On June 16, 2005 I was flogged indoors in Ben Lomond, CA by
Al (Leatherback) at his home.
I arrived early at the station, grabbed a coffee and muffin
to go and boarded the last "Baby Bullet" train of the morning to
San Jose. Finding a seat upstairs with a table where I could
enjoy my breakfast, I figured this would be the last measure of
comfort I would enjoy for some time. There would also be time
to contemplate the pain and punishment I was about to receive.
About two weeks earlier I set the date for my flogging and through
emails and a phone call I asked Leatherback to really push me
hard this time. That included some real punishments and I'd asked
him to try to take on an air of authority and to be rough on me.
Not an easy task for such a nice guy, but he agreed to give it his
best shot. Since he is a man of his word, I also knew I was about
to receive the flogging of a lifetime. At times I wondered what
could have possessed me to ask for such a beating, and at other
times it just felt right.
Ever since I was a kid and heard about men being flogged on their
bare backs, and ever since seeing such scenes in movies, TV and
books, I knew that the one thing I desired most in life was to
be brutally flogged. The more I thought about how painful it
would be, the more I seemed to want it. My parents never whipped
me, and I often wished they had at least on my bare back. I
got spanked a few times, but for me that just wasn't erotic or
exciting to me, but the thought of being restrained with my shirt
off and being whipped or tortured on my back or chest was the most
exciting thing I could imagine. It was hard to hide my excitement
when I'd watch a flogging scene and I just knew I always wanted to
be the guy getting it. But the idea of an SM whipping or a
moderate one just didn't excite me. It was the idea of submitting
to something brutal and even unbearable that attracted me.
Since I started getting real action, I have been pushing myself to
take heavier and longer floggings. When I first got someone
to flog me real hard, I was excited as hell before and after the
scene but I didn't really enjoy the act of being flogged. But the
more I got into heavier beatings and taking them longer, the more I
started to find myself enjoying the act of being flogged itself.
The first two dozen or so lashes are usually the worst, and then
after a while I start to not mind it as much, and eventually I
start to enjoy it.
As I approached Leatherback's house I really did not know what to
expect of myself. Would I call a safeword? Would I take it all?
As always I had a high level of apprehension.
My wrists were cuffed and attached to chains hanging from the
ceiling, and a rope was tied around my ankles and tied to a board
that I was standing on. This was to immobilize my feet and keep
them spread apart. I was stripped to the waist. My back and
chest had been shaved prior to being secured.
First I was punished for talking too much while the scene was
being setup -- 3 hard lashes with a hard rubber whip (Apparently
I'd been successful in convincing Leatherback to punish me any
time he felt I needed it).
Then as punishment for something I had confessed to, I was given
60 hard ones with a cowhide cat-o-nine tails on my back. This
was followed by 16 on my chest and 8 on my abdomen. The cat
can be seen at
http://www.markofthelash.com/cowhide_cat.jpg
Then with the same cat there was about 9 minutes of general
play with light strokes mixed in with some hard ones.
Then Leatherback took out the hard rubber whip. The good news,
he told me, was that he was giving me the whip to keep. The
bad news was that it was going to cost me -- 50 hard lashes.
This whip has five tails of hard rubber and it is a real pain
machine! It hurts like hell! Though it doesn't make impressive
stripes like a cat, it did break the skin and when the 50
lashes were over I was bleeding in a few places on my back.
That took about 6 minutes. My flogger said the 50th lash wasn't
hard enough so he gave me one more. Hurting badly, I still felt
grateful! That whip looks similar to the one at:
The Squid
Alcohol was sprayed on my back. Then I asked my flogger for a
drink and was promptly punished for asking with 3 extra hard
ones with that same whip. Then I got a drink.
Next he played with a nylon "prison cat" and that included some
"figure 8's" on my back with many light and moderate lashes and
two dozen hard ones mixed in. After taking a few photos of the
welts and blood on my back and chest, I got a formal punishment
of 50 hard ones with that cat in 6 minutes, 40 seconds. Most
were at about 5 second intervals. This cat can be seen at:
Prison Cat
Next was an 11-tail knotted cat with a handle made out of a
pepper grinder. After giving me 7 or 8 hard ones on my chest,
he eased up and played with figure-8's on my chest and abdomen
then 6 more hard ones (3 from each side) on my chest, then 20
hard ones on my back (the 20 took about 45 seconds). That cat
can be seen at:
11-Tailed Knotted Cat
By this time I'd been seized up for 38 minutes, but I had no
sense of time, nor how much was still ahead of me. I was
in extreme pain and I could feel spasms in my back. Though a
few times I felt like I might start shuddering (or what I call
the shakes), it didn't happen.
