World’s most pierced man turned away from Dubai over ‘black magic’ concerns

Rolf Buchholz, a German famed for having 453 piercings and an implanted pair of horns, was prevented from entering Dubai for a nightclub show, after customs officials deemed his presence a “security risk.”

"At the end I got an answer why I can't enter Dubai: The Immigration thought I am Black Magic. Stupid people!!!" the 53-year-old IT worker, who entered the Guinness Book of World Records two years ago, wrote on his Facebook page.

“Airport authorities stated they could not allow him to enter the country due to security reasons,” a source in the UAE told the local 7Days newspaper.

Buchholz was due to make an appearance at the risqué Freaks and Beats show at Dubai's Cirque le Soir nightclub, an outpost of Western-style hedonism in the relatively tolerant, but still conservative Muslim state.

The club even sent two of its employees to try and aid the stranded Buccholz, many of whose piercings are located in intimate areas, but received short shrift from bemused border officials.

The evidently crestfallen performer – who also moonlights as an erotic model – live-blogged his agonizing wait at the border, and eventual deportation to Istanbul on social media, causing righteous indignation among his numerous fans.

UAE, which operates complex face scanner software at its entry points, has become notorious for having one of the strictest border regimes in the world. Previous victims of tight security have included a man detained for importing opium (after poppy seeds from a bun were found on his clothes) and another, who was branded a drugs mule after a piece of cannabis lighter than a sugar grain was detected in his shoe.