--- title: Rolf Buchholz: Man With Hundreds of Piercings Denied Entry to Dubai description: The Guinness World Record holder claims Dubai is worried about black magic canonical: https://time.com/3131513/rolf-buchholz-dubai-piercings/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-17T19:24:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:12:31.234Z og:title: Man With 450+ Piercings Denied Entry to Dubai og:description: He says they're worried about black magic og:url: https://time.com/3131513/rolf-buchholz-dubai-piercings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1222f19b93201e8/69869fd255a8590600a82325/ap101204123901.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Rolf Buchholz og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man With 450+ Piercings Denied Entry to Dubai twitter:description: He says they're worried about black magic twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1222f19b93201e8/69869fd255a8590600a82325/ap101204123901.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # World's Most Pierced Man Denied Entry to Dubai  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Aug 17, 2014 7:24 PM UTC  German Rolf Buchholz in Berlin, Dec. 4, 2010. German Rolf Buchholz in Berlin, Dec. 4, 2010.Markus Schreiber—AP  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Aug 17, 2014 7:24 PM UTC He may have more than 100 piercings on his face, but it wasn’t the metal detectors keeping [Rolf Buchholz out of Dubai](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/17/man-with-many-piercings-d%5F0%5Fn%5F5685529.html) this weekend. The tattooed German man, whose 453 piercings — 278 of which were around his genitalia, as of 2010 — earned him a [Guinness World Record](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/10000/most-piercings-single-count-%28male%29), claims airport workers told him that Dubai officials were worried he practiced black magic, the Associated Press reports. Buchholz, who works in IT, was planning to visit United Arab Emirates to appear at a circus-themed nightclub scheduled for Friday when he was stopped before entering customs, but after having his passport stamped and approved. “I got never an official answer,” Buchholz told the AP, which was unable to reach immigration and airport authorities for comment. “They are friendly but nobody answers your questions.” Buchholz, who also has horn implants in his head, says he was ordered to never return to Dubai, though he he’d gladly come back — if the country ever allowed him. \[[AP](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/17/man-with-many-piercings-d%5F0%5Fn%5F5685529.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3131513/rolf-buchholz-dubai-piercings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3131513/rolf-buchholz-dubai-piercings/"},"headline":"World's Most Pierced Man Denied Entry to Dubai","datePublished":"2014-08-17T19:24:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:12:31.234Z","description":"Rolf Buchholz claims the Emirate's officials said they were worried about black magic","url":"https://time.com/3131513/rolf-buchholz-dubai-piercings/","keywords":["Newsfeed","WTF","World"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1222f19b93201e8/69869fd255a8590600a82325/ap101204123901.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta1222f19b93201e8/69869fd255a8590600a82325/ap101204123901.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Rolf Buchholz","caption":"Rolf Buchholz","creditText":"Markus Schreiber—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3131513/rolf-buchholz-dubai-piercings/","name":"World's Most Pierced Man Denied Entry to Dubai"}}]}] ```