It is my belief that the “piercing scene and culture” is as old as human history, and simply “moves around” from time to time — sometimes it's public, sometimes it's underground, sometimes it's upper class, sometimes it's lower class, and so on… For example, the two pictures below are from Hieronymus Bosch's Christ Carrying the Cross, painting in 1490. You can see cheek piercings and chin piercings (and lots of normal earrings as well).
I am totally wiped out and my ear hasn't adjusted yet from the flight, so I have a bit of dizziness and a headache… But I had a good time seeing everyone in Chicago yesterday and today (for the next 16 hours or something) I'm in Toronto, and then it's back on an airplane. Then I have to work like a madman for a few days, then I'm off to Las Vegas for a week (I have to work while I'm there), and then I think two days off and I have to go to France for a week and a half. Dead by BMEfest?
Anyway, in the absence of being up to writing my own entry, I just got this press release from Tyler Fire (link goes to the interview The Lizardman did with him).
Monday April 25th at 9 pm and again at MidnightMonster Garage
on the Discovery Channnel - the wonderful folks who brought you "Stomachs of Steel", "Coney Island", and "Alive on the Inside"On a cold snowy New York City winter day - Tyler flew out to sunny Long Beach, California to join four other dynamite builders and our fearless leader Jesse James of West Coast Choppers to begin our five days of destruction on an RV that should have been headed for retirement and turn it into a funhouse fit for the midway.
The gas tank was empty - the grey water tank was full - the RV was too big to fit in the shop - it rained almost every day - the Monster Garage doesn't keep carnival ride parts in stock - Jay Leno sent his intern over for welding lessons - blood pooled up on the floor when one member of the build team busted their head open - The Groovy Ghoulies invaded to play a set in the Monster Garage - Slymenstra Hymen showed up and electrocuted a midget - GWAR played in Hollywood and Tyler decided to go without sleep for most of the week. It was a blast.
Did we win and all go home with five grand in Mac Tools?
Or did we lose and go home with nothing but cuts and bruises?
I also want to mention the promo auction for the new Philip Barbosa Ascension gallery show. In order to pay for the printing, Phil is lottery-ing ($10 per ticket) several artists proofs from ModCon IV. Click the picture to jump to his page and get involved:
Saw a very cool water generation system that works by “stealing fog” — condensing water out of the air using a really low tech method… Click the picture to jump to their site:
I wonder though — how much water can you safely pull out of the air before you start affecting the local climate? After all, we've certainly managed to pull enough water out of the ground to do significant environtal damage to our aquifers and other groundwater resources… can we “dry out” the air by stealing too much fog and converting it into contaminated sludge that can't re-enter the system?
Or is that impossible?
First of all, this brand is pretty intense. It was literally done with a household iron. They did more damage than they'd planned to and actually had to get a fair amount of hospital attention, but they're happy with the result and alls well that ends well, right?
| From: muffinbomb To: glider Subject: A story and a question Hello, my name is ****, and I'm a 16 year old high school student. I hope one day to be a professional body piercer, and I frequent BMEzine, in the past posting two stories about my ear gauging and tattoo experience. I am writing to you today about a friend of mine, who will remain nameless. Two weeks ago, she decided to get a tongue piercing. She showed up in school two days later with her new modification; it looked alright, except the barbell was too short for a piercing that young; you could only see the beads on either side of her tongue. When I questioned her about why she didn't have a longer barbell to accomodate the swelling, she merely said "Oh, I'll get one." Besides that, however, the piercing seemed perfect. The placement was excellent, and there were no bruises or excessive swelling. Later on in the day, I was speaking to another friend of mine, who's friend had done the piercing. I began to question her about the equipment he used. When I asked if he had used a piercing needle, she said no. So, I asked her, what DID he use? Her answer puzzled me at first. She responded with "The barbell." I figured she didn't understand the question, so I asked her again. She responded with the same answer. After another questioning, the reality sank in. This boy, not even 18, had FORCED a barbell through my friend's tongue. Even worse, my friend informed me that this boy had pierced his own tongue like this, along with a multitude of other people. He didn't even have a clamp to aid him, he merely had the piercee stick out their tongue while he proceeded to ram the jewellry through their tongues. He even offered my friend a lip piercing, done in the same manner, which she thankfully refused. Naturally, I was confused and angry. What kind of sadist could do something like that? Besides that, did he even know the consequences? Sure, my friend's piercing turned out fine. But forcing a blunt object through your body parts does not usually promote good healing. He could have ripped her tissue, or hit a vein, causing serious damage. If that happened, being 17 without a liscense to pierce would cause him even more trouble, if something had gone wrong. The friend who had told me about how he did this responded to the whole thing with "It was so cool watching, and her tongue made this really cool POP POP noise!" Last time I checked, tongue piercings are NOT supposed to make a really cool pop pop noise. Since I don't know this boy, I can't really do anything about this situation. At the same time, I wish I could. So I'm asking you, how do I let people my age know of the danger of young, unexperienced piercers? It's hard being in high school with situations like this. Everyone just wants to get pierced, but they don't think about the consequences of going to someone who doesn't even know what they're doing. |
Yesterday Lexci, a piercer at Dragon FX posted the following pictures:
She's considering turning the matter over to family services as an abuse case — In general I support youth modification, but I really think that this tattoo is a very, very bad idea… I also worry that a parent that would put a terrible tattoo on their kid is also likely to expose them to drugs, alcohol, and who knows what else. What do you think? (Link goes to the comment forum on Lexci's page.)
