Today marks the fifteen year anniversary of Jack Yount’s passing. I don’t really know what Jack would make of today’s bodymod culture; while I’ve often called him the “Father of Surgical Modification” he generally took a more cautious approach to mods that is missing in recent years and would no doubt give one of his famous mischievous scowls if he saw a tattooed eyeball.
That said, I wouldn’t be the man I’ve become were it not for his influence, guidance and friendship.
Six years ago I hosted Modcon4 in Toronto, Ontario. The following is an open letter I sent to the attendees thanking them for keeping Jack’s legacy alive.
Thank you, Jack. For everything.
Nine years ago tonight, Mike Natali called our house and delivered the message that Jack Yount had passed away while on holiday in Denmark.
Jack had been in hospital for over a month fighting a case of pneumonia. Had we known, we would have flewn to Denmark to tend him. We would have been prepared for the eventuality of his passing.
As it was- we had to deal with not only his death but the knowledge that for the thirty days before his passing, Jack was alone.
Later, information would get back to us that Jack was being attended to by his oldest friend Bill Hollingsworth for that month- but thinking about the person who most responsible for helping to shape Robert and I into the men we were becoming laying there alone was almost too much to bear.
Being alone was something people in the heavy, advanced and surgical modification community were accustomed to. We existed on the fringes of the fringe. Related to the tattoo and piercing community but never fully accepted, we met briefly from time to time- Trips to “the clinic” in Mexico City- Weekend visits to Jack’s in Zephyrhills- Letters exchanged through ENIGMA and UNIQUE….. we were united by our similarities and our differences, because we all chose extreme modifications as a lifestyle.
Eight years ago today, a project that Shannon Larratt had shown me while in it’s beta form was “unleashed” onto the internet. BME/extreme was officially unveiled. It started out with the ever growing amount of advanced mod images that Shannon was receiving, subsidized by images I had shot or images that Jack had archived. It started growing faster than I could have ever imagined.
Once people saw that there was some place out there that they could be themselves- they came in droves. They started contributing, sure- but more importantly, those images encouraged others to find themselves through extreme and atypical body modification.
Times have changed. We’ve had four and a half MODCON conventions. We have people in the typical tattoo/piercing scene begging to get into our events. We’ve crossed the line from being curiosities to being a culture on the verge of full bloom.
In 1989 the piercing/tattoo was shocked by the image of Carl Carroll’s biurified penis in RE/Search’s MODERN PRIMITIVES. In 2003, ModCon: The Secret World Of Extreme Body Modification was released. Published and Edited by Shannon Larratt with images from Photog Philip Barbosa, it’s publication took our subculture off of the internet and onto bookstore shelves.
Finally- we have a place where we aren’t alone.
To everyone who came to MODCON4: Thank you. Without you, the event wouldn’t have been what it was.
And without Jack…. without the seed he planted… none of this would have been possible.
Thank you, Shawn.
Really beautiful entry.
I am with Efix, though never having met Jack myself his influence on people who influenced me has indirectly changed my life. To think that more than half of the young mod community probably has no idea who he was, is sickening. Thanks for helping myself, and others stay grounded to their roots.
I’ll just say, Amen to that. I wish I met this man. The stories you told me over the years have inspired me beyond what you could think of.
thank you for posting this and reminding us of where we come from.