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.