It Only Hurts When I Laugh

It is said by some (not me asssuredly) that there is a fine line

between pain and pleasure, and that the fine pleasure of sexuality

sometimes crosses that threshold into making enjoyable that which is

otherwise intolerable. This exhibit at the Adult Video News

convention (porn exhibition) in Las Vegas, this year, seeks to show

that. This man is suspended by these hooks; no ladder or anything

else beneath his body or feet, and he looks appropriately

uncomfortable. Your rates and critiques are invited and most

welcome. If you rate harshly or very critically, please submit a

helpful and constructive comment; please share your superior

photographic knowledge to help improve my photography. Thanks!

Enjoy! (or at least be edified). John

Ouch! Isn't this a tradition in some southeastern American Indian tribe? Or perhaps I'm making that up.

 

Very engaging shot, I like it a lot.

I think you'd die, but maybe the tradition is to do it for your enemies, but then again, they didn't have steel for hooks -- just bone (before the Europeans came . . . . so how would it be 'old' tradition).

 

I liked it very much. . . I am just beginning to process yesterday's 'porn' convention returns (didn't go today as too tired), and it's over now.

 

It's quite a wearing experience, especially with three cameras, and after having driven for six hours after a day of 'working' and packing, then unpacking a whole car chock full (I live on the road).

 

But it's images like this, which are totally unexpected, which drive me.

 

I meet a guy I know who sells cameras and knows and likes my work, who saw this and other similar scenes -- he's a photographer, but he just missed these things. He reviewed my flash cards and contents of three cameras and just was in awe of what I got -- and which he walked by, thinking to himself, 'that's interesting stuff'. the point is to stop, choose an appropriate lens/camera combination and take that photo. That's what separates me from many others -- just the drive to take that photo which tells the story, and not to obscure the story.

 

Here the story was in the steel hooks going through the 'supposed' 'skin' and that's what I took, plus I wanted his face to be appropriately painful or unhappy looking, and that wasn't hard.

 

But emphasis first on the pins through the 'flesh' was important.

 

And that I got.

 

I'm glad you liked it.

 

But those Indians . . . I don't know.

 

Then again, I can't say for sure it isn't so either.

 

Thanks for commenting.

 

John (Crosley)

Emotionally powerful capture. The hooks piercing through the flesh and lifting the skin look excruciatingly painful. His expression reflects his condition accordingly. Interesting to note that he has a tatoo of the syllable OM on his shoulder. OM symbolizes the sound of the human race and it refers to the natural sound AAAH that comes out from the human larynx. This sound is most evident when people cry in extreme pain, anger or fear.

This shot grabbed my attention primarily because of the symbol (I will take it as a tatoo)on the subjects shoulder. It was made even more interesting by the background supplied revealing that the locale was an Adult Video News convention. And the barbed suspension technique fully completed this tale for me.

The symbol is the OM, a sign, a symbol and a sound that is from ancient Vedic traditions representing 'The Absolute'. Reading more into this image led me to think of some of the Yogic Tantric practices where sexuality (and bliss) is taken as a process towards higher consciousness or as an expression of the greatest LOve (of the Universe). The control and conquering of physical distress e.g. taking supreme austerity to the point of pain and beyond is another part of the story for me here. This kind of thing ofcourse has been part of many of the worlds religions as an expression of devotion.

So all in all, this image has been more than interesting, more so because the three elements I mentioned has been brought together so well.

I'm glad someone else (Adan) noted 'The Om'... as I was typing the above!

Great minds think alike Mike ;) he he!

I didn't note, but this guy also was assuming the lotus position, so as he was hanging there, apparently almost like on several fish-hooks or meathooks, he waas assuming a yoga position. Does that relate to tantric sex?

 

In any case, the flesh is not pierced so much as I could tell -- it looks like a sort of 'shirt' made of plastic, which he has worn (I couldn't see the front because of his hair and arms and his body posture -- as well as spectators. And besides, I was interested in getting a side view, which did not reveal the front where a 'shirt' of rubberized plastic might have been visible.

 

I'm learning something from this photo.

 

As a former attorney, we often learned that the collective recollection of a jury remembered nearly everything that happened in a courtroom, even though any member remembered very little, but when 12 got together and could request evidence or transcripts tbe read or production of evidence anew into the jury room the collective consciousness of a jury was absolutely stunning.

 

Well, I am edified about this photo.

 

(and see the next comment and reply).

 

You continue to help me greatly in understanding my own captures, so thank you very much this Sunday A.M.

 

John (Crosley)

I like the idea of Tantric sex, except I understand that it never allows release, something I am dead set against, at the very least for my partner (or partners -- as the case may be -- I'm not giving away anything).

