Shawn, who's having a birthday tomorrow, points out that we were just 21 and 22 when we met (and that was after the site had already been running for a while!) and are now both on the cusp of 30 — with me turning 30 this September 29th, and him turning 29 tomorrow. Not only are we “getting old”, but at this point we know (and are friends with) people who grew up on both our sites (be sure to check out his rarely updated but extremely cool site at spc.bodymodification.com).
Buy me a Becks beer or pass me a bong
Gimmie some Bushmills I'll sing you this song
Open another big box of cheap wine
We're over thirty, we're doing just fine
We're probably the very end of the second generation of modern body modification (with Jim Ward, Fakir, and the others who “came out” in the 1970s being the first generation, and those who grew up in the era of established piercing studios, websites, and magazines being the third — the generation that grows up in the era where body modification laws and acceptance has matured will be the fourth)… Anyway, we're the last generation to grow up with body modification not being relatively mainstream…
It's weird seeing the world change, this community change, and wondering what role we had, or if we just got caught up in the same cultural tidal wave as everyone else here (I think we've made contributions, but on the whole we're all just in the same wonderful wave, getting drawn along to where we're supposed to go). It's easy to get down because of the dumb crap that's going on in the world, be it all the wars, or even just the little stuff like anti-mod laws, but I think it can turn out for the best — and I think our re-embracing of the body is a part of that.
I'm going to finish off the rest of my packing now, and then it's off to the train station. First thing in the morning I'll be on a jet, and not long afterwards I'll be working on some major BME overhauls in a little tropical villa — with some snorkeling intermissions of course. I'll do my best to find an internet cafe and upload pictures.
