Ready to get to what he came for, Omar guides a woman to a VIP booth and draws the black curtain behind him. Ten minutes later, he escorts her out and returns with another woman. As the night wears on, the rotation continues: one in, one out.

Some guys are private about what they do in the VIP booths at Congas Night Club in Sunrise; Omar will invite you in if you want to watch. The 24-year-old student and auto parts salesman doesn't get to indulge his fantasies often, but tonight he's ready to get a little kinky and he doesn't care who sees.

Around 10 p.m., he starts to chat up three women at the bar. With house music blasting and colorful lights flashing, Omar gets inspired. He propositions the women for a foursome, to which they enthusiastically agree.

The women lead him back into the VIP room, where he helps them slip off their high heels. Omar says there's something hot about taking off a woman's shoes.

"It's like opening a delicious pizza box," he says.

He grabs one of women's feet and sticks her big toes in his mouth.

"Mmm, foot lollipop," a second woman says, while she and the third woman rub their feet on Omar's face, neck, and chest. Two size 12 feet cover his entire face, from his close-cropped hairline to his strong bearded jaw. By the end of the night, Omar will have "worshipped" the feet of almost every woman in the club, more than a dozen in all.

"It was one of the best things I've ever experienced in my life," he says a few days later.

Omar's fascination with women's feet is reflected in some of his earliest childhood memories. As young as age 4, he remembers his mom's friends propping their bare feet on the table when they would come over to his house. Omar liked to stare at their soles and rub his face on them. He'd sometimes grab their feet, pull them underneath his shirt, and rub them on his belly.

"My mom would spank me for doing that," he says.

Two decades later, Omar is still obsessed with feet. He likes to massage them. He likes to kiss them. He likes to nibble on them. He likes to rub them all over his face, chest, stomach, and — if the situation permits — even his crotch.

"Foot jobs," he says. "I appreciate them."

That love is what drove him to the dimly lit, smoke-hazed club in a strip mall on a recent night in January. Miami Footnight, a monthly foot fetish party in South Florida, brings together models with beautiful feet and men who pay as much as several hundred dollars to lavish all kinds of attention on them.

Tom Foot — who uses a fictitious surname — is the organizer and franchise owner of Miami Footnight. Since March 2017, he has helped make the local party a safe, judgment-free event where men can indulge their fantasies with women who enjoy having their feet "worshipped" — the term fetishists use to describe massaging, licking, tickling, nibbling, and just about any other kind of foot love.

Some fetishists enjoy a vanilla sex life, and feet are like the hot fudge on top. For others, their foot fetish is the most vanilla thing about them. Newbies who are nervous can pay the Footnight cover charge and be spectators until they're comfortable joining a session. No one is required to participate if they don't want to, but Tom encourages people to talk and explore their interests.

"There are millions and millions and millions of people out there who enjoy foot fetish," Tom says. "We're here as a community to show them there's a place for them to go."

Some of the women of Footnight are average girls-next-door with jobs, partners, and kids. Others are professional sex workers — exotic dancers, adult-film actresses, and dominatrixes. They call themselves goddesses because they are worshipped. Most were introduced to Tom online, at fetish events, or by other models.

Money is the obvious motivation for the women, and that's how it begins. Before a friend introduced her to the world of foot fetish parties, Savanah, like many people, thought feet were disgusting. Then, three years ago, she had her feet worshipped for the first time. She learned about a side of herself she didn't know existed — a woman who felt empowered by having men at her feet.

"Once I had my first session, it was amazing," she says. "I had never felt more in control."

Footnight is geared toward men who want to worship female feet, but women and couples are also welcome. Paying a cover charge gets guests into Miami Footnight and provides access to, as Omar says, "an open buffet of sexy feet." The models are paid for sessions at a rate of $20 for ten minutes. Then the fun begins.

No nudity or sexual contact is allowed. Some guys simply want to massage feet and suck toes. Others like being trampled — literally walked all over — and otherwise dominated, like being gagged with a foot or kicked in the face.

Omar appreciates larger feet, size 9 and above, with long toes and high arches. "Guys look at tits and ass," he says. "That's how I see feet."

For Omar, Footnight is a place where he can have a good time with open-minded people who share the same interest. Many of the men have said they've experienced rejection and disgust from women who aren't interested in feet, but the people at Footnight just seem to get one another.

