GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS - 2003 (1999)

I can't emphasize enough how much this never held any importance to me other than the fact that it was a publicity stunt. I just wanted to get my name in the book so I could include a Guinness World Record in my "artist's CV" - which is exactly why you're reading this right now. I was always fascinated by the Guinness Book of World Records when I was a kid and thought that I should be in there someday - except I didn't want to be a loser with the biggest stamp collection or longest beard or some shit like that.

Back in 1998-1999, there wasn't much going on for the category of "human pincushion" or "most body piercings using surgical needles". The previous "official" record recognized by Guinness was a joke, something like 101 needles. However, it was a very well known fact that the "real" record (whatever that means) was closer to 5000 needles.

I would like to quote my Shannon Larratt (internationally recognized body rites and body modification expert, creator and publisher of BMEzine.com) on the subject. I couldn't agree more with what he has to say on the subject:

My friend Jerome, a performance artist who you've seen on the cover of the ModCon book doing his trademark saline forehead inflation, also held the "official" world record for "most body piercings" — 200 at that point — for a short period beginning Halloween 1999. Since then the record has been shattered over and over and over. It is rare for a month to go by where I don't get a press release from some piercing studio informing me that they are the new world record holder.

First, I think it's important to give credit where credit is due: the SM community. When Guinness awards a piercing record, they are actually only giving a "play piercing" record, as there is no requirement for the piercings to be healed, let alone permanent. They simply require needle to pass through flesh.

The simple fact of the matter is that the SM community regularly does needle sessions where over a thousand piercings are done, and Gauntlet magazine even documented (both photos and video were taken) a scene where over five thousand needles were inserted into a single sub over a twelve hour period.

So even if Guinness or the local news claims that you have a world record, the fact is that the actual record is shockingly high. The second fact is that when it comes down to it the "official" record numbers are still low enough that any similarly low record can and will be beaten not long afterwards.

The bigger question is: "why bother?"

Gauntlet documented the 5,000 piercing session because it was a remarkable event and of interest to their readers. No application for public recognition was made by the practitioner or the pincushion outside of a short article in a fringe magazine. They did it for themselves, because they hoped they'd get something out of it on a personal level. So please realize that no knowledgeable individual will take your record particularly seriously (although the mundanes reading the record book might believe it — of course, they're also laughing at you, so one must question the value of performing for them — unless, like Jerome, The Lizardman, and other professional performers you have something to gain career-wise).

[read the entire article here]