Reinventing Leather Culture
The Covering Ceremony is a Leather rite of passage and a bid for communal power.
It's the first time it's performed in a strip mall.
By Karma Said | Photos by the Kink Collective
Search the term “Leather Culture”, and you’ll come up with oddly lacking results. Wikipedia will describe a Gay subculture popular between the 50s and 80s. News items would mention it in the context of Pride and respectability (or disrespectability) politics. Lifestyle outlets would focus on its connection to kinky sex and relationships, and the top results would of course be porn. But dive deep enough into private Facebook pages, and you’ll uncover a living network of Leather households, rooted in a BDSM lifestyle and connected through shared Leather rituals and life events—a community, hidden in plain sight.
On August 24, 2024, Three Leatherfolk-- Mistress Lady, Mistress Cat, and Sir Tom -- were honored in a Covering ceremony, recognizing their contributions to the Leather community. The ceremony was conducted by Master Joshua, co-founder of the educational group and Leather tribe The Kink Collective, and held in The Canvas 3.0, a digital art gallery located in the WTC Oculus. The significance of this event is twofold: It affirmed these individuals’ importance to the kink community and the importance of the kink community to them; and, by virtue of its prestigious location, furthered the repositioning of kink as a legitimate alternative lifestyle.
From Left to Right: Mistress Lady, Master Joshua, Mistress Cat, and Sir Tom.
From Left to Right: Mistress Lady, Master Joshua, Mistress Cat, and Sir Tom.
The event was part of an ongoing collaboration between the Kink Collective and the feminist art collective Meta Betties, a “multidisciplinary collective that uses art, fashion, events + the blockchain as a catalyst for social change” (metabetties.com).
“Everything I do is deeply rooted in digital activism,” Explained Blakelee Pieroni, the group’s co-founder, and The Canvas 3.0’s current artist-in-residence. “I focus a lot on women's rights and sex education, which is how my relationship with the Kink Collective started.” The collaboration involved other actors in the Alt-Sex realm, including the veteran Leather bar Eagle NYC, which sponsored the open bar, and local kink purveyors who contributed to a silent auction. Per Pieroni’s mission, all proceeds were donated to REST (Real Escape From Sex Trafficking).
“This is a celebration of Leather culture, Leather lifestyle, and the Leather community,” Master Joshua said in his opening words. But what IS Leather culture? The term refers both to a current system of sexual and social practices and to the historical movement that gave rise to it. The Gay Leather subculture is considered to have originated in the 40s, peaked in the 70s, and declined in the 80s, after being nearly wiped out by the AIDS epidemic. It has since been reborn, many times over, as the spiritual base of diverse outlier groups. Varying in gender, sexual orientation, and demographics, as well as their interpretations of Leather lore, what these groups share in common is the practice of BDSM (a compound acronym standing for Bondage, Discipline, Dominance and Submission, Sadomasochism), as well as the tradition of passing down of knowledge through a hierarchical system, from Master to novice. Leather Culture can also be described as folklore: a set of ideas, traditions, and customs that is passed through the generations by word of mouth, and that is shaped by its practitioners as much as it shapes them.
Mistresses Cyan and Cat
Mistresses Cyan and Cat
The titles “Master” or “Mistress” (along with equivalents like Sir/Daddy/Madam/Mommy, etc) convey a dual meaning as well. In the private sphere, they describe a person’s role as the lead in an intimate BDSM Power exchange. In the public sphere, they convey a person’s authority as a teacher and leader in the Leather community. The Covering / Capping ceremony distinguishes between the title's private and public meanings, emphasizing the latter. As such, it’s a political tool: since the Leather community has no official structure or centralized authority to sanctify an individual’s stature as Master/Mistress, or any canonized criteria for being recognized as one, the Covering ceremony is a grassroots bid for influence in the broader kink community.
