The secret website where Brits go to meet like-minded fetishists
SCROLLING through her messages, Tessa* tries to decide what she wants to try out today - playing at being a princess... or masturbating with a shoe.
She's one of thousands of people using online Fetish hook up site - FetLife - a kinky website where people go to find like-minded fetishists to carry our their deepest, darkest fantasies.
The 25-year-old has been using the site to hook up with people for six years and was originally introduced to the community by her then boyfriend.
Threads about different fantasies - ranging from prostitute roleplay to oral sex orgies - are listed on the homepage, and users are encouraged to join them and meet people who they can they direct message to arrange to carry out their dream fantasies with - either privately or at one of the site's events.
Tessa told Sun Online: “My sexual tastes range from being a submissive to daddy’s princess.
"It's great, but occasionally people have odd requests - the weirdest thing someone has asked me to do is to masturbate with a shoe - but fetishes never surprise me anymore. I’ve heard it all.”
From bondage, threesomes and dressing up as animals to 'nappy sex' and shoe fetishes - in this online community, anything goes.
Here, Sun Online speaks to the people that use it...
The man who finds other men to pleasure his wife
For most blokes, the idea of a good-looking, muscly man having sex with their wife upstairs while they're doing the dishes would be their worst nightmare.
But for Tom*, it's his dream scenario.
The 54-year-old gets turned on by being humiliated - and uses FetLife to find men to come round to his house and have sex with his wife while he listens from the other room.
Today, 50-year-old divorcee Pete* is the lucky guy.
He tells Sun Online: “Tom's penis is small and he orgasms very quickly. So I get invited to their place when she needs a longer session."
“He makes me coffee as I walk in - then I head upstairs.
“I pleasure his wife in all the ways she wants and afterwards I call up her hubby up so his wife can explain in detail how I’ve pleasured her, and what positions she likes.
"He will have heard it all too, as we’re both reasonably noisy in bed."
While this scenario - known as cuckolding - may be baffling to some, for the users of FetLife, it's the norm.
Slave roleplay and 'princess-to-slut' games
To the innocent eye, FetLife initially looks like any other social networking site - but don't be fooled.
Like any Facebook or Instagram account, users set up a profile with a profile photo and some basic information about themselves - including their name and age - and they can then add 'friends' who share similar interests.
But, that's where the similarities end.
Users then reveal their more unusual sexual preferences, including whether they're dominant or submissive or enjoy swinging.
More niche fantasises are also common, with people indicating their love of slave roleplay, master and mistress scenarios and even "princess-to-slut" fantasies.
For Pete, FetLife is the ideal way to meet like-minded people, because users are “tolerant and kinky”.
"From straight, gay and bisexual to trans, asexual and non-binary – the site is very inclusive.
“FetLife allows me to expand my mind even further with like-minded people,” he adds.
Within the site there's a forum for members to ask the more sexually experienced for advice and discuss kinks.
Users can also select a city and arrange meet ups - from hanging out in the park vanilla-style to visiting transgender club nights and trying out one of the site's event, like their rope play night.
Other fetishes that people discuss include nappy sex - one user tells us how he makes his own from black garbage bags.
He sits on top of a ripped bag on the floor, ties it together and plays in dirt and mud – sometimes alone, sometimes with others.
Dressing up as dogs and eating from a bowl
FetLife regular Dave*, a 45-year-old businessman from London, has used the site for a year.
As a 'dom' he says he's after submissive women, who enjoy kinks including dressing up as animals and playing with knives.
He says: "I’ve had subs dress up as dogs and cats with tails, collars and leads, baskets to sleep in and bowls to eat from.
“She might bark and I’ll pleasure her in her animal costume too. For the woman it’s about the escapism.”
For FetLife user Sean*, 56, prostitute fantasy scenarios are a huge turn-on.
He began trying new things in the bedroom in his late twenties, and has gone to swinging and fetish clubs.
Now, he acts as a pimp, arranging hook ups with women who like to pretend they are prostitutes.
Sean says: “I arrange a time for the men to visit the woman – she’ll use my bedroom so she’s safe and when the ‘client’ turns up, he puts the money on the table and decides what he wants.
"I don’t take part and the woman gets the money, I just organise it."
Clarissa Bloom, a dating and relationships expert, says sites such as FetLife are allowing people to embrace their desires without feeling judged.
“Pornographic websites might have allowed us to see video content that directly appealed to the individual, but it was always one-way communication,” she says.
“From the more ‘vanilla’ fetishes such as submission and control, to the unique fantasies such as armpit licking and diaper wearing, it has never been easier to be bold and brave of your personal passion,” she adds.
