BME stands for Body Modification Ezine. It is an online magazine that is famous for its coverage of extreme body modification. BME chronicles the current and historical body modification world internationally; covering tattooing, piercing, suspension, ritual scarification, and similar acts in its public sections. For a price, it also has a members' area called BME/extreme which focuses on implants, amputation, eunuchs, subincision, saline inflation, silicone, and other heavy body transformations, as well as an adults-only area called BME/hard which covers the erotic application of these modifications and acts, including cock and ball torture (CBT) as featured in the hoax video BME Pain Olympics: Final Round.

History and content

BME was started as a web site in 1994 by Shannon Larratt and is the first body modification website and is by far the largest (with hundreds of thousands of unique images and stories), and covers a full spectrum of body modification (rather than being limited to only tattoos for example). BME offers evidence to counter many myths about body modification and the body modification community, and has many FAQs and an online wiki encyclopedia and documentation of risks and safety information. BME was further expanded in 2000 by the addition of IAM.BMEzine, an online community, which hosts blogs specifically for members of the body-modification community. Users are able to view profiles and diary entries of other users, as well as participate in forums and chats with other members.

In late 2005, BME added both a video sister site, BMEvideo and a body modification blog, Modblog.BMEzine.com.

The site also publishes hoax articles each year on April Fools' Day.

Both Shannon and Rachel Larratt have cameo appearances in the Kevin Smith feature Clerks II.

On May 14, 2008 Shannon Larratt posted onto ModBlog that he would no longer be an employee of BME and has chosen to transfer his share of the site to Rachel.

BME BBQs

Patrons of the BME website and its IAM community have often gathered for barbecues where they can meet with one another. Historically, the largest of these BBQs, known as BMEFest, were held in or around Toronto, Ontario and generally on Canada Day with hundreds of participants. The festivities of BMEFest almost always include suspensions, fireworks, Pain Olympics, grilled food both vegan and otherwise, and there is usually a commemorative T-shirt for each event. It is generally free to attend but it is encouraged to sign up ahead of time and may be exclusive to a private group.

Censorship

The BME site is blocked by many Internet filtering services intended to protect children (and workplaces), for reasons such as nudity, torture, and other adult content. It was banned by Germany's Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien in 1999 as a "danger to the youth". In December 2005, the German agency forced Google to remove the site from search results returned by www.google.de .

Shannon Larratt writes in :

When Germany came after BME for "endangering the youth" and demanded that I make changes to the site to comply with German law, my response was to simply not visit Germany again (and I'm a German citizen). When the US started to pressure us, we moved all of our servers and presence out of the country and backed off on plans to live in the US. No changes were ever made to the site, and no images were ever removed — if anything, the pressure made me push those areas even more.

Since Larratt severed association with the site it has begun to censor itself. ModBlog no longer features images of ritual cutting on the main page (they are still posted but require the user to follow a link to the actual content) out of concern that it might act as a trigger for viewers who suffer from self-injury. The practice began when Larratt passed on the responsibility of updating ModBlog and came to light in response to user comments posted on ask.bmezine.com .

External links

• BMEzine.com
• BMEvideo.com
• ModBlog.BMEzine.com
• The BME Encyclopedia (wiki based)
• Interview with Shannon Larratt of BMEzine - small WORLD Podcast 2006

References