Eccy: grotty and gritty.

I met Eccy at Ben Saunders' trans masc art exhibition, awkwardly chatting over the artwork as we were both there by ourselves. As time went on, we have since worked together on multiple projects. 

Eccy is a sex worker who escorts, performs, cams and is a content creator. Jumping into the world of escorting at eighteen, Eccy's average day is now just like other sex workers and content creators, mostly admin work. Editing content, uploading to online sites like OnlyFans, answering emails about bookings, and promoting themselves on social media. I had a chat with Eccy to talk about how he found himself down this path.

How did you get into your line of work? 

“I first got into it because I didn't have any qualifications, and I didn't go to school. (I thought,) this will at least get me dinner money. I was like, I can at least get noodles with this, right? And, yeah, I started as a full-service escort, and then it progressed from there into more online work, as I got a phone that wasn't a trap phone, essentially.”

Did you have friends within the scene before, or did it take a while for you to develop a sense of community?

“I only found community in about the last two years (ish), I was doing sex work for about four years before I kind of actually knew anyone that was in it; everyone I knew was in hospitality. The years where I was doing it without knowing anyone else in the industry definitely took more of a toll on me mentally.”

Is sex work something you can envision yourself doing long-term, now that you have a more solid mental support system backing you?

“My plan going forward is to continue what I'm doing and go forward into making trans porn for trans people, highlighting authentic trans experiences in sex. I have a project I want to start working on: a short film documentary on the life of being a trans-masc sex worker.”

Can you share a little more about your short film? 

“It's very early days, but I am really excited about it. It's something I really care quite a lot about, because there isn't much trans mask representation in the industry at all”

Have you found the lack of representation hinders your work at all, or has it spurred you on further? 

“I think a bit of both, we're quite niche still. There aren't many of us, so the people who do want to find us will find us very quickly. The people who booked me a lot, I know what they're looking for, and it is trans guys. But it's harder to research the experiences… So you feel insane, especially when I first started. I was she/her for work as a trans guy, and I thought I was insane for doing that. And now, I've met others. Apparently, we all did that, and I'm not unique.”

Why did you feel the need to use she/her pronouns if you had already transitioned? 

“I think there were quite a few reasons. One of them was safety. I thought if I made it as minimal a niche as humanly possible, I'd be less at risk of violence, because a lot of people see trans people as a target. Another one was just to guarantee more income, because I hadn't found my market yet, and I didn't know how to fight in my market. I don't know who ever looked at me and went, Oh, that's a woman… I don't think anyone ever called me a girl, ever. I think they all were like, I know you're not that. I remember one of my clients asking me if I knew that I was nonbinary. And I'm like, Yeah, I do. I'm aware that's fine. You've not made a revelation for me. I know.”

How have you been finding the transition between catering your work to those who possibly fetishise you, to those who relate to you? 

“It's done a lot better recently. I think trans people know what trans people like, and it is just grotty and gritty. Especially with my following online, its a lot more like trans and non binary and gender queer and gender fuck you in the last three years, which is really nice, especially when I used to get loads of comments from like roundabout men on my Twitter posts, and I still do, but now I get more comments from people that I'm like are actually really hot. That's great. Hell yeah.”

Can you explain what your live performances consist of to any unknowing readers?

“Right, people keep asking me this. I don't know, because I can't consider it burlesque, because it isn't sensual or seductive, what so fucking ever… someone described me as messy horror punk. And I like that a lot. My performances are very messy. I don't really plan my routine much before I go on, either. A lot of my performances are based on how I'm feeling in the moment and how I want to be perceived. I can do the same act, the same song, and it comes off two very different ways.”

“When I started performing, I actually thought I was going to be a well-polished, burlesque performer. I was like, Yeah, I'm gonna get a robe. That is not what's happened. I performed in a hoodie once. I tried (performing) with red paint, I thought, I fucking love this. This makes me feel confident as a performer, and it kind of makes me stand out just a little bit, because there are a lot of performers who do similar to what I do, but none of them do it with the mess. And I'm fine with the mess. Everyone close to me has seen me duct tape binbags at least once.”

Do you carry bin bags around with you just in case? 

“I actually do have a role in my bag that I bring to every show just in case. If I decide I want to get messy. Not all the time, but sometimes I'm like, but I could.”

What is your most successful form of work, and does it align with your favourite form of work? 

“I'd probably say camming is my most successful form of work, because it's immediate income, so you know what you're earning each day. When creating content, you're not sure if you could spend a week making a video, and you're not sure if it'll make you any money. Whereas I'm quite relaxed when it comes to my camming, I don't do cam shows. I just do private and group sessions. So kind of just leave it on in my bedroom for the day, and when it dings, I go to it, like a slave to capitalism. When it starts getting sunny, it's quite depressing to just be sitting inside my flat all day (thinking) I could be making stuff with other people and interacting with the outside world, and I'm not. I'm just here tied to my laptop, but I don't find content too consistent or reliable enough to stop camming.”

And what would you say is your favourite? 

“Oh, making content. I love making silly gay porn. I like making it with a bit of whimsy. It needs whimsy, or I don't care about it. Not to a point where someone couldn't jerk off to it, but it's the point where they giggle a little bit occasionally.”

“My content can include things from a 12-person clown orgy, to me fisting someone's dad and just like, no middle ground between. Everyone's work has a lot of variety. There's a bit of something for everyone.”

Do you remember when you first learned about sex work and then again, maybe thinking it was an option for you?

“I don't think I ever properly delved into researching what sex work was. I kind of just started selling nudes on Snapchat. And was like, yeah, that works. And then someone called me a hooker. And I was like, Huh? And like, I was like, 16, 17, but I just came from being in care. So I was quite sheltered. I was always quite a sexual person. I was like, Ah, I can make money from this, amazing, let's do that. I started researching it more. It was okay to have no education. It's okay that I don't have a stable living environment. It's okay that I can't guarantee getting to somewhere every single day for certain hours because I don't know where I stayed in the night before, and it just felt a bit more it was the flexibility of it that really appealed to me in the situation I was in, still, the situation I'm in now, just for different reasons.”

If you want to learn more about Eccy then you can check out his Instagram at @chaosgoblin2.0 !