Greasetank - 1

Greasetank has a uniquely legendary status amongst S&M art fans. It stems partly from the exceptional extremes of violence and cruelty which he often depicted but also from the expressive sensuality and drama which infused his most memorable images. 

Greasetank - Why don't you officers just eat me?

Villains were at the centre of his works, like 'Johnny' above.
Evil men but with looks and attitude that commanded attention and admiration.

(see another example here) 

Greasetank - Sore Losers

Greasetank's badmen have a penchant for arbitrary violence, often using guns and sometimes knives. But no matter how unpleasant, these marauding thugs are always depicted as muscular and strong with villainous good looks. Greasetank uses dramatic lighting to enhance the masculine characteristics of the gunmen. If their weaponry augments their masculinity, their nudity also augments the menace of their guns. The victims are anonymous, mere accessories in this particular Greasetank atrocity and in general rarely achieve equal representation with their attackers.

Greasetank - River Attack

Naturally sex also forms part of the heady mix. I love this representation of sailor-dom with the young rating servicing his older, bigger (and straighter?) shipmate, who keeps marauders at bay with a machine gun while lightening his load. The linkage of sexual prowess with guns and ejaculation with shooting, is unmistakeable.

The whole scene is infused with eroticism and drama. The lighting treatment is atmospheric and alluring and through it you get a sense of Greasetank's underlying artistic prowess. At this stage he is still wrestling with the usual problem of creating clothing in CGI, but the facial expressions of the two sailors are very arresting, the older one's determined grimace seemingly borrowed from 'Popeye'.

 There's a touch of gung-ho, boys comic adventure ca. 1950 about this scenario. There's a whiff of racist sentiment too and it also hovers around Greasetank's Vietnam War images. However, in his All-American 'Red Neck' images he shows black characters as both victims and perpetrators, so I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt in this department.
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Greasetank - Fag Patrol

Cops raiding a night-time cruising ground and for once the victims take centre stage. Their leather attire speaks of experience not experimentation. But notice how young and vulnerable the two compromised gays seem in contrast to the examples of aggressive straightdom seen in other pictures in this article. How terrified they are by the threat posed by the weaponry levelled at them and the threatening attitude of the visible captor. With the damning, rather unpleasant dildo evidence centre stage Greasetank almost seems to be setting them up here. He gives you a sense of how perceived weakness can become an excuse for abuse.

 

Greasetank - We're Coming For You

Greasetank more usually depicted homophobic violence at the hands of gleeful rednecks ruthlessly brutalising their favourite prey. This is a gay boy's nightmare made real*. Men whom he might find sexually attractive are invading his bedroom at night with the obvious intention of doing him harm and motivated by drunken-ness as much as any rational thought. The unfairness of it all and the imbalance of power is spelt out in the contrasting depictions of the characters. If you find this erotic despite yourself, you are discovering one of Greasetank's conundrums - if these people hate us so much, why do we find them sexually attractive?

*it's my supposition that this is a homophobic attack, Greasetank's pictures often accompanied stories and I'm not familiar with this one. There are internet sites that reproduce these stories.

Continued in Part 2

Greasetank as a CGI artist doesn't qualify for my A-Z series 
but is included in my consolidated index of artists

Hunk of the Month - Brian Bodine 4

You can read this article from Part 1 here

 

Given the generally upbeat flavour of Brian Bodine's appearances under the Lucas banner it's not entirely surprising to find this sheer playfulness announcing his appearance for Titan Men in Thrill Ride (2011). How appealing is that, chaps? He's re-adopted the name Jason Diaz for this role, presumably at the request of the studio. Personally I think the understated Brian Bodine suits him much better.

In this film he's unexpectedly paired off with Logan Scott who usually seems to be cast in the role of perpetual victimhood (which he generally plays in a most appealing manner I must say!). His participation is, however, a clue that Bodine is resuming the role of top.

 Before long the two get down to business in the Falcon-esque pool setting which is a world away from the darkly sexy interiors of the Lucas movies. Notice how Brian/Jason has become a little chunkier and a little less 'cut' in his musculature, hopefully that's a sign of contentment.

