If so what did they skin mags contain, had drawn pics of nakedness?
Did porno exsist before the photograph? If not when was porno created for the first time (in a magazine, pictoral format)?
I’m not sure you would call them magazines by modern standards, but production of erotic prints go back a long time. Essentially, they were drawings representing sex acts, sometimes quite explicitely. I’d post links but I don’t think that’d go down well with the admin.
Don’t forget the frescoes in Pompeii - the brothels have very graphic paintings of sex, blow jobs, the works. When my mother was there in the early 1950s, only men were allowed to see them. The women were given tea or something. Annoyed my mother no end.
There weren’t magazines as you might understand them today, but gazillions of erotic drawings, vases, figurines, sculptures, and even graffiti, of all types, prices, and qualities have existed forever.
Why would anyone have needed a porn mag? Porn is a safe, watered down, fake vice. I think a visit to the local brothel for the real thing was what people did.
In addition to the artwork, let’s not forget the masses of written erotica (and less artistic stroke material) that was printed (and before that, copied by hand, no doubt).
Sure there were skin mags! But there were only FIVE copies of them. For the ENTIRE country.
I’ve heard people say (which is my weasely way of saying “I can’t provide a cite for this, but…”) that the second practical application of every communication medium in history has always been pornography.
The Pearl, a notorious English periodical, predated photography, IIRC. And there’s always the Kama Sutra.
There are prehistoric cave paintings and carved figurines of large breasted wide hipped women. When I studied a small amount of anthropology in college I remember these being described and the lecturer raving on about how they were thought to be ritual fertility symbols but admitted that this was basically speculation. My though at the time was that if there was a depiction of a large breasted naked woman painted on a wall these days no one would have much doubt it was there because it titivated or looked good. But for some reason the anthropology people felt the need to assign some sort of higher artistic or ritual motivation to the figurines when there was a perfectly simply explanation based on what we know of normal basic male human behaviour.
Some of 'em, sure, Princhester; but I defy anyone to get hot and bothered over the Willendorf Venus
I have seen pornography on pottery that is circa 2-3000 years old in museums in Rome.
Tsk tsk. Have you learned NOTHING from the Internet? Of COURSE there are people out there who would get hot and bothered over a morbidly obese woman with no face. Hell, I’m sure there were cro-magnons that got hot and bothered over the bison they painted at Lascaux.
The Moche culture of what is now northern Peru were absolute master ceramicists and made a great deal erotic pottery. Since it isn’t work safe and may not be SDMB safe, I’ll ask a mod before I post a link to reproductions of some of the pottery.
The medieval Japanese had the pornography thing nailed. I seem to remember the art was an offshoot of the ukiyo-e style. But it was very explicit stuff.
Of course, erotic art in Europe at the same time was probably drawn on vellum, which means there were real skin mags.
I just got a go ahead to post a link to the Moche pottery. This site has some reproductions of pieces. Actually, this stuff is pretty tame compared to the stuff that I saw in the Gold Museum in Lima.
The book “Sex or Symbol? Erotic images of Greece and Rome” is quite interesting.
Some of the images, were more of a “good luck” charm in nature than pornographic: such as the strange “winged phallus with bells on” (Tintinnabulum) shown in the book and which is also on display in the British Museum!
From my own experience . . . before I was old enough to have easy access to pornography, I would draw my own.
Was that too much info?
Well, you could make an argument that today’s porn is essentially ritual fertility paraphanailia. “I’ve heard people say” that porn is the #1 most common sexual aid (read fertility enhancer").
Try googling “Tijuana Bibles.” No photography there.