These pictures and this story are available to buy at the Bizarre Archive

Having a swastika tattooed on your body could land you in a whole heap of trouble. Yet long before Hitler scarred the symbol, the ‘crooked cross’ was far removed from fascism, racism and bloodshed. An ancient design, it was first used during the Neolithic period around 4,000BC, and is prevalent in many religions around the world, including Buddhism, Hinduism and, amazingly, even Judaism. The word comes from the Sanskrit ‘svastika’, meaning ‘conducive to well-being’.

While its spiritual heritage is undoubtable, many would argue that swamping your body from forehead to foot in “around 200 swastika tattoos” and going on a one-man crusade to “detoxify the symbol” is plain insensitive. Especially when you’ve put them “in the places people can see them” and you’re a fan of sleeveless shirts. But, as an artist and poet who likes to “shock people awake”, ManWoman (or Manny for short) is happy to run the risk.

In person, Manny’s intelligent, witty and instantly likeable. It makes his ‘quest’ all the more intriguing. As well as his daring body art, he houses a swastika museum in his Canadian home and has penned a history of the symbol, The Gentle Swastika, which has sold around the world. Basically, he’s swastika-obsessed. And for that reason, he’s one of the most controversial tattooed icons in the world today.

SWASTIKA VISIONARY

Born at the start of WW2 to a Polish immigrant mother, whose sister and her baby were put in Auschwitz, Manny (his original name was Patrick) inherited all the “usual western hatred of the swastika”. But at age 27 a series of bizarre visions and recurring dreams told him to “reclaim and restore the swastika”. Spectacularly, he dubbed them ‘The Secret Doctrine Of The Holy Fuck’. It might sound crazy (the local priest said he “should hand himself in”), but Manny explains everything with passionate self-belief.

“I had these mystical experiences in which I appeared as half-man, half-woman,” he says. “These began in 1965, and came completely out of the blue. My spirit soared up through a vortex of energy, and it was like it was being ‘ejaculated’ into this incredible white light, which was the source of everything that was good – peace, love, god, eternity. I saw the vortex as a womb, and spiritual and sexual energy as the same. And this ‘Vortex of the Sacred’ was signified by the swastika.”

During these visions Manny claims an old man marked his throat with a swastika, and later his hands appeared covered in them. “I was instructed to speak out about its sacredness and I really choked on that,” he explains. “My only knowledge of the swastika at this time was through its association with the Nazis, so the fact I was discovering its sacredness through these dreams was shocking. So that’s when I got my first tattoo – on my little finger, in 1969. All tattoos were taboo back then. One guy I knew had butt flesh transplanted over his hand tattoos just so he could get a job!”

Manny believes his inner voice controlled his destiny, and came to terms with the demands placed on him by his quest. “You can see I had huge inner reasons for committing to whatever it was coming inside of me,” he argues. “As an artist, I always trusted my inner voice over the authoritarian and religious. Besides, I always had that artistic rebellious streak so I jumped in with both feet.”

But he was getting in deep. “Sure, it was a very trying period as you might imagine,” he says. “I was being told by my inner voice I was ManWoman, but I wasn’t even sure what that meant. Most people would think he was some kind of transsexual. And I tried wearing women’s panties once, but it just made me horny. And you know, there ain’t no room for balls in those knickers!”

MANNY O’ WAR

Although Manny’s personal reasons for promoting the swastika sound unusual, his other argument is that if “Buddhists, druids and Vikings” were using the symbol for hundreds of years before Hitler, why should they stop just because some dictator screwed things up? For many this will never wash: the swastika has become an iconic image of the Nazis, and many people are unaware of – or care for – the symbol’s use in peaceful cultures. Inevitably, the danger Manny put himself in would be enough to leave most people cowering in a corner.

But suprisingly, he’s managed to avoid being beaten up. “I’ve never actually had a thrashing, but I’ve been awfully close to it,” Manny recalls. “There were some Jewish bodybuilders on LA’s Muscle Beach who surrounded me. I explained my tattoos were Buddhist symbols – saying they were Jewish signs would’ve been asking for trouble – and they actually went away after five minutes having shaken my hand! That was pretty lucky.

“More recently, I was at a health spa in the hot tubs, and this old lady went by and pointed an arthritic finger over the railing and said, ‘They told us children we were going to a party and that’s when they put us in Auschwitz’. This poor old lady was a survivor. I tried to tell her I had nothing to do with Nazis, but she just pointed accusingly…. My friends were like, ‘Oh my God, we never realised how much courage and commitment you have in this mission of yours, because that was a very hard situation to be in.’”

But surely these negative reactions must happen all the time? “They can be a day-to-day occurrence, depending on where I am in the world,” Manny says. “But what can I do? For me, the symbol expresses the ultimate source that is all love and all peace, and the sacred being within all things and within myself.”

GLOBAL STRUGGLE

Whether or not you agree with Manny’s extreme public campaigning, he’s made remarkable ground in educating people on the swastika – inevitably thanks to the rise of the internet and the global success of The Gentle Swastika.

“Thousands of people have contacted me,” he says proudly. “You’d be amazed at how many people have swastika tattoos. There’s Xed Le Head in the UK, and there’s Marc who tattoos under the name little-swastika in Germany. If I was doing my thing where he was, it would be multiplied by a fair amount, because there’s so much shame over what happened during WW2.”

The battle to “detoxify” the swastika will be long, but Manny hopes it’ll one day be won. “There was a time when I thought it wasn’t going to happen in my lifetime, and universally that’s probably true, but I’ve planted incredible seeds,” he says. “I’ve had pilgrims showing up at my door and wanting to see my swastika museum. And I’m still shocking for people who don’t know me, and what my history is. Sometimes people can be very nervous in elevators when they find themselves alone with me.” And with those words, Manny’s war rages on and on.