30 Seconds with Meatloaf

It's hard to come up with a witty comment for this video, so why try. Here's Sarvas singing a Meatloaf/Skrewdriver mash-up. No Auto-tune needed.

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Taking over the web. One blog at a time.

Well kiddies, you can now follow your favorite blog on yet another blog site. That's right, we are now on Tumblr and you can follow us at http://www.youlookridiculous.tumblr.com/.

Slowly but surely ToddBlog is taking over the web...



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Celebrity Interview

It's that time again kiddies, time for another Celebrity Interview. This time around we felt the need to chat with one of the industry's newest celebrities, Cooter McStinkjaw! You may have come across Cooter in some of the piercing forums or you may have seen in at a nascar event. Either way we are certain he has managed to offend you in some way or another. Without further ado we bring you :

EHHHHHHHHH: An Evening With Cooter.

ToddBlog: So Cooter, why don't you tell our readers a little about yourself.

Cooter: Name's Cooter, I also go by my christian slave name "Cameron". I've been piercing professionally for 6 years and before that we won't get into it suffice it to say I can't believe some of my colleagues in this hobby take me seriously after how I started piercing...but I was never anything close to the hackdom that was Sarvas...well, probably. But that's history.

ToddBlog: We've been told that you recently started referring to yourself as "old school". Have you noticed and sort of change in you status within the industry from doing so?



Cooter: Now now, let's not get our sources confused. I was bestowed the title of "old school", and this is important because I couldn't even pretend to care to give a flying fuck about that kinda crap. I started running my mouth in Internet forums because piercers are retards and it was just too damn easy, plain and simple. You see body piercers are kinda like some women that like to be abused and tormented. You beat 'em up bit, let them run off and lick their wounds, and wait for them to come back for more (somebody prove me wrong. I fucking dare you!). So guess after a couple years of mentally abusing the meek, I gained sometime of "old school" status. Whoever wants to think that can, but I'm simply a fan of doing things simply and not spending my time kissing asses and swinging on nuts to get to the top of...this, "Turd Mountain".

But to comment on people's perception of me as some sort of authority on what I do, on more than a handful occasions I've been given drinks or brought into the "smoking circle" to have my brain picked, only to walk away from it with a free buzz and the general understanding that I'm just a mean ol' redneck.

ToddBlog: Whether you've swung from nuts or simply kissed ass to get to the top of the "turd mountain" as you've so poetically put it, the fact still remains that you have certainly gotten there. But it's not all glitter and glam at the top is it? More and more "old school" piercers like yourself have found it hard to make a living even at the top. Have you ventured into any of means of income?

Cooter: Mount Olympus is an ugly ugly place. Who'd thunk "old school" smelled like taint and cocaine hangovers?

I sell jewelry. That's what I do. I also offer a service that comes with the jewelry. You like what you sell enough and you'll sell it. Even if I'm not exactly where I want to be, where I am compared to where I was is much better.


ToddBlog: You mentioned before that you have been brought into certain circles and offered some sort of trade for the knowledge you have. Can we anticipate some sort of teaching position for you in this industry? Or is that something you would save until you officially retire?

Cooter: Actually, yes! I'm anticipating on teaching advanced curriculum courses at this year's APP Conference. Of course these courses will not be recognized by the APP as an organization but my classes will be the only classes that take place IN the hot tub. Courses will include "He's just a dude", a class that explains to you that half the assholes in the hotel are nobody special regardless of what the fuck they've done and/or who they've slept with, with special guest speaker Shawn Porter who will inevitably deconstruct my course and have sex with each of the attendees, just to prove a point. "Hey you, with the tits!", a course that explains to my students that sexual harassment at conference is nowhere near as offensive you'd think it should, with special guest speaker Sarvas, who's role is obvious. And finally the "Hey, git me a beer" course, in which I'll have you get me a beer and I'll tell you funny stories, smoke cigarettes, and give my opinions on ego and how it's killing what I do for a living.

ToddBlog: Well we sure hope to be able to sit in on some of those this year in Vegas. As we bring this interview to a close, do you have any closing statements you would like to share with our devoted readers?


Cooter: I'll be sure to have a place for Toddblog's Editor-in-chief to sit in on my classes...right on my mustache. ba-zing!


Final words...hmm. well okay. There seems to be a lot of undue hostility out in the professional piercing world and oddly enough it's coming from people who don't even pierce professionally. So then, my final words, would be to them. Pipe down and/or shut the fuck up already.

That's it. oh and, hail satan.

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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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ToddBlog * Please note that although we here at ToddBlog appreciate your support, not all submissions will be posted. *

Where the hell is everyone?

Oh, thats right, TODD(blog) is on vacation in Mexico.

Want to be featured on ToddBlog? Please send your photos and stories to
ToddBlog * Please note that although we here at ToddBlog appreciate your support, not all submissions will be posted. *

Want to be featured on ToddBlog? Please send your photos and stories to
ToddBlog * Please note that although we here at ToddBlog appreciate your support, not all submissions will be posted. *

Flies On The Wall 1

Hello loyal readers,

Here at ToddBlog we are constantly striving to help out the future generations of piercers by dropping little hints of advice here and there. We recently decided to ask for a little help from some of the more "well known" people in the industry. So please sit back and take it all in, you just might learn something.

