From the archive… Maria Tortuga

This collection of scans of work from the archive of bondage model and porn actress Maria Tortuga was donated to the Tom of Finland Foundation archive by Daniel W. Meins.

What a surprise to find so many treasures in this box! Although much of the information about Tortuga’s life remains hidden under the cover of time and the internet. This collection is currently getting processed into ToFF’s collection of erotic art and ephemera.

Tortuga was known as a popular bondage model and porn actress in the 1970s and 1980s appearing in the beautiful Submit magazine, many editions of Velvet Magazine and Sean Harper’s Bondage Apartment, in addition to several Gerard Damiano, and Bill Margold films. She was born in Seattle in 1949, pursued conceptual art in California, and later became an accomplished Flamenco and Spanish dancer.

Apart from working in porno for those years, she pursued independent projects with local photographers in Los Angeles, like the mysterious Charlie Airwaves (pictured above). Tortuga found joy in the many ways to feel pleasure.

To her peers at that time she was a striking presence, and found her own passion in expressing her sexuality through her body and imagery and playing with make-up, toys, posters, plastic and even… turtles!

Actor and screenwriter, Tiffany Clark, speaking on Maria Tortuga, said “Maria was one of the most sensual women I ever worked with. She had that sexy librarian look, where she’d take off her glasses, shake out her hair, and all of a sudden she was this amazing sexual being. There weren’t many women that I performed with that aroused me — I was more interested in the men — but Maria was an exception. Maria genuinely turned me on.”

-Catalina Bulgach, Archivist, ToFF 

Thank you to Ashley West, who has been publishing the results of incredibly wide research into the porn history for several years.

Published: 18th January 2024

Categorised in: History