A Body to Live In Review: Tender Portrait of a Trailblazing Queer Artist

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Published Feb 26, 2026, 8:16 PM EST

Gregory Nussen is the Lead Film Critic for Screen Rant. They have previously written for Deadline Hollywood, Slant Magazine, Backstage and Salon. Other bylines: In Review Online, Vague Visages, Bright Lights Film Journal, The Servant, The Harbour Journal, Boing Boing Knock-LA & IfNotNow's Medium. They were the recipient of the 2022 New York Film Critics Circle Graduate Prize in Criticism, and are a proud member of GALECA, the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. They co-host the Great British Baking Podcast. Gregory also has a robust performance career: their most recent solo performance, QFWFQ, was nominated for five awards, winning Best Solo Theatre at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2025.

Queer body performer and photographer Fakir Musafar is the most exceptional transgressive artist you've never heard of. From the mid 1940s all the way until his death from cancer in 2018, Musafar, aka Roland Loomis, utilized a range of methods to pierce his skin, his genitalia, his torso, and that of others. Knives and hooks grapple the barely loose skin of the willing participant, piercings are shared and pulled, skin is elasticized only to be manipulated.

A Body to Live In Reveals an Essential Artist Ahead of His Time

A Body to Live In sharply attunes its portrait of Musafar through his own words and the web of influence he had over loved ones and devotees. The web-like structure is presented via a plethora of archival footage and testimonials by Musafar himself; one way that Musafar attempted to break taboos was by repeatedly being as open as possible about the work he was doing, appearing on television a number of times to help destigmatize himself and his community.

Musafar made bodily autonomy an art form. It is an art we need today more than ever.

Appreciably, Madsen is also forthcoming about Musafar's shortcomings and places his artistry within the context of a world that had not yet become aware of cultural sensitivities. Much of Musafar's practice (his chosen name included) can easily be construed as cultural appropriation of the sort that would never get off the ground today. In fact, in 1993, leaders of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota tribes forbid non-Indigenous people like Musafar from practicing sacred practices which could misrepresent ancient traditions, in large part because of his very public work.

But Musafar was amenable to these concerns as much as anyone, and if there's anything to take away from his work and his life it is that initial misconceptions around body harm and BDSM should be questioned from the get go. Queer and sexually transgressive communities deserve as much dignity as anyone else, no matter how niche they may be, especially when the work they do is about determining how their own bodies be treated. Musafar made bodily autonomy an art form. It is an art we need today more than ever.