Kids dangle from meat hooks for fun

[grinner]

Kids dangle from meat hooks for fun

MIAMI (Reuters) - Law enforcement officials in the Florida Keys are mystified by a bizarre new pastime -- young people dangling themselves from meat hooks on a popular sandbar.

A U.S. Coast Guard (news - web sites) spokeswoman said on Sunday that the Monroe County sheriff's office and Coast Guard were called on July 12 to the sandbar off Whale Harbour in Islamorada where locals say wild behaviour is becoming a tradition.

They found that five young people had erected a bamboo tripod and hung meat hooks from it. A young woman, her feet brushing the surface of the shallow water, dangled from the frame, hooks embedded firmly in her shoulders.

According to a Coast Guard video, she did not seem to mind the hooks.

Lieutenant Tom Brazil of the Coast Guard told the Key West Citizen newspaper that a young man, who also had hooks embedded in his heavily pierced and tattooed skin, assured him the group was "just enjoying the afternoon."

A Coast Guard spokeswoman in Miami said the group had clearly done this before and intended to post photos of themselves on a Web site dedicated to "body modification" -- the ritualistic piercing of the body.

"It looked like a daily routine for them," she said, adding that the hooks had been inserted in the skin in a professional manner and had drawn very little blood."

"As long as they weren't creating any kind of ruckus or riot within a crowd they really weren't breaking any laws."

The Coast Guard passed the video on to federal justice authorities but no further action will be taken. link (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=857&u=/nm/20040718/od_uk_nm/oukoe_odd_hooks_2&printer=1) WTF????

[who45]

:eek: Oh my...

[AyuRocks]

Were they from Jim Rose's Circus??? If not.. WTF?!?!

[Third EYe]

I'm telling ya, head piercings are next, a spike from one temple to the next.

[Mike0812]

:eek: What is wrong with these people?!?!?

[AgentSun]

hey, cutting the tongue to fork it is a step forward to the head piercing third eye was talking about. uggh.

[LT Garrix]

What's wrong with that boy? or girl? I've never understood the reasoning behind extreme piercing and lets not get into some of the other mutilation like tongue forking or those people who turn themselves into cats.

[Weetabix]

They must be adepts of body art and performances...There was this guy who was doing this kind of things all the time. Can't remember his name.

[Scarran Raptor]

I say take it a step further...let 'em dangle from hooks over a gator pit at feeding time (It's good enough for whole raw chicken it's good enough for them)
but then Miami always has been a tad wacko, I mean we've got sushi restaraunts that have fried platinos and civeche on the menu....and speaking of wierdoes with piercings, Doug "Pinhead" Bradley is going to be at a convention in Plantation this November

[Martincore]

I thought scapers were supposed to be open minded... This sort of stuff is not new, it's been around for ages, usually as a ritual performed to show respect and humility towards some god, but also in some cultures simply as a way of reaching ecstacy.
I say, the best of luck to them! I'd really like to see those pictures if they ever do get online.

[Xev]

I've seen shows on tv that have shown people doing this, it's really quite interesting. It's amazing how they can place these big giant hooks into their flesh and get the slightest bit of bleeding (if at all). It is kinda creepy.

Besides the tattooed and pierced people, the show also included some average looking folks that participated in the hooking too. It was funny when they went hook shopping with one of the guys to a fishing supply store.

[mfa96]

They must be adepts of body art and performances...There was this guy who was doing this kind of things all the time. Can't remember his name.


The only guy I ever heard of who did this was a performance artist named Stelarc- he had himself hung on hooks, and used a cothesline to move himself over a street in NY- he was appropriating from Indians who hang from hooks for religious reasons.


And of course these kids are from where? Florida. Remember- the rules are different here. :rolleyes:

[DRD2001]

Although this personally grosses me out, it is an old practice, used by many cultures. It must be a rather surreal sight for boaters to see.

