Hi. Quickmatchers, my name is zhaira.

I take a scientific approach to faith and life, but I do find something akin to spirituality when I start to focus on body manipulation. Flesh is a canvas that was meant to be modified. I don't care if it's a tattoo, a piercing, 'superficial' plastic surgery, scarification, brandings.. it doesn't matter. It's all taking that which you were given and making it your own. I *must* be altered. The euphoric, heady rush I get when I've changed myself makes my heart positively swell. I have had my fair share of cosmetic surgery, but I get the most satisfaction from more seemingly primal alterations - scarifications, tattoos, piercings, and brandings. Mmm. Change.

My relationship status is best described as being perennially, flirtatiously single. I am always interested in someone, or more likely, someones, but I'm not really in it for the deep, heavy emotional entanglement that most people seem to be looking for or craving. I am, without a doubt, polyamorous, because I feel like having to place artificial limits on the amount I can care for any given person in order to placate someone else's preconceived idea of what a relationship 'should be' is foreign and alien -- but the term that probably applies best to me would be polyfuckery. My ideal relationship is a series of first and second dates that never goes anywhere but is accompanied by the occasional home run.

OKCupid has me marked as gay. Gay is an alright approximation of my sexuality, but is not exactly what I'd call accurate. Lately, I identify as queer -- for me, this means that I am largely almost entirely disinterested in cisgendered men. I *am* interested in -- to name a few options -- cisgendered females, transwomen, some transmen, genderqueers, other gender-fluid identity options, androgynes, non-gendered partners, and most other options involving biological females, specifically. I realize this is a form of gender and sexual nerdery the rest of the population does not normally get into, but, hey -- welcome to San Francisco.

I expect my partners - and to a lesser extent, those I call my friends - to be confident, intelligent, creative, and in control of their lives and the things that affect it. Life shouldn't have to be *work*, life should be fun, enjoyable, and satisfying. To that end, I eschew drama and its trappings. Sometimes this means cutting off ties to certain people at certain times, but I believe the quality of my life improves for it, and selfish or not, the quality of my own life is what matters most to me.

In a nutshell? I'm a social, sexual scientist, ever evaluating my findings and updating techniques. I'm a stable, relaxed, adorably precious tramp.

You can also find me on Myspace, or pretty much anywhere else you see the name "zhaira."

Editors

• tkd_pdx

I'm meeting new people, having adventures in the city, and generally just living day to day and enjoying myself. Mortality is too fleeting not to.

As above, I'm trying to avoid long-term relationships of any weighty substance, because I'd rather have friends I flirt with and play around with, and avoid the oh-so unnecessary emotional trappings that most people associate with sex. Historically, they've proven far too burdening and restrictive.

I do actually have long-term goals, but I prefer to focus only on short-term ones. Life is more fun that way.

Using computers, sleeping, music games, sneering lasciviously, flirting with girls, dropping things, sarcasm, going out to nice restaurants with dates, putting things I've clumsily broken back exactly as they were before so that someone else thinks it's their fault, rhythm and reflexes, and being honest while simultaneously being polite. Lately, I've also been getting better at kissing, but since that was frequently left out of almost all prior sexual encounters, I have some catching up to do.

Being a precocious, filthy, unabashed harlot.

Editors

• hexslinger

I used to have a trio of microdermal anchors studded between my cleavage, along my breastbone, but ultimately decided they were a bit too impractical, so now it's a trio of tiny little scars. People are either looking at those, or my tits. I am proud of both options. If I have a backless dress or top on (or, perhaps, no top on at all), then there is also the lingering and likely possibility that they are eying my lesbian zombie rape tattoo.

Books: Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), the Chronicles of Chrestomanci (Diana Wynne Jones), Dune (Frank Herbert), the Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood), Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling), H.P. Lovecraft, the Illuminatus! trilogy (Robert Anton Wilson), the Principia Discordia (Discordians), Snowcrash (Neal Stephenson), the Time Quartet series (Madeleine L'Engle), the Young Wizards series (Diane Duane)

Movies: Baraka, Blade Runner, Dune, Hackers, Indiana Jones, the Neverending Story, Princess Mononoke, Requiem For a Dream, Secretary, Spirited Away, Vampire Hunter D, Zoolander

TV: 24, Dead Like Me, The L Word, Mythbusters

Music Artists: Amon Tobin, Apoptygma Berzerk, At The Drive In, Black Tape for a Blue Girl, BT, Buckethead, Dead Can Dance, Delerium, DJ Shadow, Freezepop, Garbage, Gatecrasher, godspeed you! black emperor, KMFDM, Lords of Acid, Lovage, Mike Patton, Mindless Self Indulgence, the Police, Sigur Rós, Tori Amos, Type O Negative, Unwoman, VNV Nation ... to name a few across the board.

Music Genres: industrial, jazz, techno, trip-hop, new wave, synthpop, experimental, ambient, ethereal, darkwave, futurepop, electronica, hardcore, post punk, and a little bit of rock.

Food: All-vegetarian kinds of: sushi, mediterranean, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, and bread. I also really, really like Vitamin Water.

Body modification, flirting, emotional sturdiness (in myself and others), honesty, physical beauty, and physical intimacy.

New and interesting ways to be hurt and experience pain at the hands of cruel sadists.

Sex. I would include the disclaimer, "like any other warm-blooded San Franciscan," but oh, god, believe me -- I don't think of it at *all* like other people do.

Wild adventures that take me all over the country. Usually these don't actually occur, but, well. You never know.

Flirting with pretty people.

The possible results of carelessly meddling with my psyche.

And, of course, Hermione/Snape. Yes, in "that way."

Since my schedule is variable, I'll take this to mean something more akin to, "On a typical night out, I am.."

Dancing. I *love* dancing, and lately I'm often out at the DNA Lounge (for Death Guild, MEAT, or something else), or sometimes the Glas Kat, for Bondage a-Go-Go. I'm also occasionally found at the Cat Club, because not *everything* I dance to necessitates me being in all black.

I also really enjoy dating, so maybe I'm out flirting over a table, somewhere. Or bent over a table, somewhere. Whatever.

I am a MtF transsexual. Colloquially, this may also be encapsulated by such charming terms as "shemale," "chick with a dick," or less-offensively, "transgirl." I don't really identify as female; I more accurately identify as femme. That's a gender, right?

I'm a sex worker.

Perhaps counterintuitively, then, I am *not just looking for sex*, since while sex can certainly be *fun*, and I *do* enjoy it, it isn't really particularly much to build any kind of relationship on unless the person I am doing so with is as sex-oriented as I am. Most people are not as sex-oriented as I am.

Therefore, I'm *additionally* interested in seeing someone if I can play some card game that has twenty minutes of rules and examples beforehand, or someone to roll excessively-sided dice with over a table; I do like the sweaty, fevered grinding of flesh against flesh, but there's not much I can *do* with it, aside from the obvious.

There is not much intimacy in my life, most likely as a result of me not having any idea of what to do with it... but don't get me wrong; I prefer it this way. I may not actually be avoiding it, but please -- don't try to save or fix me. Save us both the trouble.

You want to?

I love new dancing partners to go out to clubs with. Yay!

I like doing lunch or dinner dates to get to know people better, even if things don't work out.

I am always oh-so eager to meet gorgeous, confident, self-sufficient girls who have a pervy and dirty streak that left just being a 'streak' behind long, long ago. Be shamelessly painted in it, you hussy.