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2004 Year-End Awards
“Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”
For the past few years ( 2002, 2003) I’ve cataloged the top contributors every year. I don’t know
if it’s related, but every year since doing that the number of contributions from the top
people has escalated — it was absolutely staggering just how much some people helped
out. This article recognizes those people who went above and beyond in contributions to BME,
as well as giving public thanks to the many “pseudostaff” members that actually keep the site
alive and running... and as I finish up this article, I already have thousands of submissions
in my queue for the 2005 awards. Let me begin by showing you what the people on this page got for
their work (other than warm feelings of course, but that won’t keep you clothed).
One of the prizes for making it to the list of people in this article is that you get a staff
shirt. These staff shirts are utterly unavailable in any other way and are never reprinted or
offered for sale. So if you see someone wearing one, they’re someone you can say “thanks” to
(either that or they killed someone you can say thanks to and stole their clothes).
The shirt is meant to be reminiscent of a classic sacred heart, although in truth, like most
things on BME, the reality is much dirtier. If you won one, if anyone asks, I’m sure you can
concoct your own “if you don’t know, you don’t want to know” answer, but in truth it’s
a rendering of the amazing Enpassant’s heavily modified (and in this case saline inflated)
genitals that appeared on the cover of BME. You
can visit his BME/HARD gallery as
well if you’d like.
If you are on the list of people on this page, you should have received a message on IAM and
via email explaining how to get your shirt (and possibly other prizes). If you didn’t, drop
me a line ASAP to make sure your shirt is in the print run!
And now on with the awards!
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Experience Review Team
2004 saw 9,081 new articles and experiences posted to BME. Before being added to the site
they are moderated (reviewed) by a panel of IAM members — they read everything that’s
submitted, and then decided which should make it to the site. A total of 1,386 individual IAM
members took part in the review system, but the following reviewers approved the most number
of experiences to the site in 2004 (this doesn’t include the ones they rejected).
Note: Links go to IAM pages and/or BME/HARD galleries as relevant.
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IAM:
Don
Don, rather appropriately a librarian from Coventry, UK, does much of the running of the
experience review system for me. With 2,666 experiences personally approved this year he’s
reviewed almost a third of all experiences added.
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IAM:
BlueStar
BlueStar, a twenty year old Photonics Engineering student from Niagara Falls, Canada approved
2,348 experiences this year.
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IAM:
deadly pale
Deadly Pale’s 1,917 approvals this year put Poland on the top-three map as well, so you won’t
be hearing any “but you forgot about Poland” coming from BME’s competitors.
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IAM:
Cerra
Cerra is in the #4 spot, representing Halifax, Nova Scotia with 1,631 approvals.
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IAM:
xPurifiedx
Rounding out the top five with 1,525 approvals is Buffalo, New York’s xPurifiedx.
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IAM:
rebekah
Rebekah (who’s also the queen of the BME newsfeed) places sixth with 1,497 approvals.
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IAM:
purrtykitty4m
Just squeezing past a thousand is New Orleans’ Purrtykitty4m with 1,046 approval reviews.
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IAM:
drip
With 1,010 reviewed stories posted this year, Drip ensures that iam:Christian is well
represented in spot number eight.
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The folks above are all in the “over a thousand” club in terms of successful positive
reviews for the year. Below are the runners up (who also deserve a lot of thanks for their
help) — each of them reviewed over five hundred approved experiences this year:
Top Experience Authors
Those 9,081 experiences had 7,277 distinct authors, many of whom wrote more than one story.
The top BME authors of the year 2004 in terms of number of stories written were:
The runners up for top experiences are as follows (many are tied, thus the repeating
numbers):
Top Image Submitters
Warning: This part of the article contains some
adult photos!
This is where things really get crazy! Of course the largest section of the site is
the image galleries; this year 130,319 pictures were added by a total of 14,668 separate
people. The top submitters donated truly staggering quantities of images, and competition was
tight and fierce. Skipping over Kokomi’s almost ludicrous quantity, the next three were
separated by only fifty images! The top BME image submitters of 2004 are:
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Kokomi
Writing anonymously from Germany, Kokomi has this year submitted 3,170 new images to his
popular bonus gallery in BME/HARD — and he’s ranked every year we’ve tracked
submissions!
