Inam draws in an organic, scribbled cartoon style with offset block colors. She draws herself as a girl with bug eyes and a hood with bat ears. The comic’s color palette is warm oranges and blues.
Page 1
Narration: When I started looking for ways to get into the kink scene as a beginner…
Inam swims through a body of water wearing a snorkel mask and inflatable water wings made for kids. The subtitles orbit her and explain: “No skills. No connections. I want to keep my clothes on.”
Narration: …I thought it would be best to start with educational and social events.
In ecstasy and relief, Inam plops down in the middle of the floor of an elegant studio with ingeniously designed scaffolding suspending various ropes and platforms meant to hold people up. Elegant leafy plants decorate the space.
Narration: That’s how I threw myself into learning shibari at a studio near me.
The studio space is filled with shibari practitioners in various states of dress and rope use.
Narration: I put other newbies, other queer people, and better yet, so many other people of color in trouble!!!
Tied in a cocoon of rope on the floor, Inam looks anxiously at the comfortably dressed person tying her up and declares, “We should spend more time together!”
Narration: Shibari quickly became a new friend to me as well.
“Also,” he asks, doing a quick turn to somehow get his phone from a secret location. “Can you take a photo of me?”
Page 2
Narration: When learning as a switch, I find that understanding one side of the practice feeds the other.
An elaborate knot hangs from the ceiling in front of an exotic long-leaved plant.
Narration: As a rigger, I love the complex and fickle nature of rope.
A person kneeling, showing how their arms are tied behind their back in detailed knot work.
Narration: He is dynamic, demanding and has his own determination.
Inam screams when the rope she was squeezing her partner suddenly comes loose and hits her on the cheek.
Narration: As a bottom (or bunny) it is a totally different experience to enjoy the attention of the rigger and the abundance of sensations while facing that unbreakable force that is the rope.
A person is suspended upside down from the ceiling, legs crossed and changed into so many different rope formations.
Page 3
Narration: The best part of dealing with different people is being able to see and feel the complexities and idiosyncrasies that each person brings to the table.
With growing delight, Inam watches as her partner meticulously ties her up. She looks at her bound wrists, looks at the ropes tying her arms close to her chest, and watches as her partner squeezes them tightly, oblivious to the benign frustration her rigger is beginning to feel at her intense attention to his work.
Narration: However, sometimes it is easy to see more than to feel.
With a playful kick, the rigger kicks Inam in the butt and then lifts her by the chest ropes and gently punishes her with a firm, “You’re leading.”
“ohh…sorry…” Inam smiles innocently, clearly not learning his lesson.
Page 4
Falling into thought, Inam wonders, “Right… what makes a good bunny good again? Relax… Feel the rope… Name the sensations…”
Inam’s conscience awakens! She is focused. Over a montage of illustrations showing various body parts expertly bound, she thinks to herself: “How do I feel? I feel pretty and cared for. I feel like a trapped mermaid. It’s new but it reminds me… It’s scary at first, but I’m going to watch it for a second. How does that feel? It’s getting closer. It’s getting farther away now. If I bend over like this… Does it hurt? It changes if I take a deep breath.”
Page 5
Alone and dressed in a comfortable baggy t-shirt and leggings, Inam sits on the floor with the ropes discarded casually around her. She drinks a glass of water.
Narration: Since that session, I have been in increasingly challenging bonds and scenes that had obstacles and miscommunications.
Through a new montage of ropes tied around various body parts, the narration reads: “But I always think of this moment and the feeling of confidence, release and calm as my touchstone.”
Back to the body of water from the first page, Inam and a rabbit-eared companion swim arm in arm through the swaying seaweed.
Narration: …both because of how I want to feel as a bottom and what I want to create as a rigger.
Transcribed by Erika Moen on July 6, 2026 for ohjoysextoy.com