Temporary versus permanent - Piercing, Ink, etc

[Leila Raven]

I've only attempted one permanent body mod, having my nipples pierced. It was an amazing experience, and I'm glad I had it done. It was for my 40th birthday and was done by a body modification artist named Elwood. He's been trained by Fakir, the father of the modern primitive movement, and has been designated Fakirs chosen 'successor'. There was friends and loved ones around, and it was actually part of a piercing party, where many people had permanent mods done. Piercing and branding.

Unfortunately, they didn't stay with me, they wouldn't heal. I'd never even had my ears pierced before this, because I always had a gut feeling my body wouldn't be happy with a foreign object. Even with all the best of care and patience, my body just refused to heal properly around the piercings.

So I'm back to bare canvas again. Other than that, the only kinds of ordainment I've had have been temporary, by design that is, but also meaningful.

I've done a lot of temporary design on my own body and on others bodies using temporary piercings, or using henna or other methods of making marks.

Marking the body can be a very spiritual process, putting symbols on self or on others is a profound experience, whether the mark is meant to be worn for the rest of ones life, or for a day or a week.

At one of the parties in my home we did henna designs on each other, celebrating our bodies. This is the back of a friend of mine and a member of my extended 'leather family'. Another woman at the party was a survivor of breast cancer and had had a double masectomy, she wanted her 'breasts' decorated and I made beautiful flowers where nipples would be radiating out with swirls like a floral sun... she was very thrilled and moved with reclaiming her breasts and feeling that they were very beautiful, though not in a typical way.

It was a very powerful evening.

Have you ever had a temporary body art experience that was profound for you?

 

[Leila Raven]

I think pain and pleasure are bedfellows in life everywhere, we are just blind to it most of us most of the time. We have been taught to see things as either or.. black and white thinking, and seek to eradicate pain and seek out pleasure, however it is through our pains and sufferings in this world, big and small that we awaken to and appreciate it's pleasure and joys.

The other aspect of this is that the when we undertake pain consensually, like when we decide to have a tattoo and the pain is a chosen and wanted undertaken, the brain/body recognizes after a while that there is no need to use the pain as an 'alarm system' to get you to stop it happening. After a little bit, your whole system comes on board accepting the fact that yes, we're undergoing consensual pain, so we don't need to make it unpleasant. Normally when we experience skin/tissue/ trauma we want pain to kick in to let us know damage is being done and we can change our activity, it serves a purpose. When we choose pain, we can often over-ride much of it's unpleasant aspects... Our body just sends us lots of wonderful enorphins and natural cannibinoids even from our brain/body chemistry.

Much like when one gets a deep tissue massage... at first it can feel painfull, and it actually breaks down some muscle tissue, people may experience bruising, but it's experienced as relaxing, calming, and very pleasurable. It puts us in a relaxed trance state.

For myself and others who explore BDSM these are concepts and things we play with regularly, the manipulation of our own body chemistry through pleasant pain trials. I would say from experience, the therapeutic benefit of a therapeutic flogging is as great if not greater than that of a massage.

For the henna we did there's no pain involved in the temporary process. However there is a lot of pain inducing temporary body modification being done in the BDSM/kink community.

Here's my backside after a cupping, uses the same vaccum cup system used in Chinese medicine. This was done at a BDSM party (hence the corset marks indented on my skin) This also leaves circular bruises that personally I think are quite beautiful and could be incorporated into temporary sacred markings, here there was no design planned or made, it was done just for the sensation - physical/mental/spiritual that happens with the careful manipulation of senses with the sensation and pain play done.

I've seen many beautiful temporary piercings done, where the needles are decorated with feathers, people have had angel wings pierced onto them, I've seen jewelery sutured into the skin, I've seen people suspended from hooks, I've seen body parts temporarily sewn shut. This are things that people who have not experienced the pleasurable or transcended or spiritual aspects of pain trials cannot understand. If you've only had negative experiences of pain, where the body is still ringing the 'alarm bells'... trying to relate to 'positive pain' is very hard. We're doing our society a disservice in continuing to vilify pain.  I have met many people over the years who find pain so enjoyable on all levels that it is literally orgasmic for them, consensual BDSM pain will easily induce powerful orgasm in them, as well as other transcendent states concurrently. 

Anyways, I could write volumes on this stuff, but need to rest a bit.. lol. Under went my own trial of pain and not the pleasurable kind at the dentist today. :)

 

[2697b3uwyr9f0]

Strange that the pain of dentistry is not the same thing eh,

perhaps its because we feel we are not in control?  a friend of mine decided to have her teeth filed into fine points, lol she said felt pleasure after the event not during :) It did look quite fetching,

I do think the cupping marks are quite attractive,reminds me of circular love bites,

interesting!

Many Blessings D<)M(>

 

[1absolutedespot]

interesting Leila, and I know what you mean about the dentist!

[16f55bx0b3p2u]

I applaud you Leila! I think whatever type of modification or adornment we select, permanent or otherwise, is most cathartic.  Just like the woman who had her "breasts" designed, the process makes one transcend the ordinary.  You have truly given a gift from the heart!

 

                   M

[Leila Raven]

Thanks Marissa, I've just never lost that instinct to 'play'! lol. I still want to colour on my friends... :)

[1absolutedespot]

Ouch!!! to having nipples pierced!! you must be very brave- oh I dont think I could manage that, and I'd love a tongue piercing but Im afraid I havent the courage! Ears no problem, just stick a pin through after a tot of tequila!

[Leila Raven]

It was red hot white lightening strike pain that lasted a split second and was gone. The second one was harder. It's not something I could have done earlier in life. Having to face a lot of non-consensual pain in life combined with years of slowly exploring pain from an empowered position has gifted me with removing a lot of my fear around pain. Pain itself, without fear, is really not so bad, fear is often what gives pain it's worst 'edge'. It certainly makes pain more 'painful'. Experiencing pain from a place of acceptance with very little to no fear transforms the experience of pain quite dramatically to something which can hold all kinds of powerful meanings.

It was a powerful experience. There were many people there who were celebrating life and their bodies, and their was a very spiritual element to it for most. The 'energy' in the house that night from people getting pierced was profound. There were a lot of very positive tears and positive energy building. Facing trials together, and undergoing ritual 'pain' ordeals can be a profound spiritual experience for those involved. I hadn't pierced anything till that time out of fear around the combination of pain, and holding something foreign in my body. To move into that place of being able to do it.

I still have fears. I would love to be able to do a ritual like the sundance where people do 'hook pulling' -pierce hooks through the skin and stretch it. I've been to ceremonies where people do suspensions, or people do hooks in the chest and do heart pulls with a partner tugging on the hooks over their heart chakras. Everyone I've seen experiencing this has a transcendent experience. The energy they experience and what you can 'feel' just even being a watcher, is phenomenal. I've seen people have whole body/soul 'gasms and in states of extended spiritual and physical ecstasy. These are things people from other cultures and times have explored throughout the history of mankind, but our current modern western world, for the majority, we've been taught to highly fear pain and to be repulsed by it and see it as inherently 'harmful' in nature, we've blinded ourselves to positive aspects and uses of pain in life. We fight against too much of what is natural in the world, and give too much power that way to darker aspects, where if we explored and accepted more, we may realize that most 'negative' elements also have positive applications, that most things in life are flexible and fluid in nature, and it's how we make use of them and experience them that makes them what they are...

anyways... I'm rambling on. I've been quiet a while, I guess I'm in a sharing mood! *laugh*