ihung in Oslo part 1
This article is going to be the first in a short series of posts about my experiences at the 11th annual Wings of Desire Oslo Suspension Convention, which was held over the weekend of 19-22 July 2012.
I went to Oslo, knowing only a few members of Wings of Desire, and that a few members of the North American community would be there, and with the knowledge that I’d be suspending while there. This would be the first time I’ve suspended in “public” in at least 6 years, possibly longer, so I was more than a bit nervous. Once I was at the space, working alongside so many talented practitioners, my anxiety subsided and gave way to excitement and even eagerness. Initially, I’d said I wanted to suspend on Saturday evening, but I changed my mind and decided to suspend earlier in the day. My chosen position being “superman”, since I’ve never done one before and also because it’s a position that really requires giving up control. Most of my more recent (and by recent, I mean “in the last few years”) have been variations on vertical back suspensions or knee suspensions, which allow for me to be in control of most elements of the experience. Not so much with superman, as piercing, rigging and lifting are all in the hands of the team, and even getting off the ground is different as it’s basically “you’re up or you’re not”, no tippy toes, no shoulders still grounded…
I’m not certain who my team was, other than Håvve was my team leader and Allen was there piercing, along with two others. Before we could down to hook placement, I had the pleasure of having most of my back shaved, along with patches on my legs, so that the bandages would stick afterwards. With that out of the way, the discussion as to where the hooks should go started up, and Håvve decided pretty quickly that they should use Sea Demons (the larger of the standard fishing hooks) for me since my skin doesn’t pinch up too well. The thought of receiving ten 6 gauge piercings was a terrifying one, so I expressed my concerns and it was decided that they’d instead use six Sea Demons in my back, and the normal 8 gauge hooks in my legs. Still worrying, but not quite as bad. The moment of truth came and I had the first four hooks all inserted at the same time, three in my back and one in my calf. It burned a little, but wasn’t unbearable. The next set was about the same, but this meant that eight hooks were in, leaving two more to follow. The two remaining, which happened to both be my upper thighs, which is tight skin, that doesn’t pull or separate terribly well, so I knew they’d hurt, and I was right! That didn’t matter though, as I was finished and ready to go.
There was a table already set up for me to climb onto and my rigging was basically all set as well. I did my best to relax and just enjoy A Silver Mount Zion playing through my headphones while the team connected all the hooks to the rig. That set, pressure was applied to balance the lines, at which point, my calves were burning terribly, so Håvve removed some pressure from them; a cycle we repeated twice more. After the third calf adjustment, I felt really good, so I just didn’t tell the person on ropes to stop, and in a few seconds, I was clear of the table, awash in a fresh flood of emotions and endorphins, and was hanging freely.
Photos courtesy of Stephan Strestik
The suspension was a remarkable success, lasting over an hour, and could have easily went for longer, however I had a presentation to give, which had me a little anxious, so down I came. However, I absolutely succeeded in my goal of letting go of control and trusting in a wonderful team of suspension artists. Thank you again to Wings of Desire and all the lovely people I met while in Oslo.
For more pictures from the event, check out the Oslo SusCon Google+ page.
Dallas SusCon 2011 Preparations
Allen of suspension.org fame has once again graciously organized a massive suspension practitioner’s convention for this Spring. Dallas SusCon 2011 is proving to be bigger and better than the previous two years, which is precisely how it should be. Along with the normal 3 days of suspensions and classes, this year we’re actively stepping up the documentation side of things. There are many reasons for this, but I’m going to touch on a few of the most important ones.
First and foremost is for liability and protection. If something terrible were to happen, it would most likely all come down on Allen as the head of the event, which is obviously something we all wish to avoid. In order to minimize this potential outcome, I’m working on documentation of the chain of command and proper protocols to follow. By having all of this documented, it should be possible to redirect liability to more appropriate persons, and thus help to ensure that SusCons can be continued.
Secondly, it’s allowing me to stretch my wings in a different direction. I’ve slowly been writing up documentation for ihung’s training and operations, but it’s slow going as I didn’t exactly have any guidance or directions on formatting or anything of the like. I’ve been communicating with Mr. Vidra of Health Educators to make the documentation for SusCon as thorough as necessary, as well formatted in such a way that makes it very similar to piercing/tattoo shop documentation which is enough to appease health inspectors.
The tertiary reason is that I wholeheartedly believe that appropriate documentation is the second most lacking aspect of the suspension community. The primary lacking aspect is that of proper education in rigging, but we have classes and instructors at SusCon to work on that one already. One of my personal agendas is to push the if it isn’t documented, it never happened mantra into the community so that we can add more accountability and responsibility. Many of us in the suspension community fear that inevitably some sort of accident will happen which makes us a target for legislation, most likely of an extremely aggressive nature, and our best bet to have control over this is to have solid documentation of our protocols. The idea being that if we have paperwork that shows that we take every possible precaution to keep ourselves and the suspendee as safe as possible.
I’m working predominately on two documents; one is all of the protocols and procedures, in explicit detail so that everyone will be on the same page before even arriving at the space, and the second is a full fledged Exposure Control Plan. The purpose of this document is to define all roles and responsibilities that will be performed, as well as what precautions each role must take, what equipment is available and what the purpose of each of them is.
This is the first year that we’ll have these documents, as well as my first time writing them, so they will be rough, but just like the goal of the SusCon is to improve the minimum standards, that’s what I’m shooting for with this.
Kavadi Ritual in 2005
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/