I eventually stopped working out harder than him so he could feel better about his progress.”Īccording to Waltman and other sources, Dovak reached out to an online acquaintance - another popular online gainer named Dylan Hafertepen - who told him where to go to get the illicit procedure. “Whenever we left the gym, he would feel like shit about it. “He took more steroids and he definitely got bigger and stronger, but he never felt good about it,” Waltman says. It’s also where he gained his internet fandom for growing huge, or “a monster,” as Waltman put it. It’s this community where Dovak found most solace in his size.
It’s a site for all the guys who spent their childhoods stuffing pillows under their shirts or staring a little too long at big-bellied men in the supermarket.” (Grommr does not advocate for silicon injectors, which is a small portion of the gainer subculture, and the site’s online community has been adamantly against silicone enhancements.) The site coins itself as a place, “for guys of a similar mindset - that bigger is, most often, better. Gay men are also more prone to eating disorders and other body dysmorphia conditions that result in poor self image.īut until the gainer community became more popular with the introduction of a niche hook up app dedicated to them, “Grommr,” larger gay men had few places to find satisfaction or admirers of their bigger appearance. But the community isn’t only based around fetish - the gainer community is well known to encourage body positivity, which is sorely needed among LGBTQ communities.Ĭompared to straight men, gay men are more prone to focus heavily on their weight and appearance. The community lives online, mostly, with Tumblr blogs dedicated to idolizing bigger guts and monstrous testicles.
Though the trend has appeared to decline recently - at least among trans women in New York, according to Radix - as quality care for trans-identifying people continues to grow, it’s now become more visible among the body modifying subculture of gainers. “You’re desperate to change your body, people will go through great lengths. “When people come in and say silicone, they don’t really know what they mean because it could be anything,” says Asa Radix, senior director of research and education for Callen-Lorde in New York City, an LGBTQ-focused health center, adding that some of his patients even had quick cement or peanut butter injected in them. It makes health experts reticent to even call the mixture “silicone,” at all. In one Florida woman’s case, tire sealant and cement were both injected into her face. But over the past five years, there have been a number of news reports exposing “pumping parties,” where groups of trans women pool their money to get injected with silicone, and the practice has now become more underground and more risky.Īnd much of that has to do with what’s being put in the mixture, which many times is unknown by those who receive the injections. I didn't think it would take off enough for me to be able to make a second issue, but 9 issues and 3 calendars later, hundreds of models, and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, Coitus seems to be a favourite for many and I'm excited to see where it can go."Ĭheck out the magazine, blog, Instagram, Pantelis's Instagram, and calendar.The Beatles in India: 16 Things You Didn't KnowĪmong trans women, silicone injections are a well known way to achieve the ultimate body: curvy butt, thick thighs or larger breasts. It was to be an escapism and a fantasy land for everyone who would follow my work and the magazine through the years. The magazine is a celebration of youth and male sexuality featuring some of the most beautiful boys in the world. In a sense its a 'zine made from my bedroom, but I knew I needed it to look and feel like much more than just a 'zine. As someone who moved away from home and got to London some years before, I needed a reason to be here, as the pressure of any artist to create was getting to me. "In 2009 I had the idea of starting something. Pantelis, the photographer and creator tells us: No models were harmed in the creation of these images. There is a juicy Calendar and loads of online content to make your eyes scream with delight. It has the most streamlined of formats: simply an introduction to new talent in the male modeling pool. Coitus magazine founder and photographer Pantelis created the magazine a few years ago.