Bob Flanagan (performance artist)

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Bob Flanagan (December 26, 1952 – January 4, 1996) was an American performance artist and writer known for his work on sadomasochism and living with cystic fibrosis. He was born in New York City and grew up in Costa Mesa, California. He learned he had cystic fibrosis as a child, and his sister Patricia also died from the illness. In 1967 he became the first poster child for a local CF foundation. He studied literature at California State University, Long Beach, and the University of California, Irvine, then moved to Los Angeles in 1976. He began performing and reading his poems in the mid-1970s and was part of the Beyond Baroque poetry scene. His first book, The Kid is the Man, came out in 1978.

Flanagan met Sheree Rose in 1980, and they worked closely together for the rest of his life. They helped educate the BDSM community and started the Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Janus. Their performance work began with Nailed (1989), in which Flanagan nailed his genitals to a board while singing “If I Had a Hammer.” Visiting Hours (1992) was a major museum piece that mixed text, video, and live performance, bringing together illness and BDSM as visitors watched him in a hospital bed within a gallery setting.

In 1996 Flanagan received the Steve Maidhof Award for his national or international work with the BDSM community. He appeared in the music video for Nine Inch Nails’ “Happiness in Slavery,” showing explicit self-inflicted injuries on camera. He also appeared in Danzig’s “It’s Coming Down” (1993) and had a small role in Godflesh’s “Crush My Soul” video. Flanagan died of complications from cystic fibrosis on January 4, 1996, at age 43; he was survived by his wife, Sheree Rose. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Long Beach. His life is documented in the Kirby Dick film Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist, which included his death on screen. Notable works include Nailed, Visiting Hours, Why, and SICK.