(Titan seems to have repackaged and re-issued this video as 'Deep End' recently and these stills come from that re-issue.)

 

As far as I can tell this is Bodine's last appearance and this relaxed and happy shot makes an ideal swansong. A modest career spanning about 7 years but with it's fair share of memorable moments which have given me great pleasure in compiling this article.

My thanks to TitanMen for the images in today's post

However, this is not the end of my story. In researching Brian's career I came across references to the name 'Jay Black'. This model, who has made more recent film appearances, bears a superficial resemblance to Bodine in some pictures (above) and has also used the name Jason Diaz (according to 'Smutjunkies'). For a while I pursued that lead before realising that the face couldn't have changed that much in 4 years and that the faintly-visible shoulder tattoos did not match either. Such is the burden of the terminally obsessive!

 

This wild goose chase was not entirely fruitless however. I ran across some exciting material including the fab shot above from the now-forgotten 'Lords of the Jungle' (2006). Although it turned out to be a different man in the end and therefore of no value for this article, I think the material I found is more than good enough for a post of it's own and this will appear here soon (see Jay Black Part 1).
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You can read the Brian Bodine article from Part 1 here

 for other articles in the 'hunk' series click on the label below

Hunk of the Month - Brian Bodine 3

You can read this article from Part 1 here

 

In 2008 Bodine gets a role with Lucas Entertainment in 'Cruising Budapest' with the Mangiatti Twins and this heralds something of a change in style bringing out a different side to his erotic persona.

The move to a bigger studio has provided a step up in image quality showcasing Bodine's lush muscularity. I'm not a big fan of orgies but this pairing with the twins creates a marvellous sense of  intimacy and 'sharing' which we can vicariously enjoy as well.

That warmth carries on in his appearance with Bryan Slater, also for Lucas in the 'Auditions ' series in 2010. Happily for me he's now  sporting that characterful hair. This isn't Brian's first on-screen bottoming role but he's portraying a nice degree of cheerful discomfort and awkwardness.

 There's a trace of the 'gangsta' persona glimpsed in 'Rush' in this pic,

 but it's not really representative of the flavour of the video.

 In fact there's a warm, almost romantic conclusion to the scene. Bryan Slater puts his arm protectively round Bodine's shoulders as they shoot their loads together. This isn't the norm for gay porn 'climaxes' and it seems to reflect a genuine warmth between these two characters. If you have a look on search engines you will find other images from the same sequence where Bryan is affectionate and playful with his younger companion lying alongside him.

Bodine's 'Rush' encounter with Spencer Reed follows on from this appearance and if you watch it on video you can detect a similar gentle atmosphere.

Thanks to Lucas Entertainment for these images

Continued in Part 4

You can read this article from Part 1 here

 for other articles in the 'hunk' series click on the label below

Hunk of the Month - Brian Bodine 2

You can read this article from Part 1 here

Bodine's film history is somewhat confusing. Titan Men link him to the 2004 film 'Horse' under the name Jason Diaz. He gets a 10 minute slot with Troy Punk in this atmospheric, heavy leather piece. A surprising debut!

He moves to more conventional territory for the 2006 film 'Wildlands', playing a lone hiker who unleashes the repressed sexual urgings of a Park Ranger. There's a nice manly moment for him where he picks up the naked Ranger, cradled in his arms, and carries him outside onto the porch to stuff him over the balcony rail. As you can see he sports a shaved head for this scene and (sadly from my point of view) this is has been the case for most of his film career.

 Luckily his youthful good looks compensate for the missing thatch.
He made several films for some of the less prominent studios in the run-up to 2008.

Most of these seem to have passed into obscurity as far as the internet is concerned, although this cover suggests that lack of quality was not necessarily the cause.

IMDb calls this a 'Boxing Themed vignette'. It's from the film 'T.K.O.' with Jake Havok in 2007.
(I can't find a link for T.K.O. it now belongs to Raging Stallion)
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In this period Bodine's reputation was very much based on his muscularity and the challenging length of his cock, hence the by-line "Jake Havok is man enough.......",
see above for confirmation of this claim. 
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 There are some nice shots from this era emphasising his masculine and ethnic credentials

You can gather from this that Bodine's passive role with Spencer Reed in part one of this article was not the only shot in his armoury, making that episode all the more interesting.

