Pornsaints

Bella Vendetta is a force to be reckoned with: a fetish model who has posed for dozens of the business's best photographers and a photographer in her own right. She's also the brains behind her staggeringly beautiful and downright disturbing web site bellavendetta.com. She's about to debut a new, more personal site and an exhibit of her photography, Modified Eros, will be shown at Arena Gallery in New York City beginning this month. In between her shoots and shows, she took a few moments to chat with ErosZine about glamour, pushing the envelope of kink to its outermost edges and a few of her favorite fetishes.

Eros Zine: Okay, the obvious question: how did you wind up in this business?

Bella Vendetta: Well, I've been involved in stage and theatre since I was a little girl; I very much love being in the spotlight. In high school I started doing some fashion modeling. I had a friend who ran a porn site and as soon as I turned 18 he asked me to model. Being an exhibitionist at heart I had a GREAT time being naked in front of the camera. I'm very comfortable in my own skin so it came naturally to me. I started seeking out nude modeling jobs after that. When I was 19 I had the pleasure of meeting Master R and Madame Sang of La Domaine Esemar. I was making some clothes for Madame Sang and I ended up as a Mistress-in-training. I'd always played with BDSM in my personal life, so training with them just took everything to the next level, introduced me to things I didn't even know existed and honed my craft. Around that time is when Suicide Girls and some other "alt" sites were just starting up and I applied to model. But it seemed my ideas for shoots were always too extreme or wacky, so I got it into my head to start my own site. And here I am today!

Eros Zine: Which came first for you before your web site: modeling, photography, kink in general?

Bella Vendetta: Well, kink in general definitely came first for me, I've always been sexually adventurous an have always been a sadist at heart. Modeling for other companies came before my own site, and my photography came from the site. Some of the models were just more comfortable with me around, and I had some ideas in my head that I didn't think anyone could capture quit like I could.

Eros Zine: Do you work as a professional domme?

Bella Vendetta: I do. I was trained by the legendary Madame Sang and Master R at La Domaine Esemar. I took a long hiatus from pro domme work to really focus on my website and being a model. But I really miss being immersed in the lifestyle and being around likeminded perverts, so I'm back at La Domaine a few times a month and by appointment.

Eros Zine: What are your favorite fetishes and/or activities?

Bella Vendetta: My favorite activities and fetishes are a bit edgy. I love knife play and weapon play, and of course I get completely turned on by blood, so I love shallow cutting and play piercing. I LOVE having my feet and sexy shoes worshipped by a grateful slave. I also really enjoy puppy training. I'm partial to flogging and beating people up with a cat-'o-nine-tails. I've always loved medical play and playing the part of an evil nurse, but I've recently become a bit obsessed with vintage dental equipment and playing dentist! La Domaine has a newly renovated medical room so hopefully I'll get a chance to explore that fetish a little more! And lastly I highly enjoy sensory deprivation. It might also surprise folks to find out that I have a mean scissor hold and I LOVE doing wrestling sessions.

As far as modeling and the website, I like doing girl/girl sets where I can explore the above-mentioned activities in an artistic manner. Personally, I LOVE suspension sex. I like to be suspended from flesh hooks and let my fiancée have his way with me, and I also love taking advantage of a gorgeous woman dangling from hooks, sexy and helpless.

Eros Zine: A lot of your models are wearing extreme makeup -- some even have pretty extreme hair -- which goes beyond the usual dyed hair, tattoos and piercings. Do you feel you're taking things "one step further" than the other alt porn sites?

Bella Vendetta: I don't really think the way the models look is taking it one step further than most sites, I think what they are DOING in the photos is taking it one step further. It's true, some of the models have substantial tattoo coverage, or scarification or strange surface piercings. But what's different is they are not just posing for pretty glamour photos, they are exploring their fetishes. We have real life boy/girl couples having sex in gas masks and the girls doing sets together are REALLY into each other, not just photos of them about to kiss. It's true that we do have some BBW models, which other alt sites do not have. I think women of all shapes and sizes are beautiful. Lots of alt sites have only very thin models or traditionally pretty girls who happen to have tattoos. I even have some more "vanilla" looking models, but even they have a wild, kinky side that they need to express. Although all the girls on the site are gorgeous, it's the activities they are participating in that are progressive, not necessarily what they look like.

Eros Zine: You also feature some extreme scenes, such as blood and cutting, death, simulated distress, etc. What's your fascination with such dark subject matter?

Bella Vendetta: Well, I'm a dark person. I don't shy away from things just because they are a little bit "scary." My site tends to have a lot of this subject matter because other sites are afraid to "go there." Lots of models love horror movies and find terror sexy; since there's no other outlet for them to express this on the internet, they come to me with their morbid, sordid sexual fantasies. We just had a married couple, Juicy and Daddy, do a date rape set. Obviously, no one actually got raped, they were just acting out a fantasy and I felt honored that they were comfortable sharing that with the world through my website. It's a very hot set.

Eros Zine: Who are your core fans or subscribers?

Bella Vendetta: I don't really know how to answer this. I have all kinds of fans. Some are people that are also involved in the body modification community, some are bored housewives, some are businessmen looking for something a little wild. The site attracts people from all walks of life. I can say, though, that a lot of the subscribers and fans are female. Which makes me feel great. Lots of girls write in thanking me for having the courage to do what I'm doing and for creating a safe space for them to explore their darker side.

