Sunday, July 18, 2004 Posted: 6:54 PM EDT (2254 GMT)
MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) – Law enforcement officials in the Florida Keys are mystified by a bizarre new pastime – young people dangling themselves from meat hooks on a popular sandbar.
A U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman said on Sunday that the Monroe County sheriff’s office and Coast Guard were called on July 12 to the sandbar off Whale Harbor in Islamorada where locals say wild behavior is becoming a tradition.
They found that five young people had erected a bamboo tripod and hung meat hooks from it. A young woman, her feet brushing the surface of the shallow water, dangled from the frame, hooks embedded firmly in her shoulders.
According to a Coast Guard video, she did not seem to mind the hooks.
"Lt Tom Brazil of the Coast Guard said a young man, who also had hooks embedded in his heavily pierced and tattooed skin, told him the group was “just enjoying the afternoon”.
There were no laws against sticking meat hooks into yourself and hanging from a tripod on a sandbar, Lt Brazil added.
The Coast Guard passed the video on to federal justice authorities to decide if action ought to be taken."
Fuddy-duddies. The kids were just, like, you know, hanging around, like kids do.
Either a hoax or stepchildren of Jim Rose and his Freak show, which has glorified various types of circus-like self-mutilations. He started touring the late 80s I believe and has made an impact via Ripleys, etc. With the confluence of body-piercing, Jackass etc, I guess this was inevitable. Guess they will be eating lightbulbs next. Hopefully, the craze will bypass hanging objects from male hanging organs, also a feature of the Rose sideshow. Now, that is something I avoided seeing (when Rose toured here I said “No thanks”), and I hope never to actually witness, though I was given a gleeful description of it by others.
In India, a group of people who call themselves rationalists travel around performing tricks like this. They hook themselves up to quite heavy loads and pull them along. Actually, they are rationalists. When village folk gawk in amazement they explain the physics behind the tricks they do. It’s part of an effort to break the faith of the people in gurus who pull similar stunts and claim supernatural powers. Humans can withstand piercing in quite a lot of places if it’s done knowledgably and the skin is surprisingly strong.
A Man Called Horse is a classic. Richard Harris stars in it. Hard to find these days.
There was a discussion of this suspension thing in a movie a couple of years ago with Jennifer Lopez as a psychologist who used virtual reality to get inside peoples’ minds. A psychotic serial killer suspended himself. I thought that was a cool movie for the virtual reality stuff.
Tony
I just looked at the faq for that site. Absolutely fascinating and actually, very down to earth. No thanks, not for me. It mentioned the JLo movie title, The Cell.
Tony
I figure that people probably got hooked on this (ba-dum-bum) from watching Mad Mad House on SciFi, with Art the ‘Modern Primitive’. Any time main stream gets a hold of things they become a fad… then they sort of fade away. You can see Art here
I can’t quite imagine doing this myself, but to each his or her own!
I think some use body piercing / suspension as a way of attaining an altered state of consciousness, and I do believe it would work, at least once your body got over the initial shock / pain of the piercing itself.
It seems to me endorphins are the goal, here.
However, you can achieve such a mental state by meditation–or even by whistle playing!–with no blood, no hooks, and no pain. Or by prayer. Or by being aroused. Or from a runners’ high.
A very traditional way to get in such a state–but not one I recommend–involves drinking large amounts of alcoholic beverage. I prefer small amounts, myself, as I can get in enough trouble when cold sober.
James, from what I understand you are correct about the altered state of consciousness… myself, I much prefer meditation without the pain. Although some of the yoga positions I try to get myself into seem to kind of be along the lines of transcendance through pain.
Just kidding.
Although some of the yoga positions I try to get myself into seem to kind of be along the lines of transcendance through pain. 