SICK: The Life And Death Of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist

By Barad Dur

This documentry-movie a genius venture into the world of Bob Flanagan, long-time survivor of Cystic Fibrosis (I'm unsure as to the exact deatils of this condidtion but I believe it involves drowning in your own phlegm). Bob is a supremly charismatic person who turned to bondage and masochism to relive the constant pain of CF he had lived with since he'd been born. Not only this, he also became a  highly-regarded performance artist during his ultimately shortened life.

Some may have known already that Bob is also the guy in the Nine Inch Nail video clip 'Happiness in Slavery'. Folks, that was only the beginning of Bob's hobby. In fact you become quite well aquainted with Bob' genitalia, plus the pins he likes to have his wife pierce them with.

But as far as the movie itself goes, it isn't only a gratuitous fest of pierced and squeezed flesh. The story it tells is as sad as it is bizarre. We become well aquanted with Bob's family and personal history from his childhood trips in and out of hospital to his bondage experiments and moral torments as a Catholic teenager to his touring  New York with his multimedia artwork detailing  love, frustration, suffering, religion and the relief he finds  in leather, spikes, wax, latex, urine, cement, pins, clips, nails, hammers, rope, candles, his home movies with scripts written under observation of his Mistress wife and his'fuck' diary.

It is a unique movie you don't find too often of true human drama and emotion. It isn't for people with a queasy stomach but it is a beautifully told taleof a fascinating life all the same.

9 nailed penises out of 10.

'Why'

Because it feels good; because it gives me an erection; because it makes me come; because I'm sick; because I say 'Fuck the sickness!'; Because I like the attention; because I was alone a lot; because I was different; because kids beat me up on the way to school; because I was humiliated by nuns; because of Christ and the crucifiction; because of Porky Pig in bondage, force-fed by some sinister creep in a black cape; because of stories of children hung by their wrists, burned on the stove, scalded in tubs; because of "Mutiny on the Bounty"; because of cowboys and indians; because of Houdini; because of my cousin Cliff; because of the forts we built and the things we did inside them; because of what's inside me; because of my genes; because of my parents; because of doctors and nurses; because they tied me to the crib so I wouldn't hurt myself; because I had time to think; because I had time to hold my penis; because I had awful stomach aches, and holding my penis made it feel better; because I'm a Catholic; because I still love Lent; because I still love my penis, and in spite of it all I have no guilt; because my parents said "Be what you want to be", and this is what I want to be; because I'm nothing but a big baby and I want to stay that way, and I want a mommy forever, even a mean one, especially a mean one; because of all the fairy tale witches and the wicked stepmother, and the step sisters, and how sexy Cinderella was, smudged with soot, doomed to a life of servitude; because of Hansel, locked in the witch's cage until he was fat enough to eat; because of "O" and how desperately I wanted to be her; because of my dreams; because of the games we played; because I have an active imagination; because my mother bought me tinker toys; because hardware stores give me hardons; because of hammers, nails, clothespins, wood, padlocks, pullies, eyebolts, thumbtacks, staple-guns, sewing needles, wooden spoons, fishing tackle, chains, metal rulers, rubber tubing, spatulas, rope, twine, C-clamps, S-hooks, razor blades, scissors, tweezers, knives, push pins, two-by-fours, ping pong tables, alligator clips, duct tape, broom sticks, barbeque skewers, bungie cords, saw horses, soldering irons; because of tool sheds; because of garages; because of basements; because of dungeons; because of The Pit and the Pendulum, because of The Tower of London; because of the Inquisition; because of the rack; because of the cross; because of the Addams Family playroom; because of Morticia Addams and her black dress with its octopus legs, because of motherhood; because of Amazons; because of the Goddess; because of the moon; because it's my nature; because it's against nature; because it's nasty; because it's fun; because it flies in the face of all that's normal (whatever that is); because I'm not normal; because I used to think that I was part of some vast experiment and that there was this implant in my penis that made me do these things and allowed them (whoever they were) to monitor my activities; because I had to take my clothes off and lie inside this giant plastic bag so the doctors could collect my sweat; because once upon a time I had such a high fever my parents had to strip me naked and wrap me in sheets to stop the convulsions; because my parents loved me even more when I was suffering; because I was born into a world of suffering; because surrender is sweet; because I'm attracted to it; because I'm addicted to it; because endorphins in the brain are like a natural kind of heroin; because I learned to take my medicine; because I was a big boy for taking it; because I can take it like a man; because, as someone once said, "He's got more balls than I do"; because it is an act of courage; because it does take guts; because I'm proud of it; because I can't climb mountains; because I'm terrible at sports; because no pain, no gain; because spare the rod and spoil the child; because you only hurt the ones you love.

© 1985 Bob Flanagan