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IAM:
rwethereyet
Not only did Walkerton’s rwethereyet submit 1,881 images to both his bonus gallery and other
parts of BME, but he also designed a BME
shirt based on his interests!
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IAM:
KIVAKA
A generous person and talented piercer, as the number three image submitter and the top
piercer for 2004, Kivaka represents Lockport, IL’s Tattoo City. 1,844 images have been added by
him this year.
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IAM:
MWM416
With 1,828 Marty came so close to the top three, and were it not for being fired for
refusing to pierce a minor, he’d be there. He currently pierces at Worcester, MA’s Piercing Emporium.
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Bea & Lehni
With 1,368 new pictures added to their gallery, these kinky German swingers stay quite
popular!
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IAM:
nobcatz
Perhaps tired from submitting well over two thousand images last year (he was the top
contributor of 2003), with 1,366 pictures in 2004, Japan’s Nobcatz again ranks among BME’s
most prolific photographers.
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IAM:
HeadlessLego
With both a popular bonus gallery and images in nearly all sections of the site, Andie has
sent us 1,288 photos this year.
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IAM:
Efix
With 1,277 photos this year both in his ritual gallery, his scarification gallery, and across
the site as a piercer, D-Markation, Quebec City’s Efix is eighth on our list of contributors
and the third piercer on the list.
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IAM:
dispel
With 1,227 photos this year, this UK photographer (watch out for him at conventions!) has
extensively documented BE and Vampy’s work.
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Ars
Having added 1,124 to his creative bonus gallery in BME/HARD, Ars rounds out tenth place on
our contributor’s list.
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IAM:
perk900
Always gonzo, Philadelphia’s Perk900 has added 1,084 pictures to BME this year, the last on
our list to crack a thousand.
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WenchyBev & Neil
With 933 new pictures resurrecting their gallery in 2004, WenchyBev and Neil’s bonus gallery
in BME/HARD continues to grow.
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IAM:
dsw
At the core of Brasil’s +3 suspension team,
dsw has contributed 821 pictures over 2004.
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IAM:
x31337x
Photographer x31337x has contributed 784 images this year, many of them documenting Rites
of Passage.
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IAM:
Cerra
The only person to be a ranking experience reviewer, top writer, and image contributor for
2004, Cerra added 821 images.
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UrbanSoul
My kinky friend UrbanSoul from Italy has added 671 new pictures to his BME/HARD bonus gallery
this year.
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IAM:
Asurfael
Scandinavia’s Asurfael has contributed 670 image in 2004, injecting some much needed
rock’n’roll into BME/HARD via her bonus
gallery.
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IAM:
VEAL
The naughtiest housewife I know, VEAL has added 652 images to her bonus gallery and elsewhere in
2004..
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The runners up for top image submitter were as follow:
BME/News Team
BME/News is one of my favorite sections of BME. It includes a number of columns and articles
from the top body modification writers (and doers) around the world, as well as a newsfeed
which tracks articles in the mainstream news that are of particular relevance to BME readers.
Below are some of the people who more actively made BME/News possible in 2004.
The Lizardman
The incredible, amazing Lizardman, Erik Sprague, writes both a monthly column for BME and a
regular “ask the Lizardman” Q&A. Visit him on IAM or at his website for more on his adventures (and his tour
schedule)
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Jim Ward
Jim Ward, founder of both the world’s first piercing studio and piercing magazine, documents
that history in his fascinating Running the Gauntlet. Visit him at Gauntlet Enterprises.
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Fakir Musafar
I’m deeply honored to have the legendary Fakir Musafar, who should need little introduction,
writing for BME. Visit him at BodyPlay.com to learn
more about his many other projects.
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(The late) Cora Birk
You feared him as yttrx and then cried with him as he transitioned to a woman under
the name Cora Birk. This gender swap, documented in his Shapeshift column, was
ultimately cut short as he became Jamix.
Stay tuned?
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Marisa Kakoulas
Marisa’s new column Legal Link addresses legal issues for the modified
community, and is a companion to her upcoming book on tattoo law. And yes, she’s a real NYC
lawyer, so don’t mess with her.
