Fakir Musafar

Father of the Modern Primitive Movement

Fakir Musafar has practiced myriad forms of body modification and has championed these practices as an essential part of spiritituality for many decades.

photo of Fakir by Charles Gatewood.

Who is Fakir?

Fakir Musafar (born Roland Loomis, August 10, 1930 in Aberdeen, South Dakota) is considered the father of the modern primitive movementmodern primitives

by Scott Treleaven (mongrel_priest@disinfo.net) - October 18, 2000 here. He has experimented on his own body with body modification techniques such as body piercing, tightlacing, scarification, tattooing, and suspension, and has documented, shared and taught others as part of his life's work making him an underground icon in BDSM, kink and fetish communities.

At age four Roland Loomis experienced dreams of past lives.Voices from the Edge,Copyright © 1995, 1997, David Jay Brown & Rebecca McCLen Novick He gave himself his first body piercing when he was twelve. He performed the O-Kee-Pa suspension in 1966 or 1967. His first public appearance as Fakir Musafar was at the First International Tattoo Convention in Reno, Nevada in 1977.

Musafar has documented and shared his explorations in writing, speaking and teaching others "body play." In...

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Fakir Info and Links

Welcome to Fakir.org: About Fakir, Father of Modern Primitive Movement
Fakir Schools, Learn the Art, Skills & Magic of Body Piercing & Branding&nbsp
Spirit + Flesh, Fakir's Ecstatic Shamanism Workshops
bodyplay.com: The Fakir Piercing Intensives - School of Body Piercing and Branding Instruction, and Body Play Magazine - Fakir's Amazing Non-Fiction Photo Magazine
FAKIR MUSAFAR: The Fahey/Klein Gallery is pleased to present the photographs of Fakir Musafar in his first exhibition in Los Angeles. Fakir considers himself a shaman, artist, master piercer and body modifier. This exhibition of self portraits and portraits of others is "an amazing compilation of images that underscore a peculiar beauty with the sheer wonderment of body/spirit interplay."
Fakir Musafar / Modern Primitives: The whole purpose of "modern primitive" practices is to get more and more spontaneous in the expression of pleasure with insight. Too much structuring somehow destroys any possibility of an ecstatic breakthrough in life experiences.
Queer History: Fakir Musafar by Susan Stryker, Director, GLBT Historical Society
disinformation | modern primitives: Coined as a term in 1979 by shamanic contortionist and "the Father of Modern Primitive Movement", Fakir Musafar, the 'Modern Primitive' is a person who participates to varying degrees in physical ritual, expropriation of ethnic symbology, and bodily adornment, often carried to the point of permanent surgical manipulation (tattoos, branding, piercings, implants).
People: Fakir Musafar: a theory full of holes: Publication Date: Wednesday Mar 29, 1995 People: Fakir Musafar: a theory full of holes

Photos of Fakir

I photographed the International Mr Leather convention in Chicago in 1992. There...

This man is one of the father's of modern body piercing. He started the Modern ...

Godfather of the Modern Primitive movement.

It's not too often one gets to meet a personal hero. Me and Fakir Musafar.

Club Enslaved

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Encounters with Fakir

Fakir Musafar: Interview with Fakir by Shannon Larrett, BMEzine
Karl Rove's pierced family jewels, pt. 3: Fakir Musafar and PFIQ (audio): Another pioneer in those early years of ampallangs, dydoes, and nipple rings -- intimate ornaments we now take for granted in alt circles -- was Fakir Musafar.
Fakir audio interview with BoingBoing: In this audio interview with BoingBoing, Fakir Musafar tells us about what drew him to his lifelong fascination with body modding; about the formative years of the piercing industry; and about the quiet, curious, friendly, and very heavily pierced man he knew as Louie "Indy" Ward. (links to MP3)
Interview with Fakir Musafar By: Sensuous Sadie (mastersteelow.com): Fakir Musafar is known worldwide for his fifty years research and personal exploration of primitive body decoration and rituals, and has been called
Control Tower | Hooked: I'm making plans for my trip to a conference called Thunder in the Mountains. Thunder is always my favorite leather conference, but this year's going to be extra-intense. Max and I will be participating in a ritual, conducted by Fakir Musafar, called an energy pull.
Interview with Fakir Musafar: Fakir Musafar is perhaps the most audacious body-modification advocate today. A shaman and master piercer, Fakir was born Roland Loomis in 1930 in South Dakota. He holds a degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in creative writing; he has spent much of his life as an advertising executive. He has developed his expertise through research and over 40 years of personal practice of primitivistic body ritual.

Books by and about Fakir

Fakir Musafar: Spirit + Flesh

by Fakir Musafar, Mark Thompson

This book is a beautiful collection of Fakir's photography which spans nearly his entire life. Starting with self-images he took as a teenager of his own "body play" experiments, the imagery then spans across all genders and orientations engaged in a wide arragy of body art practices and rituals.

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Body play: The self-images of Fakir Musafar

by Fakir Musafar

This is Fakir's first book of his self-portraiture during body play rituals. It's out of print but worth tracking down to fans and collectors. I have a copy of this myself, a signed, limited edition.

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Modern Primitives (Re/Search)

by V. Vale

This book contains an in-depth interview with Fakir, about his life and his experiences. There are tons of pictures as well. This book was what sparked body art moving into the mainstream of American culture.

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Amazon Price: $14.63 (as of 05/17/2008)
List Price: $19.50
Used Price: $9.95

TOTAL Vol. 2: The Body (Total, Volume 2)

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Father of the Modern Primitive Movement

Who is Fakir?

Fakir Info and Links

Photos of Fakir

Encounters with Fakir