BME: Body Modification Ezine

A tattooed person suspends from hooks, laying flat, one leg higher than the other. Their head is back, and they seem to be smiling, dark hair dangling like an anime character.

Celebrating body modification culture since 1994.

Tag: Suspension

  • Four members of our community were in a bad car wreck

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    I did something, I don’t normally do for this, I totally ripped an article off of another site. I hope our friends in Nassau Chainsaw are cool with that, but I imagine they would be seeing as this is about helping out mutual friends.  Allen, also posted some info up on Suspension.org, if you want to check that out as well.

    UPDATE: It was pointed out to me that not everyone involved in this wreck was involved with Nassau Chainsaw, or didn’t know Allen, so I have one more link with updates where all of them were part of the family, Discraceland Family.


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    On their way from Texas to California, Spliff, Jill, Robby and Brandon were involved in a very serious car accident. Spliff is currently unconscious in Critical Condition and has been airlifted to a hospital.  Robby has also been airlifted to the same hospital, with a punctured or collapsed lung and liver. Jill, Robby and Brandon are all coherent and awake.

    From Neil of CORE, “I just watched 4 of my best friends roll their car over at 85 mph in front of me. If you are in CoRE, please call Matt or Steve, if you are in AGRO, call Angela, if you are in DHS call Razor Tongue or Orbie. I will be updating them periodically. Please do not call Spliff, Jill, Ribble, or Brandon as they do not have their phones. Send all your prayers and love their way.”

    Update from Jill at 2:45AM

    “Myself our Baby and Branden are ok. Badly cut bruised and sprained, but ok. I’m currently headed to Odessa where Arwen and Robby are in critical condition. I’ll let u know as soon as I do…. Keep positive thoughts for us please.” -Jill

    Update from Neil at 4:31AM

    Ribble is in surgery spliff had a head concusion, brain and skull appear to be fine for now.  Broken vertebrae in his neck.  He is heavily sedated and on a breathing machine in the ICU at Medical Center Hospital in Odessa, TX.

    Update from Jill at 4:57AM

    “I am currently in ICU with Arwen. He’s heavily sedated, breathing steadily with help from a machine. Concusion in his head which is currently not effecting his skull or brain. Also a broken vertibre in his neck. He is being closely monitored and things could change. Ribble is still in surgery….. Keep the positive energy coming”

    Update from Neil at 5:00AM

    “Brandon is asleep at the hotel in Ft Stockton, and Sara and NoMan are watching over him. Other than that, if you do not hear something directly from myself or Jill, just remember, it’s all hearsay, and please remain calm.”

    Update from Neil at 5:54AM

    This is what the doctor told Neil

    “Robbie-Has a Ruptured Spleen + it was removed, he has a bruised mesentery, he has tubes in his chest to drain his lungs, severe head trauma + spinal chord damage, he has had a litter of blood pumped out of his abdomen and recycled back into his blood stream. his liver was lacerated in 3 places, they were able to cauterize and suture it back together. He is on a breathing machine and will be for a week.

    “Spliff-Has broken ribs and severe contusions around his lungs, broken vertebrae, severe head trauma, and is also on a breathing machine and will be for a week.”

    We will know a lot more in 48hours when and if they come out of it.

    Lets continue with the positive thoughts + be there for our family. Thanks to all who have made donations so far. Lets keep them coming.


    We will post more information here as it becomes available. Please watch this space for updates.

    All our hearts and minds are with them.

    Please Make A Donation to help out our brothers and sisters.

    If you have a spare moment after sharing a little change to help out four members of our modified community (as well as modblog regulars), check out Nassau Chainsaw a band who includes sideshow and suspension acts in their regular performances.

  • Land of the free

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    When I first saw this pic, I thought  ”Damn, where were these pictures July 4th when I needed them for modblog?”. Then I saw the title, Independence Day Suspensions and it all made sense. These pictures are curtesy of Up the Down Photography. Suspension by our friends at ihung.

