TRC: Tell us about your experience in the BDSM lifestyle. How did you get started?
Solomon: It’s interesting that you ask about my experience and how I started. These are two different points of thought. I started simply as a photographer who wanted to try something different as far as photo-shoot themes. I just wanted to be competitive. I did a damsel in distress shoot and for the first time I truly enjoyed the connection between myself and the model. I knew it had something to do with rope bondage. I immersed myself in the culture from a studying stand point for a little over a year. Just practicing knots and understanding the mechanics of tying. Then later I learned about pier exchange dynamics and all that. Now my experience as a rigger has been humbling, freeing, intoxicating, humiliating sexy and fun, lol. Rope as a lifestyle and a way of expression for me is contradictory in practice. I want to be alone with my thoughts of tying but NEED another being to tying with-to be CONNECTED TO, so that I can live out the ties. It’s so intimate yet it can be unintentionally excluding at times.
TRC: What is your favorite role to play?
Solomon: Top, Dom, Rigger or something else? Hmmmmmm (laughing loudly) Again that’s an interesting and intriguing breakdown of choices. I describe myself as an Afro Erotic (now I’m adding Tantric) Service Top, for most people. I’m a Dominant or Master for my subordinates. I think rigger is just a job description. I’m also a Knotologist(self appointed lol). With all that being said I’m a Top. I enjoy tying. Rope excites me. And outside a few times where I may allow a student to tying a single column on my forearm or something I don’t bottom.
TRC: How long have you been doing rope ties and specifically Shibari?
Solomon: January 2012 is when I started. I learned everything and practiced it all at the same time. And since I’ve been doing it that way It’s hard for me personally to see the difference. It’s like ask a musician who just plays music that flows between what others call genres, how long she has been playing or singing different types. They just see it as singing. The world breaks it into genres.
TRC: What is your philosophy behind rope?
Solomon: We are all connected and tied together AAAAND Don’t force the tie. The rope has a spirit. It’s an energetic conduit. I don’t force that. Yes of course I may have an idea of a ty in mind but I always take a minute to visualize the tie. I stop and listen to the rope and accept the path it chooses as I move it across the bottoms body. So let it flow man, just let it flow.
TRC: What is in the future for Solomon Abrams?
Solomon: Not really sure. I’m considering more performing as well as instructing. I’m going as an artist and an energy worker. I’m just going to stay on this path. Rope bondage in this performative space is ever changing and I have to see where things go. It’s been nearly ten years for me and I feel like a legacy act in the community. But on the flip side I see so many new and exciting things coming into rope. I get to be a kid again. All in All Imma just stay tied in.