#modern primitives

[funstealer]

RE/Search: Modern Primitives (1989)

[peachpulpeuse]

While the explicit emphasis in cutting, piercing, and S/M is on the exploration of the primitive and the surrender to sensuality and pleasure, there is a subtext of sacrifice and pain that I, at least, cannot ignore. While the spiritual content of these activities is based on invoking other traditions that supposedly do not deny the body in the way that our own do, they also index Western traditions in which enduring pain is a denial of the body in favor of the spirit. The primitive is commonly invoked in New Age movements that do not focus on modifying the body, and similarly, there are approaches to celebrating sexuality as self-discovery and subversion that involve neither pain nor the permanent modification of the body. Thus, the appeal of cutting and piercing must rest, at least in part, on their ability to combine a long-standing possibility of valorizing sexuality to oppose society with the mainstream notion that mortifying the flesh is a route to transcendence. [...] As noted earlier, in seeing society as antithetical to individual desire, modern primitives align with Christianity. By contrast, capitalist thinking holds that society arose out of the conjunction of individual desires and exists in order to further their fulfillment. As the latter view (with society glossed as "market forces") is particularly salient to 20th-century consumer capitalism, modern primitives are able to play the role of a "Christian opposition" to capitalism, albeit one in which sex is sacralized and consumer goods become "pleasures of the flesh."

Daniel Rosenblatt, from "The Antisocial Skin: Structure, Resistance, and 'Modern Primitive' Adornment in the United States" (1997)

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

Ellen Rogers

Modern Primitives

[thephilosopheroftheboudoir]

Fakir Musafar (1930–2018)

Fakir Musafar, a performance artist, photographer, pain guru, and Silicon Valley salesman who sought transcendence in piercing and constricting his body in extreme ways, has died at age eighty-seven. The cause was lung cancer. Musafar is considered the father of the “modern primitive” movement, a phrase he coined in the late 1970s. His views on body-modification earned him thousands of international followers who practiced spiritual elevation through shamanic rituals and meditations like body suspension, a practice he pioneered and taught. Dubbed an “astronaut of inner spaces” by anthropologist

RIP Fakir Musafar

[frequency426]

Dear Followers, Fans, Students and Loving Friends,

The time has come for me to inform you that Fakir's shelf life is running out. I have been fighting stage 4 lung cancer since last October, and I am near my expiration date.

I am grateful and honored beyond words to have known you—all of you who have been touched by my presence and followed my example—and the dizzying, fun, enlightening, and delightful experience of seeing so many embrace body piercing and body rituals. I never expected our passions and practices to grow to a global phenomenon—that my early visions of Modern Primitives would expand beyond my wildest dreams. Thank you for embracing, growing, and embodying our art, craft, and energetic ritual practices. They have changed the cultural landscape worldwide. May they serve you well in the future.

Though I will soon pass into the unseen world, I take pride in knowing that my legacy will continue with the Fakir Body Piercing & Branding Intensives, hopefully for many years to come. The institution we have built does not cater to the ambitions of a small group of exclusives, but strives to provide broad educational support to everyone drawn by its charms, skills, and magic. Deep, serious learning. This twenty-eight-year journey has not only been mine, but that of a dedicated staff of teachers. We helped one another. We shared with each other. We improved year-after-year. Our devotion is to pass on everything we have discovered to those who want to learn. My heartfelt thanks to Ken Coyote, Jef Saunders, Cody Vaughn, Ian Bishop, Tod Almighty, Jori Zan, BettyAnn Peed, Becky Dill, Laura Jane, Neo Collett, WJ Grindatti, past instructors who moved on, including Dustin Allor, Dr. Natalie Lowry, Fashia Fontaine Zanatta, Sharon Nickle, Seth Cameron, Idexa Stern, and everyone who has supported the workshops and my passions over the years: Carry on!

Now, I have a request: I realize that many of you may wish to reach out to me, but I will be unable to manage a deluge of emails and phone calls in my final days, which I wish to spend in quiet solitude with my loving wife Carla (aka Cleo Dubois.) However, I would very much appreciate a handwritten note from you by postal mail. My address is:

Fakir Musafar P.O. Box 2345 Menlo Park, CA 94026

For future students, scholars, and press, I am pleased to announce that the Bancroft Library, at UC Berkeley, has acquired my archives, and will make them available for posterity. These archives include my writings, books, interviews, photography, and videos. I have also donated part of my collection to the Body Piercing Archive at the Association of Professional Piercers.

Goodbye dear friends, and may you all have as wonderful a journey as I have had.

Namasté!

Fakir Musafar May 2018, Menlo Park, California

I am unbelievably saddened by this news. Fakir Musafar is a legend and an inspiration to so many of us.

[tattooed-alchemist]

The waitstaff at Flying Apron thought my shirt was sick. I told them I’ve had it since the 1990s when I was living in SF. Way down in the corner of the design it says the copyright is 1986.

I tend to forget it’s covered in pierced genitalia after a while, and then someone’s face gets THE LOOK and then I have internal hysterics.

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

Ellen Rogers

Modern Primitives

[sowhatifiliveinfukuoka]

Ellen Rogers

Modern Primitives