"People who don't know us or hear about parties like that [might think] we are a bunch of weirdos that don't have a life and need some therapy," Omar says. "I find it to be funny and sad at the same time, because they're the ones who are missing out on the fun."

Omar, a 24-year-old student, worships a woman's feet. Photo by Karli Evans

When Elvis Presley was a boy, he would make his mom tea and rub what he called her "little sooties" when she got home from work. As an adult, the King of Rock 'n' Roll reportedly liked to massage the feet and sometimes suck the toes of women he dated. Apparently, pretty feet were a requirement to date him.

Filmmaker and actor Quentin Tarantino is known to have a foot fetish, and his movies include tons of foot shots. Uma Thurman's feet made cameos in Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. Tarantino reportedly drank champagne from Thurman's stiletto once.

Ricky Martin also has what he calls a "crazy foot fetish." He told a talk show host in 2017 that he'll shake people's hands and then look straight down at their feet.

And the cover of Cardi B's second mixtape, Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 2, is a picture of her getting her toes sucked by a shirtless man on one knee.

Call it weird if you must, but sex researchers say feet are the most commonly fetishized nongenital body part. References to the beauty of footsteps, soles, and ankles abound in historical literature that predates the ancient Greek empire.

Hesiod, one of the earliest Greek poets and author of Aphrodite's birth story, wrote that the goddess of sexual love and beauty was born from the white foam produced when the titan Cronus severed his father Uranus' testicles and cast them into the sea. The story references the grass beneath her "shapely feet."

Male feet are also sexualized in ancient Greek artwork. Feet and phalluses were sometimes juxtaposed in vase paintings and pottery. Hephaestus, a god whose parents threw him off Mount Olympus because he was born with a disabled foot, married Aphrodite, who cheated on him. The researcher R.S. Caldwell wrote that Hephaestus' disability was tied to his impotence and sexual failure.

Foot fetish lore has it that the ancient Roman governor Lucius Salvus Otho went to brothels to worship female feet. Suetonius, an ancient Roman historian, wrote that Roman politician Lucius Vitellius begged to remove an empress' shoes and carried her right slipper underneath his toga constantly and sometimes kissed it.

So why feet? Sigmund Freud had a theory, and, predictably, it involved penises. Freud wrote that the foot is "a very primitive sexual symbol" that resembles a phallus. Shoes and slippers, on the other hand, are thought to symbolize female genitalia.

More recently, however, researchers have discovered a more scientific explanation. In 1999's Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran and science writer Sandra Blakeslee examined cases of male and female amputees who reported strong sensations or even orgasms in their phantom feet. They posit that in the sensory map of the brain, the genitals and the feet are right next to each other, possibly indicating a neural cross-wiring that can explain foot fetishism.

"Some people have a sexual connection between the two," says New York-based sex therapist Dulcinea Pitagora, also known as the Kink Doctor. "Not everyone does, but some people might feel stimulation in their genitalia when they have certain stimulation in their feet."

To date, there's been little large-scale research on fetishism, but it has mostly been studied in males. Pitagora says that could be because various forms of sexuality or sexual behavior are generally more accepted for men. People who identify as male are socialized to be "more freely sexual," Pitagora says, and because of that socialization, statistically more men than women would report a foot fetish.

The word "fetish" is generally used as a catch-all to describe a strong sexual fixation with a body part or object. What distinguishes a fetish from a turn-on, according to The Psychology of Human Sexuality, is that someone with a fetish tends to obsess over the object and focus on it exclusively. The fetish can eventually become necessary for arousal and orgasm and can even compete with or replace a partner.

Sex researchers believe fetishes are a multisensory sexual outlet, meaning the object of the fetish can be arousing because of how it looks, feels, smells, or tastes. Some men prefer large feet — size 10 and above — with long toes and high arches. Others like smaller feet. Shoes, socks, stockings, and jewelry are icing on the cake — enticing but not always necessary for arousal.

For many, fetishes originate during childhood. Some people can pinpoint strong, detailed memories from their youth that inform their understanding of their sexual preferences. Pitagora says intense experiences become etched in the mind as flashbulb memories.