Next a "dressage whip" was used. This was home made using a
narrow pole with three tails of shredded plastic. It can be
seen at http://www.markofthelash.com/plastic_dressage.jpg
This one feels to me a little like a single-tail. It doesn't
give pain over a large area, but where it hits it is very
unforgiving. Because it is light and the tails are thin, it
does a good job of cutting the flesh. I was given about 32
lashes alternating between chest and back, then a series of
figure 8's on my back, then 86 hard deliberate ones on my back
fairly rapidly (86 lashes in 2-1/2 min). Early on during the
hard ones I thought about yelling a safeword, but I didn't
really want to. Then as the pain increased I felt almost
defiant, as if to say, "you can whip me with this all you
want, but I'm not talking." Then about halfway through I
realized I was enjoying it and was in no hurry to stop. When
that whip was finished, my back was quite bloody. You can see
what I looked like at this point at:
http://www.markofthelash.com/mb-27.jpg
Alcohol sprayed was sprayed on my back and chest and I was
given a drink.
Next a heavy knotted cat with "blood knots" was used and it
can be seen at:
http://www.markofthelash.com/blood_knots.jpg
Over a span of about 2-1/2 minutes I was given 24 hard
lashes.
Finally it was time for the last whip, though I didn't
know it at the time. This is a scourge with 27 tails of
shredded plastic -- very abrasive so it will cut. It's at:
http://www.markofthelash.com/plastic_scourge.jpg
In a flogging with it last year, Lady Darque asked me how
many lashes I should have and I timidly asked for 10. I
later mentioned to Leatherback that I should have asked for
50! Well, that's easy to say when there are no whips in
sight. Now, Leatherback put me on the spot and asked me
how many I should have asked for that time. I said, "Fifty,
sir, or, eh, er, I mean 25, sir." He told me I was getting
50 -- and before he started with this last whip blood, was
already running down my back on onto my Levis. Well, he
stood to my right and gave 25 hard ones, mostly on my back,
but occasionally on my chest. Then he moved to my left
side and gave the other 25. I was glad I got the whole 50.
Then he told me that was enough for today. I felt in
some sense a relief that it was over, but also very
grateful for what he had put me through and a terrific
sense of satisfaction at having endured it. Most of the
time I'd had a love/hate relationship with the pain of
the flogging. At times I wanted it to stop, but most of
the time I felt I was here for a reason. Sometimes just
knowing that I could yell "red" and end the scene gave
me all the more reason not to. I knew all too well how
much I had craved this kind of punishment most of my life,
and now that I was getting it, I savored it. I am not a
very reactive or animated person, so I quietly took the
lashes on my back, but some of the lashes on my chest
elicited involuntary groans. I was seized up for a total
of 55 minutes -- a record for me, though I know of others
who've endured it longer. At times I couldn't really
believe what I was doing, or that it was even me that
was being flogged, and for a good chunk of the time I was
just hurting like hell and loving it!
When I got home I was a bloody mess and the next several
days were not fun. I did not get the high that usually
follows a good flogging, and for a few days I wondered
if I would need medical attention. I didn't and
eventually my body was healing quite nicely. For
the first few days fluid kept coming out of my back. It
made it especially uncomfortable and inconvenient to
wear shirts, or even to sleep. Then my back became a
mosaic of scabs and over a few more days they started
to fall off and new skin appeared. Fully two weeks
after my flogging, there was still noticeable redness,
but that's all. Even with the messy and painful
recovery, I am very glad I did it. It was an intense
and exciting scene that I'll never forget. Two weeks
after my flogging I was already thinking longingly of
being flogged again, but not quite this severe anytime
soon.
You can see a video clip of me taking the dressage whip
http://www.markofthelash.com/LB-jnsaw03.wmv
and the heavy knotted cat
http://www.markofthelash.com/LB-jnsaw04.wmv
There are many more photos and short video clips of
several people's floggings at Leatherback's web site:
http://www.markofthelash.com/welcome.htm
There are many more photos are in my profile photo
album at:
http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jeans_noshirt_and_whipped/my_photos
Narratives of other sessions and other thoughts I have
about flogging and whipping can be found at:
http://www.markofthelash.com/JNS&W_Diaries/