 

I think for my partner the more [release(s)] the better, and generally, just about any woman will agree. Who can argue with being multi-orgasmic? Not many woman in my experience, and in my experience, almost all who are willing, are, and more than they think they are.

 

Male withholding (which I am told is a heart of 'Tantric sexuality' may keep 'precious fluids' inside, (as I understand is a fundamental of Tantric sex), but 'what the hey', those fluids are life's force, and the body can quickly produce more and science reveals the new are even more 'vital' -- releasing them is not losing life, but the body's seeking to perpetuate it and with new 'vigor'.

 

I can't presently ask any 'partner' I might have, but I'm sure if I took a poll of female persons I have known well, (and that's all I could ever ask), I'd get agreement in spades.

 

I don't know anything about this tattoed 'sign' or anyting about Vedic tradition, so I'll let your comment stand for itself, and invite others to comment on your comment; I note one other already comment already is standding in the queue.

 

It seems to be a very popular or at least noteworthy sort of things to discuss here. (I must be 'out of the loop' on Vedic symbols and Tantric sex, but I have been able to experiment with lengthenhing sexuality, and I think that's a good thing in general with a good partner.

 

I note that I never had objections to any 'lengthing' of the sexual act from any partner who had any interest in it, which I understand is the heart of Tantric sex.

 

Am I correct about whether that's the basis of Tantric sexuality -- prolonged, non-releasing sexuality?

 

In the end, of course, pain has no place (for me at least) in sexuality, but the line between pleasure and pain is easily confused for many people.

 

Long ago, when there were numerous phone boxes in London, and many English students were graduates of boarding students where corporal punishment was commonly dispensed during formative sexual years, a young man experiencing sexuality might also be punished and the lines then in formative years between budding sexuality and experiencing the excruciating pain of during the time of sexual discovery and painful punishment (perhaps for exhibiting sexuality during boarding school confines) might have become exhilarating eventually to some substantial numbers -- confused in the young man's mind.'

 

Anyway, prostitutes left their calling cards abundantly in London 'phone boxes' advertising 'corporal punishment just, I think, for such persons, and it seems England (where corporal punishment of budding adolescent boarding school students among the higher class 'gentlenen-to-be' was common), has an extraordinary number of people seeking such punishment.

 

This is armchair psychology/sexualty analysis, of course, as I have no training the in the subject, but a long life and good powers of observation plus the experience of many interviews with young women about their own developed and developing sexuality (which at first astonished me, but now I take variety in stride).

 

I read the Kinsey reports on male and female sexuality when I was 10 and 11 -- I was precocious, so I was very well prepared for life's variety in sexuality.

 

See, these commentary pages have discussed nearly everything under the sun -- because my photos probe life in its myriad complexities and provoke great discussion about life.

 

Mike, thanks for a great contribution; without it, this discussion would not have been possible. If you want to clarify or add to this discussion, please feel free to add to it.

 

I am against pain in sexuality, but I understand that others (women at least) take great solace in being abused or experiencing pain at least, during their sexuality, and that is not generally known by the public.

 

Those accused of rape sometimes say the woman liked 'rough sex' and it is disbelieved by juries, but sometimes it is exactly true; I have talked with such women, but sometimes they get 'cold feet' or the man takes it beyond the boundaries (or there is no 'safe word') or as with one slightly dysfunctional woman I met, she could change her mind from licentious to nun-like during the act, and any man who progressed to her was a rapist (in her mind at least).

 

Chew on that for a while.

 

Life is full of variety.

 

My photos depend on that.

 

Maybe I couldn't take them if I didn't have so much experience in so many areas of life.

 

Help me here if you have more to contribute.

 

Or anybody else.

 

People read these discussions for the intellectual content and the exchanges -- people you'd never guess.

 

John (Crosley)

... often had ritual piercing and mortification. The idea, as I understand it, was to sacrifice a portion of yourself as an offering. This was dramatized by Richard Harris in "A Man Called Horse". The participant was suspended by these hooks through the flesh of his back or a chest until he tore the flesh and came free.

Thanks for letting me (all of us) know.

 

This guy isn't breaking free, however.

 

He is suspended.

 

Completely.

 

But no real pain compared to hooks through the flesh.

 

Of course there must have been infection with the Indians.

 

Gads, what people will do.

 

But we think we're civilized and we bomb people, so it's more sanitized.

 

Warfare with hand to hand combat hardly exits anymore (I just saw Julius Caesar fight his way through all of Gaul).

 

It was very bloody, and all he had was conquest in mind.

 

And he was considered 'noble' in what he did, killing and all.

 

And by the times, he was.

 

Times change, don't they.

 

I always like when you contribute -- it's almost always meaty.

 

Maybe always.

 

John (Crosley)