I have just returned home from a very exciting day indeed. I attended a suspension event organised by The Hanged Man Suspension Crew. It was held at Revolver Night-club in Melbourne, Australia. For those of you that know this venue, it was not as scary as it sounds. it was actually a brilliant space for it to be held. Nice open space, great staff, and a very friendly and supportive atmosphere. It was a gorgeous day outside so the staff had opened the blinds to let lots of natural light in through the floor to ceiling windows! An interesting point I found out is that the premises used to be a parachute workshop, which accounts for the massively high ceilings. I had been helping out all morning on the door, and assisting with the hooking. I even got to massage out the air from a few people after they came down. What an eye opening experience that was. I have been piercing professionally for almost 8 years now and it was excellent to expand on my skills by participating in an event like this. At the risk of sounding like a resume, it was really great to have the hands on experience I did. I also appreciate Pete not getting me to do too many hands on things seeing as I was going to go up later. I'll move on to my experience now.
At A Glance Author Sassie_L Contact Sassie_L@bme.anon IAM Sassie_L When It just happened Artist The Hanged Man Suspension Crew Studio Revolver Night Club Location Chapel Street, Prahran, Victoria, Australia I was almost last up for the day so I was very nervous. I was marked out, and lay down waiting for what I imagined to be excruciating pain. Two 6g hooks were what I was going to have put in to me. I barely felt the needles go through and before I knew it I was sitting up, ready to be hooked up to the rig. A bit of history to this story: I have a full back tattoo that I am currently about half way through finishing. I had decided that I would do a four point suicide but after much discussion with Pete, the hooker, we figured that it may be better to do something on the front. I had spoken to many people who have suspended before as I wanted to hear their opinions on what I could expect. It was an all round unanimous vote against trying to do a chest suspension first. It was explained to me that this can be one of the more painful ways to do this and therefore not widely recommended for a first timer. Some people were concerned that if I tried, and failed to get off the ground, that I would have a negative experience. Knowing myself, if I didn't try because I was scared of not succeeding, then I would feel worse. We decided to attach me to a rig, to a static point and if I felt ok, we could try for a suspension. I was attached to the point and began to lean back. The pulling sensation was very nice and warm. Weirdly enough, it was also quite soothing. What I didn't like however was the fact that I felt very unstable. It was not so much the leaning back issue, it was the fact that until I leant back enough someone had to support the rig, and I felt very much like I was way too dependant on someone else. This isn't a bad thing, but I wanted to feel more in control.
I decided to get them to hook the rig up to the roof. This felt much better. I was getting lifted nice and slowly and all was going well, except I couldn't find a comfortable place for my head. Too far back and it created an awful chest crushing feeling. Too far forward and I was resting my chin on the stretching skin. This wasn't a big problem, but I just wasn't comfortable. I was at the point where I was about to go up onto my toes when all of a sudden the pressure across the top of my chest became unbearable. It wasn't painful, it was just a very wrong feeling. I had been told that if I just trusted in myself and breathed through it, I would be ok after a minute or so. I couldn't bear it. It felt as though my heart had stopped. Once again, I stress that it wasn't painful, just a really wrong feeling. At this point I took over the rope so I could control how much I was raised. I was able to go a little higher this way, by backing off and then raising a little extra each time. I played with the height like this for at least another 15 minutes before deciding to come down. As soon the rig came down low enough that the ropes slackened I was stuck by how heavy I felt. I hadn't realised exactly how much of my weight the rig was actually supporting. It felt quite amazing to be so grounded again after such a moving experience.
I am glad that I tried to suspend and I would do it again in an instant. So much so I didn't want to take my hooks out when the time came. The only thing I would change is the timing (my hormones were very much against me) and my size/hook ratio. I am a big girl (108 kilos/ nearly 240 pounds) so I think I was maybe a little ambitious thinking I could put nearly 55 kilos of weight on each hook.