Modify (2005)

Directors: Jason Gary & Greg Jacobson

Starring: People with tats, piercings and all kinds of people who've done incredibly fucked up things to themselves.

More Info: IMDB

Plot: Introducing viewers to people who've explored branding, piercing, tattooing, tongue splitting and every body modification imaginable, this striking documentary plumbs the thoughts of artists and their human canvases to reveal how and why they've gone to such extremes to express themselves.

My Rating: 7.5/10

Would I watch it again? Sure.

This isn't just some documentary on the wacky tattoos people get or genital piercings 101. This examines just about everything you can think of in addition to that including scarification, micro dermal implants (putting shit under your skin so that it looks like bumps, horns, bones, etc), plastic surgery, trans-gender surgery, tongue splitting, penis splitting, nullification (the voluntary removal of body parts like fingers, toes, penis, arms, etc), branding, bodybuilding, ear shaping (you know, for those who want to look like Spock or a cat), ear stretching, suspension (where you suspend in the air from hooks in your skin), and on and on.


I caught this last night on Netflix's instant watch. If I had the DVD there would easily be 100 images (I could easily get three times that many from this picture) I would include here of some of the most fucked up shit you'll see this week. Some cool as hell and others FUBAR. The suspension thing makes me cringe...but they look so happy doing it...


This entire documentary will probably make you cringe. I didn't want to blink for fear of missing something. It's absolutely fascinating to see how far people are willing to go to express themselves. They cover all aspects from permanent makeup to bodybuilding to splitting tongues. What's more is that they SHOW you tons of shit like people getting their tongue split, a trans-gender operation and one dude even cuts his own dick open to put beads under the skin!!!


MODIFY is some whacked out shit and I really dug it. If you are the least bit squeamish you should stay away for fear of throwing up. If you've got Netflix, put it into your instant view queue and have some fun. This would be a FANTASTIC vid to toss on at a party. Highly recommended!