Good day, fair ModBloggers! Hope the weekend finds you all well. Before you celebrate your country by blowing up a small part of it this evening, take a look at this intense stomach flesh-removal piece on Travis by Dan Marshall while guest-spotting at Studio 13 in Bowmanville, Ontario. After the jump, a few more shots of the procedure (including one a few weeks into the healing process).

Here we have Dan and Travis, horsing around with some sort of medieval death blade. “Please take note of the sweet-ass Soviet tank goggles,” Dan says in between vicious stabs.

What, you didn’t think I’d go the whole day without giving y’all a Casual Friday picture, did you? And really, what better way to head into the long weekend than with Cameron, a true American if there ever was one. He’s a simple man who lives by a simple code, who enjoys simple pleasures: He likes his beer cold, his T.V. loud, and his testicles a-danglin’. Click through to de-Bud, of course.

And that’ll be that, kids. What went down this week?

- Andy covered his wang, tilted his chin and showed us his vertical lowbrets.

- BME is having a sexy sex toy sale, and Katy got so excited that she ended up covered in blood somehow.

- Paul Booth won’t let Meghan McCain jump the line. Ha ha.

- Marina checked in with another gorgeous large-scale piece.

- Our unabashed hipster post is at well over 100 comments and counting. I have no absolutely no idea what will spur an emotional reaction from our readers, apparently.

- If you can, please help Matt Brawley and CoRE.

And there you have it! I’ll poke my head in over the weekend, and then we’ll fire this bitch back up on Monday morning. Until then, ModBloggers, enjoy yourselves, stay safe (unless you’re firing off an M80 in my honor, in which case please be as reckless as possible) and, as always, thank you for your continued support of BME.

[Kijiji] I’m warning you all right now, this is going to be an extra-stupid edition of our beloved news roundup. Like, seriously. There is nary a redeeming quality to be found among today’s record of idiocy, whether it’s the subjects of the stories or the fact that the stories themselves even exist in the first place. Let’s start with this Kijiji posting, beckoning one and all to contribute to this citizen’s tattoo portfolio by submitting to a full-facial tattoo. It is very important that this person pad his or her portfolio with a very impressive full-facial tattoo—so important, in fact, that it will be done nearly practically free! As long as you don’t want any tribal, of course. Tribal is for assholes.

[Help Me Sue] Oh Jesus Christ, if you are eating your celebratory (and mandatory, damn it) Independence Day fried chicken, you may want to put it down (or eat it extremely quickly) before clicking that link. First of all, there is actually a web site called “Help Me Sue,” which is just tremendous, and it evidently exists to help people wronged by The Man (or various men) find a lawyer appropriate for one’s respective situation. Well, someone is having some problems with a tattoo, from the looks of things (all [sic]‘d):

Myself and two other co-workers went to a new local tattoo parlor in Morgan Hill, California. We all got the same tattoo and we all got bad infections. Within the two days our ankles swelled three times the size and was oozing all the color and green stuff. We let it ride because we understood that the foot area was very painful in regards to healing. We went back to the tat shop to find the owner and his wife and showed him our feet. His first response was “Oh shit, he went way too deep, that artist is out of here. Don’t worry, he won’t be back!” At that point we told him that we were pissed and we were going to seek medical attention because our legs had became so sore that we had to miss work and the crust from our tattoo kept cracking and seaping. My friend was the first to go seek medical advice then myself. It was confirmed that it appeared we both had Staf infections and were given antibiotics for severl weeks. The artist finally cared enough to contact us and even admitted he may have went to deep and that he would only refund our money and fix it. He then told us that we would fix it at the shop where we got it beacuse he still worked there! We then decided to run in their business lic because they had one on the wall in the shop. It happens that they do not have a license but rather one is pending because the Enviromental Health Dept. still hadn’t inspected their facility.

And wouldn’t you know it, it’s actually a lot grosser than it sounds! There’s a nice little area of necrotic tissue pictured, which, as we all know, is the primary symptom of…a tattoo artist going too deep? What? Hey, I’m no doctor, but I’m pretty sure you don’t pick up a necrotizing Staph infection because your artist has a heavy hand. Anyway, folks, best of luck in your lawsuit. Care to make it class-action lawsuit? Eh? Eh? C’monnn.