Eros Zine: Do you receive requests for photo sets?

Bella Vendetta: Yes! We get a lot of people that write in asking for something specific. I'll ask the girls if anyone is up for it or into it and there's usually at least one in the bunch who is either already into the request or intrigued by it and willing to give it a try.

Eros Zine: What are the most popular requests?

Bella Vendetta: A lot of people -- believe it or not -- request clown porn and sets from Bubbles the Clown. I got the request for clown porn for the first time a few years back and none of the models were into it at all. It was never anything I was interested in but I figured I'd take one for the team and I did a clown porn set myself. Interestingly enough I was really into it! Thus my clown alter ego, Bubbles, was born. People also request lots of BDSM sets but, really, who DOESN'T love seeing gorgeous girls tied up?

Eros Zine: Why do you suppose there's a market for such extreme images?

Bella Vendetta: There's definitely a market for these extreme images. I certainly hope so or else the site would go under and we wouldn't have any models. Look at the state of our world: the media pushes horrific images in our face every day, action movies and horror movies are among peoples favorite forms of entertainment, it only seems like a natural evolution to want the same kind of extreme and shocking elements in our sex lives and in our porn. People constantly went something new, vanilla porn has been done, it's getting old, so we as a culture are looking for the next intense thing to reawaken our senses.

Eros Zine: Some photos on your site are very glam -- and clothed! What is your definition of glamour?

Bella Vendetta: I've been asked this question before and honestly don't know how to define glamour. There's some "glammy" and clothed photos on the site because as a model I love to act out different parts of my personality. I definitely think there's a rock star kind of chi-chi perfect makeup and hair and matching outfit kind of girl in me somewhere. I like to play different characters in front of the camera and the glam girl is just one of them. I'm definitely more comfortable in ripped fishnets and teased hair, so exploring my "inner glam girl" is just me becoming comfortable with something I wasn't sure how I felt about.

Eros Zine: Do you find the photographers you feature on your site or do they find you?

Bella Vendetta: A little bit of both. Mostly they come to me and want to be featured on the site, or the models have shot with them and recommend them, but there are definitely some exceptional photographers who I seek out and beg on my knees -- I mean ask very professionally -- if they'll photograph me or another model for the site.

Eros Zine: What about the models?

Bella Vendetta: For the most part the models come to me. I get a lot of model applications. Sadly, I reject more than I accept, not because they aren't pretty, but because they don't have any original ideas and they just want to take pinup pictures or pictures of them naked in a bed. It takes a special kind of model to be a part of the site. They have to be photogenic, uninhibited, kinky and pro-active. There's definitely some models whom I've asked directly if they wanted to be on the site. We're very much like a happy, kinky little family; everyone is very supportive of one another. When I'm going through a hard time it's the models and photographers who pull together and really support me and give me love.

Eros Zine: Where are most of your sets shot?

Bella Vendetta: Well, the models are from all over the world and send sets in from everywhere, Myself, all my sets are shot in different locations. I travel a lot, and a lot of photographers also travel to work with me, which is nice when we get to shoot in my house or my studio.

Eros Zine: You appear in many of your sets as a model and you've posed for quite a few photographers. Any particular favorites? What were they like to work with?

Bella Vendetta: Well, I hate to pick favorites, but I do have some. Bob Coulter is definitely among my favorite people to work with. He's fun and relaxed and has a knack for making me feel comfortable doing really filthy things on film. He's great at making dirty, grungy situations look glamorous.

Planet 313 photography is one of my new favorites. He's also very relaxed and working with him doesn't feel like work at all, we always have fun. He's got a knack for making me look very polished. He makes me very much feel like a porn star, in a good way of course!

Eros Zine: Tell us about your other creative pursuits and upcoming projects.

Bella Vendetta: Well, my upcoming project is a gallery show of some of the more extreme photographs from the site at Arena Studios, in New York City, curated by Audacia Ray. The show runs from November 9th till January 20th. There are some really beautiful prints and everything will be for sale.

I'm involved in Rites of Passage suspension group. We're those freaks that hang from hooks! We throw large multi-day events that people from all over the world come to, as well as providing private suspensions for people, and doing stage shows and performances. I'll be doing a suspension strip show at the Baltimore Tattoo Convention in February. Photographer Matt Larkin also just put out a fabulous book full of wet plate photographs of the members of the suspension group doing some intense flesh hook hangings. Books are for sale at blackbarneditions.com

I filmed a cheesy campy horror/comedy for TROMA last summer and it's just come out. There will be a screening of it in New York City November 26th -- lots of boobs and lots of fake blood. It's absolutely hilarious. Details for all that will be on bellavendetta.com.

I'm in the process of perfecting some burlesque performances and some stage shows that I hope to unveil in NY sometime very soon.
I'm also launching a new site very soon, it's called lustforrevenge.com, and it's going to be my solo site. For my fans who just can't get enough of me. There's going to be an enormous collection of photos I've taken over the years as well as video and webcam shows and all kinds of other goodies. I'm very excited about it because it's going to give me a chance to be very personal with my fans. There's going to be forums and online chats and lots of ways for people to interact with me. AND it's the first place I'm going to debut some boy/girl sets of me and my fiancée doing some rather extreme play together.