James Weber, Ursula Thomson, and John Logger from Infinite Body Piercing

September 12, 2025 James Weber

BMXnet 2025

It’s been several weeks since we returned from the annual BMXnet conference in Berlin, which took place August 13-17. This is my third time personally attending the event, but it’s the first time bringing a group of Infinite piercers with us. Here’s our roundup of BMXnet 2025.

If you follow our blog, you know that every year we usually bring as many of the staff as possible to the annual Association of Professional Piercers Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas. This year we tried something new: With so many educational offerings around the world (LBP in Mexico, several in South America, and several in Europe), this year we gave the piercing staff the option: attend the APP Conference in Las Vegas or BMXnet in Germany. Not surprisingly, the majority of the staff chose Berlin! So we had our front-of-house and office crew in Las Vegas experiencing classes and overseeing buying at the jewelry exposition, and then we had John with members of our piercing staff in Germany including Pixie, Amelia, and Ursula.

Besides the (obvious) geographic contrast, what makes this event so different from the one in the States is the cross-disciplinary offerings. The APP Conference in Las Vegas is piercing-only, and has always been. This was incredibly important in the early years of the conference, when we were a fledgling industry, to create a space where our unique concerns as piercers were addressed and discussed. This continues to be important with the proliferation of tattoo conventions and tattoo-themed events, to have a space to specifically target piercers and their specific needs and concerns. There are also no procedures performed in Las Vegas, which instead keeps the focus between education and the exposition—which offers merchandise and jewelry specifically for piercers and piercing studios.

BMXnet is a much different animal. While the two organizations are similar in their legal structure (both are educational nonprofits), their focus is very different. While the APP addresses piercing only, BMXnet specifically encompasses tattooing, piercing, and scarification, and their education includes a wide variety of body modification practices, including suspension, implants, and other more “extreme” modification practices. This is where the conferences differ as well: where there are no procedures or live demonstrations happening in Las Vegas, at BMXnet there is all manner of work being performed, along with demonstrations being done. There are live suspensions happening outside throughout most of the days, scarification sessions taking place, and demonstrations of different techniques on attendees.

Plus, the people populating each event are very different. The APP conference does draw attendees from all over the world, but at its heart is definitely a US-based affair. (And this year there was a noticeable drop in the number of international attendees as a result of the border and immigration policies with the Trump administration—with at least one hopeful attendee turned away at customs and sent back home.) The BMXnet event has a (understandably) European focus, with many of the classes being offered in German only, with topics specifically targeted to a European audience. The vibe at the event is much different as well. BMX is a much more welcoming (and less socially anxious) environment, where everyone seems to be genuinely dedicated to learning as much as they can.

For me, there is also the opportunity to catch up with friends who are also presenting. Paul King taught a trio of anthropology classes, including one on the Thaipooyam Festival in India. Ryoichi “Keroppy” Maeda presented on the history of modern piercing in Japan, and also on his Jomon Tribe project. Anthropologist (and host of Tattoo Hunter TV series) Dr. Lars Krutak talked about his early work investigating indigenous tattoo practices. Former Infinite piercer Kevin Jump lectured on his scarification practice before a day-long collaborative demonstration with Ron Garza, and J’son D’souza continued his series on the history of body modification in India.

While my tolerance for late nights gets worse as I get older, the rest of the staff did make the most of the events every evening, including performances by the Hullaballoo Cabaret, a shibari/butoh performance from Coco Katsura & Shimo, and the Mutant Suspension Squad out of Italy. While I spent most of my evenings practicing for my presentation, I was able to catch an amazing show from the opera/suspension group Operafication, from the US.

This year I also had the opportunity to teach again. This was the first time I’ve spoken at the conference since 2012, when I presented a class titled “The History of Body Piercing Periodicals of the United States: from PFIQ to The Point” (more here), when the event was still being held at the Unperfekthaus in Essen. This year I presented on my most recent obsession, the parallel history of Modern Piercing and Industrial Music, 1975-1994. A quick synopsis: industrial music and modern piercing have a distinctly similar (and in many ways parallel) history, with changes in audience and popularity happening in the same ways at the same time, so as an industry (and artistic movement) we can learn about modern piercing by looking at what was going on in industrial music and culture at the same time. Did I succeed? You’ll have to ask those who attended the class….