The workshop was held in a unit along Elephant Road and we were all given a nice warm welcome by Justin, Dem Red and the other crew. I saw a few familiar faces and with complimentary drink in hand I headed towards them. I didn't have time to chat for long because the workshop started dead on time.

We were all ushered into a back room where I took my seat right at the very front. I had wondered about doing the first workshop. It was general piercing and something I have already done a lot of but at the end of the day this was Fakir Musafar, the father of modern age piercing and someone who has been a Master piercer for over 40 years. Safety and skills are something that none of us can learn too much about and to learn from such a skilled practitioner was something I really didn't want to miss.

Fakir did a little dance to the background music, as Justin introduced him and his team to us. It was Elwood, one of his valued team members that were to take this class and at first I felt a touch of disappointment that it was not going to be Fakir himself. My disappointment soon vanished when Elwood took the floor. With someone like Fakir as his mentor he was bound to be good. He talked at length about hygiene and safety procedures and I quickly scrabbled for a pen and paper so that I could make notes. He was coming up with procedures I had never heard about and I didn't want to rely on my memory for such things. He asked lots of questions to the audience and encouraged us all to question him. I have done workshops before where the talker gives the impression that its 'my way or the highway' but with Elwood's workshop one really felt that there was a lot of interactive knowledge and experiences going on.

Elwood then pulled up Isabella Blue (myspace.com/girloutoftheblue) for a needle play demonstration. After cleaning the areas to be pierced, he marked each area with iodine and then proceeded to pierce her from the ankle to armpit, to the full length of the arm on both sides. Blue was an amazing subject. She didn't flinch once, even when the needles were being inserted into her ankles and under her arms which are known to be particularly painful areas. She occasionally just wiggled her toes and smiled as her eyes became slightly glazed and dark. Elwood and Traci Joy Burleigh (another of Fakirs team) then proceeded to ribbon bondage Blue. The finished look was quite amazing and I cursed for not having enough imagination to of thought of this myself!

I got a lot out of this particular workshop and feel it was well worth the time and energy to make the trip. It's given me new ideas and inspiration to further my play piercing and it has also given me more knowledge on safety and hygiene issues.

Time for a quick drink and a cigarette before going through to the next class, 'Hook-pull and suspension'

The second workshop was run by Fakir Musafar himself. He started with a talk about his own journey of flesh hook suspension and explained how it was an ancient north American Indian tradition and used by many of the ancient North American Indian tribes such as the Tamil. These practices are tied to shamanism and it is said that the effects of great pain and stress on the body will induce altered states. He spoke about his spiritual journey outside of his own body and he went into detail of how the chakras work. I felt incredibly humble as I sat and listened to this man. He had a wisdom that I think we all wanted to reach out and embrace. Having done a flesh hook suspension myself I have often felt embarrassed when explaining to people that it felt very spiritual. His words confirmed all of this to me and made me understand that I should be celebrating such feelings and not trying to make out that it was just some hard core act. It was clearly much more than that.

He explained to us about the lay of the skin and how according to that the hooks will sit. He explained about body weight according to the number of hooks needed and about the different forms of suspension. He talked about pain and briefly about training your body above pain and he once again briefed us on hygiene.

...Elwood had not been suspended before. He is part of the Masafar tour and has worked closely with Fakir. He told us that he wanted Fakir to be the first to suspend him. Fakir worked slowly and meticulously in readying Elwood, first pinching the skin and finding the desired location for the hooks. He then penned out where each hook would enter and exit the skin. This took time and it was obvious that even with a room full of watching eyes, Fakir was not going to be distracted or hurried. The area was cleaned with iodine swabs before each piercing canula and then hook was inserted into Elwood's Back. Six in all. Tracey Joy Burleigh was crouching in front of Elwood, breathing with him and deeply concentrating on his reaction. After each hook she smiled broadly at him and in turn we saw Elwood's shoulders quiver a little as he laughed with her. A mystical chanting music was playing in the background and every so often Fakir would chime a magical note on an old Indian instrument and waft a peacock feather over and around Elwood's body.

Now everything was ready. The hooks were perfectly and strategically set in place, Elwood was ready to hang. Fakir leaned over and embraced him for a long moment before leading him to the other room where the suspension rig was set up. Each knot was tied, tested, re-done if necessary until the tension was perfect. Elwood stood by, Traci holding his hand and occasionally running a hand along his face whist speaking to him in a hushed whisper. Then she was gone.

The tension of the ropes started to take hold and as you saw the skin stretch, so you saw the sheer pain in Elwood's face. Very, very slowly he was raised on to his tiptoes. He bobbed back and forth like an unstable and graceless puppet trying to find ground. One more lift and he was up. Fakir had explained that the first 5 or so seconds of the lift would be the most painful and this was now clearly showing on Elwood's face. Its hard to even try to comprehend the sort of pain he was enduring and for a few moments I almost expected him to scream out to let him down. At first his feet stretched for the ground, desperate for the comfort of mother earth below his feet. Moments later he hung with head tilted forward, arms limp and face expressionless.

Then the most extraordinary thing happened. Suddenly Elwood's arms reached out then back behind his back. He started to take steps through thin air, slowly at first but then almost running. They were not graceless steps either. He moved like a ballerina with absolute grace. I watched in amazement as he danced on the ropes that were suspended to his flesh. Every so often he would fall still before once again taking up this, what I can only call, a spiritual dance. I have tears coming to my eyes as I write this because I know that I witnessed something last night that was way beyond anything I have seen before. I was witness to someone crossing over into another dimension, I was witness to someone leaving his outer shell and taking an incredible journey.

I had to leave before it was finished. The workshop had by now gone well over time and I cursed the fact that my last train home was now only half an hour away. I went to sleep thinking and trying to digest what I had just witnessed. This morning I woke and reflected back on last nights unique experience and today I have been on the phone all day trying to explain what I saw but frustrated at the fact that unless you see this for yourself you will never truly understand the feelings and emotions that it uncovers.

I want to thank Fakir Musafar, Elwood and all his team for putting on such a unique workshop and I highly recommend that if any of you get the opportunity to do one of his workshops in the future that you grab the chance without hesitation..

Maria Hades