Archive for June, 2009
I mention rejection a lot , because it is risky with piercings of course, but I have not explained what it is very much, or explained what can cause it or what to do when it happens.
Rejection is when your body tries to push out the jewelry like it would any foreign object. Like a splinter. It is expected during healing but can happen at anytime in the life of a piercing. It is most common with surface, naval, and eyebrow piercings. Piercings that get rejected will almost always leave a scar.
Causes of Rejection
• Bad placement
• Blood flow
• Irritation
• Abuse( playing with jewelry being touched by hands and other objects to much)
• Movement
• Poor personal health
• Pressure
• Injury
If rejection has occurred you will know when the skin around the holes is red and possibly inflamed and when more of the jewelry is exposed than normal. If rejection has occurred see your piercer or another piercer to have jewelry removed before jewelry comes completely out of body, and for healing advice.
The body modification world is not just full of people trying to look freak and weird. There are people out there who believe body modifications help them spiritually, in an earlier post I wrote about “Stalking Cat” who said his modifications where done to bring him closer to his spiritual animal guide of the tiger. There is even organized religion of people whose body modifications have made them more spiritual.
Church of Body Modification (CoBM) as originally founded in 2000 by Steve Hawthorne who was a groundbreaker in the body mod world. Allegedly the religion as started for people who where modified to rely on if they got fired from there job. The church could then sue for religious discrimination.
As of 2008 the church had been reformed and organized and is now a recognized non profit religion in the United States of America. It is incorporated in Pennsylvania, before it was in Arizona. From what I was able to find out the church practices are ritual of body manipulation to test the limits of the body and spirit of its member. Manipulation events include suspension, hook pulling, fasting, corsetry, fire walking and other things that would test a person’s spirit and body.
Any person who is feels a spiritual connection from their modifications or wants to gain a more spiritual connection through modifications and manipulations can apply for membership. Any tattoos, piercings, or more serious modifications are what they consider under their definition of being modified.
Here is the CoBM Mission State as written on their website (link can be found below)
We, the congregation of the Church of Body Modification, will always respect our bodies. We promise to always grow as individuals through body modification and what it can teach us about who we are and what we can do. We vow to share our experiences openly and honestly in order to promote growth in mind, body, and soul. We honor all forms of body modification and those who choose to practice body modification for any reason. We also promise to respect those who do not choose body modification. We support all that join us in our mission and help those seeking us in need of spiritual guidance. We strive to share a positive message with everyone we encounter, in order to act as positive role models for future generations in the body modification community. We always uphold basic codes of ethics and encourage others to do the same. We are a dynamic community, always growing and changing, continually promoting safety, education, and experience in body modification.
Here is the CoBM Statement of Faith as taken from their website (link can be found below)
As followers of this faith, it is our purpose to educate and inspire, to share ideas, and to help each other achieve our dreams. We strive to unify and strengthen our mind, body, and soul so we can overcome any challenges we may encounter. We assert and protect our rights to modify our bodies and to practice our rituals.
We believe our bodies belong only to ourselves and are a whole and integrated entity: mind, body, and soul. We maintain we have the right to alter them for spiritual and other reasons.
Affirmation of our living, breathing, physical beings is paramount to our self-identities and helps us define who we are. The Church of Body Modification promotes affirmation and growth of a more expansive perspective of our physical and spiritual being.
I gathered my information from CoBM’s website and BMEZINE Wiki
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch_DHpJPrxk&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]
One of my favorite things about tattoos is showing it to other people and seeing their tattoos. You never know what you might find on someone. There could be a beautiful custom design that blows your mind, or and a classic from the old school days. Both kinds are great and have good and bad things about them. Neither one is better than the other.
Many people think having a tattoo that everyone else has is bad. No one wants to show up somewhere and have the same tattoo as someone else. Old school tattoos are mostly found on flash walls (designs in tattoo shops that have many pre drawn deigns for customers to choose form if not wanting a custom drawn design). While those designs are some of the groundbreakers of modern tattooing (tattoo machine era) you have to wonder how many other people are going to have that same tattoo.
But they don’t have they don’t have the connection to the earlier days of modern tattooing. When you meet someone with an older tattoo gotten back when old school was new that is like one on you it must be pretty cool.I love having tattoos that where drawn custom for me that no one else has, but I have always loved the old school panthers and sugar skull tattoos. They have a certain charm that I can’t seem to explain.
Branding is a popular way of marking things, like cattle. Some extreme fraternities even apply brands to their members for initiation purposes. But now they are becoming more and more popular as a voluntary form of decorating ones self.
For anyone that doesn’t know branding is when a hot, or in some rare cases cold, Iron is used to heat a persons skin making a permanent, hopefully raised, scar in some sort of design or shape.
In some gangs and prisons, people will get these instead of the more traditional method of tattooing to initiate a person. Like I said before some extreme fraternities use brands to initiate members. Former President George W. Bush is rumored to have been apart of the Delta fraternity at Yale while they where allegedly branding the backsides of members with the shape of a Delta. Branding was also seen in the movie Jackass II when Bam Margera received a brand a penis on his butt. Also branding was seen in the movie Jarhead as a Marine initiation process. Brandings have also been used to associate slaves with their owners if they where lucky enough to escape but unfortunately be caught.
