Hang Out With Extreme Body Modifiers At Colombia's Freakiest Tattoo Festival

Here, it’s easy to get hooked on radical body art.
Body modification artist Damian Carnicero suspends himself with metal hooks attached to his back at the 2015 Cali Tattoo Festival in Cali, Colombia.
Body modification artist Damian Carnicero suspends himself with metal hooks attached to his back at the 2015 Cali Tattoo Festival in Cali, Colombia.
Luis Robayo/Getty Images

In a heavily tattooed crowd, it takes a lot of effort to stand out.

Colombian body modifier Damian Carnicero managed to rise above the crowd at the Cali Tattoo Festival.

The gathering of tattoo enthusiasts took place in the southwestern Colombian city of Cali from Sept. 11 to 13, 2015, drawing 250 tattoo artists from around the world. Attendees included body modifiers who donned tattooed eyeballs, facial spikes, piercings and surgically altered tongues.

Carnicero, whose stage name means "butcher" in Spanish, is a Colombian artist whose primary interest is pushing the limits of pain. Photos from the festival show the 29-year-old suspended from a tree by metal hooks embedded in his skin.

Body modification artist Damian Carnicero was suspended in the air with metal hooks attached to his back at the 2015 Cali Tattoo Festival in Cali, Colombia.
Body modification artist Damian Carnicero was suspended in the air with metal hooks attached to his back at the 2015 Cali Tattoo Festival in Cali, Colombia.
Luis Robayo/Getty Images

"I'm judicious in my work ... My passion is to modify myself, to modify other people, and travel the world," Carnicero told Colombian newspaper La Cronica del Quindio in an interview in May. "People imagine that I'm a bad person, that I'm dangerous because of the way I look. But they're mistaken ... I don't smoke. I don't drink. I don't do drugs."

Body modification artist Damian Carnicero shows off his finger tattoos that mean "Pure Life" at the 2015 Cali Tattoo Festival in Cali, Colombia.
Body modification artist Damian Carnicero shows off his finger tattoos that mean "Pure Life" at the 2015 Cali Tattoo Festival in Cali, Colombia.
Luis Robayo/Getty Images

Check out more photos of the Cali Tattoo Festival:

Luis Robayo/Getty Images
Luis Robayo/Getty Images
Luis Robayo/Getty Images
Luis Robayo/Getty Images
Luis Robayo/Getty Images
Luis Robayo/Getty Images
Luis Robayo/Getty Images
Luis Robayo/Getty Images
Luis Robayo/Getty Images
Luis Robayo/Getty Images
LUIS ROBAYO via Getty Images

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