Halloween has, for the longest time, been the biggest day of the year at Body Graffix... SO this year we decided to take things a step further and do something no other shops in town are doing.We had been talking about doing a pulling for the longest time anyway, so we decided to take a step in that direction. Originally, the other piercer was going to do the pulling, and I was going to do the procedure. Unfortunately, our test run on him didn't go as well as planned. His skin was too thick and we couldn't get the needle through his back. I then volunteered to do the pulling. We did the test run on me with only one hook and I pulled Chris's wife around in a rolly chair in the piercing room. It wasn't too painful, but not something I'd want to do every day.
At A Glance Author Linus Contact Linus@bme.anon When A month ago Artist Chris Miller Studio Body Graffix Location Knoxville, TN SO halloween came, and we had been advertising a "freak show" to the public, so we knew we had to come up with something. Chris came up with the idea to have me pull his 5 month old boy around the parking lot with two 10ga. hooks tied to his vintage stroller with nylon cord.
About Ten o'clock we got things underway. We cleaned and marked the area, put on some music and got to business. We don't do a whole lot of larger than 14 gague piercings, so I sterilized two brand new 10ga needles for the event. The hooks were stainless steel salt water fishing hooks that we took the dremel tool and cut off the barb. We then polished them, ran them through the ultra sonic and autoclaved them. The clamps were a little tight, but not unbearable. He used a small flashlight to illuminate the area to make sure we wouldn't hit any veins that we didn't know were there.
The first piercing went pretty smooth, a little pain, but no more than expected. The exchange was a breeze because the hook fit right into the end of the needle. The second stick got my adrenaline pumping hardcore. I've been trough the septum piercing, 8guage conch, various other ear, facial, and surface piercings, but nothing compared to this. It was the biggest rush I've ever experienced. I was higher than from any drugs have ever made me and I forgot that there were a lot of people watching. I told myself that if I couldn't pull the baby that it would be ok because I was doing this for myself and not for everyone else there. We then moved things outside and tied me up to the stroller. Now, 25lbs worth of baby, and 15lbs of stroller doesn't seem like much...but it's not as easy as it sounds. Just trying to walk staight and keep the tension of the ropes even is a feat. I got him all the way across the parking lot though, an in not too much time. I didn't even notice that it was about 37 degrees outside and I didn't have a shirt on. It was an experience, and I am anxious to top this project with something more. I would love to eventually do a suspension. There's just something that is very next-level about hanging by hooks in your back. I am no longer afraid of the scars it will leave because the scarring I've seen thus far has been minimal. I have to point them out to most people. The high I got from the whole experience is definitely enough to bring me back to it. I was high as a kite for a couple of hours afterwards. It has been several weeks since the event and I am starting to get the itch to venture further. We have begun to plan a suspension. We are planning on ordering sharper needles to allow Chris to share in the experience as well. We lack only a few small supplies and a high enough celing to pull it off. We plan to make this a private "ceremony" only for friends and family, but now that we have learned more and educated ourselves w e plan to offer suspensions to customers in the future. No other shop around here does and we would like the few around who have been wanting to experience the rush to have that chance. For now, though, we are primarily focused on doing suspensions ourselves so that we may better explain to newcomers what they are in for and what to expect. This way if we experience any complications it will be on ourselves and not paying customers.
(None of this should be done by anoyone other than trained professionals in a clean and safe environment. All procedures documented in this story were performed by a master piercer in a professional body piercing studio.)