This would be the day that would change my life as I knew it. Many think of it as taboo, some a Right of passage; others think as it just a great release of built up pressure or to get away from life.
At A Glance Author acwiggin Contact acwiggin@yahoo.com When A year ago Artist J. Coburn Studio Slingin' Ink Tattoos & Body Modificition Location Montezuma, Iowa I first gained interest in this art form as a young child watching TV. The first time that I had seen it was on a Ripley's Believe It Or Not program. They had shown people covered with tattoos and body piercing, they were hanging from hook on a sort of rigging system. I was amazed at what was going on, people hanging from hooks inserted into different regions of the body then hoisted into the air. After being lifted into the air they seemed to be content, happy, and relaxed.
They called it suspension, I couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing, and my step dad had a different point of view. Being from Iowa had given him a closed mind. There was another time when two guys were doing super man suspensions in a glass cage that was being driven around Las Vegas. The interest in what they had done was put some were in my brain. At that point, I was still young and didn't ever think that someday I would know what that was all about. A seed had been planted in my mind, one day to grow in to something great.
After many years had pasted I had become another adult in the world. When I got my apadravya done by Josh Coburn, at Slingin' Ink & Body Modification, after that I knew that this would be the path that I would go down. I got more work done at the shop including three tattoos, three brands, one cutting.
One day at the shop, some how we got on to the subject of pulls and suspensions. My eyes grew large; I told him that I had great interest in that kind of stuff. He had never done anything like this yet but was slowly getting info on it. A friend and I told Josh that we would really like to give it a try. Josh got started on looking for the hooks that were needed to do the pulls. We set the date for the middle of November.
As the weeks pasted Josh was having a hard time getting a hold of the guy that had the hooks. We moved the date back a few more weeks to give Josh time he needed. With some luck Josh finally founds some hooks but they needed the barbs taken off and grinded down. As things started to fall into place, the time had come. We were going to do it on a Sunday at the Montezuma shop because it had all the room that we needed.
It was December 12, and this would be the day that i would do my first session of pulls. I would not be doing this alone, Jason "peewee" a good friend of mine would be doing this with me. Neither of us had ever done anything like this before. It was all new ground for all of us including Josh.
That morning the alarm on my phone went off, after rolling out of the chair and giving Jason a few shakes, it was time to head off. Truth be told we had gotten few hours of sleep in-between the both of us. We had gotten up bright and early looking forward to about an hour drive. We hopped into my LTD and made are way to the studio. We stopped to grab a bite to eat. As the miles grew fewer are minds grew with pictures of what we were in store for. I really didn't know what to expect, just knew that it was going to be different.
As we pulled into a parking spot my heart started to race and palms grew sweaty. We walked up to the door and my heart skipped a beat, but that was ok. After walking threw the shop door we found Josh and Sean hard at work getting everything set up. Sean was a tattoo artist at the shop and today was lending a helping hand. Josh told us that we had some time to get are self's together before he was ready to do this. With some good music playing, I lay out on the floor and did some stretches to loosen myself up. Then sat crossed legged and closed my eyes and gathered myself. I focused on my breathing, and with every breath I became more centered.
Josh said it was time and a smile broke a cross my face. He cleaned are backs and made his marks, then doubled checked to make sure everything lined up. We lay down on a red cloth that Josh had put down. He was ready to go and so were we. He had Jason lay one way and I would lay the other way. Josh was hunched over in between us. He asked who was going to be the first and I jumped at the chance. Knowing that two eight gauge needle were going to be put threw my skin, didn't really bother me.
Not really knowing what to expect, I lay still, concentrated on my breathing. He gave me the word and as the deep breath was let out the needle made its way, after taking a few breaths the needle had found the exit. Wow that was very different, it wasn't horrible but it was something else. We had decided to switch from me to Jason, that way we had break in-between each one. As I lay on the floor with one eight gauge hook in my back, Josh did his work on Jason. It was my turn again. The second went about the same but there was more pain involved. Josh leaned over me with a piece of back fat that had come out with the needle. I had to take the chance to eat my self, I chewed on the fat till there was none left.
Josh turned and finished with jasons second and we got down to the fun stuff. We got chained together, things we a little slow but this was something completely new. From the time the hooks went in I had smile from ear to ear, to put it in words I was having a blast. Some friend showed up just in time for us to start are first pull. We did some light pulls then Jason just wanted to chill. I wasnted going to waste any time. Josh turned to me and said to do so strong pulls. He grabbed a hold of the chains and I leaned for awhile then he had he do a real pulls. Now Josh is a small guy, I almost pulled him over so, Sean grabbed on to the chains to give us some more weight in the back end. I had no slack to work with, slowly started fighting for every inch but never gained to much. Now this is were I had the best time, the more I fought the better it was. The felling was amazing.
The hours had flown by and are backs were sore. It was time to give it up for today. It was an all around good day one that i would never forget. Josh burped the air out of are backs bandaged us up. We said are good byes and were on are way. I would never be the same after this day and I wouldn't change it for the world
I would like to thanks to shop owner Darren McKeag for letting us have a place to do this and for having such great crew. To Sean Wilcox for lending a helping hand and having a wonder full personality. And hats off to Josh Coburn for bring me to the next level in my life, forever changing it for the better. I would also like to thank the culture of tattoos and body mods and everyone that enriches there lives in it and BME for having such a great site.