In Episode 12, It's My Body and I'll Do What I Want, we at The Vodka Press discussed all things body: body modifications (through a thorough discussion of the 2005 documentary Modify), the ever-controversial abortion debate, sexual objectification and when the fuck are we going to get around to decriminalizing public female toplessness, already?
During our discussion of Modify we touched, rather briefly, on suspensions.
If you Google 'suspension', Wikipedia offers three definitions: chemistry, "a heterogeneous mixture containing solid particles that are sufficiently large for sedimentation"; vehicle, "the term given to the system of springs, shock absorbers, and linkages that connects the body of a vehicle to its wheels and allows relative motion between the two"; and body modification, "suspending a human body from hooks that have been put through body piercings."
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| IMDb.com |
Body suspensions have been practiced for thousands of years. The oldest record of suspensions is about 5,000 years ago, in India, during the Hindu festivals Chidi Mari and Thaipusam which both focus on piercing rituals.
North American Indian tribes are also reported to have rituals and ceremonies involving suspension. The Mandan tribe, who lived along the Missouri River near what are now the Dakotas, practiced suspension during Okipa - a rite of passage for young men. During Okipa, two hooks are placed in the chest and back and participants are hung for about 20 minutes to commune with the Mandan god.
Various tribes of Sioux Indians also performed suspension during Sun Dance, a religious ceremony. During Sun Dance young men were pierced twice in the chest and then fastened to a tree. Once fastened, participants danced and pulled against the piercings, sometimes until the flesh actually broke, sending the pierced man into a trance. This could take days.
Suspension today is quite technical: teams of trained piercers, riggers and other technicians set up and assist the person being suspended. An array of professional, sterile equipment is used. Suspensions today are voluntary, performed throughout the year, and no one has to be hung by their chest to officially enter manhood; but the spiritual nature of the experience is has not changed with the settings and the circumstances of 'being hung.'
One of the most well-known and well-organized suspension groups in the U.S., Rites of Passage, is dubbed so appropriately. Cere Coichetti, former head of the Rights of Passage New York chapter, told The Atlantic last year that, even at the risk of tearing skin (which hey, can sometimes happen), people are often so in the moment, the euphoria, of suspension that "most people go, 'leave me up here, suture me later'".
When I watched Modify I was mesmerized by the suspension scenes. The whole process, from first piercing to coming down (physically and emotionally) struck a chord with me. The pain, the joy, the procedure and the community built around this amazing experience were something I knew I'd need to explore further.
To learn more, I sat down with (well okay, Skyped with) Rites of Passage's Bella Vendetta: pro domme, sex worker, sex educator, Rites of Passage founding member and all-around epically beautiful force of nature.
Rites of Passage (ROP) doesn't sit down with the media too often - not everyone has been particularly respectful or listened with fully open ears - so here's a huge thank you to ROP for hearing me out and to Bella Vendetta for taking the time to talk with me.
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| Courtesy of Bella Vendetta |
Bella Vendetta (BV): I am involved in the adult industry in just about every way; from writing to directing to performing to reviewing, phone sex…pro-domming, which is my main passion and love, which I’ve been doing for 13 years.
KB: How did you get involved with ROP?
BV: I've been involved with ROP since the very beginning. Emrys, our founder, came to me very early on, I was 18. We wanted to put together a serious group but individually lacked the skill, so we came together and made it happen.
He did the hands-on side, the rigging and the actual suspending, and I did all the paperwork, the clerical side…but it wasn't long until I wanted to get my hands in there too, so I started learning, started training and started doing suspensions as well.
Thirteen years later I'm in charge of pretty much every aspect of the program; from scheduling and training to setting up the crew; finding locations to follow-ups.
KB: How many times have you suspended?
BV: I stopped counting at 100, which was many many years ago; so I honestly have no idea. In the first 5 years I did it as much as I could, but these days, you know, I'm not 18 any more, I don't heal as fast. I probably hang 4 or 5 times a year right now.
KB: What's the full process look like, if you laid it all out?
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| 6G Suspension Hook shop.bme.com |
After we figure out why they want to hang we figure out how they want to hang; and then we work out a date. Which is a bit tricky, to get everyone together on the same date.
Next is the donation. It's $150 and all of that money goes to the group - for equipment and supplies, none of it goes in anyone's pocket.
Then people usually have questions; I answer any questions they might still have, introduce them to their crew and then, uh, then we hang them.
We do a lot of follow up: make sure they get home okay that day (I insist someone comes with you to drive you home), call them again three days later to see how they're healing, call them back a week later to see how they're doing, call them back a month later to see what's going on. Suspension brings up a multitude of issues for people, and not just physically. People hang for different reasons and it's often a deeper emotional or psychological one. We follow up to make sure everything's going alright.
KB: Where do you do suspensions?
BV: We have an indoor location in Western Mass, which we don't publicize, but other than that we really prefer to do things outside. In the summertime it's pretty much every weekend we try to set something up outdoors.
