End of the Year Awards
Best Overall Website
Best Piercing Website
Best Tattoo Website
Best Up & Coming/New Website
Best Body Jewelry Website
Best Media Coverage
Voice your opinion on the Round Table topic in the Reader's Response section.

young mod enthusiast, staff member of Modified Mind.

Best Overall Website, Best Piercing Website, Best Tattoo Website: I'm grouping these together, as they were the reason I abstained from last year's awards. BME is in a different league to any other source of information on body modification in the world. The addition of IAM in the last year and a half has expanded BME's mandate and united the community in a way I would not have thought possible. IAM.bored often throws up interesting bod mod links, including some fascinating National Geographic photos. My one recommendation to anyone who thinks they have seen everything the main website has to offer is to carefully reread the News/Editorials section. There are some fascinating stories in there, including a girl who plucks her eyelashes, and an article documenting the phenomenon of "gainers", people who deliberately gain weight rapidly as a sign of domination (and for other reasons). These are things I would never have considered without BME, and one of the reasons the site flourishes. I am looking forward to the launch of the Modified Women website (which can't count as up & coming as it is just a title page, but I have great hopes for) and to the future, which I am sure will produce even more great ideas.

Best Up&Coming/New Website: no nomination, although I am keeping an eye on modifiedwoman.com.

Best Body Jewelry Website: Cold Steel, as the quality of the jewellery is flawless, the prices are on the reasonable side of expensive and the selection is wide-ranging. BMEshop also deserves a mention for its range of affordable acrylic plugs, a huge help to anyone passing through a gauge on their way to something bigger.

Best Media Coverage: ha, I'm nominating The Cell, because at least it allowed suspension to be discussed in living rooms and bars across the world. Is it me, or is Body Modification becoming more and more an acceptable topic of conversation?

moderator of the BME mailing list, photographer/reviewer for Modified Modified Mind. Featured in BME/Art.

Well another year has gone by, many things have happened. Good times. Bad times. But for the major part, we are all still here. So that means it is time for the annual Modified Mind 'Year in Review'.

Best Overall Website: Once again, as with any review that I have ever, and for that ever will, submit, there are more than one clear winner.

  • deviantart.com. During the year, I began to experiment with fun and joy of 'skinning' the boring O/S shell known as Win2K. Deviant art provides users with a wide range of skins, for everything from windowblinds to winamp, ICQ to icon packager. All in all I have spent way to much time there, and used way too much of my bandwidth downloadling inane desktop enhancements.
  • SPC. The Shawn Porter Collection. For years, this site has been the 'little brother' to BME. Over the last year, well possibly over the last 2 years or so, it has begun to take on a life of its own. I feel that finally, and definatively it has stepped forth from the shadows of being 'BME version2.0" to becoming a powerful tool in its own right. Much respect to Shawn for all his work, and many good wishes for the success in the future.
  • natasha-epperson.com. Yet another underrated site (or so I feel). I have been watching this showcase of the photographic art of Natasha Epperson grow over the years. It is a pleasure to see it take on what I feel to be, a life of its own. The cutting edge imagery, combined with easy to use and understand navigation system, makes it stand out as one of the few photographic sites that I visit on a regular basis. Hopefully there will be a chance for me to review this site in greater detail at a later date. (nudge, nudge)
  • Finally I come to perhaps my pet site, one that I could talk about all day, that being: Kinky Machine. This site, as you would have read from my earlier review, showcases the amazing work of fetish photographer Lee Higgs. I have been drawn to Lee's work for years, and over the last several months have been privileged to begin dialogue with someone I consider a giant of the art. The site R O C K S !. No more can be said other than that. Having been given a chance to view the members area (thanks for that Lee), I can honestly say that it is a site worth paying for the privilege to see in full. I will draw to an end this part of the year in review, and try to refocus on the question at hand...

    Best Piercing Website: But wait, what's that I hear you say Greg? You have more than one entry here as well? Wowo. That is soo unlike you...

  • ByBlair. What can I say here? This site is the online showcase of the work of master body artist Blair. It is a nice, clean design, stores some awesome pix of some awesome proceedures. If you have not checked it out, then please do so.
  • BME. I feel that even though everyone will be doing "Puhlease. Not again.", I still feel that Shannon has kept BMEzine fluid and moving forward. I, along with many others, can only wait to see what the new re-design will look, and drive like. Thanks Shannon.
  • IWasCured. I was not sure of whether to place IWasCured's page here, or in the best Up and Coming, but have chosen to place it here. Yet again, born out of the creative talents of those "whacky Canucks", IWasCured has developed into a very nicely presented, and well rounded site. As far as suspension sites go, and I can think of only a handful, IWasCured has placed itself up there, despite its tender young age.

    Best Tattoo Website: This will be a short but sweet one folks, I promise.

  • Dark Images. Last Rites Tattooing. Yes. Yet again, this dark and nasty type site enters into my favs for the year. What can I say. Paul Booth's work is amazing. I love the artwork, and I love the site. Easy as that.
  • City Body Art. Yet another site torn between here and the Up and Coming. Still heavily "under construction", City Body Art is the showcase of Brisbane (mah home town, yall) newest shop on the block. Staffed by a bevy of talented people, including none other than Super Psycho from iam, I wish these guys all the best for the future, and wait to see what the next year will do for them.

    Best Up&Coming/New Website: This was a hard one...

