The first time I learned about flesh pulling I was looking through my piercer's portfolio and saw pictures of him having huge hooks pierced in his back. My naive self asked him, 'do you still have those hooks in you back?' He kind of laughed at me and then explained what it was all about. Him and 7 of his close friends went out into a field and put the hooks in each other and tied all of themselves together. They stayed in the circle for almost 10 hours until they were too cold and their knees wouldn't hold them up anymore. He told me it was the greatest experience ever. He could feel the energy from every person in the circle passing through him. At first it seemed a little weird and a bit scary to me, but the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea of it.
At A Glance Author hbakabarbie Contact hbakabarbie@bme.anon IAM hbakabarbie When A month ago Location Raleigh, NC I attended my first BME BBQ in April of 2003. The host had made arrangements for people to be able to do pullings at the event. I didn't go thinking I would do it, but I thought it would a great experience to watch. On the way to that event I wrecked my car and I was in a bad state of mind the rest of that day. Watching all the people pull got me very excited about it and I knew I had to try it, but I just wasn't sure I would enjoy it to much with my mind being occupied with something else. Throughout the rest of the year I got the chance to watch many more pulls and suspensions. I was ready to try it for the first time, but I wanted it to be with someone special. At the time I was not dating anyone and I didn't have any friends that were interested in this kind of thing. Then I met Sydney at a local suspension meet. I had a weird connection with her from the first time we met. I felt she would be a great person to pull with for the first time. She said she would pull with me the next time we had an event.
The next chance we had to do it was going to be at the BBQ I was hosting in April, which was more than 6 months away. Finally the day came and I was more than ready.
Usually every event I go to where people are suspending or pulling it always got me so excited and made me feel more and more ready to try it. On the day of the BBQ I kept waiting for that feeling to come to me, but it never did. Sydney was past ready to go and she kept asking if I was ready. It started to get later in the day and I just gave in and said ok. Sydney got her hooks put in then some other people kind of jumped in front of me but I wasn't complaining, I was hoping I'd get more pumped up from other people, but nothing. Finally my turn came.
The whole day people asked me if I was nervous about pulling. I never felt nervous, I was excited about the chance to finally do it but really I had no feelings about it. I sat down waiting to be pierced; I still had no feeling about the situation. I got cleaned up and marked, still no feeling. Usually at some point before any mod I get terribly nervous so it was weird to not have any feeling about being hooked. Then Erin and Archie pinched my skin to get a feel for it and then it hit me. I was not nervous, I was absolutely terrified. They grabbed the needles and hooks and got ready. I was already holding Sydney's hand but when they asked me if I was ready I just wasn't, I asked for another hand and David put out his hand for me to hold. At that point I knew it was going to be ok and said I was ready.
Erin told me to take a deep breath in and let it out. When I breathed out both needles were pushed through. It really was not as painful as I thought it would have been. It was sort of like a weird pinch. Then after the hooks were in place it felt very weird. It was very tight and kind of burned a little. I had to sit for a second and take it all in. I remember telling Sydney that I could tell I was not going to like this. She kept reassuring me that it was going to be ok and that it was going to be fun. I really didn't believe her but I knew I had to try it. I wanted to wait a few minutes for the tightness and stinging to go away. It was about 10 minutes and I was ready.
We got all hooked up and ready to go. My boyfriend, David, was my spotter and he did an excellent job. We started out slowly. I could feel more and more tightness the more I leaned out. Sydney kept laughing which pulled kind of funny and I didn't like the feeling, then when she finally stopped laughing she started to pull a little to hard on me. This went on the whole time, which kind of sucked for me. The right hook felt great and I tried to put most of the weight onto that one. The left one burned and felt really uncomfortable. The longer I went the more it burned. But I held on for a while. At one point I just closed my eyes and tuned out everything around me. A very deep emotional feeling came over me at one point and I could feel tears in my eyes. I had never felt anything like that before but it was the greatest feeling. Finally I had to stop, I couldn't take it anymore. Sydney gave me a nice hug after we were done.
I had asked someone to take pictures for me with my digital camera so I wanted to take a look at them. Apparently he wasn't sure how to work the camera and there were no pictures. I was so disappointed but I really wanted to have some pictures of this event. I called Sydney back over and asked her to pull with me again so we could get some pictures, she was more than happy to do it again. So we got hooked back up and pulled some more. I kind of liked the feeling the second time around and held the pull for a while that time too. This time I did get pictures to document the event.
I was somewhat reluctant to do the pull, but I knew in my heart that I needed to try it. I am so happy that I did. The rest of the day I had an amazing high from it. It was the greatest feeling. Overall, the feeling was very weird to me and I didn't like that. I do not regret for one second that I did it, but I don't feel like I will ever have the desire to do it again anytime soon. I may change my mind in the future, but at this point I am pleased with myself for trying it and I am content with my decision.