A Hindu devotee in a trance on their pilgrimage to the Batu Caves temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on January 28, 2018. Malaysian Hindu participate in the annual Hindu thanksgiving festival in which devotees subject themselves to painful rituals in a demonstration of faith and penance held in honour of Lord Murugan, Hindu in Malaysia celebrated Thaipusam begin on Jan 28 until 31 this year. (Photo by Aflo/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Father Felix Mendoza, a Venezuelan Catholic priest, center, prays over a woman who cries, saying she is in physical pain, at a public hospital in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, May 11, 2021, amid the new coronavirus pandemic. Father Felix has been visiting patients at the hospital to comfort the sick, for the last 20 years. (Photo by Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

A devotee of the Jor Soo Gong Naka shrine with skewers pierced through her cheeks takes part in a procession during the annual Vegetarian Festival in Phuket on September 27, 2022. The festival, back after two years of hiatus because of the Covid-19 pandemic, features religious devotees who slash themselves with swords, pierce their cheeks with sharp objects and commit other painful acts to purify themselves, taking on the sins of the community. (Photo by Manan Vatsyayana/AFP Photo)

Artist Johnson Tsang has been posting an amazing series of process photos over on his blog that demonstrate how he makes many of his bizarre ceramic creations. One piece that really stood out is called ‘A Painful Pot’, which is a functional teapot being squeezed by a dragon, its head functioning as the spout.

Mike Stimpson a.k.a Balakov is in love with Star Wars, LEGO and photography. After a first series we published “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” Here is a new selection of his photographs of LEGO Star Wars minifigs characters in their everyday life… If you like, I also recommend the series “LEGO Star Wars photography by Storm TK431” and “The secret life of Star Wars toys”

“Honorable Mention”. An Indian rhinoceros, far from home and stuck inside with late-winter blues at the Toronto zoo. Photo location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo and caption by Stephen De Lisle/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Revellers take part in an annual block party known as “Cordao de Prata Preta”, one of the many carnival parties to take place in the neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro, February 6, 2016. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

A man reacts as he receives 100 whippings by religious police as punishment for pre-marital sеx, outside a mosque in Jantho, Aceh province on June 5, 2020. A couple in Indonesia's conservative Aceh was publicly flogged 100 times each on June 5 after they were caught having pre-marital sеx, as one pleaded for an end to the painful punishment. Aceh is the only region in Muslim-majority Indonesia to impose Islamic law, which allows whipping for a range of charges. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)