[faustus]

smart kids

[Weetabix]

The only guy I ever heard of who did this was a performance artist named Stelarc- he had himself hung on hooks, and used a cothesline to move himself over a street in NY- he was appropriating from Indians who hang from hooks for religious reasons.Yeah that's him.
http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/cards/index.html

Mandan indians were the one who peformed the more spectacular ceremony, the "Okipa", that was reproduced in the movie "A Man Called Horse".(interesting movie even if it sometimes mixes things and is not always acurate)
George Catlin has witnessed it in 1832 and has made drawings and paintings.

I have a passion for ameridian cultures. I could talk about it for hours. ;)

[AgentSun]

it's not so simple as having an open mind...it's finding a motive for why anyone does what they do? Stelarc, i understand. these kids....if they have no reason for what they do other than "heh, it's fun" then i think they're diluting the purpose of why artists like Stelarc do the same.

[Scarran Raptor]

I have an open mind about it, I still find it humorous though

[trinamick]

In the Native American culture, this is commonplace. At sun dances, a medicine man slices two cuts, one on each pectoral muscle. A dowel or metal bar is run through the cuts, attached to the rope, and the rope is hooked to a ceremonial tree. The men then dance around in a circle until the bar tears through their skin. The women also partake, but their cuts are on their biceps. It is said that if the medicine man likes you, the cuts are shallow. If he doesn't like you, you'll be dancing a LONG time. :D

[ChianaGray]

eep! That stuff makes my teeth hurt like nails across a chalk board. They already got head piercings.

Yeah the Sundance used to be illegal until really very recent times. Women don't really need to attend, the Sundance was meant to be a spiritualistic form of suffering for the man to go through, like the minstration a woman must go through every Moontime.

They do piercings in India too that's spiritual. I can't rightly remember but it's supposed to show something about mind over matter because the peirced ones don't bleed.

Body piercing gives me the worst brain farts, I wonder sometimes if anyone could withstand hanging from a hook through their tongue or jaw or strings looping from their nose out of their mouths ... GAH!

[trinamick]

The men and women both get into it in the sundances on the reservation near where I live. Some do it more than once.

I watched some people doing that on Insomniac with Dave Attell. Now I don't whine near as much when I get a fishhook in my finger.

[Col.Batguano]

I think what's objectionable about such rituals is that it makes people acknowledge that there is more to Human beings than society programs us to believe and takes people out of there comfort zone.
I am all for these kids, go for it.
what's more insane hanging from hooks a few feet off the ground or Sky Diving, & Mountain Climbing (and I myself mountain climb, and want to sky dive)?
how many insane things must we have seen stunt men do in movies and TV for our entertainment?
if this gives those kids a new view on life and a sense of being more than what they are told they can be, I don't see the problem in it, especially because I know the science involved in it and how the hooks are placed to evenly distribute the weight.
if they where doing drugs it probably wouldn't have been mentioned, and if it was, every one's reaction would be nothing more than "Oh how tragic" and that would be that.
I practice Martial Arts in my back yard (a light style of long fist Kung Fue with standard Tye Kwon Doe and Karate forms and some weapon forms) just showy artsy stuff nothing really deadly or dangerous, but Oh my God do the Neighbors loose there frelling minds about it. I have heard everything from "why don't you take up baseball or foot ball ?" to - "Go back to Japan".
It's Alien, and they are freaking out.

[AgentSun]

actually, i'd have to say that it really depends on where you live. everywhere you go, you're going to have people who gasp and object to things that are out of the ordinary. however, i live in a very open minded and diverse part of the country and i see people from all walks of life with all forms of expression. if i saw you practice martial arts in your backyard, i'd be really curious and ask you what you were doing. there are a lot of people, though, who overreact to benign things and that is a sign of closemindedness.

i grew up in a christian school, and graduated from one. i've met quite a few people (adults, not students) who take one look at some of the things i've been known to wear, and balk. they have an idea of what the good christian girl should wear and how she should act, and i break that stereotype, because i've got a NIN button on my backpack and i listen to mostly secular music.

and heaven forbid i should disagree with some of my teachers on what they believe about politics. and heaven forbid i should not believe everything my government tells me. not that all christians are like this--i went to a high school that was in the middle of a lot of change and the principal was (and is) very legalistic, very judgmental of appearance. they didn't appreciate my forms of expression. if not for the great teachers i had who cared and understood my opinions, i would have left.

these kids that do the meat hook thing are no less of a person than you or i, but there has to be some reason for it. dangling from a hook is fine--but as long as they know what they're doing.

