When I first stumbled upon BME, it was either late 1993 or early 94. I was fifteen, and had been studying my secret stash of PFIQs and Grey’s Anatomy as though they were religious tomes. BME, and in particular the experiences written by Shannon and the interviews conducted by Shannon, made me not just want to pierce, they made me want to scream from the mountains that what I’d wanted for so long could happen. I could be a piercer. Soon, I was.

I started piercing professionally at the age of seventeen. Fourteen years in the business later I own my own studio, have two excellent employees that work under me and we all adhere to those old rules passed down by the masters in those so recent yet so aged interviews.

From Brazda to Cobb to Ward to White, it was a goddamn adventure reading that site. Lowbrets, to dermal punches to holy crap I can pierce a tongue at an eight and then doing it, from every mod I learned about and declined to every new thing I saw and knew I could do and then did, BME was my resource, and though I rarely contributed, I always watched, one ear to the ground, both eyes wide open.

In 1998 I did a pocketing on a client and he ended up being photographed for the SPC and later on BME and he met Shannon and Shawn and they liked the work and I could’ve puked. No emotion I’ve ever felt since then, save for the birth of my daughter or a literary agent almost saying yes even comes close.

I felt so fucking accepted. I still do, and I carry that every day.

At work, when a customer is bitching at me over why our prices are so high and I try and explain about good jewelry and training and they see through me. At home, when my bills are piled like Michigan snow drifts and I just want to pay a bill and I know every other scumbag in town is doing fine because they do shit work with shit steel, I can smile because I know I’m doing the right thing. I learned from a lot of places, but most of all, BME made me what I am as a piercer and business owner. Integrity is near dead in this industry, you not being a part of BME is a big reason why.

One more reason to vanish entirely.
All be well. Kill the beast.

I still check modblog for pretty pictures, but then again even those have been lacking with the scarce updates. I’ll always have fond memories of my few (but immensely influential and satisfying) years spent as a semi-silent reader of BME, but it can’t offer me anything more.
Thankfully there are still small bodmod communities and sites that can still offer support and guidance to the old and the young. I myself actively write on a Finnish forum, upheld by half a dozen tattoo and piercing shops, but I’d definitely be interested in reading a new bodmod blog/listening to a podcast. I’d only be able to be a supportive follower though, since I don’t have any mad programming skills or the like.

Elephant – I am the same Nae who applied for and got a ton of votes in the world tour contest. However, I was “too much of a traditional BME character” and Rachel’s gut told her to not select me. It is a whole other realm of drama that I’m choosing to keep offline, but it has definitely helped make my decision to limit contact with the current BME.

I count myself very lucky to have my BME tattoos to remember it all by – and to keep inspiring me to live up to the legacy it left me.

I met my best friend on IAM back when I still lived in Boston and she lived in Oklahoma City. She and I now live next door to eachother here in OKC. She met, fell for and married a wonderful man she met on IAM. I have since fallen head over heels in love with one of her husband’s friends. Thanks for starting it all, BME!

We still talk about IAM and the “good ol’ days” and attribute much of our happiness to the site.

I left IAM a year or so before shit hit the fan, but I will always fondly remember the site for what it once was.

Thank you, Shannon.

I’ve been doing my best to email her advice on how to best handle and resolve this situation but I really feel like I’m talking to a wall… No, not a wall… more of a rose bush that’s all thorns…

He does have something better to do, blogging about Body Modification via BME.
give it back!