Mistress160's Abode: Lukas Zpira's body modification workshop, Uber

On Saturday afternoon I returned to Uber for Lukas Zpira's body modification workshop.

MsGawjusRedhead and I arrived at the same time, and found ourselves a space in the packed room. We both have a fiendish interest in the subjects about the be discussed.

The workshop was a very practical one, with two areas of focus: cutting and strike branding, followed (at the request of the audience) by some general background on implants. I'm not going to provide all those practical details here, because Lukas makes a living via these workshops. However I will say that the workshop was extremely informative, and I'd definitely recommend anyone interested try and attend one. You can keep up to date with Satomi and Lukas' travel schedule on his website.

The couple made a great team, Lukas providing the basics, Satomi adding the occasional point ("she is the better teacher!") or acting as translator. Lukas makes jokes about his English not being good enough, but actually it's fine.

We explored the qualities of the skin, practical selection of tools, aftercare etc. I was really intrigued by some of Lukas' interesting practical facts - such as vegans / vegetarians bleeding more due to the lower iron content of their blood. It's so obvious, but the kind of thing one could so easily not take into consideration. This kind of information made the workshop worth it's weight in gold.

Lukas covered aftercare in some depth. It's extremely important, and of course differs depending on the kind of effect you are after. A play cutting will only last a day or so (as with sol's, when MsGawjusRedhead and I used her knife on his back during his suspension) however the aftercare becomes more complex if you are planning more permanent marks (as I was, as part of sol's collaring ceremony).

Lukas' demonstration model was a staff member from Polymorph, who wanted a chin cutting. Those of us who wished to observe closely were given masks, and Lukas (after warning us chins bleed more, and that we'd not really see the design until he'd finished and wiped away the blood) began. At the end he held the cuts apart so that we could see the correct depth to cut.

The second part of the workshop focused on strike branding. I've not had the same interest in this technique as cutting - I love the fine control you can achieve with a blade - but Lukas makes any body modification technique sound fascinating, and as always I was interested to learn.

A better voice than mine to hear at this point is Darkling, Lukas' demo sub, who posted about her experience on her blog, and who kindly allowed me permission to quote her at length:

"I met Satomi (oh my, she's so lovely!) and chatted to her about placement and design, and then Lukas joined us and she relayed the conversation we'd had to him. He asked if I would be happy for him to create the design, and as I didn't have any strong ideas on what I wanted, and because I was a bit fan-girl tongue-tied I agreed.

"Satomi took me off to the bathroom and prepped my upper arm, and then Lukas drew the design on and I took my seat again as everyone else was called back to attention.

"Lukas then spent about half an hour discussing the ways and means of strike branding, which was really interesting. He uses the barbell from a piercing to do round spots, because burns spread outwards and because the barbell is round it is hottest in the middle of the brand and won't spread quite as much, leaving a smaller and more defined scar when it is ultimately healed. For straight lines he had a small piece of flat steel, about an inch long and about 1mm thick.

"Both pieces he holds in vice grip pliers and uses a blow torch to heat them up till they are glowing red. He explained the importance of whatever you are using being that hot, as it then cauterises as it burns and causes less pain and better scarring.

"He talked through aftercare, and said that with brandings it's not such a good idea to pick the initial scabs off and aggravate them, as they are very vulnerable to infection. It's best to allow the scabs to form and apply appropriate dressings (in Australia it's Jelonet, which is a gauze that is impregnated with an antibiotic gel) and then as the scabs begin to lift and there is new skin underneath you can increase the visibility of the scarring by removing the scabs and rubbing over them with half a lemon dipped in sugar and also exposing it to sunlight.

"And then it was time for the demonstration. Everyone in the room was issued with a mask, to guard a little against the smell and for those very close, the smoke - which Satomi explained, the smoke from burnt human flesh is actually carcinogenic!

"I have to say, I'm a bit in love with being branded. It is so sensual in the truest possible way - there is not just the pain, which is briefly intense but not nearly as much as i thought it would be, there is also the sound - the crackle and sizzle of, well, burning meat, the smell - which is not pleasant, but also not entirely unpleasant, it was strange to smell my flesh burning, and the sight - immediately after each strike the skin around the burn would appear like black edging while the bits in the middle are essentially uncoloured... it's hard to describe.

"What was interesting to me was the pain, yes, it hurt like hell, and I giggled a LOT (which the entire workshop of people seemed to find very entertaining - i had as many people asking me about that afterwards as asking about the experience of being branded), but the pain was limited only to while he was actually striking the skin, as soon as he took the hot bit of metal away from my flesh it stopped hurting.

"And afterwards when everyone was asking if it was hurting, honestly it only felt like a mild sunburn on that part of my arm, no worse than a tattoo feels. Tonight it is a little sore, but still only like a moderate sunburn on that part of my arm.

"I am a little bit in love with Lukas, and Satomi as well - she is so lovely. I want them to adopt me and keep me as their pet, toy, whatever!!

"One of the workshop attendees asked beforehand if I would mind if she took photos during the branding, which I agreed to - mind you there were a LOT of people taking photos regardless - and she got my email address to send me copies, so I'm looking forward to that"

That attendee was of course the "ever pedantic about getting permissions" Ms160. And I'd like to thank Darkling for allowing me to reproduce them here.

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