While the hot iron method is very common now a person can get a brand with a laser in a somewhat surgical process. The cold method is the as the hot iron just intensely frozen cold is pressed onto the skin to make the design.
The pain is so to not be as bad as one would think, it is mostly psychological. The real pain is said to be during the healing process, especially if the body part is touched or moved. The aftercare is quite basic, many people say to just leave it alone. Other people will irritate the brand by using rough brushes or similar things but this can cause uneven rising of the scar. Healing takes 2 to 6 months and during the healing the brand will go back and forth between looking good and gross until fully healed. Some people with tattoo over or around the brand once fully healed to give it a more apparent look.
As with any body art or modification have a brand done by an experienced person, not your fraternity brother while drunk.
A person’s cheeks can be the cutest part of them, especially when they have dimples. But if a person doesn’t have those desired dimples on their face they can get them with a piercing.
This piercing was made popular by TLC L.A. Ink’s Pixie Acia who has a small very cute face that is great for cheek piercings
Labret studs are normally used for jewelry. The flat backs are to reduce any damage that could be caused to teeth and gums. There will be lots of swelling so longer jewelry will be used for starter jewelry but can be replaced by shorter jewelry once the healing period is over. Like any oral piercing, the holes will take a long time to heal due to all the tissue.
As with any less common piercing make sure your piercer has experience with successful cheek piercings. Also, the piercing should not be further back than first molars.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-7PqH-vmkY&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1]
Have you ever wanted to look like Inspector Gadget with all his machinery that replaced his body parts? While having a mechanical body may be a little out of the average Joe’s budget you could get that mechanical robot style look for the price of a tattoo with a Biomechanical tattoo.
This style of tattoos incorporates images of body parts and mechanical parts usually. Some can be all body parts having the look of being exposed; some are all mechanical parts appearing to be exposed from the inside. Most commonly they are black and grey but can have color and usually feature very intricate designs. They are usually on upper arms, backs, and legs but are also seen frequently on feet and hands.
Biomechanical tattoos were very popular during the 1980’s but are gaining in popularity again these days. I think it is due to more people wanting a tattoo that is different from most other peoples.
All images from Biomechanical Tattoo Gallery
Dennis Avner is not the average 50 year old computer programmer living in Nevada. Better known as “Cat man” or as he prefers to called, “Staking Cat,” is one of the most modified people in the world and resembles a tiger.
“Stalking Cat” is his Native American name, Avner being of Huron descent. His modifications are not just for fun. Stalking Cat is transforming himself into a tiger to resemble his totem, a sort of spiritual guide in Huron tradition, the tiger. Avner was told by a chief to follow the ways of the tiger.
Stalking Cat has had large amounts of tattoo work, subdermal and transdermal implants, and surgeries to complete his transformation and is not done yet.
Stalking Cats Modifications
• Extensive tattooing all over body
• His hairline moved
• Transdermal implants on face for removable whiskers
• Extensive dental work to have feline teeth
• Ears modified
o Ears pointed
o Earlobes elongated
• Silicone injections in the lip chin and cheeks to have the cat look facially
• Cleft lip
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlFAU9iBQ10&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0xe1600f&color2=0xfebd01&border=1]
Stalking Cat also plans on having transdermal implants on his head for removable tiger like ears. He currently wears contact lenses that resemble cat eyes.
Stalking Cat has become a celebrity and has made many television and radio appearances including being featured on Ripley’s Believe it or Not, and interviewed by BBC.
Think you felt pain getting your tattoo with a modern machine, think again. Imagine getting tattooed with needles made from bird beaks, or cactus needles like used in the traditional days of tattooing in Hawaii.
Other materials for needles where sea urchin spines, fish bones, bone splinters, and animal spikes.
Ink was made from kuki nut ashes and sugar cane juice. Tattoos where mostly only black, but when color was used, they came from flowers.
Designs originally where symmetrical geometric shapes but as years went on more pictorial designs came about.
The process was like that of many other ancient tattoos. A larger stick was used to tap the needle continuously. An assistant would assist the artist by stretching out the skin for the tattoo. Once the tattoo was done sometimes juices and saps of plants where rubbed on the tattoo to darken the ink.
This type of tattooing originated sometime around 1500 – 500 b.c. by the Lapita people that lived on the islands of Fiji, New Caledonia, New Guinea, Samoa, and Tonga. The pain of the tattoo was thought to be a spiritual journey. The more of your body that was covered by these tattoos the more respect you where given. Unlike in modern culture, especially here on the mainland, where people with visible tattoos make a person look unprofessional. Women where not allowed to be tattoo artists but could be tattooed, but only on the calves, feet, hands, ears and lips. Men could be tattooed anywhere. The most common spot would be on the face. The meanings of these tattoos usually came from a persons heritage and family.
