Fantasies becoming obsessions
A “fluffer” is the person employed on a porn set to keep performers aroused. This is a real job. It is also the inspiration for Fluffer Everyday, an Athens-based title described by editor Sotiris Trechas as “an unconventional diary of what keeps my cock alive”.
Probably the most shocking thing about this magazine is the content is not explicit. A woman (fully dressed) is photographed having her hair washed; a man in pants gets measured for a suit; a nail technician massages a foot. A lovely riposte to the strangely deadening effect of XXX porn, Fluffer is intrigued by the instances of everyday touch that spark desire. The suggestion of sex is always more erotic than its fleshy actuality.
Photography heavy, there are just a few written experiences featured per issue. These are presented as real, by “Ben from Berlin” or “Paul from Madrid”. Ben’s is a wonderfully chaste story about delivering a package in Kreuzberg to a girl in a tracksuit. Nothing happened. He just found her beautiful, and he still thinks about her. The story is accompanied by a picture of a man delivering a pizza. He’s handsome, but in a distinctly ordinary way. The tagline for every issue is “Fantasies becoming obsessions”; what Fluffer seems most interested in is what the mind can do with routine encounters. The way you can dwell on an apparently unremarkable moment, and come back to it, for years. It feels hopeful: the everyday has a lot of potential.
