Fakir Musafar
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Fakir Musafar (August 10, 1930 in Aberdeen, South Dakota – †August 1, 2018)) is considered the father of the modern primitive movement. He has experimented on his own body with body modification techniques such as body piercing, tightlacing, scarification, tattooing, and suspension, and has documented, shared and taught others as part of his life's work making him an underground icon in BDSM, kink and fetish communities.
Fakir Musafar with life partner, Cleo Dubois
He gave himself his first body piercing when he was twelve. He performed the O-Kee-Pa suspension in 1966 or 1967. His first public appearance as Fakir Musafar was at the First International Tattoo Convention in Reno, Nevada in 1977.
During the 1970's, he and Big Ruth formed a company known as B&R Creations which manufactured and sold corsets for men and women through Versatile Fashions.
Fakir Musafar is shaman, artist and teacher. He has been called the "Father of the Modern Primitive Movement". He has experimented on his own body with body modification techniques such as body piercing, tightlacing and corseting, scarification, branding, tattooing, flesh hook suspension, temporary infibulation amongst others. All of his work involves energy movement and consciousness shifting.
He gave himself his first permanent body piercing when he was only fourteen. He experienced the O-Kee-Pa suspension in 1966 and 1982 (subject of the film Dances Sacred and Profane). His first public appearance was at the First International Tattoo Convention in Reno, Nevada in 1977. During the 1970's, he and his business partner at that time (Ruth Johnson) formed a company known as B&R Creations which crafted corsets for men and women from Fakir's original corset patterns. Fakir's life partner for the past 18 years, Cleo Dubois, is his associate in the "Spirit+Flesh" rituals which they jointly conduct worldwide.
His life partner is Cleo Dubois.
- Quoted from Fakir's homepage
Fakir Musafar is known worldwide for his fifty years of research and personal exploration of primitive body decoration and rituals. Fakir has introduced concepts and practices for the "body-first" approach to explore spirituality in art, body modifications, SM and what he calls "body play". Fakir's practices have been shown and his views expressed in the 1985 film DANCES SACRED & PROFANE and in ReSearch publication's 1989 book MODERN PRIMITIVES (a word Fakir coined in 1979 to describe himself and a few kindred spirits)....
Born in 1930 on what was then an Indian Reservation, Fakir is a depression baby from Aberdeen, South Dakota. He studied electrical engineering and has a B.S.E. degree from Northern State University (South Dakota) plus an M.A. degree in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. For many years he held executive positions in San Francisco advertising agencies and operated his own ad agency in Silicon Valley. Fakir has had, over the years, a very checkered career path that included such odd occupations as Instructor in Demolitions & Explosives (U.S. Army 1952-54) and teacher of ballroom dancing at Arthur Murray's. All the while, he was privately practicing what his inner spirit revealed to him as a valid but non-sanctioned way (in this culture) to reach spirit through the body. In 1979, he made his first public coming out at the first International Tattoo Convention in Reno Nevada....
Since then, he has seen as his "life work" writing, speaking and teaching others what he has experienced and learned by doing "body play". Fakir is currently Director of Fakir Intensives, a California State Registered Career Training Institution, and a practicing artist and photographer. His work can be viewed on his website at http://www.fakir.org.
- Quoted from Wikipedia
Fakir Musafar (born Roland Loomis, August 10, 1930 in Aberdeen, South Dakota) is considered the father of the modern primitive movement. He has experimented on his own body with body modification techniques such as body piercing, tightlacing, scarification, tattooing, and suspension, and has documented, shared and taught others as part of his life's work making him an underground icon in BDSM, kink and fetish communities.
At age four Roland Loomis experienced dreams of past lives. He gave himself his first body piercing when he was twelve. He performed the O-Kee-Pa suspension in 1966 or 1967. His first public appearance as Fakir Musafar was at the First International Tattoo Convention in Reno, Nevada in 1977.
Musafar has documented and shared his explorations in writing, speaking and teaching others "body play." In the early 1990's Musafar appeared in mainstream media shows like NBC's Faith Daniels Show, CBS's People Are Talking, CNN's Earth Matters and Discovery Channel's (Beyond Bizarre). In 1998 Musafar produced documentary segments for London Weekend Television's Southbank Show and Playboy Television's "Sexcetera." In 2000, 2001 and 2003 he has appeared in documentaries for The Learning Channel (Human Canvas Part I and Part II), TBS, FX Channel and Discovery Channel plus a major appearance in the 2001 documentary film "Modern Tribalism". In 2004 became a spokesperson for the National Geographic Channel's TABOO series and has expressed "radical contemporary" views on body rituals on the Travel Channel's "Eye of the Beholder" series hosted by Serena Yang.
Musafar's writing and photography appears in Theater Journal, Bizarre magazine (fetish and SM exploration), Skin Two and PFIQ (Piercing Fan International Quarterly). He has lectured and performed at London's Institute of Contemporary Art (Rapture Series, 1995); Copenhagen's International Seminar on BODY:Ritual-Manipulation (1995) and Lisbon, Portugal's Festival Atlantico (1997). His photographic art was recently exhibited at the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles.
In February 1999 Musafar presented "My Reality, Your Reality, Reality of Those you Treat" as an invitee to the annual conference of the American College of Psychiatrists educating on body modification and shamanism. His performance group performed "Metamorphosis" at the 1999 Los Angeles Fetish Ball as well as for close friend Annie Sprinkle's Benefit Show at the Cowell Theater in San Francisco after her houseboat and archives were destroyed by fire.
Musafar continues to speak at colleges and universities and to New Age and other special interest groups. Musafar is a Master Piercer and shaman with over 40 years experience in the body arts. He is also the founder and director of the School for Professional Body Piercing, the first in America. Starting in 1948, he championed the ancient practices and modern techniques in general use today and co-developed the established techniques of contemporary body piercing. Musafar's Body Piercing and Branding Intensives school is amongst the best in the world.
Musafar is featured in the "Modern Primitives" issue of Re/Search Magazine and in the full length documentary "Dances Sacred and Profane". He also appears in the movie Modify.
See also [ Sun Dance ]
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