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Our Titillating Tattoo Contest resulted in one very difficult contest to judge. The quality of the submissions was incredibly high, and picking winners out of the deluge of tattoos, piercings, and brandings was a truly formidable task. But our judges, Desdmona and Carmel Lockyer, somehow persevered, making their way through more than a hundred, sexy-as-hell stories about sex and skin and art to come up with their choices.

After reading through these great stories, one thing was certain: tattoos are symbolic. With Lory Lacy’s “The Phoenix and the Serpent,” it’s all about the attraction and the rock-and-roll lifestyle; Trinity Wolf’s tattoos are about Tarot, magic, and destiny; the tattoos in probitionate’s story symbolize the courtship taking place.

The reasons people get tattoos are as varied as the designs, if not more so. Shanna Germain’s tattoo is a byproduct of her character’s compulsions; Alessia Brio’s is an act of defiance. Nikki Magennis’s Elsie gets inked to prove that love is forever; Bunduki’s submissive is tattooed to symbolize her ownership is forever, too. In Jacqueline Applebee’s story, Umut is hungry for the pain; and sometimes, as in Cat Kane’s story, tattoos happen for all the wrong reasons.

And then there’s Kim Selfridge, who doesn’t let us forget how much of a turn-on being the artist can be.

In the end, it all boils down to the ink, skin, symbols, and pain – put it all together and you get one incredibly hot set of stories. Read them, and we promise you’ll be as titillated as we were.


First Prize: The Phoenix and the Serpent, by Lory Lacy

“The Phoenix and the Serpent” starts with a crescendo and works up to a climax! This story uses the contest’s theme to investigate passion in a variety of ways, calling on all the senses to create a sex scene that is as indelible as a tattoo. It’s a tight-packed story that doesn’t waste a word and leaves the reader breathless, for more than one reason.

Second Prize: To the Hilt, by Syrriah

“And what do you do with these knives of yours?” he asked… The answer is only a small part of what keeps the reader enthralled in this piercing yarn. Add two unusual characters, each with a secret, drop them into a shiny, disquieting setting, and what you get is one delicious story that scrapes the edge of convention.

Third Prize: The Value of Marks, by Cat Kane

It’s a different era, a different climate, but human need doesn’t recognize time or milieu. It scratches its way through muck and grime, if only for one brilliant moment, before it returns to indifference. Cat Kane shows us how a tattoo can misrepresent a man. Or define him.

Honorable Mentions

Salt, by Nikki Magennis

With a nod to O. Henry, this story, presented by Nikki Magennis, transports us with its use of sensory majesty. A reader can hear the screech of rusted chain, see the colors of yellow jackets and wind-burned faces, feel the mist rising from the ocean, taste the lust, and smell the sex. But most importantly, there is love—rooted, passionate, sacrificial—the best kind.

This Simple Bone, by Bunduki

Bunduki’s tale plays with images, ideas and locations—combining hot sex and a sense of magical realism to dizzy the reader. Questions of mastery and control, submission and dominance, power and passion are explored to the limit, against a landscape that combines danger and beauty. This story challenges the reader as much as the characters.

Nice Work, by Kim Selfridge

“She… did not do men.” Or so Lizzie thinks, until Allan asks her to use her tattooing expertise on a particularly sensitive area. Kim Selfridge proves just how erotic vulnerability can be, with no regard to gender.

What I Do for My Pain, by Jacqueline Applebee

Girls just want to have fun … and in this story, pain becomes pleasure in a quirky exploration of ‘womanly issues’ that is brave, funny and ultimately very sensual. This story appealed to the judges because it used tattoos that weren’t ‘standard’—unlike the many dragons and snakes that appeared in other stories—to give an insight into one woman’s pleasure and pain.

Leaving An Indelible Mark, by probitionate

Stories told through many voices rarely work, but this one did. Again the writer plays with the idea of a tattoo and what it means, but this time we share the adventure of taking a new lover not just with the two lovers themselves, but with the best friend of one of them. A whole bunch of motifs—size, gender, indelibility, get messed around in this romp which leaves a smile on the reader’s face.

Lilith, by Trinity Wolf

In this story, a woman chooses to have a tattoo – or does she? Sex and the supernatural combine to make this a journey through the Tarot and through one woman’s sexuality to arrive at a very strange place. Tension builds with the discovering that something more than ink decorates a woman’s body, and the ending leaves open a range of possibilities that are both ambiguous and disturbing.

Butterfly, by Alessia Brio

Life is full of regrets. Some can be rectified, others cannot. This is the story of one woman who, faced with a harsh reality, finds a way to rise above her choices. The tattoo is poignant. The journey is emotional. The outcome is freeing. The reader will be touched.


When you’re done here, take a peek at the winners of our other contests.

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