A husband and father in Brazil, Rico Ledesma, age 41, has undergone massive amounts of plastic surgery and dental implants to transform his body into a replica of an Orc, a demon from J. R. R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.” (Orcs were fictional humanoid monsters, such as a goblin.)
To accomplish his paranormal appearance, Ledesma covered 85% of his body in hideous tattoos, split his tongue, chopped off part of his ears, surgically placed eight subdermal piercings under his skin, disfigured his nasal septum, tattooed his eyeballs black, and spent over $500 to implant two giant tusks in his lower jaw. Other parts of his body were scarified with a hot iron. No serious Christian could doubt that Rico Ledesma is demonized.
His wife, who calls herself Krishna Insomnia, adoringly embraces Ledesma’s appearance. In fact, she has done most of the tattooing herself. Her own face and body are covered in dark black inking. His young daughter adores her father and sadly has likely inherited his demons. In one photo with clues to his intentions, he wears a hat with the words “Orc Infernal” and a T-shirt with an upside-down cross and hands displaying the horned image of Satan worship. Now, he has signed a contact with a major Hollywood film producer to make a movie.
I’m no fan of Tolkien, though I realize that he was a friend of C. S. Lewis and a professing Christian of Catholic persuasion. But frankly I’m troubled by his use of occult imagery in “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.” I wonder if his upbringing in South Africa and his parents’ lack of understanding witchcraft in that part of the world set him up for demonization. (There is an interesting story of an African servant taking him, as a child, overnight to her village.) No one can question Tolkien’s literary brilliance. But if he’d had an understanding of spiritual warfare, he might not have lavished such significance on characters like Gollum, who is obviously demonic. Nor would he have written fantasies about “good” fairies. Sadly, many video games are replete with demonic characters taken from Tolkien. “World of Warcraft,” for example, has appropriated Orc demons who drink blood from beings known as Legion.
Beware the characters of video games. Have nothing to do with Orc beings. Understand that fairies are demons in disguise. Take a more careful look at “Lord of the Rings.” And pray for the soul of Rico Ledesma who, without Christian conversion and deliverance, has a lifetime of spiritual torment waiting him, more awful than all the pain of his inking, piercings, and disfigurations.
