Kai Tri-rotational Symmetry

I already know this isn’t going to be a long post, but I got it into my head that I wanted to write something about triskelions, so it’s probably best to just get it out of my system.

This is something I actually started thinking about way back when DW and I first started exploring the possibility of a relationship. He was talking about how he was thinking of getting one as a tattoo, to indicate his attachment to BDSM, and I couldn’t really figure what the two had to do with each other. This is bearing in mind two things: 1) I had not yet read The Story of O (which will get its own post if I can ever figure out how to put one together), and 2) triskelions are used as symbols of (loosely) everything. Countries, cultures, ideologies, special interest groups… you name it.

Now… there is one triskelion design in particular that has been appropriated by the “BDSM community”* as its own. My understanding is that the design is based on descriptions from the aforementioned The Story of O, though after reading the book I feel it’s mostly a speculative interpretation. (Seeing the design first, I can read the relevant passages and see how they came up with it, but I doubt I would have been able to derive the design from the descriptions provided.) All that aside, though, lots of organizations etc. have triskelion insignias, each one specific in some way, and BDSM is no exception.

But here is the part that interests me: there are those who have come to associate triskelions other than “the” triskelion with BDSM. DW is one: the tattoo that he wants is separate, as is the necklace he wears. I’ve come to view things the same way, for whatever reason, and wear yet another triskelion around my neck. What I have come away with is that any unclaimed design with threefold rotational symmetry (e.g. one that hasn’t been assigned to a country, political party, etc. and so forth) can be used to symbolize anything that contains three aspects. In Japanese shintō, there is no specific triskelion insignia that unifies all shintō shrines (according, at least, to the one priest I spoke to), and even the meaning of the divisions can differ—the two examples that I heard were rice-salt-water and man-woman-God. Basically, any three elements that together comprise life. For those unfamiliar with the BDSM usage, the threefold split corresponds to BD (bondage and discipline), DS (domination and submission), and SM (sadism and masochism). (It might have been completely unnecessary to parse that out, since if anyone reads this it’ll most likely be someone interested in or involved in the scene or lifestyle already, but hey… can’t hurt to mention it.)

I suppose that, in a sense, having a non-specific insignia can be advantageous. People involved in BDSM can wear an “unassigned” triskelion and still feel like they are representing their interests and/or lifestyle without automatically outing themselves to the general public. On the other hand, since triskelions can symbolize so many things, one that isn’t specific to the BDSM community might fail to ping relevant parties… at least outside of conventions, play parties, or similar gatherings.

How is any of this important? In all honesty, it isn’t. Not really. I have a triskelion necklace that I bought with DW, because, among other reasons, I wanted something to make me think of him and be a sort of spiritual companion to his own necklace. I associate it in my mind with whatever place BDSM has in my life, and even if nobody else realizes the symbol’s significance to me, I do. It feels good to wear it around my neck.

*In quotes because in my experience, every community has offshoots and subgroups and fringes, while the bit that is generally recognized as "the community" is basically the core, visible majority. Or, if not the majority, just the most visible aspect. As a case in point, I can't count myself as part of the BDSM community because I have no solid ties to it at this time.