Continued in Part 3 

You can read this article from Part 1 here

 for other articles in the 'hunk' series click on the label below

Hunk of the Month (or Captured Rogue #6?) - Brian Bodine

This occasional series (very occasional despite the moniker!) charts my periodic obsessions with models I stumble across on my web ramblings. This time it's Brian Bodine, who caught my fancy this week when I saw him for the first time in the image below, 

it's from the 2010 Lucas Entertainment film 'Rush'

As you can see, Bodine is pretty muscular and he's being dominated here by a rather youthful-looking Spencer Reed whose own bulk seems have found a worthy match for once. The scene conjures up associations for me that might also have earned it a place in my series 'First catch your rogue'. 

Bodines hair seems to have caused a bit of a stir at the time but for me it contributes beautifully to an image of a butch, streetwise punk who's been riding for a fall and has bitten off more that he can chew here.

 

 

When Spencer turns the heat up we get an electric image - a big bouquet to the photographer! Bodine's face here might have graced one of Greasetank's epic encounters.

"Let this be a lesson to you!", Spencer seems to be saying. 

Bodine's face registers 'point made'

 In fact if you watch the video it's a much softer encounter than I have fantasied about here.

 Images from this video on the web are limited in number and the trailers seem to have been withdrawn but the film is still available, visit Lucas Entertainment film 'Rush'

Brian Bodine's not really a ruffian either, but I soon found in my researches that he's made some other interesting films which I will explore next time.

Continued in Part 2

For other 'hunks' in this series click on the label below,

 likewise to see previous 'rogues' getting their come-uppance click on that label. 

See more on Brian Bodine at Lucas Entertainment

Russian Wedge

 The punishment of 'Riding the Wedge',
featured here from time to time over the last couple of years,
has recently been used on the website 'Russian Captured Boys'.

The victim is an unassuming plumber whose tight blue overalls
catch the eye early on, before he is carried off to the dungeon.

 

The hands above the head tethering used here to expose the torso to punishment
 also prevents the captive from using his hands to ward off the pressure on his crotch.

Although this captive's ankles are secured to the legs of the wedge I suspect they do not prevent him from grounding his feet which is probably just as well since this practice, if prolonged, is a lot more dangerous than it looks. Don't try it at home, fantasy stuff only.

Photos courtesy of Russian Captured Boys

For more examples of 'riding the wedge' click on the label below.

Tom of Finland's Beards - 3

(Read this series from part 1)
 

13

The woodland whipping scene which rounded off the group of more positive bearded roles in 1973, (see Part 2) is followed by this fisting scene in 1974 (one of Tom's better known pictures which I mentioned previously in Part 1).  Here Mr Beard is the central character once again, but more clearly portrayed as an object of desire, seemingly securing his full acceptance into Tom's leather scene.

We can't know exactly what has brought about this change in Tom's perspective but this period of his work coincides with the emergence of a notable S&M porn star, Val Martin, and the release of the ground-breaking film, 'Born to Raise Hell', variously dated as 1972 or 1974. If you follow the first link you'll see Val wearing a beard and a kinky, studded denim jacket. It seems likely that at the very least, Tom's periodic interest in this specific combination (mentioned in both parts 1 and 2 of this series) was reignited by these developments which he surely must have been aware of, although he had yet to visit America at this point. By way of circumstantial evidence, 'Born to Raise Hell' also includes a fisting scene.

Tom's picture above is also remarkable for another reason, the portrayal of the 'supporting cast' entirely as black men. This marks it out as trying to make a point, although for all the contribution it makes to equality, the black men in this picture are still playing a very secondary, servicing role. If you read my article on Black men in Tom's pictures you will see this picture is part of wider maturing in Tom's outlook.

14

This 1981 picture is an eerily similar reworking of the same fisting theme (this time featuring gay stereotypes of a different type). It's not uncommon for Tom (or any artist) to rework ideas he likes, but the underlying similarity in these two pictures is exceptional. You'll note that the bearded character plays the exactly the same role, as the willing recipient of some pretty kinky sex (note the sounding rod in the '81 picture). It's hard to dispel the notion that there's some significant experience behind Tom's attachment to this idea.