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IAM:
rebekah
While other people help as well, Rebekah’s contribution of 2,256 stories to the BME Newsfeed
were absolutely essential in keeping it running (and put her nearly two thousand stories
ahead of any other person).
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QOD Staff
BME’s “question of the day” service remains hugely popular, having been asked thousands of
questions over the last year. Not including me, the following staff members helped out this
year by each answering over two hundred questions a piece from readers:
IAM:
Vampy
This years most prolific QOD answering, slightly exceeding “of the day” with 387 answers in
2004, performance and body artist Vampy is currently best known for her work with UK
suspension team Body Evolution.
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IAM:
Lori St. Leone
One of BME’s many expats, Alaskan Lori St. Leone owns Darwin, Australia’s Vogue Body
Piercing. She’s answered 375 questions for BME readers (and her fans) this year.
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IAM:
Derek Lowe
Derek Lowe, APP piercer at Saint Sabrina’s in Minneapolis masculinizes our top three
by answering 238 QODs in 2004.
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Additional work was done by Gary, Sean Philips, Monte, Shawn Porter, Rachel Larratt, Phish, and Ryan Worden.
Other BME Staff
Finally, the people below are some of the core individuals who kept BME running in 2004.
IAM:
glider
Hey, it’s me! I think you know what I do already, right? Read more about my life over at Zentastic if you’d like.
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IAM:
MiL0
My beautiful and brilliant wife Rachel writes and photographs for BME, handles all of our
finances, and is the publisher of her own magazine LOOSE.
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IAM:
savagerabbit
Jen handles all of BME’s online customer support, out of a cold, cold office in Moncton. She
also maintains ChrisHarvard.net.
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IAM:
CT
Apparently having forgiven me for endangering his wedding ceremony, Mike takes care of many
of the emergency technical issues on BME and IAM and helps keep everything online (either
that or he’s planning the greatest revenge of all time).
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IAM:
Dita
For years now Dita has worked hard to maintain the BME
Japan portal and has brought BME to hundreds of thousands of new readers through it.
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IAM:
1101001
Jon has written (and maintains) many of the software tools on BME like the link engine and
iam.crush2. He’s also one of the core forces behind Fishing Fury.
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IAM:
Badseeds
Ryan and Corrie Worden run BMEshop start to finish. I
don’t know if that makes them “staff” or not, but they deserve to be here!
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IAM:
Vanilla
Not quite so “vanilla” in real life, Danielle not only provided essential help on IAM
management in 2004, but she also maintains the wonderful IAM:INFO help site.
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IAM:
badur
Hailing from exotic Madagascar, Toronto designer Badur is responsible for the better looking
parts of BME’s look, was half of the BME Road Trip, co-organized BMEFEST 2004, and more.
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There are a lot of people I’ve missed I’m sure (and if you think I missed you and you want
your shirt, don’t be afraid to write me — I’m talking to you, Blake, co-organizer of BMEFEST 2004).
You’ve seen the numbers though — you know that this is only the tip of the iceberg when
it comes to BME’s nebulous staff of hundreds of thousands of contributors around the world. I
wish I could thank every one of those people here, but clearly that’s not possible. However,
BME stands as a legacy to their efforts, and everyone who’s helped make it happen deserves
thanks.
See you in 2005!
Shannon Larratt
BMEzine.com
IAM members, click here to comment on or discuss this article.
Shannon Larratt is the editor and publisher of
BMEZINE.COM, the largest and oldest full-spectrum body modification
publication on the planet. He also is known for his promotion of radical
individualistic politics, spirituality, and on a more base level, his main
vice: exotic cars. Shannon lives in Canada with his family and friends where
he is currently producing the BME movie.
Copyright © 2004 BMEZINE.COM. Permission is granted to reprint this
article in its entirety as long as credit is retained and usage is
non-commercial. Requests to publish edited or shortened versions must be
confirmed in writing. For bibliographical purposes this article was first
published December 27th, 2004 by BMEZINE.COM in La Paz, BCS,
Mexico.
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All columns by Shannon and Rachel Larratt
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