Photo's credit to GuyJean
http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fd20050807tc.htm
"Of course I was nervous at first," said the woman. "I was happy and terrified at the same time. But once you're up there, hanging, it's fine. It's exciting. It's like you've broken free of gravity."
She was "up there, hanging," in fact, by four fish hooks embedded in her naked back. " a Frenchman named Lukas Zpira (who also does "cutting"), when he calls his work art, and himself an artist. One thing is sure, though. His clients, or his living canvases, or whatever you want to call the people he works on, endure their pain with manly and womanly stoicism, and accord him a grateful hug when it's over.
To return to the woman and the fish hooks. Zpira begins with a magic marker, drawing lines that form a pattern on her back. He then carefully pierces her flesh with the hooks and slowly raises her by means of ropes until she is dangling quite helplessly, the skin on her back bulging like a tent roof where the hooks are implanted. "I was afraid the skin would peel off," Yamashita notes somewhat queasily. It doesn't, but there are spurts of blood. The woman, seemingly in another dimension, smiles vacantly.
There are nine suspensions in all that day.
"It's high tension, like you're different from your everyday self," says another suspendee. "It's a great weekend attraction."
What about pain? inquires Yamashita.
"Yes, there's pain," replies a third participant. "But that's why I do it. I want to experience the pain on the other side."
"I started off," explains Zpira, "as an artist, drawing pictures, taking photos. About 10 years ago I discovered a way to practice art directly on the human body. I felt that I had found my true creative path."
Just ask Yoshi, whose body has been "improved" by Zpira's scalpel (he wields a scalpel as well as hooks) in no fewer than 60 places. The spikes, earrings and noserings that adorn his face are indescribable. The split tongue is interesting too.
Who does the cleaning and frying?
S&M brought to a sub level, me thinks.
