Born in 1930 on what was then an Indian Reservation, Fakir is a depression baby from Aberdeen, South Dakota. He studied electrical engineering and has a B.S.E. degree from Northern State University (South Dakota) plus an M.A. degree in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. For many years he held executive positions in San Francisco advertising agencies and operated his own ad agency in Silcon Valley. Fakir has had, over the years, a very checkered career path that included such odd occupations as Instructor in Demolitions & Explosives (U.S. Army 1952-54) and teacher of ballroom dancing at Arthur Murray's. All the while, he was privately practicing what his inner spirit revealed to him as a valid but non-sanctioned way (in this culture) to reach spirit through the body. In 1979, he made his first public coming out at the first International Tattoo Convention in Reno Nevada. Since then, he has seen as his "life work" writing, speaking and teaching others what he has experienced and learned by doing "body play".

In the 1990's, Fakir has appeared on many mass media shows like NBC's Faith Daniels Show, CNN's Earth Matters, and TBS Discovery Channel. This year he has done extensive interviews for London Weekend Television's Southbank Show which will appear in the U.S, on the Bravo Channel.

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Fakir, from Dances Sacred and Profane 1982

Presently Fakir is a popular speaker at universities and colleges, new age and other special interest groups. In recent years he has contributed material and photos to contemporary publications like THEATER JOURNAL (performance art), John Willie's BIZARRE magazine (fetish and SM exploration), SKIN TWO, and other similar magazines. He has also lectured and performed at international art festivals like ICA in London (Institute of Contemporary Art, Rapture Series, 1995) and the International Seminar on BODY: RITUAL-MANIPULATION at Kannonhallen in Copenhagen (1995). In 1997 he lectured and performed body rituals with his partner, Cleo Dubois, at FESTIVAL ATLANTICO in Lisbon, Portugal.

Fakir Musafar likes to speak, perform and present shamanic body rituals wherever a receptive audience can be gathered. He is available for bookings to give lectures, performances, shamanic body piercings and brandings, group body rituals, and body piercing and branding classes or workshops.

DANCES SACRED AND PROFANE is the film which introduced Fakir Musafar, the Father of the Modern Primitive movement, to the world. Fakir performs--for real--the first ever filming of the Sundance ceremony, which Richard Harris immortalized in the film A Man Called Horse. The extraordinary footage of Fakir hanging suspended from flesh hooks that have been pierced through his breasts is now available through the Dances Sacred and Profane Redux DVD for the first time in over twenty years.