Mistress Cyan owns the famous LA Dungeon Sanctuary Studios and produces Domcon, the “World's premier Professional and Lifestyle Domination Convention” (domcon.com). Speaking at the event, she described the Covering ceremony as the moment individuals officially take on “the responsibility of teaching, mentoring, and passing on information to keep our community alive and honest and true.” According to Master Joshua, what qualifies an individual to yield this influence are their proven technical skills in BDSM, as well as their prolonged adherence to the guiding principles of Leather culture.
Mistress Lady, Mistress Cat, and Sir Tom
Mistress Lady, Mistress Cat, and Sir Tom
“The five pillars of Leather,“ explained Master Joshua, “are Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles and moral uprightness. Respect: regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of others. Trust: belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. Honor: adherence to what is right or to a conventional standard of conduct. And loyalty: a strong feeling of support or allegiance, not just of their peers, but to the community and the lifestyle beliefs and practices.”
The ceremony culminated with the honorees donning a Leather cover, the traditional hallmark of a Master.
Mistress
Lady
Mistress Lady Owns
Lady's Wicked Playground,
a BDSM-based alternative lifestyle social
club in the Northeast Pennsylvania area.
Hello and good evening. My name is Miss Lady. I'm the owner of Lady's Wicked Playground, LWP venue in the Northeast Pennsylvania area. We are a BDSM based alternative lifestyle social club. We offer a bed and breakfast. We host events such as play parties, social gatherings, and we also offer classes that teach our local community about our lifestyle and all the how to's and what to's and what not to do's. We also travel around the United States and host other seminars for larger conventions and set up dungeons to also bring people into our world a little bit more
How long have you been in the lifestyle?
I've been in a lifestyle now for 12 years, both professionally and also knowing that the lifestyle was a real thing.
How would being covered impact your life? What would it change for you socially, professionally, or personally?
In an all-around general answer, I'd have to say that being covered is going to change things for the respect that I receive in the leather community and in the education community, and it's going to grow my family more. And when my family grows more, the imprint that I can make on the lifestyle and on the community will grow more.
What is your connection to Master Joshua and what personal significance does it hold to be covered by him?
Master Joshua and I have been friends for many, many years. I feel like we both know the struggle. We both started from the bottom. We both mentored ourselves. He is not just a dear friend, but like a brother to me we connect on many different levels from the way that we think, from what we do, to how we love people, to how we make space for people. He's just all around one of my favorite people. So it is an honor to have him be such a big part of this ceremony for me.
Mistress Cat
Mistress Cat has served as
an educator, counselor, event producer,
club owner, and co-founder
of the Kink Collective.
For the past 30 years, Mistress Cat has been a dedicated member of the kink, BDSM, and Leather community. Starting in the Gay men’s Leather scene in San Francisco, she benefited from a mentorship that laid her foundation in the lifestyle. Over the last 15 years, she has served as an educator, counselor, event producer, club owner, and co-founder of the Kink Collective. She is committed to creating a safe, inclusive community where individuals feel understood and can learn from both instructors and peers.
How did your kink journey start?
So while I've probably been kinking my whole life, I entered the leather BDSM community a little short of 30 years ago in the San Francisco Bay area. And about 15 years ago, moved to New York city where I've been in the lifestyle 24 seven ever since.
Who guided you?
I've been lucky enough to have mentors and teachers throughout the time I've been in the community. The earliest one was a man named Edward, who took me under his wing in the BDSM gay men's leather community in the San Francisco Bay Area. With him, I learned how to host events, how to be safe, what negotiation meant, what consent meant, what it looked like when people practiced modality safely. He shaved years off of my journey. When I moved to New York City, a man named Saul, who later became my partner and husband, taught me about how to host events with flair, with integrity, with safety. Uh, he taught me the value of hosting a really good event and being able to charge what it was worth and hold that, hold my head up with value and esteem, knowing that what I offered was valuable to people. And most recently My partner, Joshua, co founder of the Kink Collective.
What modalities do you enjoy the most?
