Shocking photos: On hooks
Light red fabric wraps around the slender body, leaving the back open. Four metal hooks protrude from the back. There is no blood, but the skin around the punctures is slightly swollen and reddened. A girl with a Roman profile and short blond hair stands in the middle of the dance floor. Loud dark music. The audience froze in a wide semicircle and are waiting for what will happen next. Their eyes are tense and focused - not every day you see pierced human flesh.
Only two assistants dance, whose hands and cheeks are pierced through with knitting needles. Multi-colored highlights run along the walls of a fashionable Moscow club.
In the thick of the glamorous audience, the lights of gadgets are flickering, fixing what is happening. Ropes are tied to the hooks on the girl's back, stretching upwards to the edge of the metal plate. A thicker rope goes from this plate on the other side to the ceiling. There she bends over the wheel and falls into the hands of an assistant, hiding aside.
Suddenly, the hall is filled with blood-red light. Yura, a short guy hiding his face behind a black mask, waves his hand to the assistant, who quickly begins to sort out the rope.
Yura pierced the girl's back and inserted hooks. She asked to lift slowly. The skin on her back tightens, the girl stoops, stands on her toes and after a moment hangs in the air. Above it are only bas-reliefs with angels, painted in gold.
The assistants take the hanging edges of the clothes and unwind the hanging girl. Like a Gogol witch, she hovers over the astonished audience.
Behind the scenes, an inspired organizer will run up to a girl with a Roman profile and hooks in her back: - It was super! They are all shocked!
The performance of the theater of pain was a success. Generous applause.
Suspension - this is usually called this action. It is organized either for the public for the sake of the show, or for the acquisition of new sensations and self-knowledge. In the second case, no costumes, no backup dancers, no masks are needed. It is enough to find a secluded place in the city where the hanging participants will not be disturbed by onlookers passing by.
Little-visited places of large city parks or the outskirts of residential areas are suitable. The main thing is to have somewhere to fix the rope for suspension. It can be either a thick branch of a tree, or a crossbar of a power line tower. I was told that once a crane was used for suspension.
For one "victim" - several friends and acquaintances who are just interested in the process. Plus two more, wielding hooks. The victim's name is Sergey. A thin guy with fashionable bangs hanging down by a comma to the tip of his nose, colored tattoos on his arms and chest. Plays guitar in the band Biopsyhoz. This will be the first suspension in his life.
The two who are in charge of the process are Yura and his girlfriend Zhenya. Yura's sharp cheekbones and jet long hair combined with Zhenya's black eyeliner give this couple a slightly demonic look. But this is external. In fact, they turn out to be calm and reasonable people. And, of course, there is also a photographer - Anton. We settled down on the clearing of Izmailovsky Park, over which the power line passes. Under one of the towers, Yura is slowly preparing a place for hanging. The rest sat down on the grass. Someone lit a cigarette, someone just resting.
— Why is it necessary? the curious blonde asks Zhenya. For some this is a new experience. There are people who see it as meditation. For them, it's a way to relax. Anton adds: “Andryukha told me, who was engaged in or is engaged in suspensions, that at first it kind of hurts like hell, and then you jump over some kind of barrier and then some kind of garbage - euphoria. Something close. - Yes Yes Yes. It’s different for everyone,” Zhenya assures. She is studying clinical psychology at a Moscow university. So it's impossible to explain. You can give a few examples, but until you experience it yourself, you won’t understand what it is for you.
Hanging can be found in the rituals of some peoples. Thus, the Mandan Indians of North America, who lived on the Missouri River, performed the rite of the okip (O-kee-pa). The young men, who had not eaten or drunk anything for the fourth day, were pierced in the chest or back and hung up by the skin. At this time, they were swinging and pulling. The torture continued until the moment when the young men stopped screaming or completely lost consciousness. After that, they were considered real men, warriors who passed the test.
Today, suspension, along with piercings, scarification, and subdermal implants, is seen as part of body modification culture. There are dozens of teams around the world who will gladly pierce you, and then hang you up and even shake you if you wish.
Most often hung on two hooks in the back. This method is called "suicide". But Sergei decided to insert two more hooks into each hand. Before piercing, Yura tries his skin for tension: - Fuck ***, it’s just pure material. - Material! Sergei ironically repeats. The hooks were sterilized today. They are just the purest, - says Zhenya with the intonation of a caring maniac.
Sergei is laid on the ground. Zhenya will stretch the skin, Yura will pierce it with a piercing needle, and then insert the hooks. All the necessary tools and medical supplies, including bandages, disinfectants and ammonia, are neatly folded into a small wooden box. Yura and Zhenya are wearing blue disposable gloves.
Zhenya also praises Sergei: - The skin stretches so well. It’s just that for some it happens that it’s even impossible to take it - the hands slip off. We pricked one girl - it's just tin! She is not a fat girl. Well, it's normal. The skin was impossible to take. The skin is so thick that Yura could barely thread a needle through.
Different people tolerate being pierced differently. Someone is nervous and turns green, someone starts to feel dizzy and nausea sets in. And for some, everything is just a light bulb, but there are fewer of them. Sergey is one of those who are less.
- How are you? Zhenya asks him when another needle pierces Sergei. “Fine,” he replies blankly. Are you experiencing anything at all? "Fine!" The perfect victim. After all six hooks are already sticking out of Sergey, he is given time to rest before the most important part of the process. The usually silent Yura tells stories: — There were dudes who hung on 300 fishing hooks. Do you know how much they injected? They pricked for probably three hours. And all without needles, just hooks. Did you bite later? Sergei asks. - Well, yes.
Yura carefully threads a rope through the holes at the ends of the hooks, which simultaneously intertwines with the grooves in the metal frame. This must be done so that the tension is distributed evenly on each hook. When everything is ready, Yura starts to pull the rope. Sergey lifts off the ground and hangs in the air, as if crucified on an invisible cross - that's why this method of hanging is called "crucifixion". Yura takes Sergey by the legs and starts to rock him. Sergey smiles at new sensations. The skull tattooed on his chest spreads his horns rather.
When a person hangs on hooks, air enters through the punctures under his skin. Therefore, after hanging, a massage is done, with the help of which this air is squeezed out. Together with him, blood oozes from the punctures, and sometimes it splashes in small droplets.
“The essence of suspension is that the skin should come off the muscles,” Yura explains. - If it doesn’t stick, then it’s as if a person was simply taken by the scruff of the neck. Then he asks Sergei: - Well, so - what did you feel? - Kaifets. - And my first feeling was - as if a warm, warm wave covered. A momentary sensation of pain, and then a warm wave covers. Oh! - This is masochism, - Sergey states. - If you look from a scientific point of view, then to some extent - yes. And if from another point, then this is neither x * I am not masochism.
For help in preparing the project, the author expresses gratitude to the ANCORE, Horror Show and Pain Cult teams, as well as personally to Yuri Chernov, Evgenia Shmel and Sergey Popov.