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The Bondage Hospital
During the author's youth, magazines and catalogs from the Centurian Publishing company were the only source of bondage information that was available.
Story by Mark
06 Dec, 2002
elcome to the Bondage Hospital. We hope you enjoy your stay. You can check out anytime you like
but you can never leave!
That's the fantasy of most people who enjoy serious bondage play; the allure of nonconsensual restraint and confinement. The attraction is the surrender of control of your own sexual and emotional needs to the bondage gear and the person in charge - usually for an undetermined amount of time.
The magazine cover to the right is a classic example of an exciting bondage fantasy. The image of a victim strapped to the bed and the metal bars in the window are all ingredients that fuel kinky fantasies - not to

mention the nurse who is about to perform an embarrassing and invasive procedure on the poor patient. I wonder if the patient's insurance covers this type of treatment?
This magazine was published by the Centurian Publishing company in 1979, the same year I purchased it. I was 24 years old, and this magazine was the eighth Centurians publication I had purchased that year.
During the 1970's, Centurians was one of a few businesses that printed bondage magazines and sold mail order bondage gear. Centurians produced many classic bondage magazines during their heyday, and were undoubtedly responsible for passing the 'bondage torch' to the Baby Boomer generation - who in turn will pass it to future generations - like I'm doing right now.
I saw my first Centurians bondage magazine when I was around 20. During that time an old high school buddy came to visit me carrying a brown paper bag under his arm. "Have you ever been to one of those adult bookstores?" he asked as he handed me a few magazines from the bag.
The title of one magazine was 'Centurians Encyclopedia of Sexual Instruments' (left photo) and featured a black and white photo of a woman with her wrists chained overhead in leather cuffs. She was wearing some kind of strange rubber panties - and nothing else. My heart skipped a beat as the photo reached somewhere deep within my soul. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was holding a magazine that portrayed the very bondage fantasies I had been dreaming about since I was age 10!
For the next few months I looked at the magazines every day, mesmerize by the photos of the bizarre gear and bondage scenarios. I couldn't believe that other people actually played with bondage like this for fun! I had been raised in a very conservative family, so the notion that someone would actually enjoy being tied up for the fun of it seemed almost
unbelievable to me. Needless to say, my parents would not have approved, so I hid the magazines under the furniture in my bedroom. At one point my mother stumbled across the magazines, but after a brief and emotional chat with me, she never brought it up again.
The Centurian magazines introduced me to the use of black leather as a material used for manufacturing restraints. I had never thought of using leather for bondage, and found the idea very titillating. The leather in the magazine photos appeared quite erotic and supple, and it's jet black color contrasted so nicely with the skin of the helpless women.
I was also introduced to the idea of using dildos with bondage play - dildos which could be locked inside the subject with a leather chastity belt. The photo to the right is an original Centurian advertisement for such a device, called the 'Combination Plugger'.
One of my favorite Centurians stories was about a woman who was tied spread-eagled to the bed, with a heavy leather body harness cinched around her torso (left photo). The story went something like this:
"It had been over a week since Bob had made love with his wife, but tonight would be different. He invited her to their basement where he surprised her with a large bed and lots of leather gear. For over and hour he tied her in different positions, finally settling on her tied spread-eagled on her back."
"After stuffing a ball gag in her mouth, he slipped a large dildo inside her and drew up all the straps of a harness to hold it deeply imbedded. She was so excited by the dildo that she pleaded for his dick. "Ah! I didn't get any last week, so you don't get any tonight". With that, he left her in the basement for the night to twist and squirm with her hot juices running over and no relief."
Well, as a young man in my 20's with sex and bondage on my mind 24 hours a day, this story was overwhelmingly exciting to me. As a matter of fact, that exact black and white photo (above, left) of the woman spread eagled on the bed with the ball gag and leather chastity harness is burned into my mind. and will remain there for life.
Not only was this photo intoxicating, it fed my own fantasizes about being tied up in the same position, with a dildo inside me, and left alone and helpless for the night.
I would like to stop here and point out that leaving someone alone in bondage (and possibly gagged) is
quite dangerous, and should never be done under any circumstances. The allure of unsupervised bondage creates an exciting story, but unforeseen emergencies like cramps, chocking, panic, or house fires can be very real and life threatening. Play with bondage at your own risk.
The two advertisements to the right seem to indicate that whoever was in charge of Centurians was really into bondage. Even today these ads give me quite a thrill. So, as you might imagine, it wasn't long before I ordered some gear from Centurians including leather cuffs and their alluring Discipline Helmet.
I knew that I had an attraction to tight-fitting rubber suits and hoods because I had taken SCUBA lessons that same year. However the Centurians Discipline Helmet seemed far more intriguing than a mere SCUBA wetsuit. Even the name "Discipline Helmet" was quite a thrill..
I checked my post office box on a regular basis as I waited impatiently for my order to arrive. Finally I found a small notice in my box indicating that the shipment had come in. I presented the paper to the man behind the counter as wild thoughts were running through my mind. Suppose they had opened my package and discovered the leather gear?
Would they confiscate everything? Would I be arrested? What was taking the man so long to find my package? Maybe they lost it or sent it back? I'm sure my face was blush red. After a long wait, the man returned and handed me a brown cardboard box. I left quickly, taking the package to my car where I opened it in my lap. No sooner had I opened the box than I fell into an deep trance, as if the box contained the meaning of life itself.
As I touched the supple black leather I understood instantly why it was the material of choice for manufacturing bondage gear. I felt as though I could fall into the blackness of the leather itself. The sunlight reflected off the shiny metal rivets, and the aroma of fresh leather dye filled the car. The gear gripping my mind like a powerful aphrodisiac. Although
the cuffs were simple in form and functionality, they represented the first bondage gear I had ever owned or seen other than my own. At that very moment my love affair with leather bondage started and there was no turning back. I was experiencing something that felt as powerful as the very meaning of my life. (above photo is of identical cuffs)
Since that magic moment in the parking lot and throughout my 20's and 30's, I relied heavily on Centurians magazines to fulfill my bondage fantasies. I had become addicted
to the 'sexual rush' I would experience every time I played with leather bondage or looked at a bondage magazine. In addition, there seemed to be no end in sight to the erotic publications that Centurians was printing. The magazines were packed with outrageous illustrations and photos depicting every imaginable kind of bizarre or unusual bondage device. The adjacent images are scans of the original Centurians catalogs.
Even today, with the abundance of computer imagery and the Internet, these catalog covers still maintain their alluring qualities. It was obvious to me that the owner of Centurians was on a roll during the 70's and 80's, and I had become helplessly seduced by his fetish ideas portrayed in his publications. How different would my life be today if my buddy had not shown me the bondage magazines in my early 20's? Hard to say.
Would I have run across the bondage magazines on my own? I suppose so, but I'm certainly thankful that he had the courage and willpower to explore the adult book stores when he did, and to share his discovery with me.
As we move into the future, hopefully this web site will expose more people to the excitement of bondage in the same way my buddy's magazines did for me. Who knows, maybe years from now someone who was influenced by this web site will pick up the torch and pass this scared bondage information to the next generation. After all, no matter what your age, there will always be questions about what really happened to patients once they entered the infamous Centurians 'Bondage Hospital'.
I have not seen a recent Centurians magazine for years, but the company can still be found on the web at: www.centuriandirect.com
A Google search for 'Centurians, bondage' will bring up a lot of information on old magazines and catalogs.
Click HERE for information about the author Mark.
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