Madison Young, fetish and bondage model
*Update. This interview is from a few years back and therefor somewhat outdated. Since then Madison has of course moved on and has written a book called `Daddy`. But I think the interview is still a nice read. So I’ll leave it up :-)
BindMe had an email-interview with Madison Young, a well known well known fetish and porn model.
But that’s not all. Read more on her below here. She’s a true rope fetishist and utter rope slut, so perfect for an interview :)
She worked and works with the greatest bondage websites.
We are very proud to present this interview and let you have a look behind the scenes.
BindMe: First of all Madison; tell us something about your background. Who are you and what do you do?
Who am I? In occupation I’m a full time bondage model, producer, and adult performer which allows me the freedom to also be
a published writer, activist, gallerist, and artist. When I’m not getting tied up and having amazing sex or directing dvds
for my production company Madison Bound Productions, I’m running my feminist art gallery Femina Potens FeminaPotens.orgin San Francisco. I’m also a queer feminist masochist and rope slut who is in love with my partner in life, James Mogul.
BindMe: What does bondage/shibari/kinbaku mean to you?
Shibari is my favourite form of rope bondage. It tends to be the tightest and is just beautiful. Something about shibari just gels with me.
It makes me purr like a kitten. All of my favourite rope artists are shibari influenced.
BindMe: How did you first come into contact with bondage/BDSM?
I would have wet dreams in my late teen years about being kidnapped and held hostage and fucked. Then I experimented with my first couple of partners with bdsm and other kinks including fisting, public sex, exhibitionism, golden showers and bondage.
But it wasn’t until I started modelling for Kink.com that I had my first taste of a whip or rope and I fell in love with both instantly.
Rope became my constant companion and a lover that I would explore to the depths.
BindMe:
By whom are you influenced in your work (if so)? In what way? And who else do you admire in “the scene”?
Other bondage models that I admire are Claire Adams, Eden Wells, and Kumi Monster. I think these women have really mastered their field and I love their work. My favourite bondage models are incredibly flexible, are masochists and excel in suspensions. I feel like that’s what I try to do and I look up to these ladies in that regard.
I’m also incredibly inspired by rope artists such as my love James Mogul, Viking, Lochai, Julie Simone, and Midori. All of these rope artist put me into a brilliant mind altering space with their rope work and allow me to move and dance in the ropes finding the greatest tension and falling into that.
BindMe: Do you see your form/style of bondage as an artform / artexpression? If so, why?
And do you incorporate your BDSM experiences in your “other” art?
Yes I do see shibari as an art form. I think it is a beautiful work of art in which I’m a material incorporated into the rope artists work. And then I become a dancer rediscovering my new found body and letting myself completely go, finding complete freedom in the bondage. Giving all of myself over to the rope and the rope artist.
I believe Midori compares it to Japanese flower arrangement. I have taken part in several bondage art performances at such venues as Torture Garden and Midori constructed an brilliant art installation at my gallery that incorporated creating an entire forest of rope.
BindMe: Do you have a favourite way/shape of binding? A favourite position
maybe? Or is each tie different and a challenge as such?
I love suspensions. Really tight shibari rope bondage that is both challenging and what some may call painful. I adore asymmetrical
bondage – single ankle suspensions, single frog leg suspensions or suspensions that I can really play around in.
Dynamic bondage suspensions that will change shape as I dance and struggle in the tight ropes. I love the feeling of rope biting deeply into me with immense pressure like the most heartfelt bear hug, like a lover that will never leave.
The smell and the bite of natural fiber rope is what really gets me wet and aroused and the tighter the bondage the wetter I get. The tight rope overwhelms my senses and I feel warm erotic electric energy start to flow through my body the moment the rope is cinched tightly against my flesh.
BindMe: Does using original materials like hemp- or jute-rope and bamboo
give an extra dimension for your bondage?
Yes. Hemp and Jute are my favourite kind of rope. I don’t even really think of bondage with other kinds of rope to be rope bondage. For me there is only hemp or jute.
