Second Skin

I absolutely love this picture. I think it's my favorite of myself. How vain is that? It is just so bizarre and perverted and skintight and glossy all over. It makes me look freaking awesome! I'll be so appreciative of having had the opportunity to own this suit and take this picture when I'm old, flabby and decrepit and remembering how young, tight, and fit I used to be!

It looks like I have a second skin on, like I was always supposed to look like this, and I think that exemplifies this fetish for me.

Complete isolation from your surrounding environment. I believe that is the true crux of this fetish for me -- being completely removed from everything around me within a constrictive sheath that moves when I do -- once again, my second skin perhaps?

If I had to analyze this psychologically for all of us that enjoy enclosure fetishes (whether constricting or not -- eg., skintight/wetsuit rubberists vs. apron/cape/hazmat suit lovers), it must have something so do with this complete removal from our environments in a form that is bizarro-world pseudo-human. Lying immobile in a vacbed - if you can reduce the noise of the vacuum and get relaxed rather than stimulated - can be an otherworldly, zen-like experience.

I think there's an intensity to it as well that I appreciate. My 'normal' life is very very busy and my energies are stretched to the limits most of the time (that damn Type A personality once again). When I get a chance for some down-time, if it ends up being a rubber play session it tends to be as intense as my active life, just in a more private, introspective, fully-stimulated way. A few hours in a vacuum-bed can be as stimulating and rejuvenating as time off of work, in my opinion. Sometimes those few hours are all you have to pleasure yourself. I enjoy having all my senses stimulated in rubber as a form of escapism and removal from my normal life. It's a completely fantastic experience for me. Don't get me wrong, I require real down-time occasionally as much as the next guy. That's what getaway vacations and sleep-in Sundays are for.

The bizarre, transforming aspect of rubber clothing and masks adds another dimension to that removal. You end up being transformed into something unrecognizable as yourself anymore. A new identity, or possibly, a lack thereof.

There are many fetishists that completely get kicks from the transformation perspective of the enclosure fetishes, thus such interests as the cyborg fetish on Malebots.com (a growing curiosity of mine), the ballooners, furries and rubberpups and many other flavors tying into such things as breath control, filling orifices, bondage, etc., etc.

The variety of material fetishes such as lycra, PVC, leather and rubber are another consideration in addition to the enclosure fetish. I think I'm so attracted to rubber particularly because of its intrinsic properties -- it's stretchy, shiny, squeaky, smelly and completely airtight. A true barrier from everything around you, whether solid, liquid or gas.

Even the differences between black rubber and transparent rubber are significant to me. I always remember being transfixed by the shininess of condoms and rubber gloves, and how you can see through the material despite it being completely impermeable...especially once things inside get sweaty and wet and you can see the movement of the fluids against the skin. So hot.

Black rubber makes you otherworldly, transparent rubber keeps you looking human but modified, protected. If you are completely covered in black rubber you can't see the world outside your sheath, but with transparent rubber you are not completely sealed off. You can see the outside world but in a detached way. And don't even get me started on polished rubber! ;-)

I still appreciate lycra as a fetish material because I think men with the goods look absolutely stunning in it and it feels so great (plus it is so intertwined with athleticism, jocks, and male dancers), but as I've mentioned before, with the sports I do it has become a lot more utilitarian for me than it was ten years ago.

In the summer I'm literally in lycra everyday in a non-sexual context -- not that the fun has been taken out of it for me -- the colors, styles, and material compositions are as varied as the clothes themselves. It is literally my required uniform and things tend to be rather serious in racing and training situations. The fact that all those muscular men I race with are also in this required uniform is not lost on me, mind you!

My affection for skintight rubber has really intensified over the past few years, maybe because it seems to have become so much more easily available since the advent of the Internet and online fetish stores, there are so many rubber-specific sites and discussion boards than there used to be, and also because I can finally afford it in some volume. I've really grown my experiences and collection of rubber, and I can only hope that that will be able to continue for a long time yet.

Rubber is truly my second nature and my second skin.