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Don’t try this at home — or anywhere!

Photos by Clayton Patterson
Photos by Clayton Patterson

L.E.S. documentarian Clayton Patterson is also a documentarian of the Wildstyle and Tattoo Messe in Austria, from which he just returned. The event — part carny sideshow, part tattoo exhibition — is now in its 20th year. (“Messe” means “fair” in German.) Among Wildstyles’ notable performers are Enigma, who revs up the crowd with chainsaw stunts; Zombie Boy, who has no qualms about threading a live snake through his nose and mouth; and Maria Hose Cristerna a.k.a. the Tattooed Vampire Woman. Among the more tame acts are aerialists performing on silks — without roaring chainsaws or nose snakes.

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