an ugly, knotted scar, women were attracted by everything it implied, and the pride with which the wearer bore it.

The main thing we’ve learned from this, is that no matter the culture or the era, chicks dig scars.

But seriously, it seems that while the practice of dueling for scars seems to have faded over time, the practice of intentional scarification has definitely carried on.  Now I haven’t had the pleasure of getting a gnarly, unintentional scar, but I’m sure some of you have.  Anyone have a “I got this scar when…” story to share?

Fragglegirl uploaded this image, and I just had to share it.  While I loved the Muppet Show growing up, I only really was able to watch re-runs.  Now Fraggle Rock?  I was five when it first hit the air, so I was pretty much the target audience.  I was also shocked to learn that Fraggle Rock only aired on HBO in the US.  So while we (Canucks) got the Fraggles every week courtesy the CBC, if you lived below the 49th parallel you needed your parents to shell out for cable in order to see it.

If you head over to the cartoon tattoo galleries, you can see which Fraggle resides in her other armpit.

So, who/what was your favorite Muppet?

As many ModBlog readers know, I like to showcase events that contribute to a charity in some form or another.  It also helps if they are related to the mod community in some fashion.  I received the following in my inbox over the weekend and I thought it would be good to share.

We are excited to inform you of our upcoming art show, El Arte de la Muerta (Art of the Dead). Held in the growing community of midtown Toronto, this show will be a gathering of some of the most talented tattoo artists Canada wide and tattoo enthusiasts in the nation. While celebrating the rich culture and vibrancy of the Day of the Dead, we also challenge the tattoo community at large in an effort to raise money for Art City St. James, a program dedicated to bringing art into the lives of underprivileged and troubled youth.

I know that when these guys host an art show, it’s not something to be missed.  As it stands, they’re still looking for donations of artworks, so if you’re a tattoo artist interested in creating something to help out a good cause, get in touch with George at Seven Crowns Tattoo in Toronto (416 - 322 - 7696).

Every day I get a large number of news stories in my inbox.  Some from ModBlog readers (Botexty, Quinnchick and Nexizydrate, I’m looking at you), but mostly from google news alerts.  The problem with google news alerts is sometimes I’ll get stories that are unrelated to mods completely.  To give a quick example, every day, for the past few months, I’ve gotten at least one story regarding the casting choices for the American remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  While the original films are fantastic, I just want the US ones made so I don’t have to hear the latest Hollywood casting gossip.

While I do get unrelated stories all the time, I do get quite a few stories that are relevant, and some that are ModBlog worthy.  Then, every once in a while, I get a story that makes my eyes roll.  This is one of them.

Tongue piercing was a ritual tradition of the Maya and the Aztecs, ancient and — apparently — gap-toothed peoples. Now the dental cause and effect has been established: Those who choose to pierce their tongues run the risk of developing a gap between their teeth, says a report from the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine.

Lets just stop right there for a moment.  A study was conducted to find out if someone put a piece of metal in their mouth, and over the course of several years of constantly pressing it against ones teeth, it would cause dental problems.

The case study, led by Sawsan Tabbaa, an assistant professor of orthodontics at the UB School of Dental Medicine, involved a 26-year-old female patient who had developed a large space between her upper front teeth. She’d had a barbell-shaped tongue stud inserted seven years earlier.

The patient reported “playing” on a daily basis with her stud  — a term commonly used by people with tongue piercings to describe the habit of pushing the metal stud up against and between their upper front teeth. Over time, the patient’s front teeth separated, creating a gap large enough to permit her stud to push through.

The article basically goes on to pretty much state the obvious.  It’s almost as if these people had never thought that metal + pressure = tooth movement.  I wonder if they could invent something that could move the teeth to fix them.  Like a metal bracing or something to slowly adjust the teeth over time.

Unfortunately this article will probably be cited repeatedly by people condemning oral piercings, not realizing that with proper care and awareness, the chance of a problem diminishes greatly.

