From a family of medical device pioneers, Steve Haworth has been inventing mods such as ear pointing and laser branding since 1990. In 1994 he created the concept of implanting steel beneath skin to create 3-D body art, which led to the surface bar, subdermal implants and the fantastic metal mohawk. In 1999 he made it into Guinness World Records as the ‘World’s Most Advanced Body Modification Artist’.

Read about body mod pioneer Samppa Von Cyborg here

Steve retired from piercing in 2005 but continues to innovate via his two companies – Kaos Softwear for silicone body jewellery and New Hole for piercing products. “The only people whose opinion I care about are the people in the body mod community,” he told BMEzine, “My art is about extreme individualism.”

BMEzine founder Shannon Larratt credits the Steve with kick-starting the scene as we know it: ”One could make the argument that Steve Haworth birthed the entire modern body modification community – before him there was simply piercing, scarification, and tattooing – all merely modern implementations of traditional art forms. In fact, Steve Haworth’s development of ‘3-D art’ implants is the single most significant thing to happen to body modification in the last 5,000 years.”

His influence is pervasive – Samppa Von Cyborg says he wouldn’t even be in action without Steve’s work. “Steve Haworth is really to blame for me doing what I do,” he says. “When I began to explore the body mod world I heard about Steve creating things such as surface bars and subdermal implants, and he inspired me to create my own versions. He’s the most important, most respected body modder out there.”