New tattoo and wedding vows for Bif Naked
Last Updated: Sunday, September 30, 2007 | 4:18 PM ET
CBC News
The bride was rocker Bif Naked, but there was nothing punk about the wedding ceremony celebrated Saturday in Vancouver.
Bif Naked, whose real name is Beth Torbert, married Vancouver Sun sportswriter Ian Walker in a 30-minute ceremony at St. Andrews Wesley United Church that featured readings from the Bible and an exchange of vows.
Beth Torbert, left, also known as Bif Naked, married Ian Walker in Vancouver on Saturday.
(Richard Lam/Canadian Press)
However, in a major departure from tradition, the couple sealed their bond with tattoos. Naked has had Walker's signature tattooed on her arm while Walker has a stylized B emblazoned on his hip.
Torbert is already heavily tattooed with Buddhist and Hindu poetry, symbols of the Tao and an Egyptian eye of Horus.
During the wedding Torbert, who played with punk bands Gorilla Gorilla and Chrome Dog before going solo, wore a cream-coloured minidress with a detachable skirt, a pink veil and a long train.
The bride, a poet and spoken word artist whose last album is Superbeautiful Monster, wept during the ceremony.
She was escorted down the aisle by her father, Kenneth Torbert, of Prince Albert, Sask.
Her husband's parents, Gillian and Eric Walker, who are both Salvation Army ministers, read from the Bible.
Their reception was held at a Vancouver Indian restaurant.
Walker and Torbert met while working out at the same gym and started dating last year.
Walker, 34, said he and Torbert first made eye contact at a martial arts event he was covering for the newspaper, where she was the MC.
"I always knew her as this hot chick from MuchMusic, with the tattoos," said Walker, who blogs on extreme sports as well as writing for the newspaper.
"Halfway through she down and gave me a little candy," he said. "So that's how it started."
Torbert, who was adopted in India by American missionaries and later raised in Winnipeg, was married once before.
"Ian, he was just like so positive all the time, always very, very positive, very polite," she said. "He melted my heart, he just did."
Walker has never seen Bif Naked's stage act, but now she plans to take him on tour.
"The guys in my band will probably haze him," she said.
