Photo by Susan Meiselas
Ever wondered what a real, professional BDSM dungeon looks like? Well, from personal experience, I can say that some are very elegant and ornate, while others are far trashier, and tend to be located in unassuming office buildings in gross areas of midtown, on a floor just above, like, a pottery class, and just below an insurance company. Random.
Generally, what most professional, “for-hire” dungeons offer is a selection of rooms, each decorated to create a different mood, and to cater to the differing tastes and fetishes of their Dommes and clients. Often, each room has a theme, for instance: medical room, boudoir, chamber, prison, “red room,” mortuary, classroom, or simply your classic bondage dungeon. Each room will generally have a variety of BDSM furniture to suit the theme, for instance: cages, spanking benches, morgue tables, bondage beds, thrones, isolation rooms, dentist chairs, mummification benches, suspension frames, etc. Dungeons will often have pro-Dommes working on site, and some allow independent Dommes to hire out rooms for sessions. I recently went into an internet black hole researching some of the world’s most glamorous dungeons. Below is a selection of images of some of my favorites. Enjoy!
1. A dungeon in Astoria, Queens (NYC), that shares a building with a dance academy for young girls–something that doesn’t make their parents very happy, weirdly.
2. A dungeon-for-rent in Logan Square, Chicago:
3. This is dungeon is of unknown location–it’s kind of sterile, but it’s funny that at first glance it sort of just looks like a gym:
4. This uber chic dungeon is in LA, and owned by Mistress Justine Cross:
5. This super cute dungeon was created by some freak on Second Life. Wish it was real!
6. Be tortured in style in this fetish bed and breakfast in London:
7. Below is a photo of a bondage room in the love hotel, Hotel Adonis, in Osaka, Japan. Sadly, it no longer exists.
8. And I saved the best for last. Below are photos taken inside the original Pandora’s Box in NYC, one of the most infamous BDSM dungeons in the world. All photos are by Susan Meiselas, taken in the 90s. A couple weeks ago I posted the amazing documentary Fetishes, by Nick Broomfield, which was filmed inside this dungeon. If you like the below photos, and haven’t watched Fetishes yet, I highly recommend it!
