Lief Bound and Icarus

Lief Bound (He/They) is an internationally renowned rope artist and educator, based in San Francisco, California. First starting his rope journey in 2013 at rope conventions and skill shares, Lief had difficulty being respected by male instructors in classroom settings. This motivated him to teach, at that time as a queer femme rope top, hoping more folks could feel safer when learning rope bondage.
Since coming out as trans masculine, Lief now builds community spaces where fellow queer and trans folks can grow in their own rope journeys. He has also developed ties that are more inclusive, sustainable, and expansive of the traditional rope bondage he learned at the beginning of his journey.
Lief teaches at rope conventions and rope studios all around the world and hopes to come to your city one day. He is honored to bring more queer and trans representation to Shibari Study.  
“If you want to do rope bondage, it's for you. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise,”

Icky(He/They) is a queer, non-binary, switchy pain enthusiast who started their rope bottoming exploration in 2013 and began tying in 2020. Their teaching has developed in kink in tandem with their work with trauma survivors, focusing on intersectionality and exploring power dynamics in consent negotiations. Icarus now resides in San Francisco where they are most passionate about building systems of community care and creating queer performance art with their kink family.