Art from My Body

In honor of The Pierced Consumer’s one-year anniversary, I’ve been doing some cleanup and some tinkering.

I’m excited to add the Flickr widget, which will show the latest photos from myFlickr account.  It’s not very flexible, they seem to be added as I add them.  They show up on the right, under the links and stuff.

Right now I did a series of photos from my own tattoos with my iPhone.  The iPhone is notorious for having a crappy camera, but you can do some really cool things with it regardless.  I think this set came out really fantastic! Check out my Flickr stuff here:

Art from My Body by Cloud.

More Meta

–I’ve also changed my header, as  you can see.  That’s my beautiful Maya Organic “Earn Your Wings” earrings which I’ll probably feature more once I can wear them, lol!

–Edited the About Page and added new  photo of me getting pierced at the bottom.

–Overhauled the Body Piercing Basics Page, with new photos and new blurbs.

–The “Links” and sidebar were getting too cluttered, so all the links are now consolidated under “Click Here.”

–am trying out the cloud tags.  Appropriate, don’t you think?

–finally, I’ve added a widget to my delicious bookmarks.  I’m still tinkering with this!  The first one you’ll see there (right this minute) is a gallery I did of black and white body art that uses other people’s photos.  Since most of these are not using creative commons licenses, please click the link:

Gallery:  Body Art in Black and White

–fin

Happy Birthday!

The Pierced Consumer is One Year Old!

Wow!  I can’t believe it’s been one whole year this month since I started this blog. Lots of blogs don’t even make it that far. I’ve seen a lot of “bodyart” blogs which are either “buy my jewelry” pitches or “my journey into body art” ramblings, and I’m glad to offer something different, something apart from now-standard experiences and endless photographs of ears and navels.   This isn’t a bullshit blog, and I hope I’ve made some good contributions on body piercing which inform and entertain.

I can’t always say it’s been smooth sailing, like when I made a very unflattering remark about a well-known belly dancer’s tattoo and she responded.  Not everyone agrees with my opinions, either.  That’s fine with me.  Do your own research and come to your own conclusions.  I’m not posting daily like I did in the beginning, which I knew wouldn’t last, and there have been some noticeable gaps when I just can’t think about body piercing; ’cause I’m just that kind of a flake. But I’m still here so I guess I haven’t given up yet.

In honor of this anniversary, here is a recap of some stats:

Top Five Posts:

1. Body Piercing Basics
2. Aftercare in Detail: The Dope on Soap
3. Traditional and historical:  The Nose Piercing
4. Book Review: Kat Von D High Voltage
5. Mayan Body Piercing:  Keeping the Universe Alive

My busiest day was November 17, with 283 views, which is the day the Do’s and Tattoos review was noticed.  I’ve had over 34,400 hits overall, and the average in 2009 is a little over 100 hits per day.  Now, these numbers are pretty pitiful compared to some, but I’m still pretty happy.  Readership has gone steadily up. I’m a slow writer, and it’s a narrow topic.  I’m not trying to sell anything here except for better body piercing practices.

There are some important posts which I’ve yet to write:  a risks post, for example, since there are indeed serious risks to consider and avoid in body piercing; another is a piece on Aztec body piercing, which should be coming up shortly.  Historical posts seem to be popular hits, and it’s an area that interests me, so you’ll probably see more.  My choice of things to write is sometimes impulsive, and I’ve made no effort to completely cover every area of body piercing.  For that, we now have The Piercing Bible, by Elayne Angel, and for that reason, it’s been a very important year for The Pierced Consumer.

I would like to thank everybody who is reading.

For those of you who have been fans, commented on my posts. tolerated my self-promotion, here’s a little something for you.  I was fooling around trying to get a birthday shot, and this one came out, well . . . completely inappropriate!

fin

Ed.

Workin’ on it

New Books & Refs Pages

I’ve been working on rearranging my Books & Refs page.  First, to highlight the best piercing reference, The Piercing Bible, by giving it the place it deserves–the top spot!  And also to nest the pages so they are organized better.  (It took me a looong time to figure that one out–thanks WordPress.)

I’ll be adding books & refs as I go along, but each page is now at least started.  Click on the Books & Refs page at the top, or use the right-hand side bar to get there.

Let me know how you like the new set up.

Pic from austinevan’s photostream at Flickr.

Much Ado About Nothing

Just a bit of random news and meta:

Hi folks! Didn’t mean to leave that strange sex museum pic up for so long! But Real Life has interfered some . . . you know how it goes.   Working on the “teens and piercing” post, a risks post, and a review of Kat Von D’s book.

Waiting eagerly for The Piercing Bible to be released.  Today (March 19) is the date Amazon had originally stated as the release date, but I think there’s a delay.  I’ll be sure and let you know!

