Aine Atum on Body Suspension
How did you get into body suspension? I started to haunt into the world of tattooing, body piercing and suspension since I was about twenty, I had the fortune to meet some excellent bodypiercers and bodymodifiers and to become friend with them. I also did some shows of playpiercing with one of them and from this to test myself through branding, scarification and suspension the gap was short. It was something new to experience and absolutely to try. I’m very curious, I love new experiences and I improve myself constantly.
What is suspension to you? Body suspensions for me are a way to test myself and to have fun, they are an inner experience that is rooted in the ancient tradition of the American Indians. In ancient times it was a way to get in connection with the ‘great spirit’; I think that anyone feels something different, but with no doubt you can get in touch with an unknown side of yourself.
Tell us about your first experience of body suspension. My first experience with body suspension was in 2011 at a private event. I was a little scared because I am basically a shy person, I was not afraid of the pain (that I would try) but of maybe passing out in front of other people who had already done it. Before taking my feet off the ground I felt pure pain, then a sense of freedom mixed with immense pleasure. It was fun and they were all new sensations. It’s a difficult thing to describe to those who have never done it, but I could call it an orgasm of the mind.
Describe your feeling before under and after a session of suspension. First I was a little shaken and nervous, pain is subjective, it depends on many variations, from our physical condition, the part of the body interested, our state of mind and especially our mental condition. When you liberate your mind completely, you feel free to be whatever you want, the first time I smiled happily, others time felt incredible pain depending on where the hooks were inserted, but you’re still happy with yourself and with your courage. Afterward you feel like an orgasm… do u know this feeling?
Tell us about your favorite suspension position. I love the ‘Suicide’ or the ‘Angel’, the first where the hooks are placed in the upper back, the second instead is eight hooks in the back where the outline of an angel’s wings would be, if they are done in a place where you have space you can even move several meters and you feel like flying, at some point you become unaware that you have cables of steel behind your back. The first time I was suspended for half an hour, and I went down only because I was dizzy otherwise I would have been up again and again.
How should a person, doing this for the first time, prepare themselves, according to you? The first time is better to choose a dynamic position, such as those mentioned above and not a static one: for example the ‘Resurrection’ because it is more fun and less ‘introspective’. Then, maybe, choose a point that hurts less to be hooked even if pain is always subjective like back or knees (although it seems the opposite), I suggest to avoid absolutely stomach and belly. As in all things you need courage and a touch of recklessness.
