This Week in BME


This is pretty fantastic: Turns out, a little while ago, Micah (intentionally) snipped one lobe and fit it with some prostheses of his own design. This fancy little number fits in the lobe like normal and then is held in place by what appears to be a leather strap or perhaps some industrial hockey tape, which is then secured to posts in the lobe. He’s currently at 1.5 inches and has literally nothing standing in his way; ingenuity, thy name is Micah.

And so goes our week, gentle ModBloggers. What happened this time around?

We had this intricate cutting courtesy of Brendan.

Smiles and bindis.

Thesinnerteam suspended pretty damn high, and instigated a valuable discussion about safety procedures.

A beautiful story here about a young man who died before he was able to get tattooed.

This is why you don’t buy used iPods.

Anders never ceases to impress with his incredible scarification work.

Meghan McCain is going to be trawling for ass at a tattoo convention near you.

And that’s it! We’ll be by over the next couple days, then come Monday, we gas things back up and get back to our full crushing power. Until then, enjoy the weekend, stay safe and, of course, thank you for your continued support of BME.

Tattoo Hollywood, BME’s first tattoo convention, is coming to Los Angeles from August 21-23, featuring contests, prizes and some of the best artists from around the world! Click here for more information.

52 thoughts on “This Week in BME

  1. wow that is cool , maybe is good for people who want to wear really really large jewelry , like bear , but just don’t wanna stretch their lobes so big …
    but that is really fucking ingenious !

  2. It’s also cool for people that maybe get their lobes to a big size and for whatever reason lose it, they can still rock their jewelry.

    Or for people who want to cheat haha.

  3. please dont let this get too out of wack and have people pinning circled to there faces with straps
    it defeats the point of stretched earlobe

  4. @5
    It does defeat the purpose of the stretched ear lobe, but he did stretch his ear lobe prior to this…his ear lobes just couldn’t contain the gauge size potential 🙂 he’s the only guy that can go up to an infinitely larger size over night 😛 I like this because it’s unique but certainly if lots of people started doing it, it’d lose its pizazz

    I just imagined someone piercing their ears twice, so they could secure a big loop in a similar fashion, and gluing a little plastic figurine in the middle so it’d look like a swing set haha

  5. Interesting to see how weight affects the strap and possibly either stretches the post holes or tears the posts out.

  6. This is a nice idea. But sorta against the idea of stretched lobes isn’t it? Like having a piece of leather strapped on your head isn’t the same as a stretched lobe.

    Kinda reminds me of the AMAZING TATTOO SLEEVES THAT DON’T REQUIRE ACTUAL TATTOOS.

  7. this is ingenious.
    i had to take my 32mm tunnel out and im gutted but with this its a way of resurrecting it!!
    i want one!!!

  8. What a cool idea. Regardless of the “oh but it’s not actual ear stretching blah blah blah”, it looks quite cool.

  9. defeats the purpose of the stretched ear lobe…?

    i’m sorry, i didn’t realise we all stretched our lobes in pursuit of a common goal 😉

  10. meh.
    i could understand this if someones lobe split, but i certainly wouldnt have done it just for an experiment.
    i dont really like it, but that’d be useful in a situation like, you want these nommish plugs but theyre not in your size, just BAM and now they are.

  11. I bet someone markets a flesh colored one within the year. I don’t think this is as “noble” perse as a stretched lobe, but I can definitely see a use for it for people with split lobes and whatnot.

  12. I’m not a fan of this. It’s almost like those people who wear the shirts that look like sleeve tattoos.

  13. Dear Jordan Ginsberg,
    i didn’t split my lobe for the sole purpose of “experimentation”…please don’t put those words in my mouth. i did split it intentionally, but only because i’d been having circulation issues AFTER it was initially reconstructed two years ago. Also, my name is spelled “Micah”. Please have the courtesy to check the the names of subjects when making public posts about people.

    Dear Diva,
    my ears were both stretched to 2 1/4″. the left one was reconstructed two years ago after an accident left me with a big laceration traversing the lobe. like i said above, i finally decided to split the lobe due to circulation problems after i tried to stretch it again over the sutured area. the prosthesis was just a means to allow me to wear plugs again seeing as my right ear is perfectly fine. i don’t consider it “cheating” anymore than i consider scalpeling your lobes to a lager size “cheating”. this is blog about modification…not about semantics.

  14. I think this is a brilliant idea, after knowing the reasons and whatnot.

    I really just don’t like the idea of other people doing it for different reason. Be it “cheating” or anything else.

    But, for the purpose it was intended, I think this is great.

