Kink and delicious food…is there any better way to overwhelm the senses and leave fully sated? Mistress Blunt, a friend, a classically trained Dominatrix and hedonist, sure knows how to give us the best of both worlds – she perfectly combines the art of cooking with the art of BDSM. Make sure you check out her recent posts that feature some of our own Artists, Switch Josephine and Switch Margot! Her luscious recipes aren’t the only things that’ll leave your mouth watering!

With the resurgence of publicity for “Fifty Shades of Grey,” I’ve found myself drawn into numerous discussions about it recently. Since it’s Valentine’s Day, and the movie has just been released (although I have yet to see it), I thought it would be appropriate to say a few things about the issues “Fifty Shades” and erotica in general tend to bring up.

When I first sought out the world of BDSM, I thought of myself more as a submissive than a masochist. I generally still feel this way, although my relationship with pain (and submission, for that matter) has changed enormously since my journey first began.

Chloe’s favorite activity on her day off. Anyone care to challenge our undisputed word master with a naughtier poem? Throwdown!

Tackling in rugby is one of the most erotic parts of my day. This isn’t at all because of the girl tackling me – I stand by the time sixteen-year-old me refused to talk about how hot the girls on my team looked in the locker room – but because it’s this sheer, raw moment of absolute pain and total power. It’s simultaneously a moment that depends on each of the other 14 players on the pitch – I don’t think there’s another sport that requires more teamwork than rugby –and is entirely mine.

Check out Looking From The Outside In, Part 1.

If I were to recall when my best friend told me about her BDSM lifestyle, I would tell you that my bottom jaw dropped to the floor like you’d expect it to in a cartoon. As a vanilla, hearing my close friend say she enjoyed being whipped and tied for fun, let alone hearing that such a community even existed, put my brain on overload. Fast-forward a couple of months later – we talk about her kinky lifestyle without me batting an eye, and I’m actually excited that she is so passionate about her choices.

Some of the best Snapchats I ever get are of the “guess what’s going on in this picture” variety. Specifically, the “guess what part of my body is currently being contorted/ shocked/ stitched/ variety.” A few weeks ago, Chloe, one of our very own artists, sent me a particularly delightful series. There were a few photos, different angles of a line of small, organized stitches: “guess what I did last night?” Moments like that are my favorite because her night and mine had not been so different. While she had watched a gentleman (in his other life, an anesthesiologist) place a row of impeccably aligned sutures into her thigh (I guessed the correct body part, in case you were wondering), I’d been learning how to do the same, albeit contingent on a bit more blood and a lot less pleasure.

“So…I have this dungeon in my apartment, and I have strangers whip me for pleasure.”

Um, what?  As the most sexually vanilla person you could imagine, I didn’t even know BDSM existed before Rihanna’s popular song, S&M, a few years ago.  Truthfully, the words that suddenly came out of my best friend’s mouth took a little while to process…so, that’s what you’ve been doing this whole time??  Aside from the initial shock of learning that people live and breathe kinky lifestyles, the million questions flowing through my brain mostly revolved around safety and consent.  After learning about how the BDSM world works and some time to digest the surplus of information, I started to accept that this was not only part of my friend’s life, but it was her entire life.  Although I can’t speak for everyone looking from the outside in on the kinky community, I highly respect it when people are passionate about something, even if it’s being tied up with ropes and having your nipples clamped until you cry.