Well since Shannon asked me to write this I will let my crappy english writing go for a spin! (you best love me for all this typing Shannon.)
At A Glance Author Vodin Contact vodin_33@hotmail.com When A month ago Artist Brent Moffatt Studio Metamorphasis Custom Tattoo and Body Piercing Location Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Now for about a year and a half I have been thinking of doing this record, ever since I first researched it and found that the old record was only 200 needles at a tiny 22 gauge. So at each shop I worked at I discussed this with my employers and until now they were all against it because of the possibility that it may be covered as a "freak" story. About four months ago I came to Metamorphasis here in Winnipeg and once again brought my ideas up to my boss Diane Matt, but low and behold she was very excited and supportive of me doing this in the shop and on shop time (for we would have to close for that day and do no piercings).
Now the planning began, we had to look into the proposed cost of the attempt and find the cheapest but best supplies to do this thing. Next came looking into the risks of the attempt, now the foremost risk was infection, so I went to my doctor and requested to be put on antibiotics for a short time, well let me tell you when i explained why I was asking for this his face was priceless I may as well had been an axe murderer sitting next to him (giggle). Now we had to look hard at the rules that guinness had set forth, first was to have medical staff on hand through the whole process and that was easy since my boss Diane was a nurse for 30+ years and I was an army medic for 8 years. Second was that I insert and remove all the needles myself which we will talk about later. Third was we needed as much proof as possible, well this was far from hard since we had three TV stations, three or more newspapers, an international wire service, and about 100 witnesses present.
Well we decided on January 15th 2003 for the attempt, so several days earlier I began taking my medication, and the day before I shaved my legs because body hair breeds bacteria like wildfire (it's finally grown back mostly). Now here I'll say I have done lots of piercings and tattoo's but that night before I was definetly getting nervous about this because the most piercings I have ever done in one sitting is two! And the fear of setting all this up and having all the press there to perhaps utterly fail was definetly in the back of my mind, but I tried to put this out of my mind and actually get some sleep so that I would be in the best shape possible.
The morning of the 15th not only did I have this to deal with but I also had to do a radio interview right before I went to the shop. Now I got to the shop at about 9am and went about to setting everything up. Here I will say that we at the shop did everything possible to ensure the safety of all present not only myself but any spectators as well, so we split my area off from where spectators would be with green tape and covered any area that would come into contact with my blood with dental drapes. After showing my assistant how to unpackage needles and pass them to me I asked everyone to leave the room to give me time to meditate and prepare myself mentally. At about 10:45am I let them back in with some spectators and waited for 11am to hit so I could begin.
As the clock struck 11am I inserted the first needle, well much to say it did hurt a slight bit more than I had figured but was bearable, then the reporters began the first of the interviews. After this I put on my headphones and cranked up "System of a Down" and went to it as fast as I could. Exactly at 12:04pm I inserted the 201st needle and took off the headphones and much to my surprise there were what seemed like millions of microphones shoved near my face, well this was the wierdest part of the whole process because I felt like President Bush at a news meeting. Several interviews and a juice break later I started up again, up to needle 500 or so I was a good boy and fought the urge for a smoke but finally my body NEEDED nicotine so off i hobbled (the tape of it is priceless looks like I crapped my pants the way I was walking). Well much to say stress + endorphins + nicotine = SICK, I felt like i was going to puke and pass out all at once and actually needed help back t o the room (don't smoke and pierce to close together).
Now I will say that the first 500 were'nt that bad but beyond the 500 mark the pain and swelling began to concern me alot as did the general state of my health, but I pushed on. When I reached about 600 the swelling was getting to a point that it was getting really hard to find skin that I was able to grab to insert the needle, and the pain was getting far worse. Here I'll say there was some blood trickling down my legs but unknown to me this was just the beginning. At this point I had kind of decided that I would stop piercing my legs at 700 and then do my nipples as the last 2 so the final count would be 702. So at about 6pm I inserted the last needle in my legs with a sigh of relief. Next I was handed sterile clamps for my nipples and the captive bead rings also, I clamped my first nipple, OK yes I thought nipples as last would be cool and all but let me tell you this was the dumbest idea I had ever had in my life because the first nipple was some of the worst pain of my entire life but I did it (cheer) so I clamped the second because I couldn't wimp out on one so I slid the needle half way through (hmmm room going dark and I feel like i am falling off a cliff?), well much to say I stopped dead in my tracks and took a few deep breaths to try and relax then forced that needle through the rest of the way. Well I am done (cheer) now we had to let all 702 needles stay in for at least 5 minutes but we decided on 10 minutes just to be safe.
Ok let me tell you this if I thought putting these suckers in was bad at the end, I was in for a world of hurt. I began taking them out and with the help of Diane who was attempting to stop the "squirters" but unknown to her if she even touched my legs in the slightest way it was comparable to being electracuted by 100,000 volts, so I went as fast as possible through what was some of the worst pain of my life but finally we finished, then looking down at the after effects I noticed the extent of blood loss, there was a circle of blood about a foot in diameter and about an inch deep in congealed blood. Ahhhh it's finally over and time to head home after the area is all cleaned up by Diane and company.
Now here I have something to say to my detractor's who are saying that 702 is no big deal because people have done 2000 or more, well the people that did 2000 did not do it to themselves like I did. So before you complain about my record talk to a piercer about what it is like to pierce oneself and you may understand the level of pain and shock I dealt with.
Also a point about "jackass" piercing's, I did this attempt with my and the publics safety first and foremost in my mind, and took all the possible steps to make sure it appeared very professional at all points because piercing's are very serious and should be taken very seriously because we piercers are possibly doing a very invasive procedure on you and we need relavent training in blood pathogens/ relavent anatomy and physiology/ and piercing training, so please dear god's please research your piercer and make sure they are educated in their profession.