[stellar]

Richard Harris: "Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt."

[Weetabix]

Richard Harris: "Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt."
LOL

[Col.Batguano]

actually, i'd have to say that it really depends on where you live. everywhere you go, you're going to have people who gasp and object to things that are out of the ordinary. however, i live in a very open minded and diverse part of the country and i see people from all walks of life with all forms of expression. if i saw you practice martial arts in your backyard, i'd be really curious and ask you what you were doing. there are a lot of people, though, who overreact to benign things and that is a sign of closemindedness.

I don't know how to respond to that because you just Illustrated the very thing I have a grievance with.

people will respond to something that appears to be and has a slim chance of being harmful with, a solution that assures the potentially ill fate to happen.

It's like doctors who refuse to try an experimental treatment for cancer because there is a chance it will fail, so they continue with a treatment that they know will fail, because it was the acceptable thing to do.
unfortunately that's why we have laws, so that the individual can go and do that which is extra ordinary with out being persecuted by the common concept of normality.
these kids are getting an ego boost from an activity that at it's worst means they run home to mommy to put Iodine on there boo boo.
Big deal.
but if a kid goes out and drinks and smokes pot while flying down the Highway at 150 MPH, hey it's just kids being kids.
if that is what is acceptable then hurry up and fulfill Darwin's theory of natural selection, but don't look at me for sympathy when they are off the planet especially after ridiculing those kids.

[AgentSun]

i'm not sure what you're getting at, Col. Batguano. i'm not sure what you have against what i just said.

[Col.Batguano]

I know, that's the problem.

how about this,
and said very crudely,

Cultural taboos are nothing more than a bunch of dren to justify ones own personal Ignorance and paranoia, because real problems can be easily dealt with, calmly rationally and with out much a do.

there for to use a cultural reference to argue the harm or good of something is ignorant because it deliberately leaves out the reality of nature.
cultural taboos are designed in order to hide from the reality of nature, by denying what is really dangerous and making a threat out of something that is harmless or often necessary.

said very crudely,

[ChianaGray]

I agree with you Agent Sun, though, if I saw a guy doing karate in his back yard I'd just leave him alone cause that's supposed to be private and the neighbor's sound pretty rude and snoopy.

I never did like it when I would try to carve or work something and it would become the instant question magnet. What is that supposed to be, what are you doing, why are you doing it? Hey sometimes even I don't know, it's just well, spirit talking. Doing just for the sake of creation/expression cause it's gotta come out in some form. At least when it's art or some such, I don't ask anything like what's that supposed to be ... cause the whole idea is the question itself, let you use your own imagination. What do you think it is?

[mfa96]

Appropriating rituals that have spitirual significance to a group of people, for a thrill can be offensive. For example, what if the kids were hanging themselves on crosses for kicks instead? Just a thought....

[ChianaGray]

Good point MFA ... what if they were?

Cultural taboos are nothing more than a bunch of dren to justify ones own personal Ignorance and paranoia, because real problems can be easily dealt with, calmly rationally and with out much a do.

there for to use a cultural reference to argue the harm or good of something is ignorant because it deliberately leaves out the reality of nature.
cultural taboos are designed in order to hide from the reality of nature, by denying what is really dangerous and making a threat out of something that is harmless or often necessary.

What do you define as the reality of nature? What are real problems exactly?