"It ends up being a snapshot and freezes that moment," Pitagora says. "You're hyperaware of it. You can have a salient sexual imprint from that memory and become attached to it emotionally and physically."

Kids' brains aren't thinking about sex as sex, but their experiences form the basis of their "lovemap," a sort of blueprint for relationships and sexual desires. But as people grow and their brains develop, more memories, context, and emotions are added to those salient imprints.

"Every time you recall that memory, it's packaged in a different way," Pitagora says. "You can assign sexuality to it, experience, and identity. That memory basically gets repurposed and fine-tuned. That becomes an iconic thing for people."

Like Omar, several of the men of Footnight can pinpoint those childhood memories. Woody, a medical professional in his 40s, remembers playing with his kindergarten teacher's toes during story time and wrapping a towel around her feet before lying his head down for naptime.

As a kid, Joe, a foot fetishist now in his late 30s, remembers tickling his aunts' feet and running away in a fit of giggles.

"A woman's foot," he says today, "is the human body's best-kept secret."

Jenni Foxx brings leashes and other toys to foot fetish parties. Photo by Karli Evans

During a recent party, Tom puts his arm around a man's shoulders and quietly escorts him out of the club. The man walks to his car and drives away. Tom doesn't want to go into details, but he says the man was being inappropriate with the models: "We just couldn't have him stay."

These encounters are just another part of the job for Tom, a 48-year-old dad who has worked in the fetish industry for about 16 years. He's a manager of personalities, a problem solver, and, on rare occasions, a bodyguard. The models come to him any time a fire needs to be put out — a guy who doesn't want to pay, an attendee who drank too much, or two women beefing with each other. He says most parties go off without serious issues; he mostly hangs back and makes sure everyone is having a good time.

In a past life, Tom was a tech consultant and headhunter. He got laid off in the early 2000s when internet stocks tanked during the dot-com crash. Online, he found a community of fetish content producers and performers looking for work, and he figured he could put his headhunting skills to good use there.

"I ventured into it from a pure curiosity standpoint," Tom says.

From there, he managed fetish models and vetted producers on their behalf and also helped the producers find talent. One model he worked with wanted to start a bachelor party events company in New England and asked Tom to build some websites for her. The business grew swiftly, and soon Tom met scores of women open to doing varying degrees of fetish work. He became a fetish content producer for a large company and then decided he wanted to break away and run his own sites.

Tom and his wife, a professional dominatrix, now operate several foot porn websites that cater to fetishists. They direct, produce, and star in their videos. The homepage of one of the websites, FeetOnDemand, gets right to it with videos of guys getting foot jobs, worshipping feet, and thrusting their dicks into the space between the arches of bound feet.

Tom knew of foot fetish parties in other cities and noticed there was a gap in South Florida. At first, he was hesitant to take on the parties himself because of the time commitment, but he has come to enjoy the community that has formed. Fans of his websites have asked about participating in sessions with the models in person. The parties gave him an opportunity to engage more with his fans and for the fans to transfer their foot fantasies from a computer screen to real life.

Tom is a foot fetishist himself, albeit a bit of a jaded one at this point. He stumbled onto his own fetish years ago by accident. He was on set for a shoot with a model he managed when the male actor canceled. The producer asked Tom if he wanted to fill in.

"The producer said, 'You wanna suck her toes?'" Tom says. "That's how it started. I never really thought about it or knew it's something I was into. After doing it a few times, I realized it was."

But Tom is surrounded by feet all the time now. He photographs them, massages them, edits photos and videos showcasing them, and, sometimes, gets jerked off by them.

Another model says having her feet licked feels like walking on slugs. Facebook

Twitter

Though his event is called Miami Footnight, it caters to all of South Florida, so the parties are held at various clubs in Broward County as a middle ground. The gatherings are a local offshoot of Footnight International, which offers online fetish content and organizes foot fetish parties across the United States and Canada. (The company's tag line is "Making dreams come true — two feet at a time!") Tom took over the event from a previous organizer about three years ago and recently expanded the franchise to Tampa.

At Miami Footnight, the bar in the middle of the venue is the meeting point for models and guys. There, they talk, order cocktails, gauge one another's comfort levels, and negotiate what will happen during foot-worshipping sessions. Those encounters might happen in public areas of the club or in private. The party organizers assemble pipe-and-drape VIP booths toward the back of the club for people who want to do their thing without others watching.

