BODY MODIFICATION
Body modification is a universal art form that has been practiced for thousands of years. It is done for such motivations as aestetic reasons, transformation, sexual enhancement, a rite of passage, trust and loyalty, religious or mystical affiliations, shock value, and self-expression. Different types of body modification include:
Scarification, branding, tonguesplit, ear pointing, earlobe closure, ear reshaping, conch removal, coin slot, body implant, transdermal, beading, scalpel piercing & more.
The modifications we offer are mostly being performed by our regular guest Bruno Valsecchi. Bruno is a professional piercer and modifier since 1994 and co-founder of the Italian APP piercers’ society called APTPI. He is very knowledgeable in this field and we are proud he has been our regular guest for a long time.
Please check his work here!
Send us an email if you are interested and we will answer all your questions
In our section of Modification we discuss the action of Scarification, Cutting ears, Beading and Tonguesplitting.
SCARIFICTION : HISTORY
Scarification has been used as a rite of passage in adolescence, or to denote the emotional state of the wearer of the scars, such as times of sorrow or well-being. This is common among Australian Aboriginal and tribes in New Guinea, amongst others.
★ Scarification, by deliberately burning skin, is called branding and has historically been used to mark slaves and criminals, usually with the brand being visible and often letter-coded to reflect the crime.
★ The Māori of New Zealand used a form of ink rubbing scarification to produce facial tattoos known as “moko.” Moko were considered to make the body complete as Māori bodies were considered to be naked without these marks. Moko were unique to each person and served as a sort of signature. Some Māori chiefs even used the pattern of their moko as their signatures on land treaties with Europeans.
★ In some cultures, the willingness of a woman to receive scarification shows her maturity and willingness to bear children.
★ Scarification is fairly common in West Africa and New Guinea.
★ Facial scarring was a popular practice among the Huns.
★ Facial scarring resulting from academic fencing is regarded as a badge of honour among the European dueling fraternities, this tradition originating in the 19th century.
SCARIFICATION : NOW
There are many reasons why people may turn to scarification. Aesthetically, scarifications are usually more visible on darker skinned people than tattoos. Also, unlike tattoos, scarifications are a product of one’s own body
Lines are cut with surgical blades.
Extended cutting techniques include:
Skin removal/skinning/peeling
Cutting in single lines produces relatively thin scars, and skin removal is a way to get a larger area of scar tissue. The outlines of the area of skin to be removed will be cut, and then the skin to be removed will be peeled away.
Cutting tattooed skin will result in white looking lines in a black tattoo which can be very beautiful
Ink rubbing
This is where tattoo ink (or another sterile coloring agent) is rubbed into a fresh cut. Most of this ink will remain in the skin as the cut heals, and will have the same basic effect as a tattoo
Scarification is not extremely painful. It feels almost the same as getting a tattoo. The result of a cutting will take from half year to a year to see. In the beginning the scar will be red/ dark en slowly it will start to get lighter.
Some people’s skin have a tendency to form keloids (you can see on your other old scars maybe). Usually people with dark skin keloid very well (that’s why this practise is common in Africa and New Guinea) and some places keloid easier than others (a chest keloids much easier than hands)
Possible designs, placement and healing a scarification wound depends on the procedure and is to be discussed with the artist.
CUTTING EARS : HISTORY
Masaai people get their huge ears by cutting away the antitragus. This is not only practical but looks really beautiful. Other cultures with big stretched ears also cut their lobes or pierce them big at a very young age.
CUTTING EARS : NOW
If you like big stretched ears, like 20mm and bigger, you will maybe have to start thinking about cutting them.
There are various reasons to cut your lobe bigger; sometimes the placement of the hole is not high enough or too far or too close to the face which makes the jewelry look weird or not as nice. Sometimes the lobe is too small or too thin to stretch further. Then it is possible to relocate and improve the placement by cutting the lobe in a certain way.
Getting your lobe cut is not as painful as you might expect. Of course it will bleed (because the lobe has a fast bloodflow) but the cut is too fast and too sharp to make it really painful.
3D BODY IMPLANTS
Not only genital places are beaded but almost everywhere on the body beads and other designs silicon shapes are being placed.
The generator of this practise is Steve Haworth. Possible designs and placement are to be discussed with the artist.
TONGUE SPLITTING
The first stories about getting your tongue split were from 1997. then there were 3 people who did it, without knowing from each other and all doing different techniques. One got it professionally done by a plastic surgeon using a laser. The 2nd did it himself by cutting and cauterization and the 3rd also did it herself using a teflon tie-off method. This was on the cover of the magazine Body-Play back then. Since then many different methods have been practised. The tongue will try to heal together again for at least 6 weeks. And usually the tongue will grow back abit. Sharon, the owner of Dare 2 Wear was the first person in Holland to get her tongue split (around the year 2005)
BEADING : HISTORY
For centuries various kinds of cultures have practised beading.
In almost all Asian countries they occur, in Japan the Yakuza uses mostly real sweet water pearls (they do it in prison to ease their body of their sexual urge temporarily and to show their loyalty to their yakuza boss by inserting 1 more for every year they are in prison). If they cannot get pearls, they will make a ball of a part of their toothbrush. Actually it is such a common ritual in Japan that the ward in jail will count the balls before they go in and again when they leave. If there is more than 1 extra in it, they supposedly have to pay a fine!
In Indonesia they put cylinder-shaped beads in the shaft while in prison.
Also South America is familiar with genital beads as well as the Antilles and in Surinam.
BEADING : NOW
Nowadays not only men are doing genital beadings but also women.
There are different ways to insert beads. We like to use the pierce and taper- method (Steve Haworth method). Or the skin is cut with the use of a scalpel.
This is not as painful as you would maybe expect. It feels like a piercing but then a bit more tight and slightly bruised afterwards. Of course that part of the body needs rest to heal and to get the bead encapsulated (30 days).
We use beads made of different materials: Silicon or Titanium (polished and unpolished), sweet water pearls. And all these in different sizes and shapes
CUSTOMER SERVICE
After getting modified, you can always come to the shop and show us. If you have any questions or if you just like somebody to have a look at it, go back to the person who modified you. Some procedures are being performed by our resident artists and some by our guest artist. Please send us an email when interested!