Rose Cutting by John Joyce
I have a bunch of new work by John Joyce that’s going to be posted over the next several days; tonight’s post is of a traditional style rose cutting. I’m going to be heading up to Mr. Joyce’s for a cutting in the next few weeks, so perhaps we’ll also have a video update!
Healed Cutting by Brian Decker
A few weeks ago we featured an amazing fresh cutting by Brian Decker; clean lines, simple design and great placement. I just checked up on his blog and found a healed photo.
Healed photos are all too infrequently sent to the artist; tattooists, piercers, scarification and modification artists all have the same complaints. So let this be a reminder- when your work heals, snap a photo and send it to your artist. They’d appreciate it. (and so would we!)
Facial Cutting by Efix Roy
I was leaving the house to try a new restaurant (Adsum, Philadelphia) that offers Foie Gras poutine, and I stumbled upon this cutting done by Quebec City’s own Efix Roy. Efix and I have a lot of things in common; scarification, good times, body modification, cured meats…. but the two things that hold our friendship together as strongly as glue are Foie Gras & Poutine.
So is this all a coincidence? I think not.
Great job, Efix!
In 1998 Keith Alexander did my first “shared” cutting. Nothing complex, even for the time. A simple XX111 on my wrist at the end of a whirlwind trip to NYC. After the last line was cut, he made two “bloodprints” by pressing paper towels to the cutting; one for me to take home and one for him to keep. Keith often made prints for his portfolio; each of us still with him in spirit (and blood) long after the cutting healed. He considered it much more personal than a photograph; a living connection to the people who wore his art.
Inspired by Spider Webb’s X1000 concept, he made our prints a little different than normal; 23 XX111s.
When I noticed the ghost of a twenty fourth 23 on one of the two prints, I asked Keith if he wanted to redo it. “Nah, I’ll just keep the good one. You can have the fuckup”. Always the asshole, but what can you do.
Keith Alexander- November 23, 1963 – July 11, 2005
You can never go wrong with a cutting by Wayde Dunn. I had already called it a day when I came across this photo; having updated several other blogs and finally settled down to watch Richard Pryor in THE TOY I had no plans to update the Scarblog. But what the hell. It’s been too long since I’ve featured new work by Big Red.
You can contact Wayde via WaydeDunn.com.
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.