[NJ Star-Ledger] So here’s a fun game to play: Go to Google News, type “Bagelhead” into the query field, look at the results, and then punch yourself in the dick/balls/ovaries/whatever hard enough that you will never, ever breed, thus saving your potential offspring from the horrid fate of having to share a planet with the reporters responsible for this new “BRAND NEW FAD” non-story. Apparently, some Japanese youths have started experimenting with inflating their foreheads with saline solution (as our old friends Jerome, Ryoichi and others have been photographed doing in the past), and of course, since something need only exist for it to become a fad, this is now a fad sweeping the sleepy fishing village of Japan. Oh, and apparently the people who are doing this are being called “Bagelheads,” because what would a dumb non-story be without the most outrageously stupid moniker imaginable attached to it? Hooray.

[Popcrunch] And finally, famous singer person Rihanna is going to jail, forever, for giving someone a tattoo. Apparently she thought it’d be a real hoot to pick up a tattoo machine while hanging out in New York and give some folks some little umbrella tattoos, except those photos were published (by the MEDIA), and now it’s been revealed that she was not properly licensed to be a tattoo artist, or something, so she will be put to death, the end.

Oh Jesus, sorry to ruin your sunny Friday afternoon with this, but man alive would you look at this terrifying monster? People are just trying to leave the city to go drink at their cottages, the way God intended for them to spend Independence Day, but this creature in the flame-retardant suit is just cold tossin’ their cars this way and that. Could this be a metaphor for something? Something…sinister? Probably. Either that or it’s a scene from that damned new “Transformers” movie the kids are all crying about.

We’ll confess that the last photo of knifefight to be featured on ModBlog (this one) is one of our favorite pictures we’ve ever posted, so we were obviously excited to see her grace our inbox yet again. She’s got a slightly different look going on this time around, but you know what? We’re alright with that. Another striking shot from this set by photographer Jeff Hui, after the jump.

And hey, would you look at that, ModBloggers? It’s Friday, and not just for free-born men of the U.S.A.

“Sure,” you said, “Babasom can fit peppers in his septum. He can fit locks, markers and sunglasses. But can he fit both pinkies in? No. No he can’t. Of course not.” Guess who was just proven wrong?

Sleep on that, ModBloggers. Until tomorrow.

Oh, hello! I know you’re all anxious to skip out of work early and starting shooting illegal fireworks at each other (I just stuck some Black Cats in your mailbox, actually), but first! Some quick BME-related announcements:

There is still time to buy fancy sex toys at a 15 percent discount from BMEshop. We mentioned this the other day, but, seeing as the sale ends Saturday at midnight, we just want to make sure you’re all filling your various holes appropriately. To recap, use the coupon code bmelovesme to get a sexy sex discount on sexy sex products like our Mother of Pearl, Latex Gloves and all three types of silicone dildos, not to mention the silicone Prrtle, which comes with a vibrator. Time’s a-wasting! Now go and get you a buttplug.

Tattoo Hollywood is coming! In case you missed this Q&A with the boss or other various announcements, from August 21-23, BME will be hosting the inaugural incarnation of its very own tattoo convention, Tattoo Hollywood! We’ve partnered with Bob Roberts and his world-famous Spotlight Tattoo and have assembled some of the best artists from the west coast and beyond. And hey, it’s pretty affordable! Passes are $20/day, $40/weekend and $100/VIP (includes access to VIP/artist parties, shorter access lines, etc.). If you’re a vendor, however, booth space is going quickly—visit Tattoo Hollywood online for details.

Celebrate Skindependence Weekend. And finally, friend of BME, Adam from BodyMod.org, has passed along the information about this weekend’s Skindependence Weekend, being held in scenic Billings, Montana! The four-day event features suspensions, band performances, booze, contests and general revelry. And really, who doesn’t like those things? If you’re in the area, you know what to do.

(Also! The tattoo at the top of the post is by David Ekstrom at Canvas II in Eagan, Minnesota.)

Look, we all knew it was only a matter of time until the deluge of Michael Jackson tribute tattoos came rolling in. Within a few hours of his death, astute readers had already sent me links to photos of memorial tattoos, and there have already been a handful of newspaper articles about the phenomenon. Naturally. But this one, up there? We have no way of verifying this, but based on what the wearer says, we believe this could be the very first post-death Michael Jackson memorial tattoo. Says he: “I got a call that he had died and 15 minutes later this was drawn up and being tattooed on my arm.” Fifteen minutes! Is your mind blown? Yes. Yes it is. You can admit it.