Internet Culture

Viral balloon-popping artist injured himself with his famous knives

Internet star injured.

Photo of Esther Bell

Esther Bell

Jan Hakon Erichsen

Take Jan Hakon Erichsen’s advice when he says “you should definitely not do this at home.”

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Erichsen is a Norwegian performance artist who went viral last year for popping balloons with intricate contraptions lined with knives.

A compilation video Erichsen shared on Twitter showed him popping balloons with a knife on a zipline, knives strapped to his back, and wearing a crown made of knives.

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In addition to his balloon-popping videos, Erichsen also makes “furniture aerobics” videos, where he uses furniture in creative ways.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-J53MxF4Vy/

Erichsen shared on Twitter Thursday he injured himself on a knife set while filming one of his furniture aerobic videos.

“I was balancing on something sketchy […] and I fell onto my knife sculpture because I’m an idiot who leaves life threatening items standing around,” Erichsen tweeted. His tweet was complete with photos of his bandaged hands and the lethal-looking knives he fell on.

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Erichsen followed up and said he needed 25 stitches on his hands and has two “minor cuts” on his chin.

“It doesn’t take much fantasy to imagine what could have happened,” he said. “The irony of course that I haven’t used knives in my vids in ages, because I didn’t want to have an accident during a pandemic.”

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Erichsen had surgery Friday to stitch together a nerve and a tendon in his pinky finger.

“So yeah, might not be posting new videos everyday like I usually do,” Erichsen said.

Fans flooded Erichsens tweet with comments of “get well soon” and “glad you’re okay.”

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You can follow Erichsen to see his performance art on YouTube and Instagram.

 
The Daily Dot