At AVN’s annual Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas last month, alt-porn godfather Matt Zane spent six hours suspended in the suicide position, his entire bodyweight supported by four hooks inserted through the flesh of his upper back.

In doing so, he smashed the existing world record for performance suspension of five hours and 42 minutes, set by the magician Criss Angel in Times Square, New York City, back in 2002. Bizarre caught up with Zane once he’d regained the power of speech…

“The last hour was completed by will alone,” he admits. “I was in excruciating pain. I started to go into shock, and my hands and feet were ice-cold.