When The Circus Comes To Town:

…Flame-haired Lucifire is happy to describe herself as a freak, but hastens to add "as I do freak shows, not because I think I'm particularly weird." The jewel suspended from a piercing inside her top lip flashes as she nonchalantly recalls doing the splits in broken glass as "an interesting feeling".

Happy to chomp on lightbulbs, her only reservation is that it's "unbelievably bad for your teeth." The charming 26-year-old has toured the world, working circuses, tattoo conventions and fetish clubs. "A sideshow has more of a gritty, sawdust undertone, more of a seedy side to it than fakirs. Theirs is a mind-over- matter, spiritual thing... Whereas at a freak show, we don't fucking care!"

Her party piece involves strapping on a kind of steel bikini and taking an anglegrinder to her most sensitive parts, producing showers of sparks and instant leg-crossing from the female members of the audience. Not surprisingly she finds most of her work in S&M clubs, dressed in bizarre creations of rubber, corsetry and satin. As a performer, what does she draw from the freak show experience? "Adrenaline, and a feeling of power over other people. By using the body as an art medium you challenge people to stand and watch, and stretch the limits of what they can cope with watching."…

by Daniella Peled for Limb by limb, young urban living www.limbbylimb.co.uk/feats/freaks.html for full article