Yvon Yva: This Shocking World Excerpt - 1963 (Patreon)

When we say Fakir here on SD, it's almost a given that we're talking about the Fakir Musafar personal of the late Roland Loomis; initially "coming out" at the Reno Tattoo Convention in 1977 and later a regular attraction at Ripley's Believe it or Not, Musafar has become synonymous, at least in the body modification community, with Fakirs. 

But the Fakir, from the Arabic for poor, was a common mystical persona for Westerners before him;  quasi-holy men who often used it as a dodge or hustle, elevating sideshow acts with a spiritual and almost always culturally insensitive/appropriative gimmick.

Anyone attending a touring circus sideshow in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century was likely to a metaphysical/spiritual element of some sort or the other, even if the act didn't involve body modification/ritual, with a Fakir or Swami character a common trope.

One such mystic went by the name Yvon Yva (and, alternately, Ivan Iva), a published author and metaphysician from France who, at the age of 22, won the March 1954 Fakir World Championship, with whatever that entails. 

The act that got him on our radar was an incredible variation of the human pincushion act - in extremis - that was only rivaled by Mirin Dajo. (more on him here) 

Appearing in the 1963 Mondo Film This Shocking World 3, Yvon performs an intense act where he pierces his chest with a stiletto, his torso, and his throat. 

We've uploaded his segment here, and provided some info on him that can be found by clicking his hashtag below.