Saw The Pizza Girl the other day (one medium Supreme and one medium Rustica with pepperoni!).  She said that her boss told her to remove her tunnels, which I thought were so great-looking, and put “studs” in.  People are disturbed by voids, apparently, so solid plugs would be a better alternative for her.

In other news, had my MRI. I arranged for a local piercer to remove all my jewelry before the test, and to reinsert it all after the test.  The chest implant turned out to be no problem at all.  I had my piercer in Albuquerque fax me the mill cert, or proof of the metal composition, showing my anchor to be implant grade titanium, and I just gave the MRI people a copy.   Despite the dire warnings posted on their doors about “no metallic implants” — they were just like, “Oh, that’s MRI compatible.”  While I lay in that scary machine, I imagined my chest anchor heating up and bursting into flames, but . . . no, it was perfectly fine.

The nice young local piercer who changed my jewelry out cleaned them all sonically and by hand (10 pieces) and sterilized the barbell for my healing nipple piercing.  Some of my jewelry was really hard to remove, too–muscle was required!

When I asked him how much he charged for this service, he mumbled something about not having a standard charge, and then tentatively said, “$10?”  I laughed and paid him $25 which was still a good deal from my point of view.  I believe in compensating piercers appropriately, and this kind of service, cleaning, changing, etc. is almost more valuable to me than performing initial piercings.  Tip your piercer well!

Tongue pic is from Madaise’s Photostream at Flickr.

Everything must go!

So, it looks like I’ll be reporting first hand on how to handle piercings through MRIs, CT scans, and surgery; since my doc is recommending a hysterectomy, oopherectomy, and all the other -ectomies.

First hurdle:  More tests!

This blog, The Pierced Consumer, isn’t intended to be a personal “tell-all” (aren’t you lucky?) but I hope to have some tips to share about piercings and medical procedures.

As one friend of mine said, “Cloud’s not afraid of a little body modification; of course not!” (Thank you, UT).

Knitted uterus (!) courtesy of ILoveButter’s photostream at Flickr.

Apply Head[er] directly to . . .

Header Problems!

My header has been giving me fits.  The last one (hand drawn and colored) was a neat idea which completely failed in execution.

Anybody like this one? It’s better . . . but I’m not sure it’s perfect.

Note:  the captive bead rings featured are 8 gauge niobium with rubber beads.  Absolutely perfect for everyday wear in my lobes, and — wonder of wonders, I can actually change them.  The rubber beads snap easily in and out, and they stay secure.  I got them here at  Body Art Forms, which says:

“The company that makes these specializes in only captives and they make nothing else. ” That’s nice but — they don’t identify the company well.  I think it’s SM316.  Regardless, I’m very happy with them.   I’m also tempted by the coffee ones here:

The photo belongs to Body Art Forms, and you can buy these luscious rings from them here.

Meta: Death and Rebirth

Changed my theme ’cause the font was too damn small, and is in most WordPress.com themes.  Dang, must be getting old!

As usual, I’m only stepping up to this blogging thing when everyone else has moved on.  According to Wired magazine, blogging is so 2004:

@ WiredReader: Kill yr blog. 2004. Google won’t find you.  Too much cruft from HuffPo, NYT.  Commenters are tards.  C u on Facebook?

Ah well.

http://www.wired.com/

Cloud

That’s me!

New Meta page

I’ve created a new Meta page for policies and other blogging stuff.  I’m posting it here too:

Bias, Policies, and all that yadda

I’m a dummie!  I love the “for dummies” books.  Heck, I love books! Anyway, my Blogging for Dummies book discusses transparency and ethical blogging.  I’m struggling a bit with it, as a new blogger, but this page is for my policies as they develop.

Editing:  Blogging for Dummies says ethical bloggers don’t edit their posts, or edit them in such a way as to indicate what has changed.  I understand the reasoning behind this, but this one’s a tough one for me!  I’m a compulsive editor!  I’m always thinking of things to add.    If I make a mistake, post something inaccurate, need to retract something, I will so indicate and leave the original text in.  Otherwise, I reserve the right to edit for spelling, style, or editions.

Bias:  The posts in this blog reflect my own personal experiences and opinions.  Since I’m not a professional piercer or a medical professional, I post with a lay consumer viewpoint.

• I am pro: professional piercing, needle piercing, piercing for all ages, simple and holistic aftercare
• I am anti: self-piercing (under most circumstances); gun piercing, proprietary aftercare concoctions
• I am a patron member of the Association for Professional Piercers and, as such support APP studios and policies.

Commercial endorsements:  At the moment, I do not endorse, represent, or promote any particular products or jewelry.  I am not an affiliate of anyone.  If this changes, I will note it on this page.

Comment policy:  Piercings are not for everyone, but some people feel the need to express their disgust in hateful terms.  I reserve the right to summarily delete personal attacks and rude, hateful, obscene, libelous,  and spam posts.