Image via Zentai, une seconde peau.
Last night when trying to sleep, I visited the French culture site Fluctuat and unearthed the zentai fetish gem, Zentai, une seconde peau. Zentai — for those who enjoy full-body spandex, lycra or latex encasement — surfaced in the blogosphere years ago and made the usual linkdump stops, with people generally going “oooh, the Internets is weeeerid.” But it’s a thriving fetish with specialty shops now catering to zentaists, and someday I’m hoping to be on a panel with a practitioner so I can hear firsthand what the allure and pleasure is that people who enjoy zentai get out of the experience. I imagine it’s not terribly unlike the way a corset hugs the body, feels kinda comforting with the way it hugs really tight, and likely feels pretty intense being all slippery and compact in the suit, while having the whole sensory-impairing (or sensory deprivation) experience. Lotsa stuff going on there, besides people looking really alien. Or, like metallic lycra mermaids or surly latex pandas:
I took that photo!
People are doing some fascinating stuff with suits with inflatable parts that change the apparent shape of the wearer. I think that they are pvc because they are really shiny. The creativity coming from kinkiness is fascinating.
One pic as an example: http://flickr.com/photos/aseraphin/1803869956/