Joshua David
Braindrops piercer
Performer extraordinaire
My first suspension was three years ago at the “One Festival,” an urban underground piercing ritual. Everyone and their brother seemed to be doing suspensions with little to no knowledge of its history. But I really wanted to wait and do it in a way that honored our past and other cultures, not in some garage with blasting music and a keg. I’m so glad that I waited, and that my first time was underneath a full moon and on sacred land.
In 2003, I met a woman named Corey at APP and she handed me an invite to attend the One Festival. The festival incorporates piercing, suspension, scarification and other ancient traditional rites of passage with respect to indigenous cultures from around the globe. Its organizers’ and participants’ goal is to bring about a deeper awareness and new respect for an ancient art form whose roots have largely been forgotten.
In modern day capitalist society, the practice of cultural rites of passage has been dispersed by a veritable melting pot of culture. There are still mitzvahs and baptisms, but the spiritual rites of passage practices in our modern society are being replaced by fraternal hazing, driver’s tests, school graduations and job promotions.
This leaves a cultural hole where people are finding a need for some sort of personal rite of passage beyond these things that have become so every day. For many people, piercing is filling in this hole (literally). When I work my day job as a piercer, I see nothing other than proof of this. “Why are you getting pierced today?” I might ask, and the answers vary from “I’m leaving my husband” to “I’ve wanted this piercing for a while and today just seems right” to something as simple as “I just turned 18.”
Whatever the reason, people are getting pierced for more than just aesthetics. They feel compelled to do something to reclaim their bodies and start over. They have changed their appearance in homage to the changes they are making in their lives.
Most indigenous cultures used piercing/ and or scarification as rights of passage to mark certain important events in their lives. This has happened for thousands of years and is deeply seeded in all of our past histories in one way or another. What I’m trying to say is that each one of us inherently craves ways of closing certain chapters in our lives and opening others. And our past histories would point to that being part of our spiritual makeup, (omg, I love makeup).
What have I received from attending? A deeper respect and love for piercing, both practicing and getting pierced. I have also found out what my personal needs are and used piercing as a way of letting go of old emotional wounds and looking towards my future. The One Festival takes piercing one step further by taking it out of the shop and into its original ritual context, where it was born.
I would encourage you and each one of your readers to attend. It has changed my life, and I’m so glad I attended. I have returned each year since then and each time I find something new within me and leave something old behind. It has truly become my own personal right of passage and is one of my many rituals.
Joshua David
Braindrops
San Francisco, CA