There's a gap of 7 years between these two pictures. The flurry of beard interest in 1973-75 ends with the appearance of a rather interesting bearded, 'older brother', character in 'Loggers', the first of the Pekka stories, where he becomes a fully recognised character with a personality (described  as 'quiet and withdrawn') and bad habits too, (see my blog about Tom's Pekka Beard).

Apart from that I have discovered only 2 other pictures in this intervening period featuring beards. Both are portraits, (of an unknown conductor and of the porn stars, Mike Betts and Rick Wolfmeier) and therefore somewhat separate from the pictures reflecting Tom's sexual imaginings. Arguably they are more significant choices for that very reason. It's possible that there's an element of personal acquaintance in it, although the porn star image seems to be based on a photograph.

By the way, the crate featured in both fisting drawings is a favourite prop of Tom's, but you'll pleased to know I have no plans to write an article analysing that! Yet.

15

The next example comes 3 years later in 1984 and although it's also a portrait of sorts there's no escaping the sense of admiration from afar, as though we are studying this man across a crowded bar. The cigar in his hand is suggestive of a certain, powerful type of gay masculinity but you wouldn't expect it to be matched with a hairless body or slender physique. For me it's as if Tom has taken a bearded 'model' who he likes or admires and has dressed him up (very neatly) in the leatherman's paraphernalia to visualise his enhanced 'man-appeal'.

 
16

In the following year (1985) this image appeared and although the landscape is of long-standing familiarity in Tom's work, it's protagonists are startlingly different. It's as though Tom has completely re-evaluated his perception of what a bearded man is in these pictures. This one is uncannily real. His beard is neatly trimmed and although he has a hairy torso, it too is neat and natural-looking. In reality, this is probably a portrait, perhaps of two lovers known to Tom*. Despite the belt, there's absolutely no sense of menace here. He's put them in a fantasy setting which is the standard Tom of Finland 'Woodland Stage Set', a place of sexual adventure. Joshua Reynolds placed his subjects in the rolling landscapes they owned, Tom has allowed these two into his own special fantasy world to play. It's a setting that features in a number of important pictures around this time so this is quite a compliment and is another sign that Tom is treating bearded men as people with personalities and not as a stereotype for wickedness, extravagant wealth or straightness.
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*since publishing this one of my correspondents has confirmed that this was indeed a commissioned portrait - Mitchell (Oct 2016)
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17

This final sketch is dated 1989 in Tom's last years and it  harks back to his lumberjack days. Although you can think of nostalgic reasons for this it sticks out like a sore thumb in the work of this period. I wonder if it might have been conceived as an off-shoot of the Kake in Canada story (1984). Although this is an action scene drawn from the imagination the bearded character is not a by-stander and you can see how central he is to Tom's intentions, not only by the role he is playing - valiantly taking on a cock that would make lesser mortals quail - but by the fact that he is the most fully-drawn element of the unfinished picture.  He's come a long way from the sneaky thief in Kake 2.

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There's another very formal portrait of a couple of leathermen in the same year as this picture featuring a notably mustachioed and bearded top. If you like puzzles you can also just spot a beard amongst the gang of black men banging a Tom Cop over the bonnet of their convertible car in the well known picture from 1987 (two years earlier).

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The sporadic appearances of beards in Tom's pictures over the years don't suggest he had any great liking for them, but it does seem as though they had powerful associations for him, quite threatening ones in his 40's. The notion that bearded men had something to hide was not uncommon at that time so it doesn't necessarily reflect a personal experience. But although he gradually discards this notion in his later images it's remarkable that bearded characters nearly always take bottom roles (with the notable excption of the Woodland Whipping in Part 2). This seems counter intuitive but suggests to me that Tom's 'rehabilitation' of bearded men is primarily based on acquaintance with softer types of Bears, as suggested by the man in image 16 who does have this sort of look. His visits to the US from 1977 onwards may have contributed to the changes evident in this last period.

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If you enjoyed this feature on Tom of Finland there are others on this blog,
click on the label below or consult my Index of Tom Articles