Art by Drtkk

 

Drtkk - Rebels Arrested

The Roman theme is a new direction for this artist

The era is worth exploring if all rebels look like this there!

Love the skimpy trunks

Other art by Drtkk at mitchmenblog

Art by Kalabro

Kalabro - The Ice Cave

I stumbled across this image by Kalabro recently, 

it features his trademark 'hero suspended in a pit' theme

I don't know if it's new but I haven't seen it before.

It's nice to see buddies sharing their warmth in adversity.

I love the sprinkling of snow on their balls, very festive!

see Other Kalabro at mitchmenblog

The Season of Chastity

Ain Postolos - Locked Until Christmas

 

As usual this post is dedicated to anyone who is alone 

or who feels alone in this holiday season.

 

More Ain Postolos at mitchmen

Decorate Me With Candles

We did a secret Santa at the gym this year.

This recipient got an unconventional gift.

In recognition of his dubious contributions.

It gave the rest of us an Xmas treat as well, of course.

His skimpy briefs made his squirming all the sexier.o

We'll whip the wax off and release him on 12th night.

Another great GIF by MuscleDestroyer at Deviant Art

see also Shocks in the Field with backwards links to earlier postings.

The Rebels of Makett

His Manhood Mocked

The captured Rebels of Makett were proud warriors

They knew better than to expect merciful treatment after capture.

The stripping and mockery of their manhood stung them, 

But they expected death to release them soon enough.

His Cock Condemned

However the Lords of Makett prized the strength and endurance of the rebels.

They preferred to spare them from death and use them in the mines, producing wealth.

Hotheads argued that their manhood at least should be forfeit and their rebel genes eliminated.

Some leaders were so punished in elaborate public ceremonies,

but without their reproductive biochemicals they soon became weak and useless.

His Scrotum Shaved and Sewn Up

And so in the end wiser counsels prevailed

The remaining Rebels were not deprived of their manhood

But only of their ability to use it for breeding - or even for pleasure.

That and years of hard work would be their punishment.

His Containment Clamped and Crushed

Once shaved and sewn up tight, 

Iron chastity clamps were permanently attached

with fixings only a trained surgeon could remove.

Once they were healed in.

With these emblems of defeat and shameful servitude, 

the rebels were paraded at public events for gawpers to laugh at.

It became a perverse custom to grope and rub the clamps for luck.

Though luck had completely eluded those unfortunates,

The captured rebels of Makett.

~

For other posts on these subjects see below.

Vintage Bondage - Don Ferrara

Don Ferrara in Bondage (AMG ca 1954)

 

This impressive image of Don Ferrara, tied hand and foot, has a tremendous sense of muscle and bulk having been tamed and rendered subservient. He looks up respectfully to his invisible master utterly helpless on the end of a tether. It's hard to see whether he's wearing a pouch or totally naked. 

The background image seeks to cloak this extraordinary scene in the enslavement practices of the ancient world but I think the architecture is more medieval. 

Don Ferrara in Bondage (AMG ca 1954)

This related image is equally tantalising. The 'hands in front' bondage technique restricts but is not inescapable. However it has the virtue that it looks as if Don is genuinely, tightly restrained, which isn't always the case with bondage from the 50's. Fun to create for the photographer (or his assistant!) and the model too perhaps. 

Don had an attractive face with rounded features that are homely and soft rather than dangerous and sexy. He was handsome in his time, having the look of several film stars from the 50's. College jock good looking, his greased hair was the height of cool. Although he's shaved his torso, there's a nice fuzz of hair on his arms and legs.

Don Ferrara in Bondage (AMG ca 1954)

Don looks just as good in a hog, bringing in a sense of his height as well as his musculature. His open legs are tantalising. It's not the most demanding of hog-ties admittedly, but good enough to allow examination of the goods.

This pose might remind you to of another, contemporary AMG bondage set featuring Leonard Chambers, also hog-tied. I have recently updated it with additional images

Don Ferrara pre-Bondage? (AMG ca 1954)

This image seems to be from the same shoot with Don striking an open, inviting pose, presenting a shapely pouch to us, but with a less than welcoming expression. It's easy to imagine his feet are tied together here and although his arms are not tied, they seem to be 'assuming the position' prior to rolling into the hog. If you like hairy forearms, feast on his!

Don Ferrara (AMG ca 1952)

This is a slightly earlier image, a more youthful Don (aged 26) but already in possession of muscular arms, a well-defined torso and able to fill out his pouch . This relaxed body-builder pose has a disinterested quality that seems designed to allay accusations of flaunting one's body, but for gay men it has a submissive, 'come and get me' feel. Set against the ruins of ancient Greece it suggests an early suitability for being tied up.