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  • Jane says…I know that chic!

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    Who’s that chic hanging behind Perry Farrell as he performs with Janes Addiction? It’s no other than Miss Crash! You probably remember her as the girl I featured just a few days ago who I said uses a combination of shock and sexiness to captivate audiences? Well apparently, Jane’s Addiction found her captivating enough to want to include her in a recent performance. Suspension artist performing with nationally touring bands is nothing new, hell even I have done it a few times. However, this is the first time I have seen it done with such a hugely popular band, not to mention a band with a fairly mainstream audience.  If anyone else has any celebrity suspension or body mod performance tales to tell, feel free to do so in the comments.

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    I apologize for the double feature on Crash, I normally try to not include too much of one person or group in a short period of time. This was just too cool not to post though! For more pictures of this and to check out the man behind the hooks, go to her  boyfriend’s IAM page.

  • Happy 40th birthday to the Head Master, Havve!

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    Håvve Fjell, of Pain Solution fame and a HUGE part of the international suspension and sideshow community, turns 40 today.  Allen, who knows him far better than I, wrote up an excellent entry in his personal blog and I advise anyone even remotely interested in suspensions or sideshow performance go read that now.

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  • Bad idea, or just impressive?

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    So, as most of you have noticed, I have been posting one “bad idea” feature a day this week. Truth be told though, a large portion of the world’s population would consider any body modification or body play act to be a “bad idea”. I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective.

    For instance, most ModBlog readers are so accustomed to seeing suspensions that the idea of hanging from hooks through your skin, probably doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. However, ask a hundred random people if they thought that hanging from hooks in their skin was a bad idea, and I am sure the majority would quickly answer yes.

    But what about a suspension without hooks, done purely for sexual reasons?

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    For a totally NSFW suspension picture, keep on keeping on.

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    This amazing scrotal suspension was sent to us by XXX from Belfast, UK. Obviously, this is a high risk activity that could cause a range of immediate, as well as long term problems.  But is it a bad idea? Assuming XXX, has educated himself on the risk of doing such an activity, is this really any worse of an idea than lot’s of the more common suspension and body play rituals we feature here?

  • Jamie’s 15 minutes

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    Most of you modblog regulars remember Jamie from the recent post showing the gaping wound in her arm being fingered. Well, aside from her interest in creating new orifices to fondle, she’s also fond of body modification history, as she made evident with her quick and flawless answers to my trivia questions.

    As the winner of the trivia, she get’s another 15 minutes of modblog fame. So without any further ado, here’s Jamie!

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    For several more pictures and some words from jamie, Keep on keeping on.

    I’m Jamie Mayhem. I’m part of the suspension team called Ritual Arisings, we’re based out of the Detroit, MI area. I’m also into performance art and modeling. Turn-ons include- boys and girls with lots of mods, latex clothing, medical devices, zombies, riot grrrls, and people that look good covered in blood.

    Most of my tattoos were done by Chris McNeill, who now owns Rebel City Tattoo in Cleveland, OH.

    Some of the photos here are suspension pics, some are modeling pics that showed some of my ink. The forearm suspension is from Dallas SusCon, it’s what led to the pic of the hole in my arm that was recently Modblogged. The tandem suspension is with BIOHAZARD.

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  • Sideways Superman

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    South Africa has been really coming on strong with the amazing submissions recently! This one comes to us from Wildfire Piercing in Cape Town South Africa. It was done by Stuart Woods who was Assisted by his partner Lliezel Ellick.

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    While the hooks look a bit questionable to me, aesthetically this suspension (and in particular this picture) is just stunning.

  • A note from Ron

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    Ron messaged me and asked if I could repost the entry on the rotisserie suspension with an added note of warning. I explained to him that reposting  the exact same post wouldn’t fly. However, in that exact same day I was shown a video of a recent suspension performance where a guy suspending suicide fell. I couldn’t quite make out if the rope broke or a knot came untied but either way it was an easily avoidable mistake. Luckily, for all involved, the suspendee was hanging fairly low and in an upright position so there was minimal chance of injury.

