At A Glance
Author	pierced-boy-stefan
Contact	pierced-boy@web.de
When	A week ago
Artist	Howie, Chandler, Roberto
Studio	First Swiss BodyModification Meeting
Location	Switzerland

„Do I need some special equipment for the suspension?", I asked Ueli when we were walking through the forest to the point of the event lying ahead of me. "No, not really.", he answered after short considering. I simply carried other pants with me, that should be enough. Ueli was one of the initiators of the first Swiss Body Modification Meeting which I should actually share in now.

After a short walk behind a small flood barrage we reached the group which was amongst others waiting for me as one of the actors at this gentle summer evening. In the middle of the forest about 20 people had met to share some suspension acts.

The persons in charge had found with much empathy and a little luck a place appearing nearly magic and which seemed to be perfect for such a happening: Situated under big trees there was built a small refuge with a wooden table. In a circle there were prepared some torches, also bole fires were waiting for being inflamed. In the center of the circle lay some canvas covers over which the most important feature was mounted...

At a huge overthrown bole which had found halt in slanting position in the crotch of another tree there was mounted a roll with a rope, in a height of about 6 meters. On this rope at the one side hung a fixture for the suspensions, at the other side there was an impressive linkage which obviously was able to lift any human weight.

Before me it was Thorstens turn. While he got set four hooks for a Suicide Suspension in the shoulder area, Chandler, 'provocative piercing' artist from Berlin, took me to the marking of the punctures for my Half Superman Suspension. Because Chandler's palm recently got a tattoo he showed an assistant where to find the right lines and points on my back.

I remembered what was imminent to me: When I had arrived at the meeting I just spoke with Howie, body modification artist from USA, about my Superman Suspension plans. He and Chandler recommended yet due to the fact that this would be my first suspension to begin this kind of experience with a Half Superman Suspension. At this type of that suspension there are still set six hooks in the back area, but the legs are held by two straps instead of lifting them also with at large four hooks through the skin.

And now I stood here incarnate and felt how the marker was guided gently and cool-headed about my back and how the right cut-in points were unhurriedly chosen. Chandler and Howie appraised the marks together, everything was fine. I had just a little time left and was able to watch Thorstens Suicide Suspension.

Thorsten had to gasp pretty when he was lifted slowly. What interfered him was the fact that he had to stand for a long time on tiptoe, but finally he had his first lift-off of that kind! The mood was very silent, and Thorsten brave kept up until after approximate ten minutes his circulation went down. So he had to be dropped off again. Applause of the group resounded through the evening forest.

Right in that moment Howie called me to set the hooks for me. I just changed my pants to some which were allowed to get a little bit bloody and yet I lay down on my venter on the litter under the canvas covers.

It began to darken, so a few girls glowed with flash-lights supporting Howies forehead lamp. The Swiss boy Ray and Holger from Saarland gave me something to drink and took pictures of my 'treatment'. First of all my back was disinfected, but then it came to the point.

Howie first grappled my left upper shoulder skin with latex gloves and pressed it powerful together to a well pierceable 'flap'. He asked me consistently if I was o.k. - 'O.k.' would have been an understatement. I still felt great, was relaxed and easy. So he announced the setting of the first hook - and knifed.

"One, two, three", Howie counted and briskly pierced my skin at the same time with a 3-mm suspension hook on which's top a 3.6-mm needleblade was mounted. I felt a strong traction, but it was to bear very well. He repeated the same procedure twice down on the left side. The lower skin area normally is more sensitive and so the piercing prompted me for a short time to clench my teeth, but even this pain was sufferable.

Finally my back was provided with six solid 'butcher hooks', as we called them jestingly. Howie had mounted a safety clamp over every top of each hook in order that nothing would bend up later. The two lower hooks were longer than the upper ones. I was allowed to stand up.

Now Chandler took me again under his wings and let me feel at once and permanently his quiet and considerate aura. He requested me to lie under the small, but pretty decorated suspension bar with its many loops. Roberto from Mexico, Howie and more helped to mount the hooks to laces and to distribute them equally over the loops. Under my legs there were fixed straps to brace my thigh and my shank like in a hang-glider.

The cords were tensed slowly by Luzzi and Matthias from Basel and I felt my skin extend more and more upwards. Again I felt that strong traction, but I wouldn't call this experience really pain. Only in the lower back area I felt a nasty traction, but after a short adjustment of the weight allocation it went by.

"Now you're totally detached!", Chandler cleared me up and I even took my finger tips away from the bottom.

The emotions I felt from now on are not easily to couch. I didn't feel any pain, but was able to enjoy the suspension from the beginning. "Great!" - An experience which I dreamt of since I was a 12 year old boy when I saw a picture of a traditional Indian yogi suspension came true for me in this moment.

And with that truth came clarity. I was pulled higher and higher, and from about 4 meters height I was able to see the whole group under myself. I merged with the surrounding nature, with the people beneath myself, with the whole universe. Anyway I was totally lucid.

Meanwhile a few torches and the prepared boles were on fire down in the circle. It was quiet, the mood was very relaxed and simply delightful. So I was able to 'hang out' totally unwinded here above and to begin with looking.

A little bit later Chris (who's globular 'Iroquois Implants' and tattoos in the face attract attention in every supermarket) came from the group to me and asked me for taking some pictures with his single-use camera from above there. I didn't know if I was able to catch his camera anyway, because my arms had hung down for a while and I had cold hands. But it worked out at the first pitch. So I photographed the group from above and even Chris who had lay down exactly underneath myself - fun for everyone.