I love the bite, the tightness of the rope, the smell, the taste, I’m getting excited just talking about it. I really love rope.
You know what I would love is if some one constructed a “rope tasting” similar to a wine tasting but with rope and it could be rope from different
countries, prepared differently, from different years. That is how I think of rope, like a good wine, like a good lover.
BindMe: How did it feel to be in suspension for the first time?
My very first suspension was in Cabo off of a balcony of the villa we were staying at with kink.com and I was really scared about it.
I just hadn’t done anything like that before and I didn’t know what it would feel like. But as soon as I was hoisted up it was like a fish to water. It seemed so natural and I knew I had found my absolute calling. My feet were not meant to be on the ground but suspended and bound.
BindMe: Do you feel that the climate in the USA is making it harder for kink or bondage artists to explain their work as art? How do you feel about that?
There has always been censorship on artists and activists. We are the ones that make waves and can cause change in the world. We inspire others to think and this threatens our government.
From Mapplethorp to Annie Sprinkle censorship has always been on our backs.
I’ve curated a lot of erotic art. For my gallery and for the Traveling Erotic Art Show. I’ve had people come in who tell me they are offended by a woman’s body or photos of bondage or knife play or asphyxiation.
But I don’t think that will cause artists to stop making work or exhitibiting work. Erotic Art is at its peak right now. Erotic Film Festivals and Erotic Art Shows are popping up all over the country and through out the world in San Francisco, New York, Florida, Seattle, Baltimore and more. Sex Museums are also popping up all over. It seems to be a really hot thing right now.
BindMe: In what way do you consider the work you do as an artist Feminist?
I mean…. how does being tied and tortured, fucked and humiliated work in the advantage of women wanting to be taken serious
and equal?
Ha Ha. You know it’s funny my mother asked me the same thing! And this is what I told her. When a woman is taking control of her sexuality and owning it and exploring it and not ashamed of her body. When a woman is embracing her orgasms and pushing
her sexual self to new dimensions. That is a feminist act. For me being tied and participating in sensation play and heavy sm is something that I love. It’s how I get off. I’m not being tortured. I’m experiencing sensation. In the same way that a vanilla girl needs to have a hand graze her body and the light touch of a tongue on her clit, I need to have my ass beat with a 2×4 and get fisted while I tug at a rope around my neck. Some girls just need it a little more intense than others.
BindMe: You just finished writing your book. What’s it about?
I’m so excited to finish this piece. My book is called “The Tail of a Bondage Model” I’ll be sending it out to agents next month. The book is a memoir of my last 6 years in the bdsm and porn industry and juggling of my on screen life and the struggle to maintain healthy relationships and retaining a sense of self in the industry.
BindMe: You travel a lot for your work. Probably one of the most travelled model in this field. How hard or nice is that? And do you notice significant differences in the different countries fetish scenes?
I have travelled quite a bit for modelling. I’m trying to cut down but I’m still often averaging 4 to 5 cities a month.
But they are shorter trips now. I do love to travel and I’ve had some amazing adventures. It is wonderful to have community and friends in cities all over the world and to have your favourite restaurant in NYC and your favourite coffee shop in Seattle and your favourite bookstore in Portland, to know where to see good bands in Chicago and to bump into friends on the streets of London. That is the cool part.
Connecting with people in different cultures and feeling like the world is your back yard and every back yard as a play set preferably with whips and rope.
The crappy thing about travelling all the time is missing out on home. I’ve been fetishizing home for the past couple of years.
Whenever I’m away I watch non stop Home and Garden Television.
I love San Francisco. I live in a great city with really expensive rent and it sucks to not be able to enjoy it. Almost 3 years ago my ex girlfriend moved out while I was on one of my 15 day shoots in Seattle and New York. I wasn’t around enough and because of that I lost someone that I really loved. That really woke me up to the whirlwind of travel my life had become.
Then James happened. We had been working together for a couple of years but we were both going through break ups and became really good friends and then we became great lovers. And we have been together ever since.
