Mistress Interviews   Lady Anna

How and why did you choose your name? What do you think it says about you?

I’d used the name Anna previously as a used panty seller. I wanted a name similar to my own but shorter and easier to type, particularly as I knew I’d be typing it a lot!  I also know it is better to have a nice, easy to type, short name as a domain name, and as a watermark across all my pics. When I became a Panty Mistress I chose ‘Lady’ because I felt it suited Anna better than ‘Mistress’ would. I have no idea what my name says about me as I chose it for purely practical reasons. Also, I suppose I wanted something that would appeal to my US buyers: something very ‘English’. When I became a Dominatrix I kept the same name. It was a gradual cross over from Panty Mistress to Dominatrix and I saw no need to change my name.

How and why did you become a Professional Dominatrix/Disciplinarian?

I fell into it. I started to sell my used underwear online as a way of making some money as I started my degree. My first buyers were Panty slaves looking for a Panty Mistress. I was intrigued and entranced. This was fun! I’ve been fascinated with alternative sexuality for as long as I can remember. I used to watch late night programmes on Bravo about fetishes and dominatrices and think “Hey, I could do that!” After a couple of  months Panty Mistressing, which involved such tasks as directing slaves to take pics of themselves in my underwear at work, I created a profile on alt.com and I met and played with a few submissives. I was hooked.

After a few months of playing at home with a crop, a cane, a bag of pegs, tea lights, bootlaces and cling film I decided that this was more fun than selling my knickers, stockings, socks and toenail clippings and so I started to charge something like £50 for 2 hours play to supplement my student loan and buy more specialised kit. As my skills and confidence increased so did my fee so that I could convert my cellar into a proper dungeon.

In your opinion, what makes a good Dominatrix/Disciplinarian?

Dominatrices need to be able to listen to the subs. The subs will tell you almost everything you need to know about how they feel, what they respond to, what they like, what they mean. You also need insight, empathy and the ability to step back from the fantasy world and ground yourself regularly by having outside interests.

Thinking about the Dommes I know, good Dommes usually have self-confidence, a natural sensuality, a good sense of humour, and an ability not to take themselves, or what we do, too seriously.  They also tend to be creative to other areas of their lives too.

How have your BDSM style/tastes evolved since you started? What, or who, have been the main influences?

As I’ve mentioned before my first sessions seemed to be based around what I could buy in Woolworth’s. A few shopping expeditions later and I was happily whipping and caning my subs. CBT was a huge favourite of mine because, well because, how could it not be? All these willies that I could tie up, cover in wax, pinch, slap, crop, cane. Marvellous.

Roughly around this time I started to train at Hotel BDSM with Mistress Hellena over a period of several weeks with a view to working there. One look at her medical room and what she did in there had me hooked. Hellena supervised my first needle, my first suture, my first sounding, electrics too. At home, with my stable of eager guinea-pigs, I practised what I had learned and seen, developing my own skills, with later, with help from a nurse friend, I pushed myself further and further.

Another Mistress who influenced my love of caning was, and still is actually, Lady Pandora who taught me how to cane properly as well as enthusiastically, with skill, technique and er, no wrapping. Other main influences are other well respected PDs, namely Mistresses Susannah, Sapphire, and Ms Tytania who have been a great source of strength, humour and advice whenever I have needed it.

Do you conduct sessions from your own facility or do you hire from someone else ? What are the advantages / disadvantages ?

I have my own apartment that is used exclusively for play, both personal and professional. I won’t hire to anyone. I can’t even bear the thought of sharing. I have to know where everything is, and I have to know whether it is clean or sterile, or not. I’m also extremely conscious of ensuring my privacy and the privacy of my clients. Having other people using my premises could potentially compromise everything I have worked for and created. Discretion is incredibly important to me. Also my space reflects me and my interests. It probably wouldn’t suit anyone else and I, in turn, couldn’t bear to work in someone else’s space, or worse yet a generic ‘tick all the boxes’ commercial dungeon.  Bleurgh.  The obvious, but only, disadvantage is that I don’t have anyone to share the overheads with.

Did you design your own web site, do you maintain it yourself, or do you have a web person that takes care of that side of things ?

The initial design for ladyanna.co.uk was done by another panty seller who created approx four pages before handing it over to me. I fiddled and amended, adding page after page of information as my interests evolved and expanded. I’ve had a recent overhaul resulting in, I hope, a more streamlined and relevant site.

For medicalmistress.co.uk I used Moonfruit, using one of their templates to create an original, and slightly tongue in cheek, site based on just my medical fetish play. I do everything, to both sites and everything else online, myself. I’d never have a web slave because I’m too much of a control freak, and too impulsive and impatient to ask someone else to do something for me.

What is the biggest turn off for you?

Poor hygiene! Pissy foreskins, funky bum creases, cheesy feet, manky toenails, bad breath, skidmarked underpants, good grief men – sort yourselves out! Thankfully stinky subs are not that common as most modern men are scrupulously clean, but when you do get a Stig you really wonder how their families put up with it. Smokers also turn me off because I detest the smell on their breath or their clothes and it makes my chest seize up (I’m asthmatic).

I also detest arrogance and the accompanying sense of entitlement that particular men seem to have. They really do seem to see us a service, alongside their dry cleaning service, or their gardener, or their employees. I don’t suffer from a Goddess-complex in the slightest but really, if you see me as a service provider that performs when paid then you clearly don’t ‘get’ Female Domination. Not my brand anyway.

Is chemistry/rapport something that only happens if the people are well matched in terms of personality and approach? To what extent can their behaviour and attitude before and during the session create and contribute to the chemistry?

