IT’S NOT EASY TO DO SOMETHING NEW in body modification. In fact, many of the procedures we think of as cutting edge today have actually existed for hundreds of years as tribal rites, before being adopted by the current generation.

As that’s the case, a lot of the body mod stories we see don’t provoke much of a reaction. However, these pictures raised more than a few eyebrows when they arrived in Bizarre’s inbox.

Shawn Hanselman, the snapper behind these images, wanted to do a marionette-style shoot for a while. “I’ve always thought most of us are just puppets, and I wanted an edgy way to express that,” he says.

“But I didn’t want to use strings around my model’s wrists as that would be cheesy.

“I ran into a girl on MySpace who said she was into suspension. A light went on in my head, and I realised that would be the perfect way to shoot my pics as it would be creepy, yet soft enough to convey the doll effect.”

The girl, Michelle Lessans, ended up having eight hooks pushed through her skin – four through her back, two through the tops of her arms, and two through her wrists – to get the authentic marionette look.

“I’m glad I found a willing participant who’s just as excited about the project as I am,” says Shawn. “We still have a few kinks to iron out, but we’re looking forward to actually putting on a public marionette performance this summer.”

Stay tuned and Bizarre will be the first to bring you details when the show happens.

More body-mod pictures every month in Bizarre Magazine

Photographer
Shawn Hanselman of shawnshellphoto

 
Makeup Artist and Costume Designer
Jessica Rowell
 
Piercing artists
January Brooks Long of Modified Evolution- Puppet master and Body Piercer & Chris Long of Glory Badges Tattoo-Rig
 
Model
Michelle Lessans