KB: How long does it take to heal?
BV: Everyone's different; it depends on how well you take care of yourself in general and how well you take care of the actual wounds. Usually about 3-4 weeks.
KB: Do people hang through the same place in their skin, or do you try to go through a different area each time?
BV: Well, for me I've done it so many times I don't really have the option other than to go through scar tissue, but generally we try to go somewhere slightly different to avoid that, even if it's just a little to the right, a little to the left, a little further up or down.
There's a large chance of scar tissue ripping into another wound, so we try to avoid that.
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| deviantart.com |
BV: Not too deep, the hooks cover about 2 inches of skin, but everyone's skin is different in how much it stretches. Never into muscle, that's the rule.
KB: Do you have a recommended position for beginners?
BV: That's actually something that's in great debate among the suspension community right now, part of what is happening with there being so many different groups.
When someone comes to me for their first suspension I generally recommend a superman, which is lying down with hooks all the way down your body – so it’s more hooks, but less pressure at each point; or a suicide, where you hve two hooks in your back near your shoulders; which can be harder because there’s so much more force on just those 2 points on your body.
A lot of people want to do a suicide for their first time, which is great, I’ve seen a lot of people have a really great time with a suicide for their first time; but some people haave a really hard time watching their feet leave the ground, which can be kind of traumatic.
Also, it should be noted that 15 years ago there weren't 50 different ways to hang. You were doing a superman, suicide, chest, coma, knees. That was it.
Far be it for me to tell anyone what their experience should be, but if you want to do this odds are you're going to want to do it again, so there's nothing wrong with starting simple and then say, hanging chest on your next time when you know the experience of being pierced and being hung.
KB: In an article you wrote for suspension.org you discuss a six-point armpit suspension a friend of yours decided to do - and some unforeseen consequences of being suspended in that position. You write that, while you were skeptical at first
"after talking to him about it for an hour I was actually convinced that I wanted to try one. I kept pinching up the skin around My armpit to see how it felt, arching My body in the direction it would naturally go. It sort of felt like a yoga pose, and I’m a flexible and strong person so I was pretty convinced I could do it."
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| Courtesy of Bella Vendetta |
BV: There absolutely is. I recommend that everyone do yoga. It can really be helpful in a number of ways. When you compress your body during yoga you also release lot of emotions and things you didn't really know were there. Suspension takes that like, times 10,000, but it's really important to have experience with that and to really stretch.
KB: Other than getting your stretch on how else should you prepare for a suspension?
BV: That's a question people always ask me and I say that if you use drugs or alcohol to stay sober for at least a week prior to your suspension so your mind is clear and so your body is clear so you can mentally process what is happening without being clouded. Stay hydrated. Be good to your body.
KB: There's been some talk about suspension seeping into mainstream culture. What are your thoughts on that?
BV: I’m totally against it. Just like other aspects of my life, like BDSM, I don’t’ think anything positive comes from more underground subcultures bleeding into the mainstream. What happens most is groups start popping up who aren’t particularly educated.
I don’t have anything nice to say about suspension leaking into mainstream culture; there’s nothing I can do about it, but there is so much more to it than shock show/freak show aspect of it. And some people don’t seem to understand that.
The positive part of it is that we see a whole lot of different people who want to really experience this who may not have otherwise heard of or had the opportunity to learn about suspension.
I like to compare it to Fifty Shades of Grey, which thrust BDSM into mainstream culture, and so many people in the pro dom community were like, "it’s a good thing for us, it’s going to bring all this awareness and visibility to people," but it really brought visibility to a false side of it.
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| Courtesy of Bella Vendetta |
That's not the way to go about doing this.
KB: How long are people generally suspended for?
BV: There aren't really any guidelines - everyone gets the experience. When you're up there it seems like hours, you really do lose track.
Some people beat themselves up, you know, "Ah, I wish I had stayed up there longer, I could've done it longer," but it really doesn't matter. Five minutes or 10 hours, you're still going to have a life changing experience.
KB: And what about how high?
BV: It all depends: depends on you, depends on the suspension. Some people want to swing, some people just ant to leave the ground. It's all what you want to do in that moment.
KB: What if people want to watch?
BV: We have one public event, in August, the ROP BBQ, but even that's not quite public. You have to be vetted a bit, have made your donations. We spend three days together camping out, doing yoga and suspending each other. It's not a spectator kind of thing.
Other than that it's all private suspensions. I get a lot of people asking me, "So, when's your next event?"
We don't work like that. It's you, your crew and whoever you choose to have with you. You don't just get to come watch someone else's private experience.
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And private it is. "It's my body, I'll do what I want." And so should you. Just do it safely and try to remember to do it respectfully: you only get one body this time around. Be good to it. Let it express who you are and who you want to be.
Here's to going forward clear-headed and excited about the possibilities of your body and self-expression; whether you're considering getting your ears pierced, on a solid diet of yoga and Kombucha, or, maybe like me, are thinking about what your first suspension would be like.
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