You can’t fake rapport or chemistry. If you are trying too hard then you just have to accept that it wasn’t there in the first place and it doesn’t mean you have done something wrong. Sometimes the chemistry is immediate. As soon as they walk through the door you can feel the tingle and the rapport is completely natural. Other times it takes a while for the rapport to build and develop as the relationship develops and the trust increases. I think chemistry is purely physical; it’s that indefinable whatever-it-is that has sold a million love songs. Rapport comes with commonalities with approach, personality and character. If I’m not laughing then it isn’t working.

How can the sub help? Well, honesty always helps of course. If you’re so scared you can barely speak, tell us. If you prefer to lie there passively and have things done to you, tell us or we’ll think you’re dead, or worse, not enjoying yourself. Always be polite and respectful because otherwise we’ll tell you to get lost. Some subs appear not to realise that we need to know you’re enjoying yourselves too. Oh and read the website. It’s highly irritating to answer questions that are already answered on my sites, and by that I mean basic stuff like how much is the fee, or where I am based, or what my interests are.

What is the silliest request you have had?

One sub, during session, started to ask if I would consider doing a vasectomy! I declined and I didn’t see him again because he obviously didn’t understand the difference between fantasy and reality.

Other requests can be unusual, or initially odd, but I’d never consider anything silly as such. Fetishes are an integral part of a person’s psyche so I’d never dismiss them as silly or weird because that would be incredibly insulting. I find fetishes and kinks fascinating so I like to find out more. Usually, after explanation and a moment’s thought, they make perfect sense and so I like to explore it further and find out if I like it too.

Fire erupts in the playspace. You have time to rescue one piece of equipment and take one toy/implement with you. What would you choose, and why? [All living creatures would escape]

Only one!? After a moment’s consideration the obvious answer is my anaesthetic trolley and the toy or implement would have to be...umm...one of my gorgeous whips, the nearest to hand, either the snake whip or one of the quirts. Can I take my whip bag and save all three?

How do you feel about being called a prostitute?

When I first started as a PD it used to piss me off no end because I don’t consider that anything we do is remotely like prostitution, and it is always said as an insult anyway. I used to drive through the red light district to get to uni and I’d see malnourished, underweight, aged before their time women standing on street corners in goddawful obviously needing cash for their next fix. When people call us prostitutes, usually as an insult, this is obviously what they were making the comparison with, the negative connotations, the need to earn cash, however we can, to satisfy our pimps because we aren’t capable or worthy enough to be, or want, better. Nowadays I let them get on with. It doesn’t bother me as much now because I recognise these people for what they are: sad, angry individuals who have to denigrate someone else to feel better about themselves. These aren’t people who genuinely don’t know the difference and need to have it explained.

Legally we are no different from prostitutes and I accept that. We and similar professions ie sex line operators, lap dancers, strippers all come under the sex industry umbrella. Because prostitution isn’t illegal there is no need for English law to differentiate between the professions. However, ask a prostitute for sex and whereas she’ll tell you how much, the rest of us will refuse and tell you to go elsewhere.

Money aside, what do you get from Pro-domming?

I’m a very creative person. I’m also extremely interested in what makes people tick. I have a particular interest in sexuality and alternative sexuality. I’m self disciplined. I’m ambitious. I’m hungry for new experiences and new skills. I have an aversion for daily routines and I enjoy flexibility and impulsiveness. Pro domming ticks all of these boxes for me. I love and appreciate the freedom to do whatever I want that pro domming gives me.

On a more sexual level I enjoy playing with new bodies, discovering new minds and trying out my own range of personal kinks of different people to get all those diverse responses. Earning a reasonable income means I can invest in more toys to play with. I can expand my skill set, and I can spend hours indulging in my perverse pleasures. It’s the best job in the world.

Is Pro-Domming affected by the current financial climate?

Yes and no. Without a doubt some clients have been badly affected by the recession, particularly those who have lost their jobs, are on a tight income or retired and relying on savings. However, budgeting also means that people think more carefully about where they spend their money. Rather than go to two or three Mistresses some clients will re-prioritise and go instead to the better Mistress only. It is well documented, I believe, that the sex industry is one of the few industries that sees an upturn in business during hard times. People need their kinks and stress levels to be satisfied and soothed in order to handle the rest of their lives, particularly when hard times means more stress. This is probably more apparent in professional domination where clients need to de-stress, ground themselves and hand over some control. Economies need a recession every now and again to help prune out the dead wood to make room for new business or allow excellent businesses to flourish. Good business practices manage when poor or inferior businesses go out of business. I believe this applies to Mistresses too.  The good will survive and thrive. The bad will wither and find something else to do.

The dungeon is closed and you've taken your boots off: how do you like to relax?

I spend a lot of time relaxing online. I visit several fora, answer messages, search for interesting items to add to my rooms, research new interests and play a few apps on Facebook. To relax my mind I like to read thrillers (James Patterson, Harlen Coben, Val McDermid, Patricia Cornwall), knit scarves, make jewellery, watch DVDs and TV (all sorts of rubbish, and documentaries), walk the dogs, some horse riding, and I’ve just enrolled on an oil painting course at my local college...anything to avoid housework really.

Why do you think your clients come back to see you?

It helps that my interests in medical fetish play are still fairly niche, and very specialist, with only a handful of UK Mistresses who do anything similar to me. I think also because I’m constantly buying new toys and learning new skills, so even long term clients can’t possibly get bored of me. It could even be something as simple and effective as doing everything I can to ensure compatibility in the first instance, so that it goes without saying that my new clients will return. If we are compatible, the play will work, if the play works, and they appreciate my bespoke approach, as well as my exclusive premises, they will want to visit again and again. Actually, no, really it is my scintillating personality, ravishing beauty, and top class humour that makes them return.

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