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Designing the Ownership Icons

The Ownership Icons allow people in the Ownership Subculture to show their involvement in the subculture, their status and orientation. The icons were initially used by the The Slave Register, but the graphics are now available here in a range of sizes. All of these designs and image files are copyright, but may be reproduced freely for commercial or non-commercial purposes without prior permission.

In creating the icons, I wanted a set of designs that would be still be clear as tiny 16x16 icons on a web page, or blown up to 10 inches square on a T-shirt. They had to have the option of indicating gender, and whether the individual is owner or owned. They also had to have a clear symbolism corresponding to their meaning (which makes them easier to remember), but without being obvious to vanilla by-passers in public.

Male	Female

The first question was how to indicate gender, since all the other designs would have to accomodate the gender symbol. Symbols for the planets have existed for hundreds of years, and Mars and Venus are used as a shorthand for male and female sexes in biology. To simplify things, I chose to use only the arrow (male) and cross (female) from these symbols.

Since it's easier to design with squarer, symmetric symbols, I put the gender symbol inside each icon rather than sticking out, as in the Mars and Venus symbols. This meant I needed a set of "containers" for these symbols, showing owner or owned.

	Male	Female

So I placed the gender symbol in the middle of a shield, and a blank shield can be used by people not wanting to indicate gender. This convention also allows heads of household to base personal designs on a shield (and the TS monogram and shield I use at the bottom of webpages is an example.)

	Male	Female

Again the gender symbol is placed in the centre of the design, with a blank icon also provided which doesn't indicate gender, and which can be the basis of personalised icons.

	Male	Female

Instead, I put the gender icons inside broken squares, just consisting of the corners with 4 gaps, one gap in the middle of each side. This represents an unlocked/open cage, and ensures that the outline is different to the previous two types. For me, using a cage in the symbol suggests that a submissive seeking enslavement isn't really free: they're a prisoner of their unwanted freedom in many ways. (And if you want to think of new slaves being dragged out of a holding cage, auctioned off and then collared, you're welcome to that too...)

Collar Shield	Ownership Flag

All of these designs and image files are copyright, but may be reproduced freely for commercial or non-commercial purposes without prior permission.

Tanos

Background

The Hanky Code

The Mars and Venus symbols.