DOES THIS LOOK PAINFUL?: Adam Aries spins while attached by a metal beam and hooks through the skin of his back to another person during the Suspension Convention in Providence, USA. Reuters
Posted on 04/06/2005 11:42:05 AM PDT by finnman69
DOES THIS LOOK PAINFUL?: Adam Aries spins while attached by a metal beam and hooks through the skin of his back to another person during the Suspension Convention in Providence, USA. Reuters
PROVIDENCE: Tony Troiano grimaced as he was lifted off the floor by giant fishhooks pierced through the skin on his shoulders.
Within minutes, he started to spin, swing his feet and declare the painful experience "the greatest thing" ever.
"I was on Cloud Nine," the Wethersfield, Connecticut teenager said as he joined fellow body suspension practitioners at an annual convention over the weekend. "It was euphoric. It was spiritual. I'd do it again today if I wasn't so sore."
From tentative first-timers to the well practiced, more than a hundred aficionados celebrated their passion for body suspension at the three-day gathering, held in an old textile mill in Providence, Rhode Island.
To hang cost $US100 ($NZ143.20); just to watch cost $US15 at what many say is the best such gathering for the hundreds, if not thousands, of people they estimate practice suspension across America.
"Ever stand up too fast and feel like you're about to pass out?" said Dave Post, of Albany, New York explaining why he liked hanging from hooks. "It's like you're stuck at that point. "
The practice requires 7.5cm steel deep sea fishing hooks freshly inserted under the skin for each suspension.
A basic "suicide" hang uses hooks in the back, a chest suspension requires hooks in front, a knee suspension puts the body upside down, and the "Superman" pose requires hooks along the back and upper thighs. The hooks are attached to ropes, and pulleys slowly lift the body off the floor.
Some people spin like acrobats, some play like children on a swing and others hang solemnly. Some giggle, some cry.
"Some people have a spiritual experience, some people just have fun and some people don't like it and come right down, " said Mike Giossi, a local mechanic and fan of the practice.
Jess Robins, a student from Canada, hung almost motionless from hooks inserted through the tops of her breasts. Blood poured down her belly, and her legs trembled.
Nearby, two men played a game of tug-of-war, pulling at each other with wire cables attached through their elbows.
"When I first got off the ground, I never felt pain like that in my life. But afterward, I was just filled with empowerment," said Giossi. "I've never been happier than when I came down. "
Practitioners may seek the power and intensity suspension offers, said Karen Conterio, co-author of Bodily Harm, a book about self-mutilation. Suspension also could be a rite of passage.
"It's a conquest of some sort. People are pushing the envelope more and more to attain some kind of separation and identification from society, and this is one way of doing it, " she said. "Most people who probably are pretty healthy are not going to go to that extreme."
Many practitioners say suspension is somehow therapeutic.
"Look at his face. He's so serene," said Rosemary Curtis, watching her boyfriend swing slowly in the "Superman" pose. "We've had some really rough times this year, and he needed this really bad. "
Not everyone was convinced. Colin Vanalstine watched but was not about to try it. "I'm afraid of needles," he said.
For such an off-beat practice, the convention is remarkably well-run, with sanitary precautions, surgical tools and almost military efficiency in preparing people for their suspension.
Some hang for a few minutes, others for an hour or more.
The biggest danger is cross-contamination, organisers said, due to so much open flesh and blood. Other dangers involve people passing out or suffering seizures, they said.
"The first couple of times, I didn't enjoy it," said Canadian Warren Hiller. "The first time I blacked out, and one time I was convulsing. But the third time I got better. I wasn't blacking out anymore. "
It's not masochism, said Allen Falkner of Dallas, who has practiced suspension for 13 years. "Suspension is not about pain, it's about getting past the pain. "
Advocates say suspension has been practiced since ancient times in many societies.
"It's searching for answers, trying new things," Hiller said. "You can only get pierced and tattooed so many times. "
I guess ya could eat them when they were done. Improve the gene pool and have a ready (willing) supply of fresh meat at the same time!
Egh. I've long had this desire to get a small rose over my ankle.
Gone now.
Yeah I found the tattooing fads to be pretty sick and depraved as well. They used to be the domain of criminals, primitives, and mystics.
If you can get past the convulsions and blackouts, it doesn't sound too bad.
They don't hurt that much. There's some discomfort as the old skin sloughs off but after a week or so you're back to normal (assuming you're normal to begin with).
Meh... Strange to me, but they're not hurting anyone so...
I guess lying on a bed of nails and walking on coals is old hat now.
The weirdest people are the ones who drill holes in their skulls.
Let's all just hope they never end up booking the function room next to the Pinata Convetion...
they should have hooked a 440 volt wire up to the hooks and been done with this moron
Don't forget sailors and Marines.
Over the ankle, that would have hurt.
Also, why not try blow torches on their digits.
Remember the Roman general who burnt his arm to
the toughness of the Romans.
I wonder what steps they use to clean those hooks, or if they're passing HIV around through the masochist population.
Nah the weirdest are those that chop off their own genitalia.
Except for the fact that it just about describes my efforts to start smoking (quit 3 years ago after 30 years of it), I would have to ask, "What's wrong with this picture?"
I am from North Dakota myself, but I wonder if this is where Richard Harris got the idea in that movie, I think it was A Man Called Horse?
Hang them by something that will discourage breeding!
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