Real Stories of Superhero Fetish: Tigre

Welcome to the fifth entry in our new series of community blog posts called "Real Stories of Superhero Fetish".  This non-fiction series allows friends of this site to tell people more about how they discovered or explored their superhero fetish.

In today's post, the nimble and powerful Tigre shows us how wrestlers, luchadores and men of the mask became his personal version of superheroes. In countries like Japan and Mexico, the wrestler in the mask holds a special status as a hero. As you will see, this is not a typical superhero fetish entry, but it is a powerful and hot story, nonetheless. Yes, pro wrestlers can be thought of as superheroes, too, as you'll see.

If you want to send us your story of superhero fetish, please email your entry to beastwithin0808@gmail.com and write "Guest Blogger" in the subject. And don't forget that author Pablo Greene's book series How to Kill a Superhero tells a fictional tale of a man with a superhero fetish.

My Superhero Fetish: Tigre

I had a fantasy of being a pro wrestler at a young age and I made it a reality. And I put my fetishes for wrestling masks and spandex to very good use.

I have gone by a few names throughout my time on the online fetish community. At the moment my handle on most online services is MaskdCat. However, you can call me Tigre.

I grew up in a very very remote place in Atlantic Canada. When I was about 6 to 8 years old, I would watch Saturday morning World Wrestling Federation. Like every kid that age during that time, I ate pro wrestling up. I watched it every weekend. I got into all the good guys and hated all the bad guys.

One time, a masked wrestler came on the TV. To this date, I do not remember who it was, I do remember he wore tights with a butcher singlet. The mask was black, and most importantly... the mask laced up in the back.

The material of the mask shined. You could see the outline of the wrestler’s ears through it. The lace up looking frigging tight. Just like a superhero, his singlet matched and completed his look. I was obsessed from then on. This was when I started to notice the male body.

As I grew up, many similar images stuck with me me very early. Michael Keaton's performance as Batman, as well as images of hangmen, spandexed heroes, and other kinds of masked men excited my imagination and began to affect my sexual mind.

I had seen more fantastic hooded wrestlers, though they were still a rarity in American Wrestling. But as soon as one of them appeared on the TV, my hand was down my pants. As I hit puberty in the later 90s, WCW introduced me to many masked wrestlers from Mexico and Japan.

Rey Misterio Jr., La Parka, Lizmark and the Villanos all looked fantastic and excited me. My favorite quickly became Ultimo Dragon. Much to the confusion of my mother, I had pictures of Ultimo Dragon all over the walls in my room. He was amazing in the ring, but his costume and mask made me horny and I thought about it all the time, especially his green gear. I fantasized about touching his smooth tights. And I fantasized about wrestling him too: full on in the ring.

Once I had Internet access, I spent my time discovering lucha libre and all the costumes that excited my mind and my cock. Mil Máscaras (whose name means one thousand masks) was one of the wrestlers I ogled over when I saw all of the different masks that he had. So many of his masks accentuated his muscular body. He was macho, but still flamboyant. I had seen so many bios of colourful technicos and rudos by now. I fantasized of being in a locker room and going through all of their gear to wear for myself.

It was also the same time that I discovered fetish communities: there were guys in spandex, costumes, masks and so many other incredible things. But for this story, I will focus on the wrestling aspect.

I was eighteen years old at the time. I was painfully closeted. I had a lot of self hatred. I did not understand my fetishes nor why I had them.

At that time I did dream of being a luchador. I sketched costume and mask ideas when I was bored. While I did so, I dreamed of being far away from where I was at the time. Over a few years I bought individual spandex items and cheap masks from eBay in effort to piece together the look of a luchador.

I was a lonely boy when not in gear. But when I laced up the mask and put on the tights, I felt much more complete, and turned on. My then skinny body felt bigger. I became very aroused. I further developed myself as a fetishized being, and I  established a presence in the online community as Jornter (which has a nonsense meaning and I eventually grew out of that pseudonym).

When I was twenty seven years old, I moved from the Atlantic to Ontario in hopes of a new life and a huge adjustment to big city living.  In my explorations in my fetishes, I eventually met a man who would become a mentor for me. I met him though a wrestling website. He was a pro wrestler with twenty years of experience. We shared a lot in common regarding our gear and shared so much about how he saw wrestling and how it should be.

He likes wrestling old school. He isn't a mask guy. But when he saw my pics, he convinced me  that I should be a wrestler with the gear I had, and that I should do wrestle for real. I packed my gear in a bag. I threw in masks,  trunks,  tights, boots,  and drove to meet him in his home ring. I got in the ring and the process was a very spiritual place to be in. I put on a mask, a pair of trunks, and my boots. We both got in the ring with minimal training, and we filmed a squash match where he suplexed me and leveled me with punches and chops and broke me with a submission at the end. my mask was soaked in sweat. My trunks looked wet as well. I was in a high place at the time. He and I didn’t have sex, though that wrestling match felt equal to sex.

Afterward, I needed more. I wanted to live that dream that I had when I was eighteen and imagining myself as a luchador.

We trained every weekend we could. I conquered many fears with what we did and all of the bumps I took. As I trained I worked on creating my own gimmick: A luchador tiger. It embodied my personality (which is cat-like) and style (minimalist and bold). I was inspired by many of the luchador cat looks, but also by Ultimo Dragon in how the curves of the tights accentuated my ass and thighs. Not only were the fetishists digging it, but the wrestling circuit did too. I took time to develop that character and find his ring presence.

One part I did enjoy was the anonymity I had with being a masked wrestler. It helped me achieve the head space I looked for. When I was not wrestling at a show, I tried to be unassuming for Tigre was my real identity. I wore a hat and glasses to cover my eyes. Online I was protective of my face as much as possible. Not because of any insecurities, but not to spoil the magic. A mask is more powerful when you don’t know what the person looks like. I tried to keep that. The kids loved me. I was their favorite wrestler in any show. The adults loved me too. Many of them noticed my crotch, especially if I wore my trunks. I made some of them uncomfortable at the merch table. Many thought I was cute in the mask, and stroked my ears. Some wanted to see me after the show unmasked, but I would not let them.

I spent two years between training, dealing with injuries and recovery, paying my dues to the business, driving, earning my shot to wrestle live, and then finally wrestling live. And I sold merchandise. I lived that dream that I had of being a masked pro wrestler.

I have since taken a hiatus from the indy circuit. The lifestyle is a tough one, and I had a few bad injuries and low moments. I admit my ego was a bit bruised for sometime, but I had really fucking done it. Pro wrestling a little different from having a traditional superhero fetish and having to do roleplay or suspension of disbelief to be that superhero. I was in fact a pro wrestler for real. It made me grow and made me in touch more with my fetishes and what I could achieve with it. No regrets.

These days I am wrestling on my own time and terms. I still work on creating new looks shaped by my imagination, and making that look exist on the flesh. I learned to do the best things I could with my fetishes, and I hope to get other guys in the ring to do the wrestling they dreamed of doing as well, with all the right gear of course.

You can follow Tigre at @MaskdCat on Twitter.

Want to share your superhero-fetish story with us? Email your entry to beastwithin0808@gmail.com and write "Guest Blogger" in the subject.