This article combines in-depth interviews and Karen Barad's work on
materiality to think about the ways in which the materiality of blood might be
understood in relation to sociality and blood-borne virus prevention among BDSM
(bondage and domination, dominance and submission and sadomasochism) body
modification practitioners in Sydney, Australia. In doing so, it confronts questions
of how the materiality of blood can be theorized in ways that neither presume a
fixed, a priori ontological status or essence, nor exclude it from an active role in
the production of realities. In taking account of both its co-constitutive role in
practice, and its figurative power (as flow) in understanding the mind/body,
discourse/materiality conjunctions at work in BDSM body modification practice, we
aim to illuminate further the imbrication of materiality and meaning, and generate a
more complex and fruitful account of blood for the purposes of blood-borne virus
prevention and education.
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