    Nonetheless, seeing that video  more than justified me posting Ron’s updated note of caution (regarding the rotisserie suspension video):

    When you see the clip, all you may see is the awesomeness of a rotating suspension.. what you DON’T see is all the time , research, planning and practice going into this.. When you watch the clip, you will also see my dear friend Richard Nunez during one of these show practices where he flew off the rig and had to be taken to the hospital for a concussion and sutures. As scary as it was to deal with , it was even scarier to be the one responsible for what happened and to have hurt a member of my family like that.

    This episode is a VERY LARGE part of why I feel the way I do about suspension safety these days. Sure we weren’t doing normal suspensions.. but neither is a lot of the stuff going on these days either.. The time has come to step and bring safety into the 21st century as well!”

    Kids, respect your elders.

  • From The Vault: Mark’s Rotisserie Suspension (Video updated: more footage!)

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    TSD was the original (modern) suspension crew and a lot of the amazing feats of engineering and artistry the members of TSD and there associates have come up still stand the test of time and many have not been duplicated or surpassed. I was thrilled to see another email from Ron Garza, with a picture, video and story about Mark’s rotisserie suspension circa 2003.

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    For a video of another one of Mark’s rotisserie suspensions, and to hear Ron tell the tale, keep on keeping on .

    The story as told by Ron:

    When I was  involved with  the old TSD group back in the mid 90′s most of us back then had our  own individual visions of what suspensions were to us back then. It was a much different  time and suspensions were still relatively a new thing and there wasn’t one way to do anything or  just one mindset as to what suspensions were back then. There wasn’t  really people  doing this everywhere or pictures online to give  people preconceived notions  as to what a suspension were or could be.
    The few of us that were into this stuff all talked and  worked together and brought our own individual ideas, thoughts and visions to suspensions. We all differed in that  aspect as well as out reasoning for  being involved  in this.  You  really saw this when you look at we did individually when everyone moved away or did solo stuff and started  their own personal  groups.
    Steve  Joyner (  of CoRE fame), with  his excellent use of make up ,costumes,  plots and  show themes really brought  more theatre to suspensions and took the emphasis off the act of suspenions, Allen with  his  intense  solo shows and large group projects, Oliver Gilson whose engineering take on everything has changed not only larger suspension projects and hook designs but also whose rigging style has influenced many and taken suspension rigging into  an artistic realm  that is easily  recognizable.
    My whole deal with suspensions has always not only been multi-person suspension projects, but also  high tension kinetic suspensions.  This clip was one of my favorite things we  pulled off.  It was from an early MAYHEM  show in Austin Tx  back in 2003 I want to say.  Mark Rose at the time was one of our hardest  suspension models/hook monkeys  who thrived on being able to take a large amount of intense stuff. This one  threw  him into  shock and broke him. He  still did this 2 more times at least that i can think of. I’m just glad someone had a camera around this time!

    This 360 frame was created by Tom Moore  from Steel Fetish.

  • A little more fingering fun

    Written by

    Sean Philips

    I know quite a bit of you modbloggers were a wee bit disturbed when I posted the pictures of Ala’s open wound fingering, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when Jamie sent me these pictures from the recent Dallas Suscon.

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    The pics are of me getting a hole in my arm fingered by my boyfriend. This happened after the two of us did a forearm suspension on a spinning beam together. I was prepared for some tearing on my arms with doing this suspension, but we were both somewhat excited when I ended up with a hole in my arm big enough for Biohazard to get a few fingers in. Tearing hooks is of course not usually something to aim for, but in this case the result was sexy! I suppose the slogan for the event was right – ‘Even bad ideas are bigger in Texas’. Haha

    For a close up shot of the “open wound fingering”, keep on keeping on.

    dallas5

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