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Interview With Mistress Persephone by Cary Mistress Persephone is an innovator and icon in the Fetish and BDSM world. We are honored to present this in depth interview with her. How did you become interested in fetish/BDSM? Being a part of the hardcore punk rock scene in the 1980's, a lot of the fashion was BDSM oriented. I have always been a curious person so naturally I wanted to understand what I was wearing i.e. bondage gear, handcuff belts, spiked cock ring bracelets, leather etc. so I researched it and when i discovered they were lifted from the whole Vivienne Westwood SEX scene as a way to shock people, it didn't really make as big an impression as the fact that people actually used these items for sexual gratification before they were ever fashion. I took an interest in BDSM as a hobby at that point. And how did you transition from an interest to it being a profession? I took a job as a shop clerk in an adult book store and was a harness and dildo pusher for a little while before the store closed and then got another job because of it in a more fetish oriented shop catering to the transgendered community and fetishists. It was there I was asked to model for the first time in their bondage merch catalog. That was my start as a paid fetish model. I became a professional dominatrix not long after by turning the second bedroom of my house into a dungeon and placing in ad in a local scene paper a la "Eating Raoul" after getting some hands-on training at play parties. Do you enjoy fetishism/BDSM play in your personal life, and if so what are you into? Yes, I do and I enjoy many of the same things that I am into professionally. Dressing for pleasure is big on the list. You can see a list of my other specialties at mspersephone.com which is also where people should go who are interested in booking a live session. Are there any fetishes that you don't find appealing? Scat play and infantilism are absolutely of zero interest to me. I have been offered a lot of money to do brown showers and have always turned it away. You also perform at many fetish events, how did you get started with that? I used to, I retired from performance art several years ago after I started seeing too many people rip off my act. I became jaded, lost my inner fire, and gave up the ghost to pursue more lucrative and fulfilling things. And what is the experience of that kind of performance like? Being on stage was a great thrill and creating a unique show was also exciting but I often felt that my efforts went mostly unappreciated by the promoters who were always trying to haggle me down in price when I poured so much time and energy creating my costumes, themes and productions and quite literally offering up my flesh and blood to provide them a good show. In many cases their budgets didn't even cover the basic cost of materials to build a new costume or buy needles. I'm all about art, but I'm not going to go broke while they cash in as I bleed. It got old dealing with promoters crying poverty; wanting to offer me the least amount possible while asking me to give them my all, and then I decided to focus on my pro domme career instead since that is where my heart has always been and performing was more of a paid hobby. What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the fetish scene? That's a vague question. I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. Starting out in the fetish scene how? As a player? As a model? A pro domme? Stage performer? I don't know that I can advise anyone in that area since I started out in a different era. In the early 90s the world was completely different. There was no MySpace to promote on, there was no "fetish model" box to tick on a model profile, and now fetish is so mainstream it's not difficult to outfit yourself at the mall. When I started it was more of an effort to make a mark, especially since I was pierced and tattooed, I had long fingernails and it wasn't acceptable to model that way like it is now. I don't know that a lot of people under 25 can know what it was like before the Internet made it so easy to spread yourself around. With the arrival of the Internet, I decided to use that as a tool to create my own mythos and thus the "legend" of Mistress Persephone was unleashed with my first website, Mistress Persephone's Tartarus in 1996. I decided that I would put myself out there and in turn perhaps attract others interested in my own interests and share my images with them in order to create some sort of legacy. I had to pave my own way and create my own niche and in many ways I believe I opened a lot of doors for those that followed. Do you think fetish is becoming part of the mainstream culture? As I said above, it's not uncommon to buy fetish gear at the Hot Topic at the mall. When I was a teenager we had to pool gas money together and head up to Melrose in Hollywood to buy our gear or buy it from specialty purveyors through mail order catalogs. You had to really, really want to be eclectic back then and unlike now where every reality TV show has girls with pink hair and tattoos, you were seen as a degenerate, misfit and blemish on society for choosing to live outside the mold. Anymore it's more about fashion than rebellion. In an age where footballers sport mohawks and the Pussycat Dolls are wearing latex, it's hard to be a stand-out and not just look like one of them. What do you like to do for fun? I like to create videos and photos for my website sickchixxx.com I workout a lot. Weight training, yoga, pilates. I like to swim and snorkel. I read a lot, I travel. I am a UFC fan and meet up with friends for fight nights which a lot of people have a hard time believing. I am very private and am not very social, which is how I ended up in Michigan after I became burned out on urban life after having lived in Hollywood, NYC and London. I keep a small circle of friends and no longer enjoy big parties or night clubs like I did when i was in my 20s. If I do go out it will usually be a to see a band in a small venue or a punk rock dive bar with a jukebox and friendly, sexy, inkeed female bartenders that know what i like to drink when I walk through the door. There is a lot to be said for the Garbo life and unless I am working or with my closest friends, I pretty much want to be let alone.
See more of Mistress Persephone at:
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Photos 1-3 by Ckreationz, Photo 4 by Joe Cardenas, Photo 5-7 by Eyerotique 
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