[eta_carinae]

well, I usually try to be open minded about such things, but if I was anywhere near those kids I just know I would be dancing around going "ewwwwwww!" like a scared little girl.... that kind of stuff just grosses me out.

[DRD2001]

Now you have a story to send to your soldier friend.

[eta_carinae]

:lol you're right!

[Col.Batguano]

Good point MFA ... what if they were?



What do you define as the reality of nature? What are real problems exactly?
Reality - that which is despite how we or others want to think of it, even those whose thoughts seem to agree with it.

problems that are not solved based upon how people feel about it, but weather it actually works.

if I get sick and go to a lawyer instead of a doctor, I will still be sick. <- Reality Check!
if I have a problem with something you do to yourself, and just point to an arbitrary rule some one made up, and say you can’t do that, - “I still have a problem”.

if it does somebody some good to hang them selves up on a cross for what ever physical, psychological, or spiritual reason, go for it.
it's not harming anyone.
so sorry there is no copyright laws that say Christians are the only ones who can do that.
If some one can't understand or tolerate something that's just a little unusual, then they are the one with the emotional and or psychological problem.

often those things that people do that upset others are those things that by natures design improve the quality of an individuals life, and in doing so provides evidence of natures design that the group is trying to ignore.
those things that offend people that are destructive are ignored because to deal with them is to risk being discovered a fraud if they should fail.

these Kids hanging from hooks are exploring the potential of what can be and it is disturbing others because it goes out side that which they want to be the norm.
besides those spiritual practices that do hang from hooks would not be offended because they see it as a practice to discover nature not as the property of there spiritual practice.
even if it is just for fun, the fun in something like that is doing and being something more than everyone else.
why that upsets them is there problem, and to hold others back because it disturbs the group - for the individual to be them selves, have fun, or want more out of life, is the ultimate evil.

the beef people have against hanging from hooks is all about how others feel about it and not what it actually does, - Frell them.

[Col.Batguano]

well, I usually try to be open minded about such things, but if I was anywhere near those kids I just know I would be dancing around going "ewwwwwww!" like a scared little girl.... that kind of stuff just grosses me out.

I've seen it up close, and it is no big deal.
it gives those who do it an ego trip when people dance around and go "Eewwwwwww!".
you should see there expression when a smart ass like me just stands there and goes, "so? big deal. let me see you break a concrete block with your head". :elol:

[mfa96]

...you should see there expression when a smart ass like me just stands there and goes, "so? big deal. let me see you break a concrete block with your head". :elol:


If they were quick, they'd say, "From here?"

[shadowshiv]

link (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=857&u=/nm/20040718/od_uk_nm/oukoe_odd_hooks_2&printer=1) WTF????

Who says that today's youth can't find constructive things to do with their time? :rolleyes: :eek:

[shadowshiv]

I'm telling ya, head piercings are next, a spike from one temple to the next.

Well, if that was the case, we wouldn't have to worry about them being repeat offenders. :eek:

[shadowshiv]

hey, cutting the tongue to fork it is a step forward to the head piercing third eye was talking about. uggh.

Quite a large number of people are doing the tongue forking these days. It used to be that an eyebrow ring was considered "unique", now it is getting stranger and stranger! :eek:

[MrVesham]

Ok. I know this is just the most wrong thing ever, but I had to.

http://www.sphid.com/misc/badhumor/youknowforkids.jpg

"You know, for kids!"

[Col.Batguano]

If they were quick, they'd say, "From here?"

that would have gotten my respect :lol:

[SeasonOfDeath]

What are those kids stupid? On a sandbar? Don't they know they could get sand in those hook holes? Only a few grains can be very irritating to the skin.

Oww.. think of the chafing!

[stellar]

These kids today with their rock-and-roll music and their ritualistic piercings.

[LT Garrix]

This one is on FoxNews this morning. Not sure if they are going to show pictures or not, but they are definitely going to talk about it. I have to buzz off for work, so I probably won't be seeing it.