Don Ferrara (AMG ca 1952)

Don demonstrates here that he was not overly concerned with protecting his modesty and had a youthful willingness to challenge the conventions and restrictions of the day. His pale imitation of the body-builder's bicep flex pose challenges us to try and remove the fig leaf precariously attached to something that certainly isn't a pouch! You sense he's not going to try very hard to stop you either.

Don Ferrara (AMG ca 1952)

Most body builders were willing to experiment with artistic poses which showed they had sensitivity and were not just musclebound blockheads. In fact, seated poses like this tend to accentuate pure bulk more than conventional upright flexing does and it could be seen as a take on Narcissus gazing at his own reflection in the pool below. Nevertheless this thoughtful introspection makes the model seem less God-like, more human, vulnerable - and accessible.

Don is heavily oiled up for this image and that was and is a normal, bodybuilding practice for display. It's nice to imagine the photographer or an eager assistant, helping out to ensure full coverage. 

Don Ferrara (AMG ca 1954)

The full measure of this stately man, ready and waiting
with welcoming arms

~

Unusually for 50's physique models, Don's life was well documented in his recent Obituary. He was a fireman and lived a straight, married life reaching the ripe old age of 94 by the time he died in 2021. He was a bona fide bodybuilder (as firemen often are) and the article even mentioned his appearance in Tomorrows Man in Oct 1954, although this was an image that had clearly been crudely sanitised (see below). Not surprisingly, his bondage experience wasn't mentioned. It makes you wonder what persuaded him to try it, perhaps his firemen buddies put him up for it! 

Don Ferrara (AMG ca 1954) in Tomorrows Man Oct 1954

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to spot that this image has been censored.

The photo is taken against the same background pattern as the fig leaf image above.

Perhaps this is the moment when the fig leaf fell!

Choosing to publish this picture out of all the images AMG took of Don seems like a deliberate attempt by TM to signal the availability of illicit nudes. Also, for this image to be known to Don's friends in later life suggests he had a dare-devil streak and no regrets about any youthful indiscretions and experiences. Which goes some way to explain the praise he attracted on his death.

~

For more Vintage Bondage articles click on the label below

Images courtesy of Tim in Vermont, most enhanced by mitchmen blog

Domination Art by Russ 3 Cops and Leathermen

Read this series from Part 1

Russ - Cop Search

This scene is a perennial, favourite opening for a porn story, a cop searching a motorist whom he has just pulled over for some violation or another. His fingers go looking for incriminating evidence (or something) up between the suspect's legs. Cops in this era are Tom in Finland country, but for me this image has a sniff of Etienne about it, blended into Russ's eclectic but unique style. 

There's a classic video that opens like this with the subject dressed in sexy, khaki shorts which somehow make his search all the more invasive. Having established the suspect's suitability, the two men adjourn to a barn where the cop administers a fierce belting before... well, you know! I know it as The Barn but I don't know what the correct title is or who made it. Anyone know?

Russ - Cop Probe

When a cop's got you on the rack in a remote lay-by, things can happen that aren't supposed to happen - whether you like it or not. There's a trade-off in this story, just as there is in  Night Patrol by Etienne - sex in exchange for tearing up a ticket. In Night Patrol it's an act of appreciation (or a cruel joke) after the cops have had what they wanted, here it's an up-front deal, but the cop's clenched fist is a tell-tale sign that the suspect doesn't really have much choice. 

It's tempting to see the influence of Tom of Finland here, in the content and composition if not the style. His 'Highway Patrol' (Kake 22) was also published in 1980, and has a similar scene to this in it, except that it's the cop that gets some cum-uppance in Tom's story. 

It's also interesting to compare this scene with the climax of Night Patrol by Etienne. In that story the shafting of the suspect over the bonnet (hood) of the Police Car is spectacular but doesn't look quite 'right'. Russ adopts a less ambitious approach to depicting what is essentially the same scenario and while it doesn't capture the same sense of excitement, it's more convincing anatomically and sexually it's more intense. Penetration imagery in this era didn't usually show significant shaft length between the two men like this picture does. 

Russ - Cop Probe

After reneging on the ticket deal, the cop discovers his two victims are leather guys and have got teeth. Here he suffers the humiliation of being taken captive himself and having his uniform ripped open. More painful retribution will follow, but that's not all. It seems he has a evil, murderous reputation and the leather community decide to exact their own justice by taking him out of circulation. The eagle badge in this image represents their adoption of him and is a prelude to his new life of indefinite captivity and painful servitude.

Cops differ from other gay sex-icons like the Sailor, the Cowboy and the Superhero, in that they are not just figures of lust in their uniforms but threatening, all-powerful and unpredictable men to be feared. Gay porn usually provides a psychological palliative to that fear with the fantasy that they are (only) out for sex, but there's a greater satisfaction to be had in turning the tables on the truly nasty ones.