  • Primitive Girl. The link was given to me by Mishel Castro, a very talented photographer and good friend. I grabbed this quote from their title page:

    -how to be a primitive girl-

    don't listen to those demons from your past telling you what you can't be.
    never be afraid to challenge the status quo.
    flash some leg and show your brain.
    realize your dreams.
    develop a sense of reckless abandon ... with purpose.
    throw away myths and tell a few stories.
    hug a child and yourself.
    go to the brink of madness and live to tell about it.
    do not fear sexuality.
    start over.
    run out of time and chase down ghosts.
    confront your mother.
    kick a lot of ass.
    show the world what it's been waiting for.


    Check it out, although in its infancy, it shows great promise as a showcase of the talent that is all around us.
  • Scream Queen. Yes. I fukn love Daffney Unger aka Shannon Ward. You know. The tattooed screamin chick from the Wrestling..? Surely you know who I am talking about. This site is both fun, and well, fun...
  • searchbastard.com. I am not sure whether this is an 'Up ans Coming" or whether it has been round for a while, but it is one hell of an interesting turn on search engines people. Yes. It is actually a search engine, but one with a rather wierd twist. Go on. Have a look for yourself...

    • the mind behind BME.

    Best Overall Website: IAM.BMEZINE. IAM really has everything. It's a vibrant community that represents the heart and soul of body modification. Any other site out there is simply a byproduct of this community.

    Best Piercing Website: BME. Can I fairly vote for myself? I know there are other sites out there claiming to be the definitive online source for piercing, but I humbly propose that BME kicks their asses. BME has a truly staggering number of piercing images of all kinds -- well over 25,000 images of piercing alone. In addition, it has the collected knowledge of tens of thousands of writers all over the world who've created the single largest knowledgebase of piercing information the planet has ever seen. It's given in-depth coverage of new techniques like pocketing, as well as never forgetting to keep featuring even simple things like navels.

    Best Tattoo Website: Tattoos.com. Tattoos.com is the definitive resource for professional tattoo artists online. It represnts the cream of the crop as far as artists go. To me, it's only shortcoming is that it doesn't focus on tattoo fans, but at the same time, this allows BME's tattoo gallery to exist symbiotically alongside tattoos.com.

    Best Up&Coming/New Website: Young Modders. The YMA (Young Modder's Alliance) is a brilliant concept -- to offer support to modified people under the age of 18. It was something that I've always done with BME, but, because BME is too large, was never really able to focus on. I know a lot of people frown on underage mods, but I started getting mods as a kid, and it saved my life. I believe it's extremely important that young people have a support group for this.

    Best Body Jewelry Website: One Stop Freak Shop. I know they only make specialized wooden jewelry, but ring and barbell websites are a dime a dozen. Onestopfreakshop.com has incredibly high quality pieces that are truly unique.

    Best Media Coverage: Modified Mind. I don't think there's even much competition in this category. I do my best to cover bodmod media on my IAM site, but it's so buried in the flood of other information I present there that only the diligent reader would find it. Modified Mind on the other hand has a "Tune in" and "In the headlines" section right on their cover, as well as reviews of even relatively inconsequential media, and as such as my vote for 100% dominating this category.

    Bryan Henderson -- the mind behind Modified Mind

    As some of the Round Table members are not big web surfers, and because I think it only appropriate that the editor of this site also chip in an opinion, here are my awards for 2001.

    Best Overall Website: As with Greg, I can't pin down clear winners in each category, so I'll do my best to keep things somewhat short and sweet.

  • IAM.BMEZINE is probably my clearest choice. The ability of this site to bring the entire body mod community of the world together is amazing. You can meet people in your own area, talk to people from the opposite side of the world, or even drop a line to some of the most recognized names in the community.
  • SPC has definitely made its way to the front of the pack. The new design (reviewed a long while ago on Modified Mind) has made the site more friendly, the images just keep rolling in (including some of the best cover images I've ever seen), and things only seem to be getting better.

    Best Piercing Website, Best Tattoo Website: I'm grouping these together, with BME winning both categories. The advice, experiences and images in both categories are wonderful. If anyone wants to find the best place to start when researching anything piercing or tattoo (or any other mod for that matter) they need only look here to start.

    Best Up&Coming/New Website: I'm not much of a web surfer anymore, so my exposure to newer and up & coming sites is not what it once was. I do however have a pair of jewelry sites that get the nomination here. One Stop Freak Shop and Wood Body Jewelry. They work as a duo, linking back and forth between each other and have some major promise. While they have a limited range of jewelry, they do provide a new organic alternative to Ebone Design and Organic One.

    Best Body Jewelry Website:

  • Organic. Erica Skadsen's organic jewelry company continues to impress me with their selection. I tend to prefer organic jewelry and unique jewelry, both are present here. The frog weights are amazing, the selection includes 8 inch long porcupine quills even, how awesome is that?
  • Custom Steel. I said I liked unique jewelry, just take a look at the neotribal ear weights and you'll know why I love this place. The site received a major overhaul in the last year and looks good.
  • Breed 3-1-6. This site has to get my nod, they also have some unique pieces, including a teflon stretching kit that is perfect for those who want to go slow.

    Best Media Coverage: This is a category that could include many things...from sites that cover media coverage (ie. Modified Mind) to television and print media covering body mod itself. My pick here goes with MSNBC Investigates. They have not been perfect, but they have moved in a direction of more impartial coverage of body mod. Rather than insult, they have shown modified people as beautiful and intelligent in more and more instances, especially the episode on tattoed women.

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