We here at ModBlog feel much differently about piercings.  Well, today is state the obvious day right?  Anyway, here’s an recent addition to the tongue piercing galleries.  The uploader is “9jlt-ajaaah”, and it was submitted to us from Tallinn, Estonia.  I think the image sums up how I feel about people who think reporting the obvious can count as news.

“Mr. Burton, if you have an influence over your youthful friend, you better exert it now. Otherwise I will send both of you to the hell where people are skinned alive! It’s that simple, understand?” - David Lo Pan (Big Trouble in Little China)

The idea of removing large sections of a person’s skin is hardly a new idea.  It’s been used as a form of torture for thousands of years.  But rarely does it look this clean.  I really like the little veins mixed in with the muscle and it makes me want to go and watch that episode of Buffy where the guy is flayed alive.

That or Big Trouble in Little China, simply because Jack Burton is about 15 different shades of badass.

Justinstattoos uploaded this image the other day, along with a collection of similar images you can see in the tattoo galleries.

The dynamic duo of Mr. Decker and Miss. Nae are back on ModBlog with an interesting look into Nae’s hand implants that you may have seen before.

It seems Nae was in a bit of a fender bender the other week, and while she is fine, she did get a few x-rays taken just to be on the safe side.  Now I know we’ve all seen images of mods appearing in x-rays before, but I think this is the first time (at least that I could find) where a large silicone implant came up so noticeably in the image.

I guess this really does prove that over time Brian can really get under your skin, and stay there.  I kid of course, otherwise Brian’s better half will come knock on my door and kick my ass.

Anyway, I’m always intrigued as to what the doctors say after looking at an x-ray and someone’s mods show up.  Anyone have any good war stories from the ER?

The lovely Ms.Book uploaded this picture yesterday and I couldn’t get it onto ModBlog fast enough.  The piece, by Damian Campagnaro, is still in process, but the photo is incredible.  I’m actually just going to leave it here for you to enjoy.  No witty commentary, just a fantastic picture.

If you have some time today, check out the Wildlife and Nature tattoo galleries.  There’s a lot of brilliant images in there.

Now you can lose even more productivity at work by playing Tattoo City!  No seriously, I wish I was making this up.  Some company has decided to create a Facebook game in which you customize your character, then manage and operate your very own tattoo studio.

The goal of the game is simple – create the biggest and best tattoo parlor in existence by tattooing your customers and earning money. The game requires more actual interaction on your part than other Facebook games, as you’ll earn money by taking “shifts,” which are active periods when your Tattoo Parlor is open.

Now if that doesn’t seem addictive enough for you, it looks like the game has additional mini-game, and all sorts of other things designed to make you keep playing.  I’m sure there’s an option in there that will let you spend money on things to make your shop the best digital shop around.  Don’t forget you’ll also have something else to flood your friend’s walls with, so you may want to cut back on some of your other game.

Now of course, it would be interesting to walk into a studio one day and see the staff all working away in the virtual studios, although come to think of it, I do know a couple of shop managers that probably will get a kick out of this game.  It is interesting to think that a company put a lot of development time into a game that for the most part would only appeal to a very niche audience.  Then again, after that story earlier in the week about the parents getting their children tattoos for going back to school, nothing should surprise me.

Just keep in mind, that if you do decide to play this game, you will be giving the company that owns it free access to all of your information, as well as any public information your friends may have that you have access to.  There’s your obligatory paranoid non-endorsement of the game.

So, is anyone playing this?  Is it enjoyable, or just another farmville clone?

There’s something uniquely appealing about corseting.  The way it can take a set of piercings to an entirely different level for the person who has the corset done.  Not to mention the fact that it provides an opportunity for some amazing photographs.  We’ve seen all kinds of different corsets, on women, men, couples, and so on, but I can’t for the life of me recall ever seeing one done on a man’s throat before.  Well, that’s exactly what Miss Cale did last month, and now we get to see the end result of her work.

Have any interesting corseting photos?  Submit them to BME, it’s always great to see additions to the corset piercing galleries.