The first time I saw a suspension I was only mildly impressed. It was at a Fetish Factory Extreme party during one of their anniversary party weekends. My voyeuristic side was peaked when I was told what was about to happen. Aggressively I maneuvered through the crowd so I could get the best possible view and stood only feet from the performer. The guy that was being suspended mounted a low rising pedestal that was covered with a plastic drop cloth. Ignorantly unaware I didn’t understand that blood would be a bi product of the act.
The performer went up pretty much vertically to the soundtrack of some horrible rock song which I believe was “Down with the Sickness” by Disturbed. The guy did his best to look theatrical and kind of shook back and forth like a ghoul you would see at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. The act was far from stellar and only mindlessly entertaining.
While attending the 2008 South Florida Tattoo Expo in Deerfield Beach FL on August 16, 2008 I had my opinion changed by the most amazing suspension display by Raymond Martinez of Delray Beach, FL. The show arranged by Skin Mechanics Suspension of Florida and Disgraceland Hook Squad from New York City was far from the amateur sideshow act I had previously seen. The display of mental strength and lengths to which the human body could be pushed could only be classified as performance art. It was a spectacle far more engaging than I anticipated as I watched the exhibitionist being attached to the nylon straps that would lift him.
The support crew worked together hoisting Raymond up into the air as others pushed his body forward and back. The two sub-dermal implants in his upper back pulled tufts of skin from his torso displaying the durability and elasticity of skin, as streams of blood trickled down his back side. It didn’t’ take long before the highest point in his trajectory was forty feet high. On one end of his rotation were over grown hibiscus bushes that he was making contact. On the other side was the outside pool with spectators surrounding it.
Every pass grew more outrageous as Martinez resembled Peter Pan swooping over the crowd. The crowd responded more and more as Martinez gestured to his spectators below. After slowing down the finale came in the form of “pulls” as the ground crew slowed down Martinez, spinning him around while using their body weight to stretch his back skin to its fullest capacity.