I’ve cut down on my travel so I still shoot in a lot of places but I’ll only be gone for 3 or 4 days then come back. This kind of schedule has also allowed for more growth of my art gallery.
If I could break things up regionally regarding bdsm and fetish – the Northwest is very community oriented, great resources, a lot of workshops and play parties.
Everyone knows one another and the LGBTQ and kink crowds tend to meld together. Great people really down to earth.
LA – much more showey, glossy, latex, lots of make up. In LA it is all about looking cool. Which I’m not very good at doing.
I think San Francisco is somewhere in the middle of that. Plenty of people trying to look cool and plenty of resources, education and community.
NYC is raw and beautiful. I love the New York vibe which I feel is a little more centered around sm than bondage.
London – the splosh thing is huge there. Give them a big bucket of speghettios a couple of English Trifles and a bound girl and they are happy.
BindMe:What other BDSM-elements are you attracted too besides bondage?
I love sm play. A couple of my favourite implements are the cane, whips, and 2x4s. I enjoy a good flogging as well. I love nipple play and pussy whipping. But next to rope, a wooden cane would have to be my next favourite item. I can never have too many canes. I can orgasm just from a good caning. It really is an amazing implement.
I also love service and protocol. I’ve always gotten an erotic rise out of rules and structure.
Something I haven’t explored a great deal of, but that really makes me hot, is puppy play. I’m hoping to be trained as a puppy as soon as my Love gets a chance.
BindMe:Do you think that Japanese bondage seems like a hype lately?
Everyone seems to be “into it”
Yes Shibari does seem to be growing in popularity. Which I’m very excited to see. Although there are a lot of very loose interpretations of Shibari that are being exposed. They are Japanese influenced but pretty far from any sort of authentic Shibari.
BindMe:What do you recommend people that feel attracted to this form (or any kind) of bondage and want to learn?
The best advice I can give to submissive is to go slow. Get your hands on books about bdsm, figure out what it is that you are interested in trying out, discover your boundaries, your likes and dislikes and learn how to communicate to your dominant or dominants.
Find bdsm community centers, reach out to other people in the community. Stick to your guns. If there is something you don’t like do not be afraid to express that to your dominant. This is about sharing a mutually enjoyable experience.
And it may take you a while to figure out exactly what you like and how you like it. So just take it one step at a time and remember communication is key.
There are a lot of great workshops and bdsm retreats out there and the more education you have around bdsm the more you will discover what turns you on and how to play safely which is incredibly important.
I definitely like to play on the edge but I also make sure that I’m an educated submissive and that I’m aware of the equipment my dominant is using, how many anchor points are in the ceiling and that they are tested before hand. This does not make you a bossy submissive to ask these questions before the scene but it makes you one who is able to communicate and then fully give yourself over to your dominant during the scene because you know your dominants skill level and can fully give your trust to him or her.
BindMe:Are you already preparing for life after your modelling career? If so, how do you?
I plan on continuing to model as long as there is an audience out there that wants to watch and even then I’m sure I’ll still keep the camera around. I feel like portraying a woman’s honest sexual explorations and journey is educational and I’m compelled to continue my journey on film. I’m definitely continuing to expand my career with the new book and new gallery.
I’ve also just signed a distribution deal with Girlfriends Distribution (www.getgf.com) so I’ll be producing a new dvd every month. I just released “Undone” which I’m really proud of.
*Update. Most links below here are no longer valid, but it´s a time stamp of what Madison was up to back then.
Some websites where Madison’s work is featured on is and where this girl-next-door is the total rope slut you always wanted to have are:
MadisonBound.com and Tied4Sex.com
BTW… you really really should watch Madison read out Marrow’s poem about ROPE
Serious matters to read at http://MadisonYoung.org
Marrow of BindMe.nl would likes to thank Madison very much for his co-operation on this little special and being so open, informative and personal.
Thank you very much, Madison. We hope to see lots more kink in beautiful bondage photography and plain kink from you.