Interview by Sean Dowdell

Reprinted from Inkspired Magazine, Issue 26 with permission of the publisher

Why was I obsessed to modify my body? Why would I abandon the comfort of the status quo for the unknowns of body modification and ritual? I did it primarily because I was curious and bored with the status quo. In retrospect, probably for the same reasons early explorers risked the hazards of sailing uncharted seas. And like explorers of the past, present and future seeking rewards of some kind: treasure or knowledge. In my journey I sought to explore the seas of consciousness, my own inner self. The most personal and accessible vehicle was my own body.  During my 50 plus years of sailing via body ritual, I have found some of the same reasons I set sail in the body rituals of other cultures.”

“EPILOGUE,” Body Play: My Journey—Fakir Musafar

Sean Dowdell: Let’s start with your age, where you were born, and the city you live in now.

Fakir Musafar: I am presently 83, born in 1930 in Aberdeen, South Dakota (which was then on the Sissiton Sioux Indian reservation). I have lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1955.

SD: Can you tell us where you came up with the name, “Fakir Musafar” and why?

FM: In 1977, Doug Malloy and then icons in the tattoo industry (like Ed Hardy and Sailor Jerry) decided to hold the FIRST international tattoo convention in Reno, Nevada. There was no piercing industry then as such, only Jim Ward and me. We were invited to participate and bring a spectacular show for the closing event. Doug asked me to do all the practices I had adopted from other cultures: bed of nails, bed of swords, etc. for the show. But he felt my regular given name was not memorable enough for the event. Not good for publicity. So he asked me if I had a special pet name I could use. I respected and honored a 12th century Sufi called Fakir Musafar who said to get close to the divine, you should pierce yourself. I adopted that name for the show; after the event the name was remembered and stuck.

SD: Fakir, you are known to a lot of us fellow body piercers as the Father of the Industry, what are your thoughts regarding that statement?

FM: Jim Ward is actually the Father of the Modern Piercing Industry (he commercialized it) and Doug Malloy is the Grandfather (he championed it). My job has been to educate. I am widely known as the “Father of the Modern Primitive Movement.” Piercing and a whole lot more, espousing a whole different attitude about “body.”

SD: How do you feel about the fact that many people think of you as a role model or icon?

FM: Because I was a pioneer and brought something new into our Western Culture, I became an icon. I was #1 in this regard and my teaching was by example not proselytizing. I was driven by an urge to share, not ego driven.

SD: What specifically in other cultures prompted you to want to learn more about your body and at what age did you start the exploration?

FM: I grew up surrounded by Native American culture, friends, customs and vibes. This was more comfortable for me than Western Christian Culture of the white settlers in South Dakota where I lived. Later, I found that Lakota Sioux and Mandan customs and beliefs were much the same as Hindu and Sufi customs and beliefs. My early explorations began at age 12.  See attached my story from “Bodies Under Siege.” I had my first out-of-body experience at age 17 trying the bondage trancing ritual of Eskimo shaman.

Photos taken by Doug Malloy of the entertainment at the Reno ITTA tattoo convention in 1977 where Fakir made his public debut.

SD: When or how did you discover that through pain, one can connect with inner self and conscience?

FM: At age 12 to 16 by trying some of the practices like Sun Dance of the Lakota and Ball Dance of Hindu devotees. Later in life when I visited other cultures, especially Hindu culture in Malaysia, and tried their body rituals with hook pulls, Kavadi and suspensions. However, PAIN is NOT my God! The notion of “pain” only exists in Western Culture.

SD: Who specifically would you consider to have had a large influence on your life direction in regards to body enhancement and manipulation and why?

FM: My own inner self, then by examples of other seekers via body ritual, the inner understandings of other cultures.

SD: I read in another interview with you in which was mentioned that “you had befriended some of your local Indian tribesmen and started to learn about them as people and their culture.” What was it that prompted you to participate in your first ceremony with them, and what was it?

