He’s a living legend and one of the finest artists to wield a blade.  There isn’t anything I can say that hasn’t been said before, so I’ll just leave you with this.  Happy Birthday Ron!

Twenty years ago today in Melbourne, Australia a piercing and tattoo studio opened by the name The Piercing Urge.  Well in the past 20 years the studio has gone on to win numerous awards and become Melbourne’s premier destination for body modification.  Last year’s BME World Tour stopped by and the guys were generous enough to host us, as well as taking the time to sit down for some interviews.  We’ve already featured Matt Martyr’s interview, as well as Ran Maclurkin’s 1 hour tattoo.  In the coming weeks you can look forward to more interviews with Pete Sheringham and Ran.

And keep an eye on ModBlog for some new stuff from The Piercing Urge.  They just added two new artists, Aaron Lyons and Fred Bains, so expect some great stuff!

Today is Rob’s birthday.  I taunt Rob a lot because, well, because I can.  He’s a pretty good sport about it and that’s a good thing because I really can’t seem to stop.  He’s a pretty good sport about a lot of things and no matter what you may think of his posts here on ModBlog, he certainly tries hard and we appreciate that.  Good for you Rob!  Happy birthday and enjoy your day!

Here’s a photo I took of Rob on New Year’s Eve.

It was just over a year ago that I first started writing for ModBlog full time.  Those first few weeks were pretty rough, but with the help of this man, I pushed through and kept at it.  Over the past year he’s been there to pick up my slack when I’ve gotten sick, and he’s taken the extra time he has to put out some fantastic interviews.  So while we may not see much of him anymore, Sean is still part of the ModBlog team and is always working on something great for the readers.  So I’d like you all to take a minute to wish Mr. Sean Philips a very happy birthday.

Have a great birthday Sean, and as a wise man once said, “Keep on, keeping on.”

BME member eLHATABorov just had his 21st birthday and to celebrate his dad’s girlfriend baked him a BME cake!  It’s always nice to see parents embracing their child’s culture, as opposed to shunning it.

No word on what kind of cake it was.

Yep, I’m going to be “that guy” this year.  I completely forgot to put this up yesterday, so it’s coming in a day late.

Anyway, this past weekend Allen Falkner celebrated his [REDACTED]th birthday!  Allen has been a huge part of this community for years, and even in his old age he isn’t slowing down any.  This coming weekend will be the 2011 Dallas Suscon, hosted by Allen and sponsored by BME.com, which is the annual gathering of suspension practitioners, to learn new techniques and new ways to make suspensions even safer than they are now.

So take a minute today to wish this living legend a happy birthday today (even though his birthday was on Sunday).

(photo stolen shamelessly from Facebook.  Photocredit: Nakedlens.org)

Now in addition to all the learning to be had this weekend, there is plenty of fun happening as well.  On Friday night, The Lizard Lounge and Allen are presenting Freaks and Fetish!  This year’s show includes a performance by Swing Shift Sideshow, who we’ve seen on ModBlog before.  In addition there will be performances by Mosh, Genne Lasko, IAM: southtownbaby, and Håvve Fjell, from Pain Solution.

The event is open to the public, so even if you’re not attending the conference, if you’re in the Dallas area stop on by.   Doors open at 9:00 – 18+ $10 over / $15 under 21 / $5 off with dog tag or Church VIP - You can get more information right here.

It’s Rachel’s birthday! Aside from running BME and being a ridiculously awesome boss, she’s also been a great friend for many years. She’s been there for me when I’ve needed it and is one of the most generous people I know. So, have a great day Rachel and relax for once! And don’t fire me for this post!

Photo by Sophia Tsipidis

Just taking some time today to wish BME’s own Jen a very happy birthday.  Jen has doing BME’s customer support since 2004, as well as keeping the rest of us in line.  She also single-handedly moderates the image queues, and generally keeps things running on a daily basis.

So take some time today and wish a happy birthday to one of the hardest working people I know.

Photo credit goes to the marvelous McShady

Well when you’re friends with the Sinner Team, and your birthday rolls around, you know you’re going to be in for something special.

That young man up there is Serge, and he just turned 28.  So, in honor of his birthday he got to have a superman suspension, Sinner Team style.

Keep reading to see what happened next.

Read more…

So here I am with another “Happy Birthday” modblog post for someone who has made a major impact on the piercing industry and the body modification as a whole, the person I consider to be the “smartest man in body piercing”, Tom Brazda.

If you are not familar with Tom Brazda, the BME Wiki entry on him is a good place to start.  I, myself, learned of him the first day I  logged onto the internet. On excruciatingly slow dial up via AOL, my first search was “body piercing”. That search of course lead me to BME and very shortly thereafter I found these interviews with Tom and I was just blown away. The techniques he was using and the knowledge he was sharing totally blew me away. It was at that moment I realized there was so much more to the science aspect of body piercing than I had ever learned through my apprenticeship nor through my own (pre-internet use) research. While those interviews seem dated today, they were WAY ahead of their time when they were first published.

Tom continues to share his knowledge in the various IAM body piercing forums and through personal contact with lots of members of this industry. So take a moment out of your day to wish this piercing pioneer a happy birthday, then jump on google or BME and search “Tom Brazda” to absorb all of the piercing knowledge he shared in the past.