After paying a cover charge — $50 online or $60 at the door — the guys give the models $20 upfront for a minimum ten-minute session. Some guys book an hour or more.

Jenni Foxx, a foot model, professional dominatrix, and Miami DJ, says models aren't likely to get stiffed or hurt by guys because of the security. It's recommended that the men bring cash, but some models accept payment from apps. The women need to be careful with payment descriptions, because some apps will close their accounts and confiscate the money if the companies suspect the accounts are being used for "adult transactions." A note from a client that reads, "Pantyhose video," or has too many eggplant emojis can sound off some alarm bells for payment apps.

Foxx says she hears a lot of women say they want to make money selling pictures of their feet but don't want to show their face, shoot video, do anything explicit, or meet people in person for sessions.

"You can't just expect to open a Twitter account, say, 'Buy my feet pics!' and make money," she says. "This is a business. You've got to invest in your brand."

Many fetish models have social media presences and thousands of followers. Foxx says she's online for hours every day, posting pictures and messaging potential clients. She has more than 8,600 followers on Instagram and almost 1,800 on Twitter.

Some fetish models have their own websites that list what they do, how much they charge, what their limits are, and how people can book their time.

Goddess Adrienne Brontide, known as the Mean Diva, is a pro dominatrix with a mean streak. She calls herself a natural-born sadist and enjoys torturing men's genitals.

"I'm very much a pain girl," she says. "Ballbusting is my favorite."

Based in South Florida, Brontide has more than 14,000 followers on Twitter and nearly 8,300 on Instagram. She's involved in teaching aspiring dominatrixes about the industry. She helps lead a class in New York that shows women the ropes of domination, submission, pain, and pleasure.

Her website shows photos of her dressed in fetish wear while holding paddles and whips, and it outlines exactly what will happen to those who want to participate in sessions with her.

"I will laugh uncontrollably when you double over from a hard kick in the balls," her website reads. "I will ignore you while you are my footstool and verbally taunt you while you clean up the mess you made on the floor."

Foxx says models and clients should vet each other before meeting. A model without an online presence could be a red flag for clients, she says. Models will often ask for a deposit to make sure the client is serious about a session and willing to follow instructions.

"Walking into a session with a stranger who has already demonstrated that he can't follow simple rules is dangerous," Foxx says. "I wouldn't do it."

An important side of the business for models is learning how to keep themselves safe.

"I don't know anyone in this business who hasn't had a supercreepy encounter, stalker, threat of violence, or actually been physically assaulted," she says. "I have learned to spot them, and I block them before they get a chance to get aggressive."

Woody, a 49-year-old medical professional, at a recent Miami Footnight. Photo by Karli Evans

Woody is a sensual foot worshipper. He likes to nuzzle, cuddle, kiss, and lick feet and toes. He also likes to tickle the soles; a woman's laughter and reactions turn him on.

But during a recent foot party, he decides he wants to try something different: a session with a dominatrix.

Goddess Brianna, a pro dominatrix with intense blue eyes and short golden hair, tells Woody to get on his knees and put his hands behind his back. She whispers something in his ear and then turns her back to him. She places her hands on a table and bends over slightly, shaking her ass close enough to his face to tease him with the rise of her tight black dress; he tries to kiss it but can't reach. She turns back around to face him and, after a short pause, kicks him in the crotch.

"Mercy?" she snickers. "No mercy."

The session only escalates from there. Goddess Brianna waves the dirty soles of her high heels in his face and smacks his cheeks with her bare feet. He tries to kiss and lick her feet, but she keeps them out of reach. At one point, Brianna shoves half of her foot into Woody's mouth, practically gagging him. She tells him to lie down, and then she stands on him and bounces on his stomach and chest.

"It's like a mindfuck," Woody says when the session is over. He sprays Goddess Brianna's feet with witch hazel, dries them with a paper towel, and puts her heels back on. Later, he concedes that being dominated wasn't for him.

"I signed up because I was curious about my submissive side and wanted to try this," Woody says. "And I realized that was definitely not something I would have asked for, but since there's an attraction there, I'm willing to experiment and let her push my limits."

