BME Mega Survey
BME Megasurvey is the largest statistical study of body modification (piercing, tattoos, scarification, and so on) conducted as of mid-2003.
The survey is no longer hosted online.
Who took this survey and how accurate is it?
This survey was taken by the members of iam.BMEzine.com, the community site attached to BMEzine.com. BME is the largest full-spectrum body modification site in the world, and IAM is made up of many of its readers. In order to obtain an IAM page a person must be known to BME staff either by photos, writings, or purchase, so the possibilities of double-voting and so on are minimal.
People were "paid" a one month IAM access coupon, and as a result, slightly over 2% of respondents appear to have simply clicked through the survey without actually voting, resulting in an artificial increase in "prefer not to answer" responses. Control questions imply that approximately 0.3% were not voting accurately.
The more relevant issue is whether statistics regarding the IAM/BME community are applicable to the larger body modification community. With well over 50% of IAM members responding I feel secure that this survey gives a very accurate impression of this segment of the body modification subculture, I can not say with certainty the degree to which it represents pierced or tattooed people in general; in order to ensure accuracy voting was restricted to known members.
Legal and Usage Info
This study was done specifically so people would have more valid data to use. As such, full rights are granted for any use of this data to anyone for any purpose as long as they are using less than 50% of the database in their final product. The sole condition is that any use must be accompanied by a credit to BMEZINE.COM (ie. something like "statistics provided by bmezine.com" or "according to a study commissioned by bmezine.com"). Use involving more than 50% of the dataset (ie. repackagings and so on) must be confirmed in writing.
For the purpose of citation, this study was written by Shannon Larratt and Darrin Fowler and executed in July of 2003 by BMEZINE.COM LLC and PsyberCity, Inc. in Tweed, Ontario, Canada.
