The_holeyone sent us in this beautiful self portrait showing off her large-gauge piercings. Maybe it’s just me but big stretches like this seem to be a lot less common on women than they are on men. Do you agree? Disagree? Do you think my title could have possibly been sadder?
I really enjoy the symmetry in these piercings and, of course, we all enjoy pretty girls.
Last time I posted Diego it was just for fun, so let me include some info this time. Diego had his nostrils pierced in the normal small gauge way — they weren’t dermal punched — but after seeing Pauly Unstoppable (who has inspired more people to stretch their nostrils than anyone out there — I’d argue he is the progenitor of this look in modern times) and then being further inspired by the giant nostril plugs of the Apatani people decided he wanted to stretch his as well. Since then he’s reached 24mm (1″), which is currently quite loose so it’ll be larger soon, with a goal of 30mm or perhaps larger. I just love this picture of him!
As you can see he also has his eyeballs tattooed as well, and he was just telling me about a secret project he’s considering, so I’m looking forward to seeing him evolve as the future unfolds!
Edit: It’s been pointed out that Pat Tidwell’s large stretched nostril piercings predated Pauly’s, although they didn’t have the same insane level of media penetration that Pauly’s had. I asked Pauly about who inspired him, and he told me,
“My first exposure of nostril stretching was from the Apatani tribe and a tribe in New Guinea where the males stretch there nostrils and septum very large. It wasn’t till after I found BME and saw Pat Tidwell’s nostrils that I understood that I could also stretch my nostrils. I would say it was a bit of both for me. I had wanted to do it since seeing the tribes in India but at the time didn’t think I could do it till I saw other Westerners on BME that had them done.”
I’ve posted on Mateo’s BME logo pubic scar previously, which has been getting augmented with a growing and glowing aura of dotwork ink geometry by Jodi Lyford of Chimera (chimeratattoo.com) in Santa Cruz. She’s recently done more work on it, and it’s absolutely stunning. And the best thing about it is that it has an extremely realistic beard! But seriously, along with Keff’s dotwork BME logo sleeve and Joeltron’s BME logo backpiece, Matteo’s easily earns a place in my shortlist of best BME-themed body art.
On a barely related note, speaking of Mateo, that reminds me I’ve been meaning to post a picture of the great nostril jewelry that Pauly Unstoppable was wearing in his latest pictures (the connection is that Mateo has done many of Pauly’s piercings). It almost looks like the coils that the Kayan people wear around their necks, and to my surprise is a look that I rarely see even though it’s quite beautiful.
Here’s a wonderful little story about the healing power of body piercing from Dion Jacobi at Modscene in Gladstone, QLD Australia (modscene.com.au). In this case I’m not talking about the oft-touted psychiatric or spiritual healing power of piercing, but something much more physical and literal.
Dion had a “young fella” about sixty years old come in, who after a failed nasal repair (centered on his right nostril) that was then made even worse by a blunt force trauma a month later, completely destroying what progress had been made, had been unable to breathe through his nostrils for the past fifteen years. As Dion says, “imagine what it would be like to have sleep apnea for a decade in a half, to not be able to do any major exercise, or to even eat and breathe at the same time.”
The guy decided that getting two large holes behind the collapsed passage might allow a little bit of air, so he went to Modscene to have them do a pair of 2ga nostril punches. What Dion found he was working around was as if someone had cut away the front portion of the septum, causing the tip of the nose to collapse in to the philtrum area, blocking airflow — the only way the guy could breathe through his nose was to physically push up the entire tip to open the airway. After the first hole was made, it was clear it was going to work, and after the second one was done — there were some unavoidable symmetry issues due to the extent and unevenness of the existing damage — he was, for the first time in a fifteen years allowed the use of his nasal passages.
“He left with the biggest grin,” Dion Says. “This is why I love my job!”
