Shocking photos from a festival in Phuket

These shocking photos were taken during the annual vegetarian festival in Phucket, held at the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar. Slitting open their cheeks and forcing everything from guns, to electrical wire, to giant knives and even axes through the holes, were part of the ritual.

Most of the festival-goers, devotees of the Chinese Samkong shrine and the Chinese Ban Tha Rue shrine, choose to force weaponry through their cheeks, but others seem to have opted for anything they can find around their homes.