I’m sure most of us in North America have heard of the Travelling Gnome.  The idea is you steal someone’s garden gnome before you go on vacation, then take pictures of the gnome in places all over the world, which you send back to the person you stole the gnome from.  Then, when you return, you bring back the gnome and replace it as if it never left.  The result, you end up with a great story and experience, and the person who thought their gnome was gone for good gets a surprise in the mail (and their gnome back).  Of course over the years the gnome stories have spread all over becoming so popular that a travel booking website uses a gnome as its mascot.

Well it seems the gnome is still on the go, and it looks like his latest spot was in Italy, paying a visit to IAM: Lady_FlameThrower.  You may remember her from a ModBlog post a while back about her Watchmen scarification piece.  You can see in the photo below that the photographer Alex Hen is featuring not only the gnome, but also Lady_FlameThrower’s surface bar and dermal anchors.

So has the urge to steal a gnome ever crossed your mind?  The idea of stealing a gnome is only scratching the surface of what travelers do for fun with their photos.  I’ve seen collections of people holding up cardboard cutouts of friends, other keepsakes from houses, and more.  Well ModBlog readers, have you taken a gnome or something else on your travels to document the  journey?

What about your city do you love?  I know why I love Toronto, but I’d probably take up the entire length of the main page to go into details, so I’ll sit this discussion out.

Seriously, is there something in your city that makes you feel like it’s the best city to live in?  Or is there another city you’ve been to that you think is much better?

I’m asking these questions because it says something about a person as to what they value most in a city.  What that something is I have no clue, Sean is the pretend doctor for BME, not me (he is a shrink right?).  Think about some of the commercials for cities you’ve seen on TV.  They’re out there, although most are state driven, I can assure you that every major city has a department dedicated to promoting their city as the best place to live.  The reason for that is simple, more people = more tax dollars for the city.  While the people in the streets may be shouting to the rooftops about how overcrowded the city is, to a bureaucrat behind a desk, all he hears are the potential revenue dollars brought in by new arrivals.

All those reasons you thought of when determining if your city was a great place to live?  Well some ad agency has already gone over those and prioritized them to which demographic would be suited best by hearing specific points, while downplaying others.  Lots of schools is a great incentive to young families, but would be something that could potentially drive away singles and older couples.  It’s a delicate balancing act completely focused on one goal, making the city money.

So where do we fall into the equation?  Us modded types fall into every demographic.  Young/old, male/female, straight/queer, single/married, seniors/small children, and so many more.  What could possibly be a single point that could attract us to one city over another?

I’m going to guess most city planning departments don’t take us into account, or at least just lump us into a generic demographic without realizing that while we may be members of every possible demographic, we also consist of one of our own.  The one we choose.  The one that says to the world, we’re in control of ourselves.  So who is going to look out for us?  Make sure our needs are satisfied when deciding to relocate?  Well, for the most part, we have each other.  Part of what makes this community so strong is that we’re open with each other, we’re honest about most things (I’m talking generalities, not specific interpersonal dynamics).

Well, it looks like someone over at MSNBC decided to take a look to see if there was something that they could do to show (at least a portion of) the modded community that there are cities that could possibly be appealing.

Whether you approve of tattoos or not, some of the world’s sexiest men and women — from Angelina Jolie and Megan Fox to Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt  — sport ink. This made us wonder — where in the world do most of the tattooed bods in America live? To figure out which U.S. cities were the most tattoo-friendly, we perused chat forums and looked up every state in several public directories, including Yellow Pages, Google listings, Tattoo Yellow Pages and AAA Tattoo Directory, to find those with the most listed tattoo and permanent makeup shops. Then we looked up which cities in those states had the most shops listed per capita with populations based on latest U.S. Census numbers. We also took into consideration the city’s demographics and whether or not it hosted tattoo conventions, remembering that not all tattoo parlors were listed in the directories.

Now of course you’re wondering which cities made the top ten.  I could make you go read the full article, but instead I’ll give you just the listing of the cities.  If you’re curious as to why these cities made the top ten, head on over to MSNBC to read up on it.

So without further ado, “The Top Ten Most Tattooed Cities in America”.

• 10.  Los Angeles, CA
• 9.  Kansas City, MO
• 8.  Honolulu, Hawaii
• 7.  San Francisco, CA
• 6.  Austin, TX
• 5.  Portland, OR
• 4.  Flint, MI
• 3.  Richmond, VA
• 2.  Las Vegas, NV

And finally, in the number one position… Miami Beach, FL!

Did your city make the list?

Actually, forget that last question.  What I am really curious to know is, now that you know these rankings, would they impact your decision to move to any of those cities?

Personally, I’m staying in Toronto.  We are the center of the universe after all.

BME Internship 2.0

It’s been almost 5 years since BME last had interns. I’ve decided that I’d like to do something similar to the internship contest that we had. You can read more about it here. This is a much shorter version of the intern ship and instead of relocating to beautiful La Paz, Mexico, we’ll be traveling around the world.

I’m currently planning a worldwide BME tour. This will probably mean being on the road for 2-3 months. My goal is to start the tour in time to be home for the middle of June. This means we’d be hitting the road in the beginning of April. I have approximately 6 weeks to plan the trip, get sponsors, figure out the winners and then buy everyone’s tickets and book accommodations. I will also be booking the interviews that we will have scheduled. We will have at least one day off each week. This trip is all business though so if you want to do it, be prepared to take photos, talk to people and video tape interviews while we work our way around the world.

The goal of the tour is to interview as many individuals from as many different cultures and locations as possible. In each city that we stop in, I want to interview at least 5 shops and collect copies of their portfolios to add to BME. In addition to interviewing Tattoo Artists, Piercers and Body Modification Artists, I want to talk to and photograph clients as well as random people that we meet on the streets. I want to see the sites that the various places we go to have to offer (yes this means playing tourist!) as well as compile video interviews along the way.  I’d like to bring 4 people besides myself. That means our group will consist of 5 people total. We can get away with 4, including me but we may go to 6 if I can’t make a decision between a couple great candidates.

Depending how the planning process goes, the trip may end up getting split into continents, obviously it’s always fun to think big but to make it so this really happens, we may need to scale it back and make it more affordable in terms of money, time and logistics. While I’m working on the contest and putting together the team, I’ll also be working on getting sponsorships as that will help make the tour that much more viable. I may also end up having a couple openings on the trip for multiple people to fill the various roles due to the length of the trip. I feel though that you should be able to commit at least two weeks. If you can only come out for a week, it’s not enough time to get into the groove with the rest of us. I will, however, make exceptions so please send in your audition and let me know that you’re the exception that I should make!

Click through for more information!

Read more…

Everyone travelling to Toronto and taking the TTC:

If you are planning on doing a lot of travelling within one day, are travelling in groups or are only here for our (Canadian) long weekend it might be a good idea to pick up a day pass for the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission).

A day pass costs $8.50, is from start of service (which I believe is 6am) to 5:30am the next morning.

On Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays (i.e. Monday, July the 2nd) you can have two adults travel with one pass (two adults and up to four people under 19 yrs of age, or one adult and up to five people under 19). This is only on the days mentioned in this paragraph, don’t forget!

So, if anyone plans on acting like pack animals, this is probably your safest and cheapest bet for travel within the city over the weekend.

A full list of schedules, subway and streetcar maps can be found here in PDF format.