Tag: Photograph

Fake News

According to this Vice article, pro-dommes have seen a big upsurge in business since Trump took office. If you think that means that Vice did a thorough survey of dommes across the country, using data from both before and after the election, then I can only admire your optimism in the quality of on-line journalism. As far as I can tell, they talked to exactly three dommes. Their anecdotal comments are interesting, but I don’t think three data points qualifies as a fully representative sample set of an entire industry.

If there has been a change, I actually like Mistress Tiffany’s suggestion – it’s due to backpage closing it’s adult ads section in January. Journalists tend to know and talk to well known and well established dommes. The kind of dommes who have proper websites optimized for search engines that are easy for clients to find. Journalists are unlikely to talk to the hundreds of lower profile women working mainly from backpage ads that have seen their business evaporate in the last couple of months. It would be a surprise to me if the backpage decision hadn’t triggered changes in client patterns, but it’s obviously hard to measure what those might be.

Whatever has happened, if anything at all, the article does at least give me an excuse to feature this image of the lovely Mistress Iris. She’s an LA based pro-domme, and the third one interviewed in the Vice article.

State of the Kinky Union

Kink.com has published their version of a State of the Union for 2017. It’s their assessment of the top kinky cities in America based on factors like fetlife subscribers, kinky resources, porn viewing, sex toys purchased, etc. Annoyingly they don’t share the details of their algorithm, so it’s hard to see exactly how they arrive at the final top 10 list. As you’d expect places like San Francisco, New York and LA feature prominently. What does surprise me is that since 2015 Seattle has dropped from #7 to nowhere at all. I know I’ve done a lot less kinky sessions in the last 18 months or so, but I didn’t think all my fellow Seattleites had followed suit.

Even more intriguing is their list of top toys per state. There are all sorts of fun devices. Ohio is into hoods, Texans likes their zappers and apparently Illinois is full of guys in chastity cages. So what’s the number one toy in Washington State? The sex ramp – the single most boring toy in the entire world*.  It’s basically a pillow with edges, and about as kinky as a comfy duvet. To make it worse, we’re the only state with that as our favorite toy. I’m not surprised they dumped us off the top 10 city list.

Here’s someone who could never be accused of not doing her bit to keep my hometown kinky. This is Seattle based pro-domme Domina Victoria Rage, in a photograph taken from a 2013 interview with her – part 1 and part 2.

* In all seriousness, I’ve actually got nothing against the sex ramp. It’s a perfectly fine piece of equipment for the bedroom. It’s just a little dull compared to some of the kinky alternatives.

Samir Abady’s Kink Series

The title of this BuzzFeed article is somewhat silly – 18 Kinky Pictures From The Gritty Underworld Of BDSM – but the photographs and the writing with them is both interesting and revealing. It’s only a ‘gritty underworld’ if your idea of BDSM consists of perfect models posing in polished fetish gear on a studio set. What these photographs show is how some kinky people explore BDSM in the real world. Ropes get knots in them, bodies aren’t perfect and you don’t need a dungeon space to get creatively kinky.

I particularly liked the story of Josh and Mistress Blunt. As a fan of mummification and breathplay myself, I can understand a little of the meditative effect it can have. The shots of them pre-session and in session (like the one below) are great.

The photographer is Samir Abady and you can the full series of 19 images in his set entitled ‘Kink’.

Two Expressions

WordPress tells me that this is the 3rd time I’ve used this particular post title. I guess I should apologize for my lack of imagination when it comes to titles, but given what I typically look for in a kinky image, I’m actually surprised I haven’t used it more often. A compelling expression will always capture my eye over a hot body or fancy fetish gear. And two expressions, something giving a sense of connection, can turn an image from something posed into something real. Or, if not truly real, at least a far better facsimile of it.

I love the two looks below because they remind me of my own scenes, particularly the ones I did with Lydia. Like this gentleman, I’d often have an expression that captured a mix of emotions. My thought process in similar situations would be – “I’m nervous about what she’s about to do…but this is also really hot…and the fact I think both those things is kind of funny…and she’s so amazing…I love it when she smiles at me…can I be nervous and brave and amused all at once? OUCH!”

Obviously I can never say what goes through a domme’s mind in these situations, but I always got the impression Lydia’s thought was – “You can look at me like that, and it might be kind of cute, but it’s really not going to help. WHACK!”

I’m afraid I don’t know the man in this shot, but I recognize the woman as Mona Rogers. This is from a shoot for Femdom Empire.

Oh, and for anyone interested, here and here are the two previous time I used the same post title.

Tom of Finland

I’ll admit it’s a little unusual to feature Tom of Finland on a Femdom blog. He’s undoubtedly a famous figure in BDSM art, but women, dominant or otherwise, don’t really feature too heavily in his oeuvre.

