S&M Club Patron On Life Support

New York's tabloids are having a field day with this story:

A leather-loving submissive was clinging to life yesterday after a freak accident at a Midtown bondage club cut off oxygen to his brain, law-enforcement sources said. A dominatrix at The Nutcracker Suite on East 33rd Street called 911 at about 1:30 a.m. after finding the hooded man turning blue in a dungeon room as he hung by his arms. He was also wearing nipple clamps, a dog collar and women's high-heeled shoes, and his hands were cuffed behind his back, sources said.

The man was rushed to St. Vincent's Hospital, where he was put on a respirator, sources said. It was believed he had suffered brain damage due to lack of oxygen. In keeping with the secretive nature of the S&M scene, the man was carrying no identification and only signed the name "Roger" in the pain palace's guest registry. But sources said he was a regular at the club. Cops were using his MetroCard to try to track his movements and identify him.

His particular fetish was to have himself trussed up and left alone. The mistress he was working with, Taki Noriko, 30, of Williamsburg, told police that she elevated him just enough to cause discomfort but that his feet were still on the floor.

"It was an accident," Noriko told The Post. She said that she checked on him every 20 minutes. At first, he was fine, but when she went in a second time, she found that his foot had slipped out of the shoe and was turning blue. Police took Noriko, several other whip-toting mistresses and the club's manager in for questioning, but no charges were filed.

One woman was arrested on an outstanding and unrelated warrant. Cops removed several bags of evidence from the club, including one labeled "1 [one] black leather restraint." While S&M activities are not illegal, the state penal code seems to leave open the possibility that those involved could be charged with assault - or even manslaughter if the man were to die - if a grand jury were to rule they acted recklessly.

The club, which is tucked away in a suite in a nondescript Midtown office building near the Empire State Building, has operated for more than a decade and is a well-known masochist mecca among devotees of the bondage scene. The erotic emporium was once featured in a 15-minute documentary called "Paradise Bound," which screened at the Sundance Festival in 1996.

"It's a lot more common than you think. It's lawyers, doctors, athletes, everybody," co-owner Robert Fluty said in the film. Fluty could not be reached for comment, and messages left on the club's voice mail were not returned. On its Web site, the club lists candle-wax dripping, electrostimulation, bondage, role play and flogging among its services. Sessions cost $185 dollars an hour and are by appointment only. Rooms are thematic and feature floor-to-ceiling mirrors, bondage beds and trusses. One room, called The Inquisition Lair, features a leather-strap cage and a St. Andrew's Cross. Another called "The Clinic," is described as "the ultimate for medical role play."

Dan Savage notes: "It’s dangerous to leave a tied-up person alone—every kinkster knows that—and you would think that the staff of New York City’s legendary Nutcracker Suite, a world-famous domination studio, would know better than to leave a tied-up client alone. Perhaps you can leave someone alone—briefly, and so long as they’re within earshot—if your bondage partner is simply tied to a bed, or comfortably strapped to a bondage board, or locked in a cage. Your “victim” can feel isolated and helpless, if that’s what turns ‘em on, and you can be back in a flash if he or she starts to panic and call out or, you know, if there’s a sudden and unexpected earthquake or electrical fire. But it’s absolutely nuts to leave someone alone in suspension bondage."

I'm betting there will be no outcry from the health department to close this straight sex club.