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Shannon Larratt (glider) is the founder and publisher of BMEzine.com, and a true body modification enthusiast. This interview covers issues ranging from BME's beginning and continuing growth to the ethics of infant male circumcision, to the CoBM (Church of Body Modification) and the legal issues surrounding more extreme body modifications performed by practioners. The focus of the interview is on young modders and Shannon's thoughts about and advice to them. YMA: For any new readers who by some chance do not know of you; Can you please tell them who you are and what you do? Shannon: My name is Shannon Larratt and I publish BMEzine.com (Body Modification Ezine), the world's largest body modification resource. It's a huge collection of stories and photos submitted by body modification enthusiasts all over the world, as well as large information archives and a vibrant community site. YMA: Being the creator of the supersite www.bmezine.com as well as hosting other sites such as YMA, How does that make you feel? Shannon: I really don't like taking the credit for creating BME - I really strongly believe that BME is a community product and not something that I've created. I feel that my role is more of a "facilitator" who simply guides some of the technical presentation issues and management decisions to make sure that the community always has a channel to support it. I'm absolutely honored to have been given the privilege of doing so. As far as hosting of sites like YMA, I own a number of companies and make a decent living, and BME is able to turn a small profit. While I could easily fine-tune BME to be a profit machine, that's not what I want to achieve, so whenever I can, I take any profits and reinvest them in this community, be it hosting valuable sites like YMA, Modified Mind, and SPC, or be it to help hosting events like ModProm, ModCon, and the BBQs, as well as things like donations to small suspension groups. I hope as well that when others see BME doing this that they will do the same. YMA: How does it feel to be a man who brought \ (in my opinion and in a lot of other peoples opinion) body modification to the front line and made information to where it was available more so then ever before? Shannon: Honestly, I'm a smart guy that I think has done a good job, but mostly it was simply a matter of being at the right place and the right time and seizing the opportunity. I think I've honored that fate, and that I've done a better job than most, and I'm proud of that... but most of all, I know that the work I've put into it has made a lot of people happy, and that's about the best reward a person could ask for. YMA: I notice you're against circumcision of a baby. A practice that is still done normally in America, on boys, can you please describe why you're against this? Shannon: Modern science has made it very clear that circumcision has zero medical benefits except in extreme cases, and hurts more children than it helps. As such, my objection to it boils down to consent. I don't believe that a non-consensual elective procedure should be forced on anyone. I understand that some people feel that their "god told them to do it", but over history such excuses have been used to justify an endless stream of atrocities. If a person wants to be circumcised, there is no reason at all why they can't simply choose it as an adult. YMA: What do you think should be done to prevent circumcision of a child? Shannon: Maybe I have to much faith in the goodness of people, but I think most parents love their children, and with a public awareness campaign, involuntary circumcision will be come to be seen as barbaric and unjust. The AMA has been recommending to parents for some time that they not circumcise their sons, and as time goes by, it's gradually dying out. I'm glad to say that this has happened without the need for legislation. YMA: I notice you USED to be apart of CoBM (Church of Body Modification), can you tell us what it was like being apart of that and why the departure? Shannon: During the time period that I was involved with the CoBM, the CoBM did not accomplish anything at all on its own -- while there were ministers that accomplished a great deal of good, they were doing this before they joined, and continued doing it after they quit... So leaving the CoBM was only difficult because of the retaliatory attacks they launched on me, and continue to from time to time. YMA: The CoBM was/ is said to be a scam and were scamming people, would you say this is correct? Shannon: During the time period where I was there and could see what was happening behind the scenes, that was the case. A lot of changes have happened since then, so I hope that any issues like this have been rectified. YMA: I don't know if this is a safe assumption, but I take it a lot of people left the CoBM once they found out what was going on. So this did or could lead to the churches demise, would you say? Shannon: I really have very little contact with the CoBM any more. YMA: Now, in your opinion, What would it take to make a church of body modification. It's obvious that the people who originally tried it failed because of many reasons. Shannon: I don't think anything could ever make a "church" of body modification. Yes, it is spiritual for some people, but it's a personal spirituality, and although community support for that is extremely important, I do not feel that a church is the tool for achieving that. YMA: Let's talk about your mods. The first thing I see when I look is your very large earlobes. How big are they in size? Shannon: My earlobes are about two inches in size; sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less, depending on what jewelry I've been wearing recently. Along with a 2ga dermal punched hole in my upper cartilage, they are my only piercings right now. YMA: Having lobes that large, do you have any problems with them getting in the way as you sleep, shower etc.? Shannon: Not at all - I've had these for about ten years now, so I'm very used to them. YMA: How long did it take to stretch up to that size? Shannon: While I've had them for much longer, I'd say that there is about two to three years of actual stretching in each year. I made the embarrassing mistake though of stretching first one ear, then the other, so I looked very lopsided for about four years. YMA: For the young modders out there wanting to stretch their ears, is there anything you want to say to them? Shannon: Well, first of all I'm not going to lie and say it isn't going to cause problems. It will make it more difficult to get a job, and people will make fun of you, so it will take a lot of personal strength on your part. You'll have to work harder than people without stretched ears to get an equal piece of the pie. Just be aware of that before you start stretching -- once you pass about 0ga, there are no guarantees that your ear will ever return to "normal". As far as the technical issues, my advice is take it