FM: I was bored and wanted to experience something outside the limited  dimensions  of the culture I was living in.   I did my first permanent body piercing at age 14, my first mini Sun Dance ritual and out-of-body experience at age 17, my first tattoo at age 19 (self-made).

SD: Were you accepted entirely by the Indians that you were around or were there some that didn’t want the outside influence from you?

FM: Yes, I have always been understood and accepted by the Native American tribes where I lived. Later by other Native Americans and Tamil Hindus in Malaysia and some Sufis. I connect with them all on an energetic level. They can usually “read” energy.

SD: How would you describe pain? How are you able to overcome it so easily?

FM: Again, PAIN is NOT my God. The idea and emotions behind the word “pain” are strictly a Western, Christian and modern notion. Pain is merely intense physical sensation. Proper mindset and training, as in some other cultures, allows one to accept ever increasing sensation and convert it into an ecstatic state. There are physical changes, like release of endorphins, followed by trance and freedom of consciousness from the material world. What is called “pain” can open doors to “bliss”. One can only learn this through personal experiences. In my case, body rituals including those of body piercing, tattooing, suspensions and pulls.

SD: Do you wrestle with the fact that most people want their piercings for simply aesthetic reasons and miss some of the important ritualistic meanings in them?

FM: Yes, I have a problem with this. These people lack the education, training and guidance to understand tattoos as “magic marks,” piercings as movers of energy and body rituals involving intense physical sensation as doorways to spirit.

Fakir and Jim Ward sundancing for the
documentary film Dances Sacred and
Profane, Wyoming, 1982. Photos by
Charles Gatewood.

SD: When, why and how did you decide to start your piercing school?

FM: After we launched the modern body piercing movement in the 1970’s, the sexual and spiritual aspects stayed pretty much intact until the mid I980s. Then body piercing became popularized, commercial, and mainstream. By 1990, the beauty and intent of the practices got somewhat lost, as well as the skills and practical knowledge to do safe and reasonable piercing. I started Fakir Intensives in 1991 as an educational enterprise to counter this trend.

SD: Were there many obstacles to overcome in doing so? If so, what were they?

FM: Everyone who could get a clamp and needle thought they were a piercer. Many mistakes were being made with BAD outcomes. The energy movement and spiritual aspects of body piercing were being mostly ignored. Out of conscience, I felt I had to do something to counteract the mad rush to “mutilate” and “decorate.”

SD: What piercers are you most proud of teaching and seeing their success?

FM: At Fakir Intensives, we have trained and educated some 1200 piercers since 1991. Many of them are now captains of the industry with some of the the best long term successes in the industry. Fakir trained piercers are in studios all over the U.S. and the world. We set the standards which others try to match. I am especially proud to have been a part of the establishment of the APP and of the Fakir Intensives instructors who are now on the APP Board of Directors.

SD: Is the piercing school successful?

FM: Of course. We have become a de facto standard in the industry.

SD: Are you surprised at the immense popularity of piercing today?

FM: Yes, never thought contemporary culture was ready for it. But a bit disappointed by some of the results.

SD: What advice would you say to someone who wants to get into piercing but isn’t quite sure how?

FM: Get educated on the skills, health, safety, energy movement and spirit of the craft. Yes, it is a craft with a little bit of magic thrown in.

SD: What are your thoughts on some of the heavy body modification that is going on today?

FM: Yuck! Much of it was misappropriated from other cultures and has gone “off the rails.” Respect for the originators and Mother Nature is very much needed or there will be a lot of physical, psychological, social, and spiritual damage.

SD: What are your ideas for your future in the next 5-10 years; what would you like to be doing or accomplishing?

FM: I only hope I have been a positive influence on something newly brought in contemporary culture.

SD: Is there anything that you would like readers to know about you that isn’t common knowledge?

FM: I am an ordinary man who simply heard the sound of a different drummer.

See BODY OF GOD:  www.hulu.com/watch/531912