Matthias T. J. Grimme

Matthias T. J. Grimme is a German author, publisher, photographer and rope teacher based in Hamburg. German Wikipedia describes him as a writer of books on BDSM, fetish and bondage, a publisher of sadomasochistic literature and magazines, and a rope artist. He is co-owner of Charon-Verlag in Hamburg, a publisher specializing in BDSM and fetish literature, where he edits texts and works with authors and photographers. He also publishes the magazine Schlagzeilen, which the same article calls the best-selling regularly published magazine of the SM subculture, and he edited the 35-volume book series Böse Geschichten & schmutzige Fotos.

Books

Wikipedia lists Das SM-Handbuch, in its eleventh edition by 2014, and Das Bondage-Handbuch, both from Charon. The German National Library records a completely revised edition of the SM handbook in 2018, and its entry for the 2018 printing of the bondage handbook describes it as the sixteenth edition and puts the total print run at 80,000 copies. In 2011 he added Japan-Bondage, a special volume of the bondage handbook devoted to Japanese-style rope. He edited two further SM handbook volumes, the second of which, Das Session-Kochbuch, he edited with Andrea Grimme; it received a European Fetish Award in 2010. Earlier, in 1988, Rowohlt published his Käufliche Träume, on experiences with pornography.

Workshops and performance

The sources date the start of his teaching slightly differently. His own studio, Bondage Project Hamburg, says he has offered workshops on various topics since about 1996, and German Wikipedia dates his workshops and performances on BDSM and Japanese bondage to 1998. Both agree on the shift to rope: since 2001, the studio says, he has taught mainly rope bondage and Japanese-inspired bondage, together with Rope-Cat (Nicole). According to the studio, he traveled to Tokyo several times, saw the techniques of many different shibari masters and picked out what he found most exciting for himself and his students. The two describe their teaching as deliberately free of a fixed scheme: they teach technique, basics and safe procedures, but communication through the rope comes first, and they call mindfulness, safety and consent the foundation of their work.

Wikipedia records his photography and film project Bondage Project and his Rope Art work from around 2000. From 2000 he and Ropecat also performed on stage together, more than a thousand shows over twenty-five years by his own count in a 2025 interview. That interview announced their farewell show at the Passion fair in Hamburg on 7 November 2025, and the Bondage Project chronology lists that appearance as their last official performance and twenty-fifth stage anniversary. He received a Lifetime Award at BoundCon in 2017. The studio names Nicole as his co-trainer and partner, and says the two shape the workshops together. They kept teaching after the farewell show: their schedule lists evening introductions to Japanese rope bondage and weekend intensive courses in Hamburg into 2027.