Let us introduce you to Mistress Artemisia De-VIne. She is a Mistress based in Melbourne. Are you looking for someone to really explore the aspects of BDSM with? Someone who is truly immersed and passionate about the exploration of BDSM? Then Mistress Artemisia De-Vine is the one you have always been seeking. Let her guide you on your journey and who knows where she will lead you. Read her interview below to find out more.
We know you have been a Pro Domme for a number of years now, and we have seen you are very passionate about what you do. What is it about BDSM and kink that makes you so passionate.
I have been drawn to BDSM for as long as I can remember. Even as a child I had these urges and fantasies. Of course, I didn’t relate to them in the sexualised way an adult would, but they were there.
I tied up male cousins and forced them to cross dress… I initiated other kids into my club by making them suck my toes and stick their bottom through a fork in the tree to be spanked. The rabbit cage was also used to lock each other in… That’s just the beginning!
BDSM is the grown up version of the games I played when I was little.
Adults play for similar reasons children do… We learn about ourselves, each other and develop the tools for navigating the joys and challenges of life… But like children playing, we aren’t conscious of those reasons. We just feel the urge to play without understanding why.
BDSM has been an incredible tool to explore my relationship with all aspects of life, but in a safe container. It has been a way to create an aware and intentional relationship to power, desire, creativity, human relationships but more than that… My relationship to shame, grief, rejection, love, abandonment, pain, desire, arousal, connection, fear and so much more…
People, of all sexual tendencies, tend to eroticise the challenges of being human. This is how we process them. Just like children playing games are learning about how to interact with each other, and with life itself.
After 20 years of exploring BDSM (10 in a professional context), I have been privileged enough to play with thousands of people. This has led to some of the most profound and touching experiences and the opportunity to intimately encounter thousands of unique erotic psyches.
What I have learned is that BDSM, done well, can lead us home to ourselves, and each other. To me, BDSM is about trusting that our desires are there for a reason, working out what they are and creating a consensual experience to explore them. Learning how to create both play scenes and relationship dynamics using these desires as a map, is an art form that has layer upon layer of profound satisfaction and insights. I can’t help but get very excited about that.
We have seen you have a love of spanking in all forms. Do you have a favourite way to deliver and/or receive spanking?
Spanking is wonderful! There are so many ways to explore it and I love them all. It can be intense and serious or it can be playful and fun. Sensual and sweet or strict no nonsense… It is important to take the time to work out how each person is wired and what they are trying to get out of it before playing.
However, if I have to pick one favourite it is probably the long slow build up, using intentional breathing and alternating between comforting caresses and waves of sharp sensation. If built up slowly like this, we not only end up taking a *lot* more than we thought we could but we can use it to go in to a euphoric state. We can stop at the dopamine and endorphin rush (sometimes mingled with arousal) or we can go further into a place that is beyond… and very hard to describe but it is exquisite.
Tell us about your style and personality in relation to being a Mistress.
I like to describe myself as an elegantly perverted lady. I enjoy the power of femininity and curves. While I enjoy both classic and innovative forms of BDSM, I steer away from the traditional latex clad image and enjoy being the “lady of the manor” archetype.
To understand the different ways I interact with different people, it is useful to imagine a woman who rules and runs a grand household… She owns slaves who are devoted to her well being and used in anyway that benefits her. They can be subjected to all sorts of classic BDSM tortures in her dungeon and exist only to please her, but more than that, she trains them and forms them to foster ongoing Dominance/submissive relationship dynamics.
However there are also maids, and cooks and general service staff… Being a perverted lady, the service is not just domestic but indeed full of games and pleasure as well as twisted punishment and submissive training… However, while there may be significant overlap in BDSM activities, my relationship to service staff and submissives is different to the relationship I have with outright slaves. There is a different power dynamic underlying it.
Maids, and general household subs, might be trained in service but also subjected to cross dressing, corporal punishment, anal training, bondage, humiliation, be turned into pretty human pets and so much more.
The lady of a grand manor also takes pretty lovers on occasion… play things… younger men are a favorite but all genders have their appeal… People who come to me to explore their kinky desires without actually becoming owned slaves…. Those I hand pick for my own desires…
There are also family members that I care for and train…. occasionally disciplining… for their own good… this would be where the role play and domestic spanking scene would come in… Including all the kinds of taboo fantasies we have around age play, and other forms of eroticising and processing our formative years. My favourite role is twisted aunt.
Finally there are my friends who I sees as equals. To continue the analogy, imagine folk from their own manors who I sometimes play with for the joy of it… Or an attractive visiting person of nobility for a fun dalliance… Sometimes we play switch games amongst each other… Sometimes we explore more traditional forms of sex… or go deep into hedonism or what many people refer to as neo Tantra.
I have zero desire to have traditional sex with slaves or submissives although sometimes I might use my strap-on on them to mark my territory or grant hand release as a reward.
Traditional sex rarely comes into play unless with my chosen pretty toys or my equals. Romance is also reserved for equals. However I have many other kinds of twisted desires that I play out on my service staff and slaves… pets… play things…
Basically, different people bring out different desires in me. We consent to different kinds of power dynamics depending on how our natural inclinations overlap.