I've enjoyed learning a host of modalities over the time I've been in the community. Things like flogging, my first love, sensation play, impact play, CBT ,flogging, did I say vlogging? Fireplay, mummification, a whole host of things that I really enjoy doing. I've gotten good enough at them to play safely with others and also to facilitate and teach others as they learn how to do them as well.
How do you serve the Leather community?
From the moment I showed up at events in the San Francisco Bay Area, I always asked, how can I help? I'm service minded, and that's just how I am. For an example of the way I live my life, when I own Decadence, I would sit with new people, hundreds of new people, and help them work through their concerns, their nervousness, help them get started on their journey, or just hold space for other people while they continue on their journey.
How would being covered impact your life?
Being covered feels like an honor and a privilege. I feel like it's a reflection to me from the community that says we see you and we appreciate the work that you've done here.
Sir Tom
A Leather leader,
educator,
mentor and guide.
How did your kink journey start?
My name is Tom. I've been a member of the leather community for over 40 years. Early on, it was very much from the periphery, standing on the sidelines and watching what went on, intrigued and curious, but without an understanding of how to step into the community, how to start becoming involved, how to connect myself to what I saw. About 20 years ago, I started actively stepping into the community. In order to educate myself through workshops, events, spending time with people, and engaging with groups. So I got to have a sense of what the community had to offer, how the community embraces new people and encourages them to grow and develop. That has led to the past seven years when I've been working with the Kink Collective, actively stepping into the community, participating in the community, and Doing a great deal of work on myself in terms of reflection, in terms of education, in terms of developing skills and techniques that help me understand how I can best contribute back to the community and the potential that the community in these experiences have for anyone that's looking to really do some work in it.
What does being covered mean?
It means that a person has reached a level of experience, skill, understanding, maturity, and a clear sense of purpose in order to contribute to the community as a leader, as an educator, as a mentor, as a guide, and help others move into the community. And build their selves up to be their most authentic selves. For me personally, it's a great honor and a great responsibility because in being recognized for what I have done, what I do know, and what I can give, there's also an expectation that I That I will continue to contribute to the community, continue to lead, continue to grow, continue to teach, and continue to learn about myself in order to become even more authentic, more well rounded, and be more impactful in the community going forward.
How will being covered impact your life?
At this point I would say that it's going to enhance what I'm already doing. It's an affirmation that the work I've done on myself is of value. That the contributions I've made to the community are recognized and encouraged. That the impact that I've had on those I've engaged with has been meaningful and positive and helps them to see their full potential and embrace their authentic selves. It also allows me to diminish those thoughts that I had that what I had to say wasn't worthwhile. That the way that I communicated was not helpful. That the fears that I carry about not being enough are not valid fears. It's helping me see my true worth, my true understanding of who I am and what I have to offer. And that with that understanding, with this cover, that there is a tremendous responsibility for those that I'm going to engage with going forward, that I only move, only engage with them with positive intention and in a way that's going to benefit them.
What is your connection to Master Joshua and what personal significance does it hold to be covered by him?
I met Master Joshua seven years ago and our relationship in that time has changed dramatically. We've grown, it's deepened, it's become more complex, it's become much more symbiotic. Uh, what started out with him being the teacher and me being the student turned into a mentorship, turned into brothers sharing life journeys, experiences. We became travel buddies. We became sounding boards for each other. We, we entered into creative projects. We support each other. He is my biggest cheerleader. He saw potential in me long before I ever knew it existed. And he's helped move me into that. Potential and into that place of understanding and realization, um, through his work, his tireless efforts, his challenges, um, his encouragement and his love and support. So for him to present me with the cover is a culmination of what our relationship has been. He, he's seen me from the and allowed me to grow. In my own way, so I became the person I am and discovered my true authentic self and celebrates that with me and the covering is both a celebration of that journey and a call to duty to move these things forward to other people. And it's profoundly humbling I’m truly honored and challenged in a way that I didn't think I could be.
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