Lila Miller, A&E Editor

When walking into the Wormhole on a regular night, one can hear the din of regulars having a beer or cocktail, as the Pixies or Flogging Molly play over the speaker system.

Not on Saturday. This past weekend, the Wormhole opened it’s doors and minds, offering Chris Cook and his themed party, “Little Black Fetish Party” a place to get weird.

Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Games” played hypnotically through the crowded bar. It was mostly standing-room only with bodies covered in leather, lace, chains, or hardly anything at all.

Near the bar stood two large Xs. St. Andrew’s crosses featured both “hard play” and “soft play” for those brave enough to try it out, with five dollars to spare. Sadomasochists delighted.

The event also featured the lovely ladies of the Tied and Tasseled Cabaret, a dance troupe that performs burlesque around Savannah and the Southeast. Performers included Tim and his assistants, Kim, the dancing fool, Fleur-De-Lys and Lovely Kitten, Asphrodel and Hot Donna, Beau Blush, Darby Havoc, Androgynous, and Queen of Corruption, Ginger Von Blue, as well as stage kittens, Mindy Frou Frou and Sweet Caroline.

Dancer, Sweet Caroline, offered a very intimate perspective on her experience, “‘Tied and Tasseled Fetish Cabaret has inspired me to become who I was meant to be. As a photographer, I have expanded my artistic skills to the stage as a burlesque performer. We combine fetish and burlesque to represent the freak in all of us.”

As they got off the stage, one performer and anonymous nursing student, apprehensively had words for the photographer, “be careful taking photos, some of us have personal lives.”

Many party patrons at the event engage in some form of sadism or masochism behind closed doors. Such lifestyles can leave a lot to the imagination and are often perceived as taboo.

Caroline Rose, a server at the Wormhole, had a lot to say on the matter.

“It’s my first event, and I didn’t even know it was happening. I think it’s great to have a platform for people to share all of their weirdness together and not feel ashamed or judged for it. Now, with our technological world with our social lives and how public they are, now you can be public about it here with people who share the same interests. We were all spanked as children, and now as adults, we enjoy it.”

Outside on the patio was entertainer and host Chris Cook. Cook started throwing parties in 2000 but with a lot of goth friends in attendance, they brought the fetish into it and morphed into what they are now. He says of all his events, the Goth Fetish Night is “more respectful than any other night, but people don’t know what to expect, so they don’t come, but it’s fun and people feel safe doing it.”