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Update: Allen posted this video on Tumblr and wondered when it was actually shot, so I did some more googling and found that this video isn’t actually from the 70′s, instead it’s most likely from 1985, or so this article makes it seem.

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Doing some youtube searching, as I’m wont to do on occasion and I came across an older video of human suspensions being performed in Sri Lanka. A Professor Carlo Fonseka takes the opportunity to show that suspension does not take magic or religious devotion to achieve and goes on to show a (presumed) scientist being suspended from six hooks in a superman position. This video is most likely from the late 1970′s as that is when the professor was waging a war of science vs gods, and his main opponent was the Hindu deity Kataragama, whose devotees are known for firewalking and flesh suspensions. Kataragama is also known as Lord Murugan to the Tamil people of India, which is the same deity exalted during Thaipusam.

Despite knowing that religious devotion is not necessary for rituals such as suspension, I still personally find it much more interesting within that context. We in the modern suspension community know that it’s mind over matter, not religious devotion which allows us to suspend, but I personally hope that all of us remember where these rituals originate.

Back in Summer of 2005, Evolved Body Art hosted an event titled The International Body Art Expo which was to be a “more than” tattoo convention. During the planning stages of this, I was contacted to see if I wanted to partake in a Kavadi walk ritual with a man named Ego Kornus. I, of course, accepted and on the day of was ecstatic to meet Ego as I was familiar with his work and had much respect for him. We’d chatted a bit online beforehand, so I wasn’t going in completely blind, and had done some preparation in the form of light fasting, increased water intake, and personal introspection in order to calm my mind for the experience.

My part in the ceremony was to receive multiple piercings on my torso and arms from which various fruits were hung. This is a very common practice in religious ceremonies such as Thaipusam, a ceremony we were borrowing heavily from. Along with myself, there were a handful of others adorned with fruits and flowers, and Ego who carried the kavadi, and a large cheek skewer, and also Nick who had hooks inserted in his back and dragged around several large stones from them. The ritual began late, and we were short on time, but despite this, all piercings were performed at a ritualized pace, with controlled breathing and a lot of coaching and support from everyone involved. Once all of us had our fruits attached, Nick had his burdens, and Ego had the spears inserted, we began the procession. I’m unsure of how long the actual procession lasted, but the experience was one I will never forget.

Often in the body modification world, we become so obsessed with the standard rituals of piercing, cutting, scarification, suspension, etc, that the others, like kavadi and ball dances fall by the wayside. It’s refreshing to have these other ritual experiences to elevate our awareness of the immense world of ritual modifications and ceremonies out there.

For more information on kavadi, and to follow Ego’s current endeavors, check out two of his sites:
http://kavadinfo.blogspot.com/
http://svasticross.blogspot.com/

A good friend of ihung, Melissa, contacted us somewhat out of the blue a few weeks ago, wanting to do a calf suspension. She loves knee suspensions, but they no longer seem like a challenge to her, so she wanted something similar, but new. Calf suspensions are a rare breed, partly because they don’t tend to be terribly comfortable, and partly due to the high risk of tearing. Initially, she wanted to do a two point suspension, with just one large hook in the back of each calf, but upon speaking with some of my colleagues, it was decided that we should try a four point, with two hooks on the sides of the calves, to disperse the weight and ideally lessen the risk of tearing.

I’ve seen several calf suspensions in my day, and to my recollection, they seem to be a 50/50 gamble insofar as tearing is concerned. I like to play things extremely safe, especially when working on someone outside of our group, so facilitating this suspension was tough. I was constantly paranoid of tearing while simultaneously needing to reassure her that things would be fine. It’s a tricky dance which all practitioners have to learn well.

The day of finally arrived so Dave, Melissa and I went out to the tree in the park which we’ve used quite a bit this year and got down to rigging and setup. Rigging could have gone better, but we eventually got a safe setup for her, which I tested by swinging aggressively on in a harness. We discussed where to put the hooks, which direction, what felt best, etc and then got down to business. One suggestion, from Håvve was to stagger the hooks so they aren’t at the same level, so as to not create a band of pressure to cut off circulation. We tried to accomodate that plan, however once the hooks were in, it was apparent that although they were staggered, it was only by maybe an inch. Once pressure was on them, it was nigh unnoticeable, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves. We inserted the hooks so that the outer hooks and inner hooks were in different directions, which was probably not necessary, but made sense at the time.

Now that Melissa was hooked and rigged in, we discussed how to get her off the ground. With a knee suspension, it’s common to just allow the body to drag along the ground a bit before being raised, but we didn’t totally agree on that. What we ended up doing was having Dave lift he via the rigging, while I held her hands and lifted her torso up and then slowly, gradually lowered her until she was perpendicular. It took a minute for her to acclimate and release my hands, but once she did, the suspension went amazingly! No tearing, no problems at all. I think the pics speak for themselves.