I showed up at Jason's on Saturday Dec. 6 and was hanging out with him and Jason when the topic of conversation turned to suspension. My ears perked up. At that point in time I'd previously done three 4 point suicide suspensions with 8 gauge hooks. I was interested in doing another suspension. I'd previously decided that either a 2 point suicide with 6 gauge hooks or a 4 point knees with 8 gauge hooks should be next, but was at that time undecided on which of those two I should attempt next.
At A Glance Author eliz Contact eliz@bme.anon IAM eliz When A week ago Artist Jason & Tim threw hooks Studio Amillion Location Austin, TX Well the weather ended up making my decision for me. That evening was a bit too chilly to have to take off my sweater. So upon determining that my jeans would indeed roll up enough above my knees to allow for the hooks, we headed over to Amillion Tattoos and Body Piercing to find out if Tim would be willing to help throw hooks. He said he would, so we go back to Jason's to get those hooks. Then we went back over to Amillion.
I hop up on the piercing table, Jason marks my knees and I start to wonder if I really want to do this. Mind you, right before the needle enters my skin I tend to get this surge of anxiety where I question whether I've gone crazy for subjecting myself to unnecessary pain. Then once the needle enters my flesh, I start to decide that it isn't as bad as I feared and that it is the end result that I'm after anyhow, so the pain becomes secondary. I do think that the pain involved in having my knees pierced was slightly more intense than when I've had my back pierced for hooks to do a suicide suspension, but in all it was bearable. So when all 4 hooks are in place, I sit up and wriggle my way to the end of the table so I can hop down. Then I find myself confronted with the problem of my jeans trying to slide down over my hooks.
We got back over to Jason's house, hooks in my knees still in place despite efforts of my jeans to dislodge them. Jason starts getting the rig ready. Just as soon as the burning sensation from being pierced has subsided, he's asking me if I'm ready for him to attach the parachute cord to my hooks. So I have to plop myself on the ground with my legs bent for this to be done. Then he makes sure everything's all lined up and even so the pressure is the same on all of the hooks. I start to pull on my hooks to get a feel for the them and minor adjustments are made. As I decide it is comfortable, Jason begins operating the chain hoist, lifting my body off the ground knees first. The other Jason is helping to support my shoulders during this process. I start to feel the burning sensation in my knees again. As it gets more and more intense, I start complaining. I'm saying "Ow, ow, ow that hurts, stop a minute..." Jason assures me that once I'm off the ground that it will feel a lot better and keeps right on lifting me. Once my shoulders were off the ground the pain began to subside and as I'm fully upside down with enough distance between me and the ground that I could outstretch my arms without touching anything, there were no longer any remnants of pain sensations at all.
All of a sudden it was as if I opened my eyes to something entirely new. I giggled a bit and commented that "This is so weird." There I was, upside down, suspended from my knees by hooks. It seemed so odd to me that just moments before I was complaining about how much it hurt while I was being lifted and then have everything totally turn around to where there was no pain at all and there I was floating in the air. Jason asks "How about a push?" and starts me swinging around. Sometimes I even wound up spinning,which I found absolutely hilarious.
Jason stopped me from swinging to check my knees for tearing at least twice. I must say I appreciated that as the last thing I would have wanted would have been to come crashing down onto my head. The final time my knees were checked, there was enough tearing that it was deemed best that I come down and my descent back to earth began.
I was suspended by my knees for 20 minutes. I checked my watch as soon as I was fully lifted off the ground and it was 8:50pm and then checked my watch again as I was being brought down and it was 9:10pm. I like to know how long I've spent in the air simply because it feels timeless to me while I'm suspending.
What I found amazing is how pain free the wounds have been post suspension and during the healing. There was minimal discomfort as the hooks were removed, though I did find it funny how only the holes on the right side of my left knee bled noticibly, while the others barely had even a trickle. The upper hole on that location was the one that had the most tearing, and it didn't look too horrible at the time. But during the subsequent healing, it seems to me that one or two sutures to close it shut may have aided the healing process a bit as that one is being the slowest to heal. As a result of the tearing, that hole was also seeping blood for about a day and a half after the suspension.
This has been one of my favorite experiences thus far. I would definitely suspend from my knees again. In fact, I can't wait to suspend from my knees again!