Risky (Sticky) Business
Brisbane, Australia
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Mo found himself the unwitting model of photographer Nadine Shaw. Not to worry though – latex washes off. Eventually. Photo by Nadine Shaw. |
I felt yucky as the lukewarm latex dribbled down my head, neck and shoulder. I could feel it hardening on my skin, and I cringed as my mind flew ahead to just how the hell I was going to wash all of this off. I knew that this shit was going to be a helluva lot worse to get off than the rubber cement my friends and I used when in art school; that stuff you could just roll off with your fingers no problem, no real reason to hit it with hot water and scrub like the dickens which I knew this stuff would need.
There was now a load of theatrical latex on me. If only on my left side. After a few moments the left side of my body was covered in the stuff, and it hardened as I sat there, trying to maintain my poise in my semi-nude state.
Nadine hovered over me, giggling quietly as she poured it. “Now don’t move Mo,” she said.
“Yeah, like I’m about to. This stuff feels like concrete.”
Uh oh. Then I felt the latex dribble into my private parts.
Now I knew this was going to be hard to get off.
Lovely.
Nadine Shaw is an attractive, rather well-known photographer in Brisbane, Australia, transplanted from Durban, South Africa. She had convinced me to do something that I initially had no intention on doing: she was going to take pictures of me in the buff, with liquid latex poured all over me. When she initially brought the idea up, I could’ve sworn she had smoked 20 vials of crack.
But she didn’t. She was quite lucid when bringing the idea up to me in the home she shared with her boyfriend, Erik. When she initially mentioned it, I remember Erik laughing, “Mo, just run away from here as fast as you can before she does anything to you.” And honestly I felt like doing it. Me? Nude? With liquid latex poured all over me? Photos? Of me? ME? Nude? NO WAY! There just wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of me getting naked and having photos taken of me. I mean, her boyfriend Erik had taken photos of me on my first trip to Oz way back in 1996. The picture of me on my biography page of the BootsnAll site was taken by him. I could do something like that. But in the nude? With my jimmy hanging out? What was she thinking?
But Nadine bugged me about it. I remember only one night later, Nadine and her friends Octavia and Evett showed up at the house, while I sat on her back porch drinking with Erik. They were both two gorgeous women; Octavia being a thin woman of Asian/European descent, and Evett just being a real stunner in my eyes. She had deep brown eyes, and a sharp face bracketed by long, curly brown hair. She had a very curvaceous body as well, very sexy. Combine that with a thick Australian accent and she was quite a sight to behold for me.
After the intros, Nadine pulled out a contact sheet of photos she had taken – of Evett. I looked at a few, and they actually were quite well done. Nadine told me that they were taken in Evett’s apartment in Fortitude Valley. The flat was really well-colored, the nude photo of Evett holding a gleaming silver 1950s retro-style toaster framed by the deep reds of her living room wall. Next to Evett in the photo was a painting on the wall, looking like an advertisement from the 1930s. The scene was quite good. I was really impressed�
But still quite nervous.
The conversation went something like this: “So you see Mo, it isn’t all that bad. The photos are good, right? This is what I’m thinking I could do with you. I’ll take photographs of you in Evett’s kitchen, spread nude on her table with some white liquid latex poured over you. To give the effect of spilled milk. That would be the theme of the photographs, something like, ‘don’t cry over spilled milk,’ you know what I mean?”
Gulp. I gave them all a very uneasy smirk. “C’mon, isn’t this some sort of ploy to see if what they say about Black Americans is true? I know this has to be a ploy, right?”
They all laughed. “No, no Mo,” Nadine answered. “Listen it will be just a series of quick photographs. I’m using them for my own self-promotion in January, it’s not like your picture is going to be plastered all over the city. I plan on having a series of photos taken of Octavia as well.” She sat there silently. I wondered if she was just as nervous as I.
Suddenly Nadine’s kitten Merlin appeared, a fuzzy gray and white mass of energy. She mischievously played around my feet, making me nervous that she’d tackle my calves with those claws, something she’d been doing to me throughout my stay there. Evett picked her up, holding it. The kitten squirmed out of her hand, sitting on her right boob, trying to hang on. Geez, I wish I were that cat just then.
Evett ignored the kitty. “C’mon Mo, go ahead now. You should do it. I did it. It was no drama. Why are all you guys are always like that? Machismo I guess. Just a little nakedness, that’s all it is.”
“I reckon it’ll take less than 10 or 15 minutes Mo,” Nadine added.
I continued to argue, but it was a moot point.
Because the following night at the same place with the very same people on the porch, Nadine had made my mind up for me. “Well, Mo, we’re doing it Monday, I’ll be by the house at 2pm okay? All you have to do is show up, I’ll have everything ready and set at Evett’s.”
Uh oh. “Like, do I have a choice in the matter?”
She giggled a bit. “No, we’re doing it. It’s done.”
In the words of Han Solo I said, “I have a bad feeling about this.” But I was resigned to my fate. “Ah, what the hell,” I added. “I need to write another story for BootsnAll anyway, so this could be an interesting experience.”
Evett took a drag off her cigarette. “Onya Mo, It’ll be good.”
So that Monday, I was set. I nervously waited for Nadine to get back at the house, really hoping that these pictures wouldn’t end up plastered within their home like everyone had been kidding me. Besides, an old mutual friend of everyone’s had nude photos taken of her by Erik, and one of them sat right on their hallway by the entrance. C’mon, I’m a guy – who would feel easy about having their manhood plastered at a friend’s home for all to see? That would be hard to live down. I mean, EVERYONE who knew me in Brisbane would be stopping by the house to see me – and my weenie. Oh geez I’d be embarrassed. On top of that my weenie would be shriveled up like a piece of bacon, leaving me open for that Aussie sense of humor my friends would mercilessly hammer into me. I could only escape that by leaving the country.
Nadine showed up right on time. We quickly gathered our things and left. She grabbed her kitten Merlin, who she wanted in the pic as well. After driving around Brisbane looking for a certain amusement shop where she had seen the latex she needed, we got the stuff and she drove over to Evett’s home in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.
I was really getting the jitters while she drove. “Say, listen, I really don’t feel comfortable doing this. I’m being honest here, I just have to reiterate it.”
Nadine was unfazed, really excited by the upcoming event. “Oh don’t worry about it Mo, we could do something easy for you – maybe you could hike up your underwear or something – maybe we can duck tape it down, to show as much skin as possible?”
I whined, “But I’m not wearing any underwear.” I was wearing only my swim trunks that day, which doubled as casual shorts.
Nadine giggled. “Well, maybe we could buy you a pair of bangers (jockstrap) or something at Myers along the way. You can wear those. ” She thought a minute. “Actually, you know what? I’m sure Evett has something at her flat that we can use. Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. No need to buy anything.” We continued on the way, with me holding Merlin by the nape of her neck. She hung there limp, like the way a kitten does when it’s being held by it’s mother. I turned the cat’s head towards me. “Do you hear this? I think I’m in trouble.” All the cat gave me was a blank stare.
Read Part 2