The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com I Thursday, February 25, 2010
weekend
essentials
Feb. 25 to Feb. 28
5, /
ON DISPLAY
"Yes No Maybe"
exhibits the work of 10
students in the School
of Art & Design's MFA
program. The exhibit
is intended to "engage
(visitors) in the the-
matic discussion of
adaptation, awareness
and abandonment,"
and it includes inter-
disciplinary works like
interactive installations,
photography and kara-
oke. Open until Feb. 28
in the Warren Robbins
Gallery on the second
floor of the Art & Archi-
tecture building, 2000
Bonisteel Blvd. Free.
AT UMMA
Rawr! This Saturday
in a whimsical fam-
ily workshop run by
the Ann Arbor Art
Center, participants
search for mythical
creatures and animals
featured in UMMA's
collections. The day
culminates with every
participant creating a
mask or animal figure
based on their favorite
creature. All materi-
al's are included. The
fee is $15 for mem-
bers and University
students and $18 for
non-members.
By Sharon Jacobs
Assistant Arts Editor
n a projector screen at the front
of the Michigan Union's Pond
Room, a woman dangles inch-
es from the ground. She gen-
tly sways back and forth from
ropes descending from the ceiling, attached to
large metal hooks planted deep in her shoul-
der blades. Her skin is stretched almost to the
breaking point.
This is suspension, an extreme, spiritual
and sometimes gory practice - and the topic
of the semester's first meeting of the Students
for the Appreciation of Body Modification,
founded last winter.
The movie on the projector screen is "Flesh
and Blood," a 2007 documentary about radi-
cal body modification artist Steve Haworth.
As a man onscreen suspends from metal rings
in his nipples, SABM Publicity Chair Jordan
Marchese, an Engineering senior, discusses
his own suspension experience.
"There was a point in which I was spin-
ning," Marchese recalls. "I was watching the
room spin, and I was just completely free ... to
look down, see that my feet (weren't) touching
the ground and look at the wall and just slowly
watch it move and just be completely weight-
less."
Marchese isn't crazy, and he certainly
wouldn't look out of place on a college campus.
A thick wooden earring hangs from each ear,
but any other metal or ink Marchese has is
covered up by his hoodie and jeans - and from
From tattoos and piercings to
scarification and implants, Ann
Arbor is home to a varied and vibrant
body modification community.
talking to him, one would never suspect his
penchant for dangling by the skin on his back
from hooks and ropes.
But then again, Ann Arbor's body modifica-
tion aficionados have a surprising knack for
blending in.
The many faces of modification
After more than a year, Karen Ross's moth-
er still doesn't know about her tattoo. Ross, a
sophomore in the Residential College, had her
late father's initials inked on her inner wrist at
Lucky Monkey on South Ashley Street.
"I thought about getting it for like three
years before I actually did it, just so it wasn't
some rash decision," Ross explained. "This
is how he used to write his initials, and then
ever since he died I've just kind of had it in
the back of my mind ... part of why I wanted
it was so I could look at it every day and be
reminded of everything that me and my dad
had together."
When Ross wears an inch-thick bracelet on
her wrist, the initials are completely covered
up. She used to put on the bracelet every time
she went home.
"When I was a little kid (my mom) used
to tell me like, 'Never get a tattoo, you won't
be able to get a job, people will look down on
you,' " Ross said.
But this isn't just any old tattoo; it has a spe-
cial meaning.
"I just want to wait and see if she'll see it on
her own," Ross said, "and if she sees it on her
own, then that's the time that I'll talk to her
about it."
Art & Design senior Nae Morris is more
conspicuously modified. She has several pierc-
ings on her ears and nose. But it's not until she
yawns or makes a funny face that the extent of
Morris's modifications reveals itself: Thetip of
her tongue is split in two, and she can move the
segments independently of each other.
"No one ever notices, because when I talk
you don't see it, you don't hear it," Morris said
of her tongue bifurcation. "I didn't want a mil-
lion piercings in my ear, I didn't want to be
visibly known ... butI was really happy having
things for myself."
Besides the bifurcation and her numer-
ous piercings and tattoos, Morris has exten-
sive scarification - purposely carved scars
in the shape of cherry and plum blossoms run
from her armpits to hips on both sides - and
implants in her hands.
"It's the exact same thing as a breast
implant pretty much, except that these are
solid instead of being a bag filled with sili-
cone," Morris explained the process. The flow-
er-shaped implants are soft to the touch, "like
a gummy bear ... and when I wake up they're
kind of more poofy."
Although they push'out nearly a half-inch
from the backs of her hands, the implants
aren't glaringly obvious, and long sleeves can
easily cover them.
"I wear hoodies and jeans all the time -
nobody even knows I'mtattooed," Morris said.
Pangea Piercing's self-described "captain,"
j.c. potts (no capitalization, "like ee cummings
with punctuation") regularly interacts with
the secretly modified like Ross and those with
more noticeable art like Morris.
Since Pangea has a reputation for cleanli-
ness and high-tei sterilization methods,
much of potts's clientele consists of scientists,
researchers and doctors - hardly the stereo-
typical metal-ornamented rebels.
To hide his customers' piercings from pry-
ing eyes, potts sells "retainers," glass fillings
that make the holes less noticeable.
"They're not going to withstand a Jewish
grandma, but your boss, maybe," he said.
Launching into the gender disparities in
piercings (more girls pierce their nostrils or
See BODY ART, Page 4B
There's way more people that look
like you that have genital pierings
than people that look like me.
-j.c. potts, captain
of Pangea Piercing
FILM
Need to catch up on
all of the Best Pic-
ture nominees before
Oscar night? Check
out your local AMC
Theater (the closest to
Ann Arbor is in Livo-
nia), which is returning
its annual Best Picture
showcase. This year,
the program is split
into two halves - five
movies will be play-
ing marathon-style
on Feb. 27 and the
other five on March 6.
Tickets start from $30
for a one-day pass.
CONCERT
Straight from Dublin,
Ireland, The Guggen-
heim Grotto and its
soothing folk melodies
will gently rock the Ark
tomorrow at 8 p.m.
Its intellectual tunes
have found critical
acclaim in Ireland, and
the group performed
at Austin's SXSW fes-
tival last year. Open-
ing act Tiger Cooke
supports with his
self-described "dark
folk." Tickets $13.50,
doors at 7:30 p.m,
I I"