The rope pulling guys Luzzi and Mattias rappeled me a little bit so that Chandler could reach my hand. He asked me if we would like to bring in a little dynamic, and so he began firstly to spin myself very tenderly. Even this hardly noticeable movement was nameless nice. I was able to look on the people, in the dark forest, around me and I was simply wonderfully detached.

But my impressions should enhance a good deal more. Chandler swung myself around and got more and more vehement after some cycles, always understandingly demanding how I feel and if everything was alright. Under such a sensitive care I only could feel optimally. Partially Chandler ran through underneath myself in order to give me the right straight push.

So I could swing in a pretty height and turn around, got sometimes water from Ray and was photographed in detail. Very cute were some utterances from the group that my suspension was very esthetically to view. I was quiet glad about that because I couldn't see myself from a different angle.

Then followed the climax for me within my suspension: Keff, one of the organizers of the meeting, and a friend began to breathe fire around me and they sent impressive fireballs and bright fountains into the night sky. I will never forget this mood of light and feelings for all my life. Everything was so harmonic, so coherent, so self-evident, even though a suspension should be an extreme body experience. But I just merged with everything and felt free like never before.

Now and then some warm petroleum drops which were not inflamed sprayed from the fireballs down to my calves. I joked that I would now get a branding modification, too. But the fire breathing guys were careful and let me assimilate the view to the forest, to the group, to the torches, to the fireballs and to everything else without any limitation.

I could consciously internalize this time of my 'hang out' and retain the viewed images as an eternal memory. I had never expected such a beautiful experience for my first suspension, and so I was simply overwhelmed. I felt deep gratefulness for everybody, both the passive involved persons and the active participants for this act.

At the end of my suspension I lay my hands also on my haunches and applied my arms to my body. So I swung a pretty while, even in a height of 5 meters just under the roll on the tree, and I phased out slowly this more than impressive experience.

I could have 'hang out' forever here at the top and was also allowed to (Ray: "You're the boss!"), but after about 40 minutes I thought to myself that the experience and the views I had would be enough impressions for my first time. So I asked Chandler to let me 'come down to earth' again.

The assistants Luzzi and Mattias slowly dropped me off onto the ground, and I unscheduled took in a 'pole position' like for hundred meters. Now I cowered here in a 'Terminator' position and the ropes and straps were detached from the hooks and accordingly from my legs.

To get up was no problem for me. In the area of my shoulders I felt an imaginary ascent, I felt easy and like taking off in one of the next moments, I felt simply well. Now the group also applauded to me.

Everyone who asked me how it was and how I felt I could only answer that the suspension wasn't unpleasant at any time and that it was an unexpected great and unforgettable experience. One of THE experiences of my life.

I told Chandler that the lot appears to me like a dream. He meant that I could certainly live this dream further in the following days. And he should to be proved correct...

Somewhat later Roberto asked me to take place once more on the table. He removed totally painless and pretty briskly the six hooks from my back. Then he rubbed my back with a refrigerant disinfectant gel, cleaned it copious and massaged it strongly. Thereby he pressed invaded air and certainly a little blood out of the pierced holes and supplied the small wounds for now with band-aids.

Alongside I could notice how Thorsten should get a second Suicide Suspension, this time with a faster lift-off and up to swinging games between the trees - great, now he had got his enjoyment, too.

Later Holger and other spectators showed me the pictures of my suspension which were impressive even on the baby-sized displays of the digital cameras. I was thrilled when I saw it. Here and there the pictures according to the darkness and the movement were a little bit blurred, but rather they hit often the natural incidence of light perfectly. I was very glad about that.

Chandler recommended to shower for a while and to relax. I went back with him and Ueli to our lodging - predominantly in silence, but I could enjoy every step and was simply happy.

Under the shower I was able to relax and suddenly I had to smile. Who ever hears for the first time the queer sound when water pours down on fresh suspension spots will be astonished. It sounds like pouring water onto an inflated plastic bag - funny.

After the shower two wounds bled for a short time, but I was able to stanch it shortly after. But for all that it is of course advisable to wear dark clothes after a suspension...

Due to further obligations I wasn't able to stay overlong at the First Swissmodmeeting, but I had enough time to view some suspension movies from Chandler and to talk to some further attendees.

So I was able to thank Howie again for his good and professional job and the whole experience. Also I said a big thank you to Ueli and Keff that they had enabled this suspension for me. Keff told me that I was the flash point to extend the meeting for this night because I could come only that late.

My head full of new impressions, I drove through a short night back home to Germany and viewed the sunrise of a new day. Like Chandler and others told me: You're not exactly the same person after a suspension. You can stand more easily in your life and you know that you experienced something really special.

For days I dreamed over and over again of my body suspension and of the relaxed mood at the meeting. Finally my expectations to this 'first time' were exceeded by far positively and I can only suggest to every interested person to begin this kind of body modification in such a smooth way.

One consequence of course is remaining: You can get 'addicted' to that thing and you want to make it over. Of course I want to relive it, too - what about a Full Superman Suspension the next time? A few days after this experience I reflected why I didn't get the idea to enhance my suspension at the same evening. But thus there remains the anticipation for the next time which I want to experience anyway.

I'm still full of strong feelings like peace, freedom, love, inner quietness and to be in force which the suspension has released. These moods are accompanied by a deep and continuous thankfulness for all of the people who made this experience come true for me.

Thank you for that wonderful first suspension!