Dan Angelriot discovered kink at work one day in 1994 when he clicked on a Usenet group titled alt.sex.bondage. This posed a problem in that his only access to the internet was via a Department of Defense connection that his contracting company was hooked into. He solved this problem via careful adjustment of the angles of his desk, his monitors, and all the reflective surfaces in the office. He was not fired.

That was a while ago, and he’s still kicking. Some notable life events might include taking frequent classes at JT’s Stockroom and The Pleasure Chest back when fifteen people was a large turnout and afterwards you could hang out with Ernest Greene or Guy Baldwin or John Savage. Being pen-pals with Cecilia Tan and John Warren back before either had published a book. Tying people up for years without ever hearing the word “shibari.” Hanging out in leather bars without having a clue what these dudes were doing in the back rooms. Feeling enough of a debt of gratitude to the people who taught him that, once he had learned enough to teach, he taught lots of stuff and eventually became the Education Councilperson for SAADE, the largest educationally-focused kink organization in Central Texas. Serving for a while as moderator/coordinator for FLOG, a dialog forum for 20+ different kink groups in Austin and the surrounding area. His superb YouTube presentation on Cigar Service was watched by disappointingly small number of people, but on the upside, he’s more than once been accosted by people in the scene who say: “Did you by any chance do a cigar scene at the Community Place three years ago? OMG, that was amazing and taught me so much about protocol and service!”

Other notable events might be carotid choking a bottom who had such low blood pressure that she blacked out in three seconds, precipitating a cascade of panicked thoughts along the lines of “OMG, I’ve just killed somebody.” There was the time he had to make an awkward apology to a close vanilla friend for accidentally giving his wife an orgasm. And once, he gave a gagged bottom a rape alarm to hold in case she needed to signal “red” in a whipping scene – but when she hit the switch, it got stuck and would not stop howling at 120db until eventually stomped into pieces.

These days he participates a lot in the Southwest Sexual Health Alliance, teaches kink history and leather history for the Austin Mentors Program, and now he’s a prospect for the newly-formed Leather Heart Clan of Austin. About every week his boots start out with a perfect shine provided by a lovely bootblack, but by Saturday they are always beat-up as hell. He considers both of those facts worthy accomplishments.