RIP: Shannon Larratt 1973 - 2013

[speedvogel (imported)]

It has taken me a couple of days to get my thoughts together about Shannon. I know I will miss his wisdom and insight (well beyond his years. Given his condition, though, I understand very well why he is gone.

I never met him, but we talked via the internet about many things for several years.

RIP, friend.

Speed

PS: Either buy a copy or download the pdf of his last book, Meet Tommy. Read the interview with Todd Bertrang. Then be afraid, be very afraid.

[OneBallBoi (imported)]

I too have talked to Shannon several times in the last three months. I remember back a number of years ago when Matthew, Bobbie and I went to their shin dig in Canada unannounced. There were no tickets left to sell but Shannon saw to it that we got tickets and he stayed with us in the balcony watching what was happening down below. Shannon felt very bad over the split between BME and EA.. He did not want that to happen. I will remember forever and respect him. RIP Shannon.

[Hash (imported)]

Very sad, very sad. He had emailed me, a rather large excerpt, of many many modifications with pictures that he was going to use in his upcoming book. I wonder if he got it published before he passed? I know that would have been his wish and it would have made him truly happy. I suppose now, if the book has not been published, that it never will be. Someday, perhaps, in honor of him, if his book isn't published I'll release what he sent me to the community, but not now, it's just too sad and not the right time. Miss you Shannon.

[erikboy (imported)]

It just reminds me how old I am. I have witnessed Body modification Ezine birth, and now Shannons death. Shannon was a frontman, very visible and active these early days. I think it all started around 1997. First there was just an idea in some usenet groups I read, and soon Shannon created his own website which started to concentrate body modification minded people. At first there were not much pictures on it and everything was for free. But still I got my first true eunuch pictures from there. BME evolved and grew. Features being added, getting more sophisticated over time. Then EA emerged. The rest you know.

To be on positive side, despite the loss I think that it is so good that Shannon did not die much earlier.

[Losethem (imported)]

It just reminds me how old I am. I have witnessed Body modification Ezine birth, and now Shannons death. Shannon was a frontman, very visible and active these early days. I think it all started around 1997.

BME started in 1994, so it's been around nearly 20 years. Hard to believe, isn't it?

Sadly it is a shell of its former self. Shannon lamented this in his final comments and was worried nobody else was taking up the community aspect of it instead of just the photo and content aspect of it.

--LT

[transward (imported)]

http://sacreddebris.wordpress.com/2013/ ... n-larratt/

STAY CALM: Remembering Shannon Larratt

It was because of a memorial that I initially met Shannon Larratt. My mentor had passed away, and new to the ways of social networking I posted a brief obituary notice on rec.arts.bodyart (R.A.B.) that caught his eye and shortly after I initially posted it inspired him to email me. “I didn’t know Jack personally, but his list of modifications was impressive. If you’d like to post something on my website, I’d love to have it.”

BME was fledgling at the time. Still hosted on the ~io.org server and while the biggest body modification site on the internet (then and now) was still severely lacking in content. I replied, and, thinking I had just met one of the nicest girls in Canada, our friendship started to develop.

“No. Not a girl. I get that a lot”.

Our emails became frequent; at the time there weren’t a lot of people our age interested in heavy body modification; in Shannon I found a kindred spirit who’s willingness to push the boundaries was equal to mine, someone who read weird comics, watched weird sci-fi movies and also had a passion for modification. I was a paid member of Unique at the time, spending $70 every six months to meet folks three times my age via a mail exchange service, meeting clandestinely in hotel rooms at tattoo conventions and brought together by our shared interest in modification but not much else.

I started submitting content to BME to help flesh out the surgical sections, the ‘advanced’ modifications and eventually received an email from Shannon just shy of a year after Jack’s death telling me that he was working on something new and needed my help and input. Our mutual desire to expose surgical modification to the masses had WORKED, with more new people becoming interested in the extreme modifications than we could have imagined. But more surprisingly, it was also bringing people with existing modifications out of the woodwork. Photos and videos were pouring in- some relayed through me (at the time most folks didn’t have a scanner for their photos, digital cameras were still not in common use and video capture was still impractical) to avoid possible seizure at customs. Sections were filling up, NEW modifications were being discovered.

