Tom Brazda
| Tom Brazda | |
|---|---|
| |
| Birth Date | 2 October 1965 |
| Birth Place | Czechoslovakia |
| Death Date | living |
| Occupation | piercer |
| Website | |
Tom Brazda, along with artists like Jon Cobb and Steve Haworth, was part of a small and unconnected cadre of artists in the late 1980s and early 1990s that, standing on the shoulders of the industry's early pioneers, helped define modern Body Modification as an industry.
Born in Czechoslovakia on October 2, 1965, Tom and his activist family fled to Canada when he was a boy for fear of political reprisals against them. With a background in fashion design, Tom began piercing in 1991, and co-founded Stainless Studios in Toronto with his partner Stefan Dewsbury in mid-1994. Stainless was one of Toronto's first piercing studios, alongside Body Piercing by Tee, New Tribe, and Way Cool Tattoos. A number of BME's staff members worked at Stainless Studios including Ryan Worden and Shannon Larratt, who considers Tom one of his primary mentors.
Tom Brazda is credited with, and best known for, the creation (and perhaps more importantly, his scientific approach to refinement) of the Surface Bar; although it appears to have been independently co-invented by others around the world (most notably Steve Haworth). Tom's influential article about surface bars in an early Tattoo Savage surely had a huge impact. Tom is also credited with the creation of numerous other piercings, piercing tools, piercing aftercare techniques, and piercing techniques including the T-bar piercing, the Christina piercing, the Snug piercing, the scrumper, and more. While it is true, of course, that others had attempted these mods, Stainless Studios' close ties to BME resulted in Tom's names becoming "public" names that usually stuck. It is common to see photos of Tom's work hanging on the walls of studios around the world.
BME has twice interviewed Tom, although those interviews are out of date, they are still interesting and can be found at the following links: [Extreme Piercing with Tom Brazda ->http://www.bmezine.com/news/people/a10101/tom-ssba.html], [Technical Piercing with Tom Brazda ->http://www.bmezine.com/news/people/a10101/tomtech/index.html]. He has also appeared in many local, national, and international media segments and publications.