And I thought I knew strange people...

London's Daily Telegraph reported in August on the veiled but apparently active market of British collectors who buy and sell fetuses and stillborn babies, with one seller saying he has heard of prices over 5,000 pounds (US$9,100). The major suppliers, apparently, are labs and medical schools, which dispose of their "curiosities," usually deformed fetuses such as babies with two heads. Said one dealer, of the seriousness of the collectors, "(It) is a very small market, but a very keen market." [Daily Telegraph, 8- 1-04]

On July 12, federal, state and county officials, responding to a call about an eye-popping scene at a sandbar just off Whale Harbor in the Florida Keys town of Islamorada, discovered a young woman apparently blissfully dangling by the shoulders from meat hooks that were hanging from a makeshift bamboo tripod and stuck in her skin. A Coast Guard officer took pictures and asked if anyone was doing anything he or she didn't want to do, but the heavily tattooed, pierced people at the scene assured him they were just having fun in the sun. A sheriff's spokesman said he couldn't think of any laws that were broken but that he would look into it. [Key West Citizen, 7-18-04]

<font color=lime>It takes all kinds... :rolleyes: </font>

I saw that second thing on TV one time. This guy wanted to hang under a helicopter with hooks through his skin. And they made a rotating thing with a lot of people as well. Well, whatever you like

weird... and scarey! [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]

Sound like a new product. "Dope on a rope" [img]graemlins/1disgust.gif[/img]

Heh, I think a guy was trying to sell that downstairs! lol! Oh wait.... nevermind. [img]redface.gif[/img]

LMAO...stay away from those people, Drew!!!

Umm..well, if that's what these people want to do, I don't ever want to eat at their barbeques!

I dunno man, the 'hanging from hooks' thing has been a part of many ecstatic religious rituals for thousands of years. The sheer agony often induces or exascerbates a transcendant state of mind (often initiated with some form of narcotic or hallucinogen). Get out of your head on pain so to speak... Never done it myself, but it could be a pretty enlightening experience, if one was so inclined.

Uh, no thanks. If anyone gets the inclination, let me know, and I can begin hiding all my personal information! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Heh heh. Well, like the old saying goes, people will fear what they don't understand. Or, more likely, they'll just stick up their noses and say 'eeeeew yuck!' [img]smile.gif[/img]