September 24th, 2005: it is the day of Bodypiercing Lifestyle's 10 year anniversary party. Partytime is from from 2 pm till all the booze and food is gone. There are many performances, and I am one of those performers. I'm doing a 4-point suicide as I already know what that's like. So why not try something new, you may ask? Well, because while hanging there I'm supposed to announce the brand new Lifestyle Suspension Crew. This is the story of my suspension/performance.
At A Glance Author psychonautje Contact psychonautje@bme.anon IAM psychonautje When A week ago Artist Manny & Jimmy Studio Lifestyle Location Maastricht, The Netherlands I arrived at Lifestyle around 12.30 pm – I was supposed to get there at noon but of course, my train had a delay (I'm sitting in a train that is delayed with about an hour as we type). I promised to be there early to help out with stuff, but all stuff was pretty much done really. So I chatted with the Lifestyle people and helped out a bit as a wannabe-countergirl, and ate my subway sandwich. I checked out the schedule of performances and it wouldn't be my turn till 19.30 – for some reason this made me less nervous.
Starting from about two-ish, people started to trickle in. There were various performances (belly dancer, poi show) and in the piercing rooms people got pierced, play pierced, branded, and traditionally tattooed. By 4 pm, it was really crowded in the store. We decided to throw the schedule around and I would be going up around 5 pm. My nerves kicked in again but I knew I could do it.
Jimmy called me if I was ready to get my hooks, and I followed him into one of the piercing rooms. I took of my shirt and showed Jimmy my back: though the scars of my previous suspension had faded a lot, they were still visible enough to use them as marks. After some discussion Jimmy decided to mark me anyway, using the scars as a guideline. My back got disinfected (why is that stuff always so cold?) and I laid down. Jimmy and Manny were going to throw my hooks, while Matthias and his girlfriend would be squeezing my skin together.
I'm always more nervous about receiving the hooks than about the suspension (or pull) itself, and with my previous experiences my hooks were thrown one by one, so I was a little apprehensive about throwing the hooks two by two. But I figured the worst part would be over sooner this way. Matthias and his girlfriend took my skin, Jimmy and Manny rested the 8 ga (3.2 mm) needles against my skin. There were no breathing exercises, Jimmy said to Manny: "on three", and started counting fast: "one-two-three!" I tried to time my breaths so that I would exhale on three, but of course, when Jimmy said three I inhaled. There was a sharp pain throughout my upper back, I couldn't even tell exactly were, as the needles slid through my skin, and were followed through with the 6 ga (4 mm) hooks. It was fast and since I prepared for the worst, not too bad pain-wise, and definitely not more painful than getting the hooks one by one. I just couldn't pinpoint where the pain exactly was. The second pair of hooks followed in the same fashion (again, I inhaled on three, I need to practice that, heh). I got up and walked around for a few minutes to allow my skin to get accustomed to the hooks.
When I couldn't feel the presence of the hooks anymore (well I could still feel that they were there obviously but it was not painful or pressure-like at all anymore) I went to the rig. Manny rigged me up and we put some pressure on the hooks. After some adjusting, and then some more, pressure seemed equal on all the hooks, although the outer ones felt like they had more pressure, but it wouldn't go away completely so I just assumed that the outer ones were more sensitive. Time to go up now! I told Manny when he could put more pressure on, and it went really fast compared to my first time. In no time, I was standing on tiptoes, and was ready to be free from the ground, it didn't feel weird at all this time. So I yelled: "up, up, up", Manny pulled the rope and pulled me all the way up to the ceiling. The crowd (about 50 people I think) applauded, and I a huge smile on my face! There was no pain, though I could feel the pressure on my skin. I knew for sure that I could take on the entire world on my own. When the applause faded and I felt ok hanging there, I started my announcement of the Lifestyle Suspension Crew: "Now that I have your attention anyway (crowd laughs), I'd like to make an announcement: Lifestyle is starting a Suspension Crew, which will enable people to hang from flesh hooks just like me! The crew will consist of Sandra (applause), Jimmy (applause), Yannick (applause), Matthias (applause), and me (applause)! And now, I need a volunteer to give me a push so I can swing around!"
The lovely Elise, who also took my photographs, gave me a push and I started swinging. After swinging around for a bit Manny started fooling around with the rope, lowering me and pulling me up again. Then he tied it around his waist and let me do my thing. I kept swinging and I felt like I could hang there forever. It was funny to wave at the people who were staring in shock through the store window. I had to sneeze terribly while hanging there which was an interesting feeling while hanging there: sneezing gives you a pretty powerful shock throughout your upper body that you don't notice that much if you're just sitting around, but when you have 4 flesh hooks through your skin the sensation is much stronger. A small jolt of pain went through my upper back as my body shocked, but it was gone as soon as it came. Jimmy took over the rope from Manny for a while. I hung silent for a few moments while holding my feet, but decided that swinging around was much more fun, and went back to that. Manny took over the rope again.
After about 25 minutes Manny said: "Marjolein, I'm getting tired." I was sort of getting bored anyway (though I could have easily stayed up much longer), but I decided it was a good time to come down. Manny started to lower me slowly, but told me not to touch the ground yet, so pulled up my knees and held up my feet with my hands. When I was only a few centimeters from the ground, Manny pulled me up quickly one more time. Again he lowered me, I held my feet behind my back, my knees pointing down, and landed on my knees. Touchdown is an extremely weird feeling, hello gravity! Manny un-rigged me, and before going into one of the rooms to remove the hooks I smoked a cigarette and talked a bit – there were loads of questions (not only right after, the questioning didn't stop for the rest of the night). Manny warned me not to linger to long because removing the hooks wouldn't become any easier as the blood was drying, so I followed him to the rooms. Getting the hooks out was easy and painless. I got cleaned a bit, and then Manny told me to stand against the wall so he could push the air out of my back. As he did so blood squirted out of the wounds accompanied by cute little fart-sounds, much to the amusement of the audience. Manny used quite some force but it felt good, it's like a powerful massage. I was bleeding pretty much, and it wouldn't stop, so I was bandaged up. It was the first time for me to bleed so much, maybe because I hung there for so long? During the night we had to change the bandages 2 or 3 more times. My back felt a little sore and stiff the next day, and I kept bleeding throughout the night. Other than that, I fetlt amazing the next few days and I can't wait for our Lifestyle Suspension Crew's first proper meeting!