Footnight attendees are businessmen, medical professionals, entrepreneurs, firefighters, and students. The biggest demographic is men between the ages of 45 and 65, but younger men also attend. Many are single; some are in relationships with partners who support their fetishes. Others go to the parties without their partners' knowledge. Many of them want to indulge their fantasies without strings attached or the sting of rejection.

Phillip, a guy from Orlando who sometimes drives to Broward for the parties, likes feet in general, but their odor has become his "main thing." Specifically, he likes to smell the feet of women who've worn closed-toe shoes all day to work, exercise, or run errands. He'll sometimes wonder what a woman's feet smell like if he sees her wearing flats or sneakers.

His most recent ex-girlfriend was supportive of his fetish and bought him a ticket for his first Footnight in 2018. After work most nights, he'd eagerly await for her to get home and take off her heels.

"She'd say, 'You want these feet?'" Phillip says. "I'd be like, 'Hell, yeah, I want those feet.'"

John, a middle-aged businessman from upstate New York, visited South Florida for a conference that coincided with a Footnight party a few months ago. He's divorced but used to incorporate foot play into his sex life with his wife when they were married. He says being intimate while kissing feet is "euphoria" but hasn't pursued another relationship since his divorce. The party was John's first time indulging his fetish in years. He says it's a vulnerable thing broaching the topic with a new partner.

"I don't want to open up like that again," he says.

When women take off their shoes or wear sandals, John's eyes automatically go to their feet. He says he can't help it sometimes. But John has become used to repressing his desires. He worries about getting caught staring and being ridiculed or making someone feel uncomfortable. During summertime in New York, he avoids places where he knows he'll see women barefoot or in open-toed shoes.

"I have to be very cautious," he says.

Goddess Aurora, a 25-year-old foot model, loves having men at her feet. Photo by Karli Evans

Once a month, Savanah takes a day off from work to prepare herself for Footnight.

She begins her morning easy, taking a swim and laying out for a tan by the pool at her home in Delray Beach. The 25-year-old mother of one plays music to match however she's feeling that day — sensual, empowered, energized. Next, she'll sip mimosas, light a few candles, and take a bubble bath before going to her favorite salon for a manicure, pedicure, and blow-dry. She has her fingers and toes painted cherry red — her signature color — to complement her coppery hair.

Back at home, she plans what to wear. Her go-to Footnight outfit is a long, cleavage-baring crimson dress with a slit from ankle to thigh on one side and straps that crisscross at her waist. Finally, it's time for the finishing touch: a pair of sparkly silver open-toed pumps.

With every step of preparation, Savanah transforms into the woman her admirers have come to know: Goddess Aurora. With the seductive energy of Jessica Rabbit and the looks of a Disney princess, her alter ego commands the room.

So, on a recent Thursday night, Goddess Aurora arrives at Congas and takes a seat at the bar. She orders a Jack Daniel's Honey on the rocks and scopes out who's at the party.

"It's like a secret society," she says.

About an hour after arriving, Aurora is approached by an older man for a paid session. She leads him to a semicircular booth a few feet from the bar and takes a seat. The man gets on his knees in front of her and begins to caress the tops of her feet and her ankles. He looks up at her, seemingly seeking approval; she gives him a subtle nod.

Looking back on the evening, Savanah explains she gets more out of Footnight than just the money. The fantasy of the party is an escape from the real world and all the responsibilities that come with being a single mom.

"This is like my night out — my night to be worshipped," she says. "I work, cook, clean, take care of my daughter. This is my night to be appreciated as a woman."

Over time, many of the models have become friends. The ones who are professional dominatrixes will team up for sessions with people outside of Footnight and travel together to meet clients. They hang out outside of fetish events and do vanilla things too. They'll go kayaking and visit theme parks. Their kids will have play dates.

"We're not all freaks and perverts. But if you are, you're welcome here too." Facebook

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Like Aurora, some of the women find empowerment and gratification in what they do. Goddess Elektra, another foot fetish model, began exploring her dominant side about a year ago. She has childhood memories of trampling her cousins and playfully torturing a neighbor's balls. She recently realized being a professional dominatrix is her dream job. There's so much about it she loves.

"The limitlessness of BDSM. All the different societal rules you get to break. All the ways you get to negotiate relationships with people so you have more power, and they're accepting of it," Elektra says.

