Shannon’s Halloween Trauma

Posted on January 11, 2008 by Shannon Larratt

For her second suspension, Shannon jumped into the deep end with a performance at Trauma on Halloween night 2007 with the help of Modified Soul, ihung and Only Flesh. The photos — and there are lots more after the break — are by Chris Thornton of Hellophoto.net. The part that surprised me is what she wrote about the zen of it:

This suspension was so much fun! Despite being in an environment surrounded by tons of people, music blaring and people yelling I still found that clarity, inner peace and pleasure I always feel from my suspensions.

Birthday Suspension

Posted on January 10, 2008 by Shannon Larratt

Danae (Queen of the Covergirls) wrote me with the story of her recent birthday suspension,

I’d been talking to Steve Truitt for a little while over iam, and he invited me to come down to Upland, CA to watch a suspension event he was doing with Jon. It was the weekend of my birthday in December, so I drove down with a friend and met up with a couple more friends. Adam came with us to take pictures, Mateo and Meli came along to hang. We all met up with Steve and Jon in Upland. Steve told me I could hang if I decided I was ready. After watching my Meli, who has a birthday within a couple of days of mine, I decided I was ready to go up.

After getting my hooks thrown (four point suicide), which was not as bad as I expected it to be, Steve hooked me up to the rig. Jon pulled on the rope and put a little tension on the hooks. I felt my whole body get warm. I was so calm and ready for this experience. Steve walked me back and forth and with each step I felt lighter and lighter. Before I knew it, I was up. I felt like everything negative in my heart and mind had melted away from me. I just remember I couldn’t stop smiling. Everything felt perfect and right, like I belonged on those hooks.

My back felt really tight, so I started swinging around and reaching behind me and grabbing my feet. Everything loosened up after that. It was so much fun! I could have stayed up forever it seems, but it was starting to get cold and dark and there were about four or five other people waiting to hang, so I decided it was time to come down after about twenty minutes.

Anyway, thanks for letting me share! It was an amazing experience and I can’t wait to do it again.

Lots more pictures after the break!

10-Point Kneeling Crucifixion

Posted on January 9, 2008 by Shannon Larratt

Hugh with Hack Suspension Team in Australia (maybe you recognize his bat wing eyebrows) recently did this unusual ten point crucifixion-style suspension with his legs rigged to his back, giving an alternative to dangling limbs. Click through for a second photo.

Navio Mara Hope Suspension

Posted on January 9, 2008 by Shannon Larratt

As they say… location, location, location!

Along with a boat full of suspension gear, Valnei and friends rowed out to the wreck of the Mara Hope, an old tanker ship that sunk just off the coast of Fortaleza, Brasil in the early eighties.

More photos continue after the break…

Rigged to the boat’s crane, they did a guerilla two-point o-kee-pa style chest suspension… I’d wager this is the first suspension off a shipwreck?

Matty’s Facial Cutting and Suspension

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Shannon Larratt

It seems like a lot of the people writing me have had a rough 2007… I remember when 2007 started we had a number of unexpected deaths in this community and a few people remarked what a bad year they felt was upon us, and maybe they were right.

Matty definitely had that experience, so on the first day of 2008 he decided to shave his head and start afresh… He took this great B&W picture that day in his garden and shares it with us.

To help him get through the rough patch, in December he had the chance to do his first four point suicide suspension with the Hack Suspension Team in Canberra, Australia, and about a week later he had the wonderful experience of having Lukas Zpira do a facial cutting on him as part of Lukas’s workshop in Sydney, Australia.

There are some more pictures of his experiences after the break.

Above: Cutting by Lukas Zpira.
Below: Suspension with HACK

Is it real or an art hoax?

Posted on January 6, 2008 by Shannon Larratt

Will took the photo below and lots more this summer in Lyon, France at a suspension event organized by Lukas Zpira, xEddyx and the guys from Marquis Body Art in La Demeure du Chaos. What’s most interesting to me is the ultrasound above, of which Will writes,

The first picture is of a scan. To get in you had to take a pill — I presume it was vitamin of some sort (I felt no ill effects anyway). Once you took the pill, the owner of the place scanned you and that’s what showed up, a nice little skull!

Whhhaaaaaat? – There were language barriers, but I asked Will to describe this in a little more detail and he explained,

We all queued up outside the main area. There was a big metal container where the guy sat. He introduced himself, asked me a few questions, asked me to take the tablet (a capsule type), and he then put some lubricant on my neck where a madison piercing would be. He scanned me with the ultrasound machine and it made a printout, and up showed my little skull, which I presume was inside the capsule.

The owner has a blog with a few more details in French (more), and here’s a shot of the scan being done…

Maybe I don’t get Norwegian humor?

Posted on January 5, 2008 by Shannon Larratt

Oddbjorn says that he figured out the “huge all important question of…”

What do you do with your hands and feet while in a resurrection suspension?

You just:

1) Hook both your wrists in a loop behind your back.
2) Put both your feet into the loop.
3) Pull and enjoy.

He also sends out thanks to Haavve and the Wings of Desire suspension team, which I can definitely agree with! This was done at the December 27th Susday in Oslo.

Consolation Corset

Posted on January 4, 2008 by Shannon Larratt

Amber sent me a shot of her best friend’s upper arm corset piercing (“she was a trooper though it all — lots of squirming and ‘oh fucks’ were involved, but no tears”), which she got after losing her hip piercings the week before. They were done for the Pomona Convention, but she’s planning on babying them with the hope that she’ll be able to keep them as long as possible. Rick Anders at DV8 Tattoos and Body Piercing in Vallejo, California did them for her.

HELL 666

Posted on December 28, 2007 by Shannon Larratt

Brian in the Netherlands got his toes cut up by the girls from Dare2wear in Amsterdam, with Julia cutting the 666, and Sharon cutting the HELL… Both of them were cut simultaneously, which he describes as a “different” feeling! (Cut him some slack, it’s not as if English is his first language). Julia also did the goat-head cutting on his shin, and Ilya did the spider skin-peelings at Lab360 in Amsterdam.

Brian is also a performer, and recently did this suspension show in Maastricht, The Netherlands, assisted by Raoul and Beto… The facial hooks — my favorite part — were inspired by the movie Hellraiser (and remind me of Casshan‘s shows).

Apokalypse Party

Posted on December 28, 2007 by Shannon Larratt

I got some more great photos from Sergio Enfermo of Russian suspension events by the folks from Apokalypse Party in Saint Petersburg. This set is from a suspension party at the tattoo studio Extreme Art, where they did the three suicide suspensions — Totay, owner of the studio (the guy with long hair and beard), Aspid, and Clockorange (I really like the touching photos of Doggy, her husband, and her in this set — below at full size, and you can find more if you follow the links).

They’re aiming to host an event every week or two, and you can also find them on IAM — Doggy, Clockorange, and devil rejeñts.