ToddBlog is proud to present it's first in an on going series titled:

Flies On The Wall: A Round Table Discussion.

Lets first meet the esteemed panelists.

Cameron , Stephen , Shawn

Vyky , Cere

ToddBlog: first topic: Drama, lies, and everything in between. We all know that the industry is filled with it. Everything from piercers lying to gain the respect of their peers, sleeping your way to the top (more commonly known as "Star Fucking"), trying to make others look bad to cover their own mistakes, the list goes on and on.

What we would like to know (along with our readers), is what do some of the more important people in the industry think of these methods? We hope that your answers will enlighten some on why these aren't always the best methods to use when trying to gain respect in the industry.

Cameron: Well, I'm not important by any means, I mean shit Shawn O'Hare doesn't know who I am, so that should immediately disqualify me as an "expert witness", if you will.

I'd like to think that most people who have a good head on their shoulders would be able to see through the yarn spun by these folks, but unfortunately the ratio of bullshitters to smart people in the industry, excuse me The Hobby, is in favor of the bullshitters. So that leaves us to where we are today, stuck in an industry that has become a professional farce. I saw a lot of "fucking to the top" at APP this year, granted this is no different than any previous conference that I've been to, but it seems that hot tubs may provide a false sense of privacy. Sure you're underwater, but I can still see that foreign girl eating that drunk chick's box on a dare from "Famous Mod Guy", and so can everyone else. Maybe fucking in public is your thing, go for it and have a blast while your letting every watch you get your fuck on, but we all know that genital osmosis of knowledge is a myth so there really is no point to it and know matter how many body fluids you ingest, it's still not going to make you a better body piercer. (Sorry Cere, I didn't mean to blow up your spot.) Actions such as that are really no different than people who wait outside a tour bus to be the next hole for some dude in a band. Sure you fucked so and so, you're still not cool and now we we all know embarrassing stories about you and how you have a funny shaped vagina and we'll all probably laugh about it in front of your face because, well, it's funny and you obviously don't have too much respect for yourself so why should anyone else?

As for lying to get somewhere, Shawn nailed it in his interview. Nobody checks references, so why not embellish the truth a little, or a lot (looking' at you Greg Duffek), to get a job or to get clients. I can't really follow up on that any better, suffice it to say that when you get caught in your lie you look like a complete and total fucking ass

Shawn: I got quite a few emails when my old friend Sean Philips was doing his "degrade yourself to become an apprentice" thing a while back. Since Sean and I have (good) history, I became a "sounding board" for people who wanted to know if the "Reality Show" culture had finally started influencing the piercing culture and to see if I was, as they were, offended by some of the tasks Sean made the hopefuls do in order to become a piercer. (which, lets be totally honest here- is an occupation with an expiration date for most of the people who get into the business)

The more I thought about it, the more that I realized I was more impressed that people were still even interested in apprenticing than offended at the silly tasks they were given.

As for "fucking to the top"... again, let's call it like it is: Most of the gals who put out to "get somewhere" don't get much farther than being an in-joke between those of us who've messed around with them. Modification is still a boys club when it comes to being a "big name" (which on a long enough time line means nothing anyway)...

Cere: Perfect timing for this topic! Thanks Todd!

Ahhh, the age old topic of star-fucking. It definitely has its advantages and drawbacks. I see nothing wrong with a woman who is impressed that she is in the presence of someone such as myself and understands how great I am and that she should offer herself to me. Actually the fact that she recognizes this just shows that she, more then the regular public not involved in "the hobby", understands the things that are truly great in life... namely myself.

Its when these same women think that the knowledge one contains can be swallowed where the issues arise. Sure you can get a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of wonderment by in taking my glorious nutrients, but will that impart knowledge to you? No. Even if you trick someone using manipulation into giving you a shot at learning, like some stupid-fucking-cunt-who-works-at-a-shop-where-you-wont-find-titanium-oh-wait-they-now-have-full-lines-of-titanium eventually you are found out and in the end you realize that no knowledge was gleaned. Just a lot of cum.

Whew. Let me switch gears to lying about yourself to pump your own fame.

I remember a story of a piercer who believed they were famous. Their claim was based on the idea that they invented a certain kind of style, lets call it "kick and papering" so that I don't out anyone. Anyway they went around claiming they invented it years ago. Well the truth came out eventually that not only did he not invent it, but he only did his FIRST one a week or two before he made those claims! He now has fallen so far he turns to hacks for ear sculpting advice.

Last I heard he was off somewhere correcting a lot of Brian Deckers procedure

Vyky: I'm proud to say I've not banged anyone in this discussion forum.

really? is that all I have to contribute to this conversation?

Cere: Cmon Vyky, let's let the truth out. I'm really your baby's father. I know we were trying to keep it a secret but with Wayde Million about to be born in about 8 1/2 months, we should let the world know about our power couple baby now.

