Sexual adventurer and essayist Pat Califia once said that donning leather was "wearing the past," while dressing in latex was "wearing the future." Nowhere is that idea expressed more vividly than in the pages of the Euro-fetish zine Skin Two.
Part of what sets Skin Two apart from other fetish and sex publications is at the center of its ethos: Skin Two isn't a European Playboy, with coy portfolios on the girls of the Eastern Bloc. It's about an erotic philosophy that embraces not only sexual experimentation, but material science, metallurgy, and the digital world. Which isn't to say that this zine is Scientific American with breasts.
The name Skin Two should give you a hint as to the zine's focus: not nudity, but enhancing both the look and feel of the human body with rubber, latex and - yes - leather. Toward that end, Skin Two's editors and contributors keep an eye out for new developments in composite materials. (After all, latex is fine, but it tends to rip, and requires a fair amount of maintenance to keep it looking good.)
And what about traveling with your S/M gear? Leather with steel fasteners can weigh down your luggage like smuggled gold ingots. However, new lightweight leatherlike polymers combined with aluminum and magnesium alloys can cut the weight of even the most extreme fetish gear in half.
In the digital realm, Skin Two has been following developments in European cybersex, everything from artist Trudy Barber's VR sex games to a prototype British digital sex suit.
Literate and beautifully produced, the zine also publishes info on S/M and fetish scenes from all hemispheres (as well as contact info). Along with the beautiful photo spreads, it runs interviews with intelligent, fetish-oriented artists like author Clive Barker, The Cramps, and Califia.
Skin Two is one of the few sex-oriented publications that consistently strikes a balance between the crotch and the brain. For its readers, the mind is as important as the flesh, and information is as essential as condoms and a riding crop.
Skin Two: £10, approximately US$16, an issue. + (081) 968 0234, fax (081) 960 8404.
STREET CRED
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