Inside the L.A. Dominatrix Industry

Goddess Sativa, who has been in the industry thirteen years, is known for her transformational make-up magic, turning men into beautiful women, and for her collection of over 100 fetish boots, including custom-made purple leather crotch-highs with a 12-inch heel and a 6-inch platform. Like many dommes, Sativa has a few personal submissives who are so happy to serve that they cater to her non-sexual whims and desires outside the dungeon as well. One, a cross-dressing slave in a tutu, pays some of her bills, occasionally wears a pig nose in public and role plays as Sativa's 12-year-old daughter. "We call it like an ongoing art project," she says. Sativa is also a yoga instructor, which keeps her "balanced and humble."

Some dommes sport black leather head-to-toe, never display a chipped nail or split end and refuse even to strip down to lingerie. Others wear little makeup, greet you in jeans and a t-shirt and session in the nude, unaware of the elaborate old guard protocol that establishes black as the most powerful color and stipulates, for example, that anyone wearing an orange handkerchief in public is announcing he would allow anyone to do absolutely anything to him. Most girls aren't aware of these rules, however, as the BDSM landscape has changed drastically in the past decade from a tight-knit underground community in which everyone knew each other to a porous, highly visible subculture accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.

As the economy worsened and the web made selling personal photos and video clips easier and more lucrative, more dommes began slip sliding towards pornography, some with nudity and penetration (which all dungeons I spoke with do not allow in sessions, not even a finger in a mouth) and some without. At the same time, more escorts and adult film stars have tried to branch out into the fetish world. Some women, called "hybrids," have separate websites with separate names for their escort career and their domme career.

Goddess Sativa is particularly offended and upset by the blending of what used to be three very distinct strands of LA's booming sex industry. "Ten years ago [people who dabbled in porn or prostitution] were shunned," she says. "I got emotional the other day because I saw a magazine with some of my friends in there, and they're totally just doing porn. That's taking away the mystery of the domina! I hold myself sacred, on this pedestal."

But if BDSM becomes more widely accepted and even vanilla housewives lose their bedroom inhibitions, will pro dommes continue to serve as the same kind of necessary outlet? A man will hire a dominatrix to express desires that aren't socially acceptable or that he can't admit to his partner, but most dommes say they wish more wives would be open and non-judgmental about satisfying their husbands' kinky needs. Partially inspired by the success of 50 Shades of Grey, a few dungeons offer or plan to offer beginners' classes for couples in everything from spanking (cup your hand; avoid the kidneys and tail bone) to Japanese rope bondage (allow yourself plenty of time to do the complicated knots).

Mistress Lexine says she even plans to start throwing fetish parties at Irongate designed specifically for newcomers.

"There's something about it that piques everybody's curiosity," she says. "Something I guess about it being naughty."

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