Round Table 2

We here at ToddBlog realize that every once in a while you will get to eavesdrop on a very interesting conversation. We were lucky enough to catch this one, and felt we should share it with our devoted readers. Both Shawn Porter and Stephen Detoma were kind enough to chat with us for this latest entry.

ToddBlog is proud to present:

Flies On The Wall 2: The internet and Body Modification

ToddBlog: We realize that body modification would not be where it is today without the internet. With the help of websites like SPC, BME and social networking tools like IAM the modification community has grown more than anyone could have imagined. What we would like to know is, are there any negative effects the internet has had on the industry?

Shawn: Several months ago I was going to do a class on behalf of the APP on the history of contemporary body piercing.

The last chapter was "BME, SPC, the rise of the Internet and the Death of Body Modification."

Stephen: I think out of our breakfast club, Shawn is probably the only one who has a practical experience with body modification with OUT the internet; I know I started getting pierced and then discovered BME by searching for piercing info online, probably about '98ish or so.

I think just like everything else, there's two sides of the fence. Did the internet make it easier to trade info, find quality artists and research ideas? Sure. Did it create a shitshow of a culture akin to the fucking Tyra Banks show? Absolutely.

If you were to ask if body modification is better or worse due to the internet, you'll find people that are staunch advocates of both opinions and while both will have strong thoughts to back up each of their arguments, you can't declare a winner in that war.

Here's where my brain is headed: I feel like this goes back to the gauging argument. If the use of the term gauging in common speech can change the validity of the use of said word, while people may abhor the internet's influence on bodymod, you have to accept that it's carved out it's own little niche.

Shawn: You just called me old.

You did hit the nail right on the head though, Stephen.... the internet IS the best and worst thing that ever happened to the contemporary body modification scene. (and a million other scenes, I'm sure)

On the one hand, you have immediate access to lifetimes of information just by using a search box. On the other, a good argument can be made that the internet has inspired people who would have normally never done some of these mods to attempt them. Which itself is a double edged sword.

It's funny though... I think it's the youth culture's appropriation of the body mod scene that's had a bigger impact than the internet- the two sort of tie into each other, I guess. You go back and look at the late 1980s and early 1990s copies of PFIQ, Piercing World, Body Art and Tattoo Savage and you start seeing the average age dropping and the piercings going more aesthetic and less sexual.

Once it hit pop culture (I promise I'm not going to mention Paul King in the Aerosmith video) the shift really started happening.

Stephen: You still look good for an old man.

When I was a kid, I wore boots and braces, Fred Perry's and DM's and listened to a lot of ska and Oi! I remember a friend of mine and I were rolling around Boston and talking about the stuff we had seen happen in "the scene" around town and he brought up a really good point: The Scene is a youth cult.

What he meant is, a a certain point, despite the lyrics and slogans saying we would all die with our boots on, ultimately, everyone grows up, grows their hair out and hangs up their boots in favor of a more comfortable pair of shoes. The parallels in that scene and the body mod scene are startling. The major difference is; in both areas, you can spend a bunch of money to look like you belong, but where as growing your hair out is an easy option, trying to remove a tattoo you got on your face when you were 19 to look cool is a little bit harder.

Shawn: And that, for the most part, is what the internet did- make it a scene. Back in the 'dark ages' when we still had to correspond via letters, VHS tapes and the occasional meeting at Jack Yount's house or a tattoo convention or what have you, people were just into what they were into. And usually not much else.

Guys who were into silicone were INTO silicone. The amputees were into amputation. Most folks had tattoos, but just because they had tattoos and not because it was part of a bigger picture. The internet sort of brought everything together.

I used to pay a ridiculous amount of money a year to be a UNIQUE subscriber. Unique was a contact group owned by Ken of "Ball Club Quarterly" magazine. It amounted to nothing more than a few pages of hand typed photocopied personal ads. You usually didn't see much variety in the ads. People with certain mods looking for people with certain mods. After paying the yearly fee to be a member, you'd send other members a stamped letter via Ken (with $1 in cash) and he'd forward it.

The internet made that all unnecessary. You were able to keep up with people for free. Ideas were much more easily exchanged. And thanks to (or curses to) BME, you had a scene begin to form. But when I look back at it I realize that it was a BME scene that was forming, not a body modification scene. Dilution began to happen (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) and all of a sudden there was an aesthetic all it's own.There were t shirts and backpacks and belt buckles and stickers and conventions and a hierarchy of who and what is cool

Stephen: And not to say that all of that is bad: how many SW shirts do I own now? And I don't cut or get cut, I just like the shirts and to support my friends endeavors.

But hell, you don't need to look any further than LA Ink or any other of the "reality" shows out now to see that a subculture is being marketed to everyone with a TV...

Shawn: And with all that said- body modification will survive. After the fads, after the websites and t.v. shows...

Stephen: I don't see why it wouldn't. People will always do things because they feel they need to, not because the feel other people want them to. Not that the other side of the coin doesn't apply as well...

Every wonder why none of those shows ever have anyone that any of us recognize as "legit" on them?

Shawn: Garver had a strong reputation before all that hooey

Stephen: Good point. And I wouldn't say he's lost any respect, near as I can figure..

I guess the more I think about it, we see a lot of our friends in the Nat Geo, Discovery Channel shows, but initially I was thinking, Inked, Miami Ink, LA Ink and all of the World Traveler bullshit: Some button up douchebag traveling on TV's dime to get tattoos from around the world..

I remember seeing a bunch of the guys on The Pickup Artist(?) get taken off to some shop that looked less than reputable just in the short time I watched it. It always amazes me that the lowest quality gets the highest attention..

What was it Sailor Jerry said? Empty drum makes the most noise?

Shawn: "the lowest quality gets the highest attention"...

that explains my luck with the ladies.

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