Domina Elle is a former escort and current dominatrix who specializes in balloon fetish play. (Its practitioners are called "looners.") She is also a sex workers' rights advocate.

I like to call myself an adult play facilitator. The type of work I do is much broader than just BDSM or fetishistic type stuff. I specialize in helping people to open this part of their sexual selves, and be playful and creative. That's one reason I love balloons. It's a very friendly catalyst. It's erotic and playful, and yet it's not as scary as some of the other stuff when you start looking at BDSM.

For me specifically, balloons came out of my latex fetish. In general, looners are primarily men. Usually it started when they were kids and they got a hold of a balloon. It's a soft, puffy, nice thing. Humans are very tactile and sensory-based. They, for whatever reason, found an erotic stimulation there. About seven years ago, I saw someone on stage live-playing with big latex balloons. He was putting one or two people inside the balloons. I already had a latex fetish, and when I saw that I realized, Wow, I can get inside a balloon and have that wonderful latex smell all around me?

Balloons can be used for so many different kinky activities. The big balloons can be used to put underneath [yourself during sex]. You don't blow it up all the way. It's kind of exciting and scary to be on top of it while you're messing around. I love to fill a room with balloons. It's not as easy as it sounds because it really does take a lot of balloons to fill a room—like, thousands of them.

When you go to BDSM dungeons, they tend to be really stuffy. People are really serious. I would take the balloons to these very serious dungeon environments. I thought, How can I get this whole room activated? Once people see a couple of people get in, they start lining up. Then you have everyone in the room cheering and excited because they know there's a trick to getting in while the air is coming out.

It's been such a fun experiment to challenge boundaries and see everyone get so excited. I've been trying to get as many people inside [a balloon] as I can. I'm stuck on 13 and a half. I've been stuck there for about a year. [The big balloons I use] are advertising balloons that are 72 inches when they are inflated. I buy a brand called Rifco, which is from Italy. They cost anywhere from $20 to $50 each. I usually buy them 10 at a time. You can get clear and different colors. It's fun because the clear, everybody can see what's going on inside, which I really like. Then you can do fun stuff with neon paint and confetti. The colored ones allow people to be shielded inside so nobody can see what's happening in there. People feel more protected and in their own little world.

Part of the fun is walking up to someone I don't know and saying to them, "Will you get inside my balloon?" Wrap your mind around that. They visualize this tiny little thing at first. I cut the nipple off the edge of the neck and that gives it a little bit more stretch. You have to wrestle to get in that little hole. It's kind of a reverse birthing process. Most of the time, I'll get people down to their underwear right there. Sometimes, at dungeons, everybody just gets naked in there.

The trick is getting in as fast as you can because you don't want the air to be completely out of there. I will fill it up as fast as I can. Sometimes people are really scrunched up and there's not much air for a few seconds, but it's a team effort and that's another beautiful thing. I think, Wow, this would be perfect for corporate team-building events. It's just so intimate though. People really do immediately start working together. The balloon is delicate — it is a balloon after all. There is a trick to getting as many people in and not popping the balloon. You watch these total strangers start to become this team and helping each other. It's a social experiment.

Then I'll have them come out. Rarely I'll pop them, but I try to keep them [intact] so everyone will birth. They'll just come out of the balloon. It's fun to watch them come out. It can be hot and sweaty in there, and I'll throw water on them. They'll come out all wet and shiny, kind of like embryonic fluid. For some people, it's more sexual, but for me, my engagement with this is much more about people challenging their own boundaries about intimacy. This is a wonderful way to get people out of that normal frame of reference and into a thing that's sexy and daring and out-of-the-box.

I was a massage therapist for 18 years, and I'm not talking the erotic kind. I did serious craniosacral and sports massage and deep tissue work, and I was a practitioner of holistic medicine. This is definitely the way I approach my work as a professional dominatrix and a BDSM professional: It is a treatment. It is a therapeutic modality. It allows people to process all sorts of things, all sorts of emotions. It's a process that allows people to grow and expand their understanding of who they are and to self-actualize.

My family worries because of the criminalization aspect [of sex work]. And I would say that's the biggest threat that any sex worker has. These laws are so antiquated and so broadly written. We don't have equal protection under the law like everybody else. After [sex workers] are arrested, they don't have access to health care or due process. Forget about getting a gainful job or career after you've been given a prostitution record. Forget about finding housing. Most sex workers I know are very stable people — responsible, stable, they're not on drugs. I really want to see the damage that criminalization causes come to an end. I am not a victim. I have been victimized in my life, but I stand and operate form a place of strength.

This is about sexual freedom. It's so huge: People being able to do, as consenting adults, what they want to do.

"Sex Work" is a weekly series that profiles women who have careers in sex-related industries — from porn stars to sex researchers and everyone in between. Check back every week for the latest interview.

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