There were more people interested in ‘our’ world than we thought possible, and with the anniversary of Jack’s passing coming up, Shannon rolled out BME/Extreme complete with a password ‘guarding the walls’. The price to enter? Submit photos of your own advanced modification. Lurkers came out in droves- “I’m not sure if my subincision will get me a password, but…”

The small communities that had sprung up via postal exchange- Unique, BCQ, Enigma- none of us could have guessed how many people out there were doing these procedures. Shannon didn’t invent the game, but he sure as hell gave us a room to play in. These communities were closed; hard to find. They came with a great deal of secrecy and a signup fee. BME/Extreme leveled the playing field. Turned on all the lights.

I finally met him in person in Detroit, 1998. Lankier than I expected, emerging from a Greyhound Bus with his hood drawn up like a monk and smiling his half smile with a hand extended. “We have to get out of here. Let’s find a hotel”. It turns out Detroit was much sketchier than he was used to, and he booked us a suite in one of the nicest hotels in the city, earning a few stares from the patrons not used to stretched lobes and heavy visible tattoos. Over the course of the night we talked. And talked. The getting to know you phase of our friendship was all virtual so we were able to dive right in and talk shop.

Extreme was now several years old, joined by it’s twin /HARD, and Shannon was ready to move on to something new. “So we’ve got all of these people talking via /extreme. What do you think about a modification convention? No hotel rooms or sketchy practitioners… just a chance for people who may not know how to find willing artists to get worked on, and who can show off their modifications for BME?”

Several hours later, MODCON1998 was being discussed. We’d host it in my area of Florida. BME would fund it. Ideas were flowing. Shannon wanted to contact Joel Peter Witkin (and later, Alejandro Jodorowsky) to document it. The invite list would be strict, the rules stricter and finally a community would have an outlet. We wouldn’t feel alone.

That event never happened, but a year later MODCON was held in Toronto. To date it’s one of my single proudest moments. A monument to Jack’s legacy. A home for people who always felt like outsiders. We met, took photos, performed modifications, risked life and limb and even managed to be a bunch of goofball tourists.

The groundwork was there to do something bigger, and in 2000 Shannon rolled out the IAM subsite of BME. Inspired by Livejournal, IAM was a diary site where BME readers unfamiliar with HTML could start their own home pages; free of any stigma for posting body modification content. It was also a tool to increase submissions to BME. The community and the site would grow together.

Thirteen years later I feel that the impact of IAM was Shannon’s greatest contribution to the body modification scene. Relationships were forged on that site that remain with 1000s of us today. Spouses met. Events planned. So much excess that Dionysus would be impressed. ModCon was very niche, but IAM… your nose piercing carried as much weight as someone else’s facial tattoos. You had friends all over the world who were there to support you through your hardest times as well as your happiest.

BMEFests happened. Suscons. Zombiethons. Scarwars. The Weirdos, god bless us, went bowling, gambling, rafting… All with Shannon constantly one upping the site code or the party or the community. The room he provided us grew into a playground.

Over the years my friendship with Shannon evolved. We didn’t always agree; far from it. As I got older my views became increasingly conservative and his progressively more radical. We’d butt heads privately and publicly about the safety of a procedure or the ethics of a practitioner, but we’d always respect the other’s opinion and by the end of the argument we’d be smiling. We went through good periods and bad together, the balance shifting depending on the year, but through it all, he remained someone who’s impact on my life is so thorough that it’s impossible to imagine my life without him.

Had you told me, almost 18 years ago, that one day I’d be writing a memorial for him

Shannon Larratt passed away in Toronto, Ontario. He was 39 years old and is survived by his daughter Nefarious, his fiancé Caitlyn and his former wife Rachel who carries on the BME family of sites. He was so many things to so many people- mentor, teacher, inspiration… but to me, he was my friend.

Rest in Peace, Brother.

Transward