Do you intend to continuing to offer Professional Mistress sessions in the future? And what are some of your future plans in regards to your professional services?
I will be a Mistress until I die because that is who I am. After ten years of having my work as a Pro Domme be my primary source of income, I am shifting that focus into mentoring people into my art form.
However, I will continue to see my devoted regulars and those who are willing to jump through my hoops to get a session with me. Professional Domination and other forms of BDSM sessions will be pre-paid appointment only. Those who demonstrate they are in alignment with my style and intentions for play will be granted sessions.
Would you consider yourself a lifestyle Mistress as well as a Pro Domme?
Yes. I have pretty much dedicated myself to exploring the sexual psyche, through play. It is my self discovery and expression, my way of connecting, my art form. However, play in my personal life is reserved for those who I have actual personal relationships with.
How important is Safe, Sane and Consensual as well as RACK to you, and what do they mean to you in practise?
While nothing in life is risk free, it is so important to create a safe container within which to explore our vulnerability and our desires. Done well, and with awareness, we can use BDSM to crack open to the core of our authentic selves. Done without a safe container, and reintegration, we can harm ourselves and each other.
I use safe words in a way that allow me to have genuine power. I don’t allow topping from the bottom. However consent is a vital part of all my sessions. Every session has a 30min pre-play consult built in to our time together. It not only allows me the chance to map each person’s unique erotic psyche and create experiences from what I find, but it allows the chance to build mutual trust and create consent boundaries.
I also include a de-brief on the phone within 48 hours of play in my session price. Integration is vital. However this space also allows discussion around anything that came up as a result of play and allows us to hone and adjust consent boundaries accordingly.
If someone is new to BDSM and has never explored this before but really wants to, how do you guide them through a session to work out what it is they are seeking?
I take my time to probe them in the pre-session consultation. I am interested in hearing about their reasons for coming to see me as well as picking up on their unconscious motivations. Each person’s erotic imprint is unique. They have different relationships to power, different emotional aphrodisiacs, different reasons for wanting to explore BDSM, different goals, different aspects of the challenges of being human that they have eroticised. Different states of consciousness they desire to experience. I then find where we naturally overlap and design experiences from that basis.
Whether new or more experienced players, the consultation and de-brief actually turn out to be just as important, and satisfying, as the play.
Do you participate or organise learning workshops? If you organise workshops how can someone best find out where and when they are if they wanted to participate?
Yes! Talk based mentoring sessions are $150 an hour (for now anyway) and people sometimes choose to just have the consultation part of the session without the play. I am finding it really satisfying having ongoing sessions and full day intensives with singles and partners who want me guide them into mapping their erotic psyches (both kinky and vanilla).
I am also enjoying mentoring peers who want to hone their skills.
Once we have worked out their arousal styles, their relationship to power, their emotional aphrodisiacs, their core erotic themes, their poison (current eroticised life challenge) and their antidote, I then mentor them how to translate that into play experiences and relationship dynamics based on their unique map of their erotic psyche.
I am currently creating a new website for this but you can still join my mailing list to stay informed about mentoring and upcoming courses through:
Apply for sessions BDSM play sessions and training: devinekink.is
Sign up to stay in touch for Mentoring and Mapping the Erotic Psyche courses: Click Here
There will be an announcement about a free teleclass coming very soon and opportunities for in-person as well as online group and one-on-one learning. I aim to make this available internationally.
If someone wants to have a session with you, how is the best way for them to leave a good impression and ultimately have a session with you?
A brilliant start is to actually read my website and follow my contact protocol. I understand that most people have no idea how to start, and it can be terrifying to approach a Mistress. I don’t need you to be able to come up with the perfect words to approach me but I am listening to your attitude.
Those that approach with respect for my expertise in this art form and a genuine desire to explore themselves, are treasures I will go the extra mile for.
I filter out those with incompatible attitudes but once I accept someone under my wing, I take their erotic development and/or submissive training seriously and protect their vulnerability fiercely.
Lastly, is there anything you want to share with us about you, what are some of the things you want people to understand about yourself?
Entering into genuine state of submission can create powerful experiences. I can create the container for this level of exploration. These experiences and moments of intimate humanity are real, but they are held within the healthy boundaries of a professional context. Just like a therapist creates the container for genuine exploration of self, so can a sexuality professional. Just like a therapist, we need to keep it within professional boundaries. Granted, a Pro Domme’s professional boundaries are different to a therapists but there is significant overlap.
Life style BDSM players often reject Pro Dommes as “not real”. This is blatantly untrue. I have dedicated my life to this art form. The erotic satisfaction and life changing transformations that can happen through intentional play is damn real. We professionals can actually explore aspects of BDSM that can’t be done in lifestyle situations… and lifestyle BDSM play can explore some things that a professional can’t. Each has its place but both are valuable and real.
Apply for sessions BDSM play sessions and training: devinekink.is
Sign up to stay in touch for Mentoring and Mapping the Erotic Psyche courses: Click Here
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Follow me on Twitter – Mentoring – Mistress Artemisia De-Vine