  15. For the purpose it was intended, I think its a neat idea, but I dont even know if its possible to use this strap without a stretched lobe that has been split, so everyone should settle down. If you look, both parts of his split lobe are being stretched out over the top of the plug; if someone was to use this apparatus with a normal earlobe, the plug would just sit on the bottom of the ear, and I doubt would resemble anything like a stretched ear. Thats what I would think, but who knows.

  16. This is a good idea, and not all all like wearing a fake tattoo shirt.

    What is wrong with wanting to wear matching sized earrings? It would look silly to have one giant ear and one little ear.

    Go symmetry!

  17. I have witnessed the problems Micah has had with this particular lobe(as well as anyone who has seen him at most of the conventions). The ear sling is not cheating. Would a wooden leg be cheating? Maybe you critics should go re-fill your “extenze-scripts”.

  18. What a brilliant and sweet-looking solution! I can’t imagine having to lose (especially voluntarily) one of my 2″ lobes, I would experiment too. I also love how it looks from the inside of the tunnel. The wooden leg comparison is a good one.

  19. First impression: Cool.

    Post-explanation impression: Ingenious. I love the commitment to stretching this mod demonstrates. Rather than slink back to teeny lobes after the reconstruction, Micah found a totally unprecedented way to maintain a mod he obviously loves. Fucking awesome.

    And, totally sexy.

  20. This is pure evil.

    not even good evil like Slayer and Satan. This is just bad.
    I abhor it like spinners on hubcaps and auto-tuning in rap records.

    Fuck T-Pain, Kanye, Suburban thug posers, and this silly ass “body modification”

    But, I guess I should keep an open mind.
    After all, it takes all kinds……

  21. Wow, thats sort of hating on and making a comparison to a completely unrelated culture of aesthetics #32.
    Words of hate perperuate.
    If it aint your cup of tea, a no thank you typically suffices.

  22. I doubt this would be a new trend, and I hope it wont be one either. I am however happy for anyone who might lose a large lobe, and want to keep visual balance. It’s not perfect, but it’s a good move.

  23. That’s about the best solution I’ve seen for this problem, I had the same sort of thing happen; stretched lobes, both at 1″ and a circulation issue in my left one. So right now I’ve got one still at 1″ and the other is just empty, shrivelled, and pink. So I just might steal this idea…. if no one minds. Maybe change it a little so it’s not exactly the same.

  24. from what ive read micahs explanation is truthful its just a solution fro himself to keep the balance of his right ear to his left ear and i dont think he was really aiming for a trend setting start point just a amputee sortof fix for his lose of soemthign he probably most likely worked really hard to get and in all worst cases haveing no luck he had to loose this ear lobe he just wanted balance

  25. Diva- you’ve appropriately named yourself.

    maybe you should have just taken the honorable “bow-out” that Micah gave you earlier and just stop commenting before you make yourself look more like an idiot than you already have.

  26. How is everyone thats mocking him unable to see that he’s not doing this to be cool, or to set a trend, or to make it look like he’s got stretched lobes when he doesn’t?

    He stretched to over 2 inches, had circulation problems and had to cut one. This was a cosmetic solution to having lopsided lobes basically.

  27. Micah, you are officially now the master of awesome. I am ready to sacrifice all my female relations upon your dark altar, and can only hope to one day achieve a tenth of the radness you spin as the very core of your being.

    hey 48, you’d be touchy about your name too if it was being used in a blog that millions of people view on the daily.

  28. as always, i am greatly amused by the comments and opinions on this site. all who suggest that “they don’t like it, but okay” or, you’re stupid”, or any number of other opinions proffered for the enjoyment of all, show how shallow they are. if you really think your take on someone else’s modifications is necessary or important, be it praise or dislike, you are mistaken; and the very fact that you continue to offer them suggests that the only reason you, the commenter have modifications(if, in fact, you do), is to make others think you are interesting, cool, mysterious, strange, or whatever the hell it is that you’re going for.
    in conclusion, why don’t you shut the fuck up, cram those insecurities back in to your head, and enJOY the mods without ragging(or praising) on them.

  29. I love this. I feel for the loss of your lobe, but I can’t say I’m not glad or else I wouldn’t have seen this on my screen. Its just plain awesome.

  30. Way late to the party, went back through the archives for fun and found this.

    I love the idea, as it provides another option for dealing with stretched lobes that have been damaged.

    Now for the comments: the negative reactions are surprising, considering what this blog is dedicated to and about, but it’s clear what is causing it. A bunch of children afraid that outsiders will take away what makes them special and unique by creating a “shortcut”. In what way is this cheating? Does it invalidate a single thing you have done? The “purpose” to and behind stretching lobes cannot be defeated because it does not exist. Everyone has their reason, and nothing anyone else does can defeat it or change it in any way.

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