I recently came across an article being forwarded around on MySpace bulletins. It addresses in a very haphazard way some concerns with the modern practice of suspension. It runs thusly:
Hooked on suspension
Followers say they achieve inner peace, but there could be risks
By Tracy Swartz
RedEye
Published November 9 2007

Miss Ammunition nervously taps one black platform stiletto heel as she waits backstage at Gothicfest in Chicago on a recent Saturday afternoon.

Though this is the seventh time Miss Ammunition will suspend from metal hooks in her body, she says she still feels nervous about the impending pain.

She lies face down on a massage table, closes her eyes and inhales deeply as she prepares for the needle. She yelps as the hooks pierce her flesh.

Minutes later, she lifts herself from the table with two large hooks in her upper back, two hooks on the back of her thighs, two hooks above and two below her black thong on her back side.

She walks a few feet to the stage at Excalibur in River North. Body piercers weave ropes attached to a steel frame into the eight hooks as she lies on her stomach on a table.

Then, amid techno music, artificial smoke and about 50 Gothicfest revelers, Miss Ammunition, whose real name is Amourena Tsokatos, rises horizontally into the air.

As she is lifted off the table, Tsokatos says she reaches a Zen-like state. Her flight ends about 20 minutes later, and the hooks are pulled from her body. Blood trickles down her calves.

"You get so high and you feel so accomplished," said Tsokatos, 26, of Lincoln Park. "It's truly a journey."

Some Chicagoans like Tsokatos are practicing "suspension," a controversial practice in which participants hang by hooks embedded in their flesh.

But health experts warn that suspension can cause skin tears, infections and scarring--and is a dangerous way to mask emotional issues.

Suspension is a form of non-suicidal selfinjury that involves focusing on physical pain rather than emotional pain, said Wendy Lader, president of S.A.F.E. Alternatives, a self-abuse treatment program in Chicago.

Lader said that if people are suspending to mask emotional pain, "usually it's a pattern of having a difficult time handling emotional issues." Lader has never treated a suspension patient, but she said she has talked to family members of suspenders about their concerns.

"I think that this is a problem," said Lader, who co-authored "Bodily Harm: The Breakthrough Healing Program for Self-Injurers." "It's not dealing with the real issues. I would not think it would be the best way to obtain a true, long-lasting sense of inner peace."

Nevertheless, people are suspending in Chicago and nationwide. Suspension. org, an online community for suspension artists, lists about 25 suspension groups around the country.

Chicago's 313 Suspension Team has grown to nearly 100 members, including Tsokatos, according to team president Steve Bennett of Oak Forest. "It's something that relaxes me. I found a way to calm myself," Bennett, 30, said. "Once you leave the ground, that's where most people achieve that sense of accomplishment."

Bennett said suspension creates energy, including sexual energy. Bennett, a body piercer, described his first suspension in 1997 as a "life-changing experience" and said he has hanged more than 140 times from hooks in his wrists, knees, back, butt, calves and shoulders. In 2002, he formed the suspension team, which is composed of regular performers and occasional suspenders in the Chicago area.

Private suspensions are held year-round. The team performs public shows about five to 10 times a year in clubs around the country, Bennett said, though he has seen bookings increase recently. Bennett said the team does not have a set price for its performances, but sometimes charges a booking fee.

Neither Bennett nor the Gothicfest promoter would disclose how much the team was paid to appear at the show, where Chicago's 313 Suspension Team member Brenda Smage of Madison, Wis., performed a suspension in which multiple hooks are placed in the chest and stomach and the suspender is pulled with her head facing the ceiling.

Smage, who said she has 19 body piercings, said she started suspending last year after seeing online photos of the practice. "It's never disappointing," said Smage, 22.

After the hooks were removed Smage bled on her plaid skirt. But that's not the worst suspension drawback she has experienced. She said she had to get eight stitches in December after a knee suspension.

It's not the blood, but the potential for infection, that worries Anne Laumann, associate professor of dermatology at Northwestern University.

After discussing suspension with Red- Eye, Laumann attended Gothicfest to watch multiple suspensions and observe how the hooks were implanted in the flesh. "The main issue is afterward if it gets infected," Laumann said. "If you put metal hooks through the skin, you are making tunnels for infection." Laumann also pointed to scars on Tsokatos' body. Scarring is permanent, Laumann said.

Bennett, who helped pierce Tsokatos at Gothicfest, said the team takes medical precautions. Hook insertions are performed by trained body piercers, he said.

The equipment is sterilized and used only once. Bennett said a certified emergency medical technician also is present at each event--a service he has never had to use. Bennett said the main concern when suspenders get into the air is that they could pass out. If Bennett sees his team members start to pass out, he said he usually pulls them down because it's not safe for them to lose consciousness.

As Tsokatos floated in the air at Gothicfest, Chris Zuniga, 29, of Franklin Park watched. He had never seen a suspension before and decided to check out the show while he waited for a band to perform. Zuniga said he had no problem with the exhibit because those who practice suspension "should have the free will to do what they want."

But "it's just not my thing," Zuniga, said. "I don't want any holes in me."

tswartz@tribune.com


Unable to ignore, unfortunately, I felt compelled to write a response. As I doubt the "journalist" or publishing body will feel at all compelled to acknowledge or respond to the comments and concerns of anyone they have so unreservedly termed "fringe" I'll share my response with you here. As always I welcome your thoughts as well.

My response as follows:

Ms. Swartz, I am writing in response to your article on body suspension, which I believe was published Nov. 9. As the article was forwarded to me by a friend and not seen at the original source, I apologize if the article was edited in some way, and I address issues you discussed either in this article or later.
First, I must confess I am confused as to why the bulk of your evidence is made up from testimony of a so-called expert who admits she has never spoken with or treated a suspension enthusiast. While I don't deny the possibility that there are some people in the world who would try to use suspension and other body modification to cope with emotional problems, I think if you were to actually interview participants you would find this fairly rare. I know it has been in my experience. Part of the job of a responsible and ethical suspension artist is to talk with the candidate and determine some of their reasons for wanting to undertake a suspension. I think you will find most suspension artists will not consent to suspend someone in a state of emotional or mental distress.
Suspension is another way of testing limits, of finding what we are capable of in ourselves, as well as a way to trigger all those endorphins that produce euphoric feelings. Were the men who scaled Mount Everest dangerous self-mutilators? Were the scientists who penetrated the arctic wilderness of the south pole unbalanced and emotionally crippled? Suspension has been a part of religious tradition for hundreds of years among many indigenous peoples. Perhaps it would be worth it to understand some of the background of the practice before dismissing it so offhandedly.
As to potential for infection and lasting damage, I do see you mentioned some of the precautions taken by suspension artists. Realistically a well-trained artist using proper equipment places a person at far less risk than a mall ear piercer, yet there is hardly hue and cry over parents bringing their teen girls to an unhygienic emporium to have ragged holes punched in their heads with piercing guns that can not be fully sterilized (piercing guns can not be autoclaved and many have plastic parts which provide a rich breeding ground for viruses and bacteria). Further more, as to Ms. Laumann's assertion that scarring is permanent, I can assure you that this is not the case. I have suspended three times, and participated in a pull once and no traces of those piercings remain on my body at all. I must confess I wonder that you could not find a practicing doctor, or at least a single professional who has examined suspension practitioners personally to substantiate these claims.
While I do understand it is human nature to be fearful and distrustful of that which we do not understand, I am saddened by your alarmist tone and poor information supplied in your article. Thank you for reading my comments.