flesh on the hook
flesh on the hookReuters

Dino Helvida, a 27-year-old professional piercer and body suspension expert from Bosnia, carefully pierced the torso, legs and face of his client Kaitlin before putting the hooks through her skin on the roof of a building in Zagreb, Croatia.

He then suspended Kaitlin from a metallic frame, making her tattooed body dangling horizontally in the air.

Helvida, who works with his girlfriend Zorana, has been hanging up bodies of those who are brave enough to participate in this extreme form of body piercing since six years.

A report by Reuters stated that the process is done with utmost care. First, the skin is pierced with needles, then the metallic hooks are put through which is further attacked to a thin rope to lift the one suspended off the ground.

Helvida was quoted by Reuters as saying: "You can do one hook or you can do 100. You have different hooks for different positions and different hooks for different body parts... So everything is really calculated and it's safe."

It took Helvida almost an hour to prepare Kaitlin for the suspension. Twenty-eight year old Kaitlin is visiting Zagreb from the United States and apparently did not complain of discomfort even once.

"It is painful. Piercing is painful, it's just like regular piercing... Every time it's a new piercing and the wound heals really fast, it can heal in two weeks. I had hooks in my forehead and nobody can tell I had them," he said.

When asked how long an individual can remain suspended, he said that the time limit varies depending on their position and how they feel. "Some people stay for four, five hours, some people need only three seconds," he was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Body suspension is not as famous in Zagrab as it is in the US, according to Helvida.

"I watched a documentary (about body suspension) and when I saw it, I knew I had to do it... It's very hard to explain (what it feels like). For me, it's releasing all the negative and bringing all the positive in," he was quoted by the agency as saying.