Skinart Tattoo Training Academy 2013-09-05 14:02:38
Skinart Tattoo Training Academy
- Website Powered by Cloud
internet Solutions – a Division of
Cloud Web Designs
interested in Temporary
Tattoos or Tattoo
Equipment
2013-09-05 14:02:38 Tattoo Training
Fantastic art by a student
Main menu
Skip to primary content
Skip to secondary content
BME.com
Piercing
Tattoos
Scarification
Culture
Ritual
Extreme/Hard (18+)
411
ASK
IAM
WIKI
Join BME!
Post navigation
← Older posts
OBMF: Remembering Josh Burdette
Posted on September 2, 2013 by shawnporter
9
Skinart Tattoo Training Academy
- Website Powered by Cloud
internet Solutions – a Division of
Cloud Web Designs
interested in Temporary
Tattoos or Tattoo
Equipment
2013-09-05 14:02:38 Tattoo Training 1
Fantastic art by a student
“i had a dream a while back. in it, i met myself. the me that i met greeted the dream me in a way that i often greet people, with hands raised together as if in prayer, a sign of coming in peace. in this dream, the other me had scars shaped like arrows on the heels of his hands. one pointing up, one pointing down. i woke from the dream with this image burned into my mind. over time, the symbolism became clear to me…
as above, so below. the sacred and the profane. heaven and earth. good and evil. black and white. brain and body. what goes up, must come down. there are a million examples and ways to describe the idea, but it all comes back to balance. none of these things would exist without the other. they may occupy opposite ends of a spectrum, but they are inextricably linked to each other. my goal is to maintain that balance in my life. to have one foot in each world. these scars will remind me of that.” – Josh Burdette, Scarwars.net
(I wrote this before noticing that my old friend Sean Philips also wrote a memorial for Josh; forgive us for double posting, but Josh is worth reading both)
The first thing most people thought when they met Josh Burdette was usually “that’s one big mother fucker.” OBMF. That’s how I first got to known Josh, back in the glory days of the late 1990s Body Modification scene of rec. arts.bodyart and the IAM.BME community site. Josh was a larger than life presence all around- a fixture in the D.C. Music scene as the Manager and head of security of the 9:30 Club since 1997, he stood as the WALL OF BEARD at countless shows. An imposing figure, Josh could have relied on his size to intimidate people, instead, in 2006 he had this to say about ‘bouncing’ to the Washington Post:
“A bouncer is looking to bounce people. It’s a reactive way of doing things. We’re the face of the club, and we have to do our best to be as friendly, polite and accessible as we can. Some of us look big and scary, but we’re just people, too. We’re just working our jobs.”
I saw him, not too long ago, at the Stay Calm memorial we held here in Philadelphia for Shannon Larratt; we hugged like we always do, gave some colorful commentary on the state of the world and the Body Modification community, and finally getting to the point of why we had all come together that day as a community- remembering our friend- he laughingly told me that we were going to have a moratorium on any of our friends dying till at least 2015, to spread the word to the people we love that they’re to stick around for a while.
I wish Josh would have been able to keep up the pact.
Josh Burdette passed away in Washington DC on Sunday September 1st. He was 35 years old. I’ll miss running into him backstage at LUCERO shows, chatting about our lives instead of watching the opening acts. I’ll miss bitching about ‘these kids today’ with him, reading his latest ‘Wall of Beard’ comic strip adventure and getting one of his epic bear hugs. I’ll miss Josh.
Continue reading →
Share this:Like this:Like Loading…
Posted in Lead Story, ModBlog, News and Announcements, Shawn Porter
|
Tagged Josh Burdette, Memorial, Shawn Porter
|
9 Replies
RIP: Josh Burdette
Posted on September 2, 2013 by Sean Philips
6
Today I awoke to the heartbreaking news that the body modification community has lost one of it’s most beloved members, my good friend, Josh Burdette.
Skinart Tattoo Training Academy
- Website Powered by Cloud
internet Solutions – a Division of
Cloud Web Designs
interested in Temporary
Tattoos or Tattoo
Equipment
2013-09-05 14:02:38 Tattoo Training 2
Fantastic art by a student
Josh was one of the very first people I met from the online body modification community. When I first moved to Maryland in 2000, I met him at a RAB munch held at a Brazilian BBQ joint. At first I was quite intimidated by him. How could I not have been? He was, hands down, the most modded person I had met in person at that time, not to mention he was absolutely enormous! Within the first hour in his presence all of that intimidation went away and I quickly found him to be one of the nicest human beings ever. Everyone of us there that night shared that sentiment about him and by the time we left that dinner everyone of us called him friend and not a one of us was intimidated by him…….except maybe the owners of the restaurant. The one stereotype he lived up to was the ability to TRULY get his money’s worth at an all you can eat meat buffet!
Skinart Tattoo Training Academy
- Website Powered by Cloud
internet Solutions – a Division of
Cloud Web Designs
interested in Temporary
Tattoos or Tattoo
Equipment
2013-09-05 14:02:38 Tattoo Training 3
Fantastic art by a student
My next memorable run in with him was at the University of Maryland where Josh, Bruce Wilmot and myself were participants in a Q&A with a group of students about body modification. Josh, stole the show and did an excellent job of representing our community in the best possible light. That wasn’t unusual for Josh at all, that’s just who he was. As the head of security at DC’s famous 9:30 night club every night he managed to make friends, even with the people he had to escort out of the club. Any non-modded person who ever had the privilege of getting to know him could not help but have their prejudices of modded people flipped upside down. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.
Skinart Tattoo Training Academy
- Website Powered by Cloud
internet Solutions – a Division of
Cloud Web Designs
interested in Temporary
Tattoos or Tattoo
Equipment
2013-09-05 14:02:38 Tattoo Training 4
Fantastic art by a student
Josh’s body mods were not on him, they were him. Each and every mod of his had a story and each and every tattoo had a meaning. He was covered with dragon tattoos representing his Chinese zodiac, the year of the dragon. He had scarification by the late, great Keith Alexander and Ron Garza branded swastikas on his feet, representing the footsteps of the Buddha. Then of course there was his trademark stretched lobes which he pretty much always sported fine organic plugs in, his stretched septum and my personal favorite his perfectly lined up paired bridge piercings.
In the past few years I was lucky enough to become closer with him and that friendship and the insights he shared with me are something I will eternally hold dear. Please use the comments section below to share your thoughts and memories of this beloved character who some of us knew as OBMF, some as “That Guy from the 9:30 club” and a lucky few (thousand) of us simply knew as Josh.
Share this:
The post Tattoo Training 2013-09-05 14:02:38 appeared first on Tattoo Training Courses | Skinart Tattoo Training Academy.