- Jul 10, 2004
- 24,526
- 16,976
- 1,405
Why?? 
*****************************************************************
It's a winter weekday afternoon in the North London neighborhood of Highbury, and Steve Ludwin, a former rock frontman who used to play the same festivals as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, is sitting on his couch in a T-shirt and jeans, flicking the barrel of a syringe, needle pointed up, releasing air bubbles from the amber liquid.
To set the mood, he has cued up AC/DC's "Inject the Venom," and lead singer Brian Johnson is urging him on. Inject the venom, inject it all, stick it in, stick it . . .
"The first time I heard the chorus, I thought, 'This song is written for me,'" Ludwin says, then turns to his left forearm, sticks it with the needle, and presses the plunger, his fingers trembling. He grimaces, and a second later his face goes from English-summer pale to ghostly white.
Ludwin has shot a cocktail of deadly venom from two green pit vipers and a North American copperhead, which he had meant to inject subcutaneously. For the next 45 minutes, a searing pain spreads from his arm to his fingertips.
Performed properly, his regular venom injections often leave him with a "burning sensation, like being stung by a hundred hornets" for a few minutes. They cause swelling and bruising; the day after shooting he feels "kind of ropey, almost hungover." But for Ludwin, the rewards outweigh the seemingly substantial risk. All told, Ludwin has access to 22 slithery petsmost of them highly venomousand they're coiled in glass tanks downstairs from his Victorian row-house apartment.
Read more: Love at first bite: Rock star injects himself with snake venom to build up immunity | Fox News
*****************************************************************
It's a winter weekday afternoon in the North London neighborhood of Highbury, and Steve Ludwin, a former rock frontman who used to play the same festivals as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, is sitting on his couch in a T-shirt and jeans, flicking the barrel of a syringe, needle pointed up, releasing air bubbles from the amber liquid.
To set the mood, he has cued up AC/DC's "Inject the Venom," and lead singer Brian Johnson is urging him on. Inject the venom, inject it all, stick it in, stick it . . .
"The first time I heard the chorus, I thought, 'This song is written for me,'" Ludwin says, then turns to his left forearm, sticks it with the needle, and presses the plunger, his fingers trembling. He grimaces, and a second later his face goes from English-summer pale to ghostly white.
Ludwin has shot a cocktail of deadly venom from two green pit vipers and a North American copperhead, which he had meant to inject subcutaneously. For the next 45 minutes, a searing pain spreads from his arm to his fingertips.
Performed properly, his regular venom injections often leave him with a "burning sensation, like being stung by a hundred hornets" for a few minutes. They cause swelling and bruising; the day after shooting he feels "kind of ropey, almost hungover." But for Ludwin, the rewards outweigh the seemingly substantial risk. All told, Ludwin has access to 22 slithery petsmost of them highly venomousand they're coiled in glass tanks downstairs from his Victorian row-house apartment.
Read more: Love at first bite: Rock star injects himself with snake venom to build up immunity | Fox News