Vyky: On the topic of star-fucking

really? where does it get you? to the top of the vagina transplant list because your own gash looks like it has leprosy from all the disgusting venereal diseases you've accumulated?

Vyky: Secret's out. I banged Cere in Philly and saved his seed for a year and a half and turkey-bastered that shit.

Stephen: Seriously, if you're sucking dick to get to the top or even jump starting an apprenticeship.. Its kind of the same thing as sucking dick for crack.

I think a lot of people take themselves too fucking seriously in The Hobby. But as Kelly Bundy put it on that classic television program "If you think you're hot everyone else will too". To a certain extent it's true. But you do have to have a little grain of truth in there for it to work. And if you put that shit on a hook and cast it out into a sea of noobs, there's always going to be some snapper that bites. Go go scene whore.

ToddBlog: So what you guys are telling us is that those types of behavior not only won't actually get you anywhere, but you will be ridiculed and joked about by the very ones you use these methods on?

Cere: First off Todd if you're in this industry you deserve to be ridiculed and joked about, so thats not the issue really. The real issue is "Will it work?", "Will star-fucking really get you the attention you want?" or if its actual knowledge whether thru an apprenticeship or thru just bullshitting with people you are now spending time with, will star-fucking get you all that.

The answer is Yes, it will. Star-fuckers will have other people not only notice them because they are on someone's arm but also they will be able to pick and glean information from those around them which now include "the elite". So yeah, they'll be joked about and made fun of, but if they didn't star-fuck their way there it would just be something else that they would be made fun of or ridiculed for.

So star-fucking works. We've established that it gets the endgame it wants. What it will NOT get you though is respect as an artist. Everything that star-fucking will get you, the info, access to "celebrities", the exposure, you can get from just walking up to someone and talking to them.

Vyky: So my question to you then, Cere:

Why is a certain horse-faced ugmo still stuck poking holes in silicone in the middle of the desert?

You'd think she could have banged her way into a better job title.

And wait.. Doesn't she know Sarvas?!?!?

Cere: Just cuz it gets you the introductions and knowledge you need doesn't mean you'll use those contacts and information properly. And look, did it work? Look at the attention she has. Really, almost everyone now knows who she is, I mean, here we are discussing her in a roundtable. It worked. her name is known. And being where she is she has access to artists and can pick them for information at anytime. Too bad she isn't smart enough to do anything with it though....

Cameron: I think, Cere, you may be giving star-fucking too much credit. After all we pretty much all agree that piercing has an expiration date, right?

So. Chick sucks a dick, learns some things while she is in the company of people smarter than her, takes that to a shop and pierces for what 3 maybe 4 years before she gives it up for a job with benefits and insurance (or just marries a tattooer), and is titled "that dirty slut that used to pierce."

it all works itself out in the end really, but in the meantime it's just a headache.

Cere: Actually i think we just gave it the same amount of credit. All star-fucking is meant to accomplish it DOES accomplish. Its just not meant to accomplish anything more then 10 minutes and a google search could do.

But what about the other aspect? The part where the girl has no aspirations to be an artist and just wishes to bask in the company of those who are "famous"? Obviously I cant expect you to have met women like that Cameron, since you know, you're no Shawn O Hare, but what's wrong with someone meeting (and then sucking off) a childhood hero? NOTHING I SAY!

Cameron: It's not for me, personally, but if someone else can opportunistically get their rocks of by some else's folly, then game on!

Vyky: Even just reading this conversation makes me feel dirty.

Shawn: When you make a list of world-class practitioners... how many women are on it?

Just saying.

Vyky: What makes a person world class, exactly? Seems like an arbitrary description. Is it by whose name spreads to further corners of the earth or who can stand 100% behind their work?

Shawn: An keep in mind that O'Hare stands 100% behind his work.

Cere: I think both Vyky and a lot more. Not only does a world class artist produce good solid work that they can stand by 100% but they do so with their clients safety and happiness being foremost in mind. A world class artist pushes boundaries safely and add insight and knowledge back into the community they are a part of. They are able to take criticism and give it back constructively both elevating themselves and their peers.

Because of the above traits they earn respect and their name does get around. You can DEFINITELY be well known and not be a world class artist.

Shawn: When I say practitioners, I don't generally mean piercers. Are there "world class" female piercers? Absolutely. But piercing, as much as you'd like to call it an art, is a skill.

You look at the worlds of scarification, tattooing, surgical work... it's a boys club. That's not to say women aren't CAPABLE of surpassing their peers and becoming what I'd consider world class- it's just that they haven't.

ToddBlog: Well, i guess that concludes our discussion. We wanna thank you guys for taking time out of you busy schedules to be a part of this. We hope to hear from you all again when we have our next discussion. Until then, we hope our readers enjoy what you have had to say.

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ToddBlog * Please note that although we here at ToddBlog appreciate your support, not all submissions will be posted. *

How do you follow such an amazing interview with an Icon of the Industry (TM)? By breaking the balls of another, that's how.

We'll be back right back after these messages. And by "messages" I mean "supper".

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ToddBlog * Please note that although we here at ToddBlog appreciate your support, not all submissions will be posted. *