There's another of Russ's mouth-stuffing gags in this image. The moments he has chosen to illustrate for this story do not have the same energy as the earlier images in this series of mitchmen posts, but there is greater erotic intensity. He understandably uses solid black shading for the cop's uniform in these pictures and it produces marvellous effects in the cop's leather pants and boots, but is less successful elsewhere where it replaces subtle line shading and disturbs the visual balance.

Russ - Jones Beach 1

In 'Jones Beach' a young surfer becomes besotted by a vision in cut-offs and shades. This very 80's object of desire reacts aggressively to his attention, pouring homophobic abuse on the young man. However, that doesn't stop him from lingering with his admirer and coercing him into a sequence of humiliating and subservient acts that suggest a very different agenda.

Russ uses his softer, more realistic style here, capturing the open space of the beach with it's constant, lurking danger of discovery, not least by Police patrols. That threat makes the victim's predicament seem both frightening and exciting at the same time.

Russ - Jones Beach 2

Eventually, the surfer/swimmer is taken into the trees for an even more painful test of his admiration, out of sight of passers-by. It's already clear that his hero's homophobia is a front and having punished the hapless beach boy, he demonstrates that the gay ways he professes to despise are not entirely alien territory to him.

After he's taken his pleasure he leaves the surfer in the bushes, still tied up and bent over a bough. There he's visited and taken advantage of by those who haunt such places, including a cop. Eventually though, his new-found master does return to claim him in a happy ending with a twist.

Some of the detailing in this picture is quite remarkable - for example the bully's boots and the bough over which the victim is bent are graphic art of the highest quality. Notice the return also of the dangling gag.

Russ - White Water Run 1

These illustrations were provided for a story about a leather clubs motorcycle 'run' and they are focussed on the induction processes of that world. In this image a young, blonde acolyte is being trained in submission with some boot-licking practice. This is a similar scenario to the surfer training in Etienne's Road Kings. This trainee's "Gates of Hell" cock strap was a much advertised accessory in the 80's but they don't turn up in art very often, probably because they require a raging erection, but at least this cock is pointing downwards! 

The artist's depiction of the muscular, leather man here is a striking success, creating the impression of a firm, but benevolent master. There's some similarity to Tom of Finland's creations but this is a totally original and very perceptive image. The on-looker in the doorway is an existing slave in the story but you can imagine other scenarios, e.g. a buddy awaiting his turn to be trained (willingly or otherwise).

Russ - White Water Run 2

This domination image owes a lot to Macbeth with a more forceful boot worshiping scenario being enhanced by a variety of exaggerations of scale and drama. The big boots that typified Macbeth's work are given an extra cruel twist by Russ who adds pointed studs to the soles but he doesn't use the same crazy perspectives. His more conventional viewpoint produces a result that is less wild, less energetically aggressive but more intense. The heightened sexual flavouring (including the giant cock) is all his own work.

Russ - White Water Run 3

In this spit-roasting image Russ pays homage to another great artist of the 80's, the Hun. He's extracted one of that artist's typical scenarios and replicated the facial expression of the victim too, but the resemblance ends there. Russ has translated the scenario to the world of leather clubs rather than the Hun's preferred hunting ground of prisons and sleazy truckstops. Russ makes the man in the middle here more mature than the Hun's innocents too. He has used his own, more realistic figures and drawing style to recreate the erotic essence of The Hun's imagination.

Russ - Leather Man (cover for 'The Leather Journal')

This striking cover illustration is a decade on from the imagery Russ did for Larry Townsend and it's a more mature, accomplished style. I'm not 100% sure it's the same man but if it is, it shows considerable artistic growth. 

The spiky cartouche framing the subject is a modernistic, vaguely satanic expression of the fiery, hard passion (bordering on anger) that lurks within the Leather Man's soul. It's scarcely subtle but expressed  much less directly than the flailing belts and harsh domination that mark out the action pictures in this collection. There's an interesting construct where you might expect a motto to be that brackets, almost nudges, the sexual centre of gravity, depicted as a latent source of great erotic power, but temporarily restrained. This slightly mystical interpretation of the leather religion is contrasted with a meticulous depiction of his elaborate leather outfit and carefully trimmed hair, showing the more worldly, conforming, sometimes vulnerable dandy that is also part of this tribe's character. 

~

Russ has a unique style that draws heavily on the inspiration of the artists of his day, but the drama and passion that infuses his best images is probably better executed than any of them. There are glimpses of extremely accomplished draughtsmanship alongside more mundane imagery, but it's not easy to identify a recognisable, unifying style in an era which was rich in artists with unique signatures - The Hun, Macbeth, Sean, Cavelo, Etienne and Tom of Finland. This is perhaps why Russ has received less recognition than he deserves over the years since then.

There's no site for him as far as I know.

Read this series from Part 1