Meet Chrys, the escort using art to normalise sex work (Credit: Chrys)
He arrives 30 minutes late to the interview, dressed in vintage army pants, a ripped t-shirt and bold, messy makeup. He describes his style as “streetwear meets a hooker with an element of nostalgia but contemporary elegance.”
Chrys, 24, currently works in a bar as a host, but he is also an aspiring artist, fashion designer, entrepreneur, and escort who wants to show the world he is normal — even though his job is anything but that.
Conservative traditionalists may view sex work as morally degenerate, while others may regard all sex workers as victims. Reality is more complicated. Many sex workers are subject to varying degrees of exploitation, trafficking and abuse. As inflation rises, the number of individuals forced to engage in ‘survival sex’ is higher, according to the Beyond the Streets charity. The organisation says this has become prevalent particularly among more vulnerable groups like women and asylum seekers.
But Chrys wants to show that sex work can also be an active choice, and in his case, a lucrative and enjoyable one. A night with him costs £1,200 but he says that his rates are higher than average. After his four years in the industry, he knows what he’s worth.
“I’m not interested anymore in the small one-offs,” Chrys explains. “I like to build a relationship. This one guy told me that connections and the networking you create in the next 10 years are going to make your career 10 years after that.”
Chrys knows how quickly people can judge his profession. Yet, he has not stayed quiet, or disguised his identity since realising his sexuality as a teenager living in Cyprus.
“If you wanna meet genuine people, you have to be genuine,” says Chrys.
Through his attitude to life, and now also through his art, he wants to educate people about sex work. “The fact that a person like me, that comes from a very traditional Christian Orthodox Greek family [is a sex worker] is within itself a breakage of the barrier,” Chrys states. “The fact that I’m trying to not only make myself seen but also allow everyone else to see the beauty behind what I’m doing.”
Creating art is now his primary focus. He still has four regular clients, but says he is not eager to find new ones. Most of his pieces are in digital drawings and paintings, but he also sculpts, designs clothes, and does photography.
As Chrys transitioned from working as a full-time escort, his art, paradoxically, became more sexual.
His newer pieces are mostly line work compositions of his penis — which is easier to see in some than in others. His favourite pieces are now being transformed into clothing designs or posters in his HomoCollection.
What became his first penis piece started out as a representation of a bunny. Looking back, he can see how the bunny could have evolved into the phallic forms that are now prevalent in his work.
“Bunnies look innocent, but they have a lot of sex. I also think that the first ever information about sex I received as a child was a Playboy magazine,” says Chrys.
Although the bunnies were not how he initially envisioned his work, he thinks they are an apt symbol for his belief that sex is natural and nothing to be ashamed of. Likewise, he doesn’t think that selling or buying sex should be seen as anything out of the ordinary.
“Sex is as natural to human beings as drinking water,” he claims. “But you can go to [the] off-licence and buy a bottle of water without being judged so why can’t you hire an escort without being judged?”
Chrys wants to use his art to express his experiences as a sex worker, and he is not shy about
his – now part-time – job. But he realises that it is still a difficult conversation for many people.
“It makes me happy. When I leave a conversation with people knowing that I gave them a little more information and a little bit more understanding and I soothed the stigma of being an escort or a sex worker,” he says.