slow - if you damage your ear, you may irreversibly
uglify your ear -- and most of all, make sure that the
initial placement is good. If it's off, your
stretching will look bad, uneven, and become locked to
a maximum of about half an inch. My own ear stretching
story can be found on BME at the following URL:
Other than that, make sure you're doing it for yourself and not because someone else thinks it's cool. In any case, always have fun, and... stretched ears are awesome! YMA: Here not too long ago, a practioner was arrested for practicing medicine without a license in Florida. Now since that, do you fear that this will happen again? Shannon: Well, as much as I did everything I could to defend that practitioner including contributing financially to his legal defense, he was breaking the law. It is my hope that practitioners will learn a lesson from this and maintain a lower profile on such procedures. The arrests were quite legal. YMA: Do you think practioners deserve the right to do procedures like tongue splitting, meatotomy, large gauge dermal punching, etc., and if so, why? Shannon: Most of the practitioners out there doing these procedures are doing an excellent job of them. Meatotomy and the big dermal punches are relatively safe procedures, but tongue splitting in my opinion is a ticking time bomb and eventually someone will be very severely injured by an unlicensed practitioner. Remember that practitioners are absolutely unregulated and there are no laws governing their education or behavior. It is my hope that the medical community will soon recognize the more risky body modification procedures as legitimate and begin offering them to the public. However, until then, I will continue to cautiously support underground practitioners. While it is not the best solution, it is still a far better solution than no access to the procedures at all. YMA: Do you see the Florida incident as a clear sign of more freedom being lost to the government? Shannon: Not at all. YMA: Back to BME. Where did the idea first come to making it? How long has BME been a site? Shannon: BME started as my personal homepage in late 1994. It contained mostly pictures of my own body modifications and some scans from the portfolios of piercing studios I'd befriended. I included a short note that said "if you'd like me to include your pictures here, send them to me and I would be glad to." It immediately snowballed, and the rest is history. I will mention one thing that readers may not know. While BME does stand for "Body Modification Ezine", it also stands for "be me". The "be me" mandate was to use the media to manipulate mainstream society into remembering that these acts are normal, and to let as many people as possible know how much good can come from these activities and to encourage them to act out their desires. YMA: I notice BME updates thousands of images every so week or more. Will the site just continue to grow or have you set a limit? Shannon: The site will continue to grow. I don't have any plans to set a limit, or to discard old content. When it grows unbrowsably large, browsing will be fine-tuned with search functions. BME gains strength from every image and every story added, and I thank every person, even if they "only" contributed a photo of their tongue piercing. YMA: How do you feel about the younger modified? Shannon: They are the future, not just of the body modification community, but it is they that shall inherit the earth. The simple fact is that young people who choose body modification for themselves (and the "for themselves" part is important) are statistically more creative, brave, and intelligent than the unmodified. It is they that will eventually rule this world. YMA: Do you feel that it is healthy or even good for a younger person to modify themselves? Shannon: Absolutely. However, I feel it's very important that people of all ages really look inside themselves and make sure that their interests are genuine, and are a facet of themselves, not just a facet of something that they look up to, or even a facet of working out some pain that they're feeling. YMA: Were you, yourself, a young modder? Shannon: Yes... YMA: If so, what was your first modification? Shannon: When I was much younger, I'd do surface piercings on the inside of my lips and just wear loops of electrical cabling through it. I don't know why, just instinctually it felt like the right thing to do. When I was about sixteen I pierced my ears and my frenum, and began tattooing myself... None of that was a particularly good idea, but it was a very different world back then, without professional studios or artists. That said, even though I have a few really bad tattoos from that time period, I wouldn't change a thing, and I'm very happy with the path I chose for myself and for my body. YMA: Anything else you would like say about the younger modified? Shannon: I will say two things: 1. Be true to yourself, and do what feels right to you. Learn to tell when you want something genuinely, and when you want something on a whim. Learn to tell when you want something for yourself, and when you want something for (or against) others. Most of all, learn to listen to yourself and your body, and learn not to listen to either your friends (or your enemies) when it comes to matters of the heart. 2. Be good to each other. Community is important - for those who choose different paths than their biological families allow, community also becomes family. This can only be a positive journey as long as we all agree to be good to each other. Thank you, Shannon. |