When she started attending Footnight, she didn't know how to talk to the men. Because she was learning about dominance and submission, she thought she had to show that she was in charge. But the men didn't respond well to her attitude sometimes.

So Elektra relaxed and tried to make connections with people instead of acting tough and cold. She opened up to people, and they opened up to her.

"I understand the vulnerability I come into contact with here," Elektra says. "I started to be more vulnerable, and people gifted me their vulnerability in return."

She says she gets physical and emotional pleasure from being worshipped. Her feet are sensitive, so certain touches have a strong effect on her.

"I love being special and honored and like someone is so taken by me or some part of me that they want to dedicate their time or attention to it," she says. "I'd say that really turns me on mentally, to have someone so devoted to my feet. I like devotion."

Not all of the women are into feet, though.

"It feels like you've stuck your foot in a bulldog's mouth," one model says. "It's a slimy feeling."

Another says having her feet licked feels like walking on slugs, but the men are paying to engage in their fetish.

"Men are looking for the elusive female that wants to date them and share their fetish," the model says. "Most of us are going to pretend we like it, but we don't, and we're here to get paid."

She says the parties, though fun, are like "a titty bar for feet" in that they're created for male satisfaction.

"We're pretty versatile," the model says. "That's because we're pay-to-play providers. We are who you want us to be. That's what male fantasy is all about."

What some models do like is the power exchange that comes with foot-worshipping sessions.

"The power is sexy," Jenni Foxx says. "The power and the absurdity. The amusement of having someone pay me to lick my feet. It's not nearly as powerful when they're not paying. Throw money in there, and it adds a whole different dynamic."

The feet of Jenni Foxx, a professional dominatrix and DJ, at Footnight. Photo by Karli Evans

Late one night at a Footnight party, Jenni Foxx meets a man from Texas who wants a trampling session with her and another model. He wants Foxx to wear her six-inch cage heels but not leave any marks on his body. A trampling in heels will leave him with welts, she tells him. But she looks around for something she can use so the guy can be trampled without bruising. She finds a cocktail tray and uses it as a buffer between her pointy stilettos and his skin.

After a while, the guy tells her to get rid of it. The shoes come off shortly thereafter — a man can be trampled in heels for only so long. But the guy has experience with being walked on like a mat, so he asks for more. Foxx stands on him and abruptly drops to her knees, hitting his chest. It sounds brutal, but Foxx says she's more likely to break her own ankle than to puncture one of the guy's lungs. That's why she's a professional — she knows how to be careful enough for both of them.

"Hit the wrong place, and you can break ribs or crush vital organs," she says. "He looked me in the eyes and said, 'My God, it is so refreshing to be with someone who knows what she's doing.'"

Money, power dynamics, and foot slobber aside, Footnight is a place of compassion, understanding, and exploration. Here, people can let their freak flag fly — but not too much. It's perfectly acceptable to want to gnaw on some toes, shove a foot in someone's mouth in a show of dominance, or relish in the power of getting paid to make someone feel wicked.

"We're not all freaks and perverts," Foxx says. "But if you are, you're welcome here too."

The relationships between the men and the models are sometimes rich and complex. Repeat clients develop rapports with the models and seek them out for regular sessions. Men will sometimes develop feelings, and the women will have to reaffirm boundaries.

At foot parties, the women play a pseudo-psychologist role, especially when guys are first exploring their fetishes and feeling overwhelming emotions — giddy excitement, shame, fear. The women come to care for their guys and help them work through those feelings. They're providing a paid service, and sometimes a public service. Not feeling judged is important to everyone there.

"I think everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect," Foxx says, "even people who are asking specifically not to be."

Foxx sometimes brings a silicone paddle to the parties. A guy noticed it on a recent night and immediately asked for a session. In a private room, he got down on his knees, licked her black six-inch heels, took them off, and sucked the stilettos. Foxx trampled him, spit on him, and smacked him in the face with the soles of her shoes.

"I called him a dirty, disgusting foot bitch and told him I would squash him like a cigarette butt," she says. "The whole time, he was smiling and thanking me and saying he deserved it."

The guy got exactly what he needed.

"To feel like a dirty whore," Foxx says.