Bizarre Magazine - A Tribute

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I had a strange encounter of the Bizarre kind this week. I was quietly picking up some shopping in a little local shop when I decided to peruse the top shelf of the magazine racks. Lo and behold, what did I see there? Nestled between Playboy and Inked was a relic of magazines gone by. There in front of me was an actual old copy of Bizarre Magazine. If you, like I, have often wondered what had happened to the kinksters, freaks and alternative personalities since the British bastion of BDSM folded in 2015 (they moved to Twitter) then you will feel some of the excitement that I did reaching up to take down the hallowed glossy front cover adorned with a water gun toting, ample-bosomed, red-haired goddess, Bianca Beauchamp, coated in latex.

Since its launch in 1997, Bizarre had been the go-to publication for people who dared to be different or those who wished they could be. For many, it was their first encounter with the weird and wonderful of the world.
Before the popularisation of social media, the only way we had of reading about dragon ladies, latex lovers and people who wrapped themselves in cling film was through the monthly instalments of this avant-garde companion to alternative lifestyles. The demise was a sad moment, blamed on the rising popularity of the digital age after the magazine went from selling 100,000 copies per issue to just 11,000.

It wasn’t all kinky sex and extreme tattoos though, they also featured political and cultural news, covering such topics as sex workers rights, discrimination against alternative culture, sex offences and bigotry. In the current state of discrimination against the sex industry, we could really use the power of a fortification of fetish behind us as they did after the 2007 hate murder of goth Sophie Lancaster.
I am now the proud owner of the last issue that was released in February 2015, which features an amputated leg turned into a lamp, the UK’s greatest tattoos, Rayna Terror and the transgender lady who had turned herself into a dragon through body modification. I wiled away a relaxed afternoon reading it from cover to cover as I had done many times in the past and almost mourned the death of such a publication.
But let’s not mourn the passing of such a great trailblazer but thank it for the many years it informed us, the many teenagers it shocked and the world it opened up. It may have left our top shelves but it left a space and a need for all the online publications such as the Daily Sport and Darkside Magazine to carry on its good work.

Bizarre Magazine, I salute you!

Make sure to get your club and party reviews coming in, tell the world which are the best and worst swinging and BDSM venues that you have attended. Maybe you have found a hidden gem or have been disappointed by a well-known location, either way, tell the rest of the community.