Tales From the Trade

In this episode, Huck Reyes sat down with Doc Domina, an Atlanta-based pro dom, clinical psychologist, consultant, and IFBB pro, to explore the many identities they carry and how those roles shape one another. From kinky tea-party spaces and workshop culture to the psychology of power, privilege, and self-definition, the conversation digs deep into what it means to move through the world as a multihyphenate person.
Huck and Doc talk about identity as something layered, contextual, and constantly evolving, and how sex work can sharpen perspective, emotional intelligence, and survival skills. Doc Domina breaks down the difference between performance and authenticity, the strain of code-switching across professional and personal spaces, and the grief that can come with life-stage transitions, especially when stepping away from sex work or other high-intensity identities.
This episode is a thoughtful, incisive look at radical self-acceptance, boundary-setting, and the importance of asking: what purpose does this serve me right now? If you’re navigating change, questioning who you are, or trying to build a more congruent life, this conversation offers both insight and grounding.
Timestamps
00:00 - Introducing Doc Domina and the Atlanta Bed and Bondage space01:09 - Tea party room, dungeon space, and workshop culture03:08 - From sports psychology to clinical psychology and consulting05:00 - Why the name Doc Domina fits identity, language, and authority08:42 - Identity as puzzle pieces, not a fixed answer11:35 - The addressing model and how privilege becomes contextual16:59 - How sex work shapes perspective-taking and safety awareness21:18 - Why the brain categorizes people and how that differs from bias23:13 - Learning dominant-group norms to access resources and visibility26:26 - Pro dom work, customer service, and the split between lifestyle and professional self28:20 - Gender performance, top surgery, and the cost of sustaining a persona33:11 - Is there a sex worker identity across time and history?34:45 - Wrestling, fantasy, and the ethics of skill and embodiment37:15 - Politics, legality, and why identity shifts with context41:25 - Different paths into sex work and different relationships to the identity46:06 - Life stage transition, grief, and leaving full-time sex work51:55 - Cyanotype printing, grief, and turning “old hustler blues” into art57:30 - Athlete retirement as a parallel for sex work transitions60:16 - Identity loss, battery drain, and the void after leaving a role62:37 - Radical self-acceptance and asking what purpose something serves65:53 - Burnout tells, micro self-care, and training the brain to prioritize you69:15 - Doing what feeds you, not just what is efficient71:07 - Community, hard things, and a closing grounding exercise
Find Doc Domina
Tales From the Trade, hosted by Huck Reyes, is a part of YAS Work Network, SW led media, by and for the community. 
Learn more about TFTT: yaswork.org/yas-network/tales-from-the-tradeHuck Reyes is also a part of the BIPOC SWWS: bipocswws.org
 

Host Huck Reyes (artist, writer, organizer with BIPOC Sex Worker Writing Space) interviews Atlanta dominatrix and artist Lady Sheba on Tales From the Trade (YAS Network). Sheba discusses identifying as a sex worker, her commitment to art accessibility, and curating “Odyssey of Kink,” a donation-based photographic/archival exhibition drawn from her fellowship with the Carter Johnson Leather Library and Collection, a queer kink/fetish archive founded by Vi “Mama Vi” Johnson and her wife Jill Carter, the first Black International Ms. Leather. They explore why preserving queer and kink history matters amid fascism and censorship, including Magnus Hirschfeld’s work destroyed by Nazis, and Sheba’s “coming out” through the exhibition. The conversation also covers Black representation in BDSM/leather, race and power dynamics, and challenges of sex worker rights organizing and identity in the U.S. South. Sheba plans to tour the show, starting at Portland’s Kink Fest.
0:00 Welcome to the Show
00:28 Meet Huck and Sheba
02:01 Sex Work Identity
03:13 Odyssey of Kink Begins
04:22 Inside the Leather Library
07:37 Art for Everyone
12:40 Atlanta Kink Scene
14:22 Why Preserve History
17:55 Coming Out Through Art
20:16 Black Kink Lineage
21:31 Odyssey Tour Plans
22:34 Academia and Sex Work
23:35 Kink Beyond Colonialism
26:44 Consent and Reclaiming
28:57 Race and Desire
30:58 Organizing in the South
37:38 Queer History and Archives
39:12 Fascism and Book Burning
40:59 Building the Exhibition
44:44 Taking It on Tour
46:52 Closing Credits
LinksLady Sheba IGBIPOC SWWS IGYAS Work Network