He’s featured in today’s post because there’s a new biopic on him being released, and to promote it a bunch of Finnish celebrities dressed up in leather, much in the style of Tom’s artwork. The lady below is Jenni Vartiainen, a Finnish pop singer. What I really loved about this particular campaign was that they didn’t just get fashion designs, singers and actors to star. They also got an MP and former defense minister Stefan Wallin and, most amazingly of all, the former US ambassador to Finland Bruce Oreck. Both of them also looked pretty good. In a time when US political appointments are very much in the news, it’s nice to see a former one doing something like this. I can’t see too many of the current round of appointees being up for promoting an artist known for hyper masculine homoerotic fetish art.

Jenni Vartiainen

Sinning in Sin City

I was fortunate enough to sneak some quality kinky time into my recent Las Vegas trip . In the past I’ve occasionally played with visiting dommes to Vegas when we happened to cross paths (for example Mistress Lexine), but I’ve only very rarely played with local dommes. While planning this trip I happened to spot Goddess Natashka’s site and thought she’d be an interesting person to connect with. I’m very glad I did.

We did a great couple of sessions involving a fun mixture of CBT, spanking, bondage, electrical play and tease and denial. Given we’d never played together before, we didn’t ramp up the intensity on the masochist elements too much, but I still managed to get the adrenaline shakes afterwards, which is always a sign of good scene. A particular highlight was a beautiful soft leather straitjacket that fitted me like a glove. Most leather straitjackets I’ve tried before have been big, baggy and used thick rough leather. That type can have its charms, but they don’t really envelop the body or hug it in the sensual way this one did.

If you’re visiting the Vegas area and looking for a talented pro-domme, she’s definitely someone worth looking up.

Fun with Feet

This’ll be a short post. I flew back to Seattle tonight after a very enjoyably but tiring weekend in Vegas. Unpacking awaits. In the meantime, I’ll keep the feet theme going from the last post. I don’t feature a lot of foot fetish stuff, as it’s not my kink, and it’s hard to find broadly appealing shots. Endless close-ups of high heels and men licking them get kind of dull. The shot below caught my eye for it’s playfulness.

I believe this is from a mainstream Brazilian series called A Regra do Jogo (English: Rules of The Game). From a Google translation: Giovanna Antonelli has invaded Alexander Nero’s party and demanded he be her sexual slave. Sounds fair to me.

There was an old woman

The internet has finally failed me. Or possibly Las Vegas has. Either way I’m very disappointed right now.

The Cosmopolitan Hotel & Casino has several enormous shoes scattered around their property. You can see one of the most distinctive in the image below. There’s normally always a gaggle of tourists around them posing and snapping photographs. There’s nothing stopping you touching them or climbing into them (for example). As soon as I saw them, I immediately thought that there must be lots of images of men kissing the heels, or licking them or just generally being subservient in their general vicinity. Foot and shoe fetishism is a popular thing after all. This one is bright red and even has a corset style lacing up the heel, so it’s extremely fetishistic. Surely at least one kinky couple must have been past it and tempted to snap a posed shot? I wasn’t expecting a naked guy on a leash – the Vegas security guards tend to be kind of squares – but surely somebody would pretend to worship at the almighty shoe? Wouldn’t a local domme have wanted to use one for a amusingly posed scene?

Sadly, despite much searching, I’ve completely failed to find any such images. Lot’s of women taking family friendly snaps with them, but not a single shoe fetishist in sight. I’m very surprised. The internet has finally failed me.

Marks and a Smile

I like this image for his sexy marks, her lovely smile and that none fetish dress. It’s nice to see a caning scene with a cute outfit that’s not supposed to be a teacher or a governess role play. Sometimes a good caning can just be a good caning, no fancy scenario required. I’m less keen on the kitchen setting. I’m not sure naked dangling genitals and food prep areas should ever coincide.

This is of course Mistress Ella Kross.

Extremities

The contents of this article entitled ‘Your brain on BDSM‘ (and this 2015 one it links to) will be old news to a lot of my regular readers. It talks about endorphins and hormones and all the good stuff that hot kinky play can create in the brain. I’ve covered similar ground in the past (for example here), but what caught my eye this time was this section.

They inferred from the study that the changes in executive functioning were as a result of the brain redirecting blood flow from higher-order functions to lower-order functions.

I’m not sure what the blood flow in my brain does in a session, but I am sometimes aware of what it’s doing in the rest of my body. During really intense play, the kind that’ll leave marks for weeks, I’ll get tingling and coldness in my extremities. It feels like all the blood is getting pulled back from my limbs into my core. It’s a really weird sensation. Obviously numbness and tingling can happen when restraints are too tight, but I’ve had this happen with no bondage involved at all. It’s almost like my body is manning its defenses. It doesn’t know what the hell is going on, but it’s taking no chances. Get the blood to the critical organs and worry about those optional hands and feet things later.

This reaction isn’t related to what’s being hit, slapped or poked. It might be a CBT session, but the hands are the ones that lose the blood. It almost feels like the body going into shock, but in a fun sexy kind of way. Has anyone else experienced this? Or is my blood just really wussy?

Here’s Mistress Eleise doing the kind of damage that might cause anyone’s blood to run and hide. This is shot for Femme Fatale Films.