:Van Darkholme

Van used to work in corporate, when he became a masseur to earn extra income.

He then worked as a fashion and photographic model, also pursuing photography as a hobby.{{Cite magazine |url=https://qxmen.com/pdf/qxmen07.pdf |magazine=QXMEN |title=Male Bondage by Van Darkholme |pages=56 |date=February 2007}}

He had minor roles in the movies The Adventurers (1995), in which he played the role of Xiao Hei, leader of the San Francisco based Vietnamese Black Tiger gang;{{Cite web |title=[達人專欄] Deep♂Dark♂Fantasy深邃♂黑暗♂幻想，哲學♂家：范.達克霍姆Van Darkholme。 - 巴哈姆特 |url=https://home.gamer.com.tw/creationDetail.php?sn=4172710 |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=巴哈姆特電玩資訊站}} and Who Am I? (1998), in which he played Takashi (uncredited).{{Cite web |title=Van Darkholme |url=https://watch.plex.tv/person/van-darkholme |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=watch.plex.tv |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Cast – Who Am I? |url=https://en.kinorium.com/113527/cast/ |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=Kinorium |language=en}}

Van's first porn video was TitanMen's 3 Easy Pieces, which was shot in 1999 but released in 2001;{{Cite web |title=3 Easy Pieces {{!}} TitanMen Gay Porn Movies @ Gay DVD Empire |url=https://www.gaydvdempire.com/39519/3-easy-pieces-gay-porn-movies.html |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=gaydvdempire.com}} while the first to be released was Can-Am Productions' Lords of the Lockerroom (2000).{{Cite web |title=LORDS OF THE LOCKERROOM DVD |url=https://ropemall.com/products/lords-of-the-lockerroom-dvd |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030131529/https://ropemall.com/products/lords-of-the-lockerroom-dvd |archive-date=2020-10-30 |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=Ropemall}} Muscle Bound Productions' White Rope (2001), featuring bondage, was the first video he wrote, directed and produced.

In the documentary 101 Rent Boys (2000), that explored the lives of male prostitutes in Los Angeles, he had appeared as a "Japanese 'slavemaster' in full fetish regalia" (#90).{{Cite web |last=Harvey |first=Dennis |date=2000-07-17 |title=101 Rent Boys |url=https://variety.com/2000/film/reviews/101-rent-boys-1200463436/ |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=Variety |language=en-US}} In it he mentions that he wanted to be a movie star, but when he didn't find success, he started doing escort work and became a "dungeon master".{{Cite web |last=Starkey |first=Dan |date=2017-10-17 |title=Deep Dark Fantasies Is A Game That Doesn't Understand Kink |url=https://kotaku.com/deep-dark-fantasies-is-a-game-that-doesnt-understand-ki-1819542336 |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=Kotaku |language=en}}{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmfCiUsEj7M |title=101 Rent Boys of San Francisco: #90 Van Darkholme |language=en |access-date=2024-05-04 |via=youtube.com}}

In just a couple of years in the gay porn industry, Van became "the world's biggest gay Asian porn star".{{Cite web |date=2002-08-07 |title=Lion City has gay pride |url=https://www.scmp.com/article/387453/lion-city-has-gay-pride |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=South China Morning Post |language=en}} In 2002, he attended the Nation.02 gay party in Singapore held on the occasion of National Day,{{Cite web |last=Tan |first=Alvin |date=2006-10-19 |title=nation retrospective 2001-2003 |url=https://www.fridae.asia/gay-news/2006/10/19/1724.nation-retrospective-2001-2003 |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=fridae.asia |language=en}} and an Internet auction for "Dinner with Van" fetched $12,000– with 100% of the proceeds going to Action for AIDS (Singapore) and other development programs for the GLBT community.{{Cite web |date=2002-07-26 |title=van darkholme dinner auction to benefit charity |url=https://www.fridae.asia/gay-news/2002/07/26/401.van-darkholme-dinner-auction-to-benefit-charity |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=fridae.asia |language=en}}

Van, a shibari aficionado, started utilizing this Japanese style of tying in his bondage and photographic work in 2004. In 2006, Bruno Gmunder published a book of Darkholme's bondage photography titled Male Bondage: Art Deserves a Witness.{{Cite book |last=Darkholme |first=Van |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8EPAAAAACAAJ |title=Male Bondage: Art Deserves a Witness |date=2006 |publisher=Gmünder |isbn=978-3-86187-990-9 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Kline |first=Kevin Mark |date=2010-09-27 |title=Darkholme :: Bound Gods, Sweet Subjugation {{!}} EDGE United States |url=https://www.edgemedianetwork.com/story/110716 |access-date=2025-03-29 |website=EDGE Media Network |language=en}}

After reading an article about Kink.com, Van– who had been a BDSM enthusiast since the mid 1990s{{Cite web |title=Index of /1993-2014/images |url=https://www.photos-biron.com/1993-2014/images/ |access-date=2025-03-30 |website=www.photos-biron.com}}– contacted the founder Peter Acworth;{{Cite web |last=Fleshbot |title=Man On The Edge: An Interview With Kink's Van Darkholme |url=https://fleshbot.com/magazine/man-on-the-edge-an-interview-with-kinks-van-darkholme/ |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=Fleshbot |language=en}} and in 2008, the company launched a gay bondage site named 'Bound Gods' with Darkholme as the director, under a new gay-focused division, KinkMen.com.{{Cite web |last=Rice |first=G. Zisk |date=2008-04-14 |title=Kink.com Hires Van Darkholme |url=https://avn.com/news/gay/kink-com-hires-van-darkholme-87534 |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=AVN}}{{cite news |date=4 August 2008 |title=Kink.com Launches First Gay Bondage Site |url=https://avn.com/business/articles/gay/kink-com-launches-first-gay-bondage-site-54040.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180126185315/https://avn.com/business/articles/gay/kink-com-launches-first-gay-bondage-site-54040.html |archive-date=January 26, 2018 |access-date=26 January 2018 |website=Adult Video News}}

Van gained further recognition as a bondage master after he started working for Kink.com.{{Cite web |date=2011-12-09 |title=Metalbond Q&A: Meeting Van Darkholme {{!}} MetalbondNYC.com |url=https://metalbondnyc.com/meeting-van-darkholme/ |access-date=2024-05-04 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Feist |first=Jeremy |date=2012-04-18 |title=Diet kink: same taste, zero brains {{!}} Xtra Magazine |url=https://xtramagazine.com/love-sex/diet-kink-same-taste-zero-brains-4174 |access-date=2024-05-04 |language=en-CA}}

In 2009, his photographic work was featured in visual artist Trevor Wayne's self-published magazine Pin-Up Show.{{Cite web |last=Wells |first=Duane |date=2009-09-11 |title=Trevor Wayne's Pin-Up Show |url=https://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/people/2009/09/11/trevor-wayne%E2%80%99s-pin-show |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=advocate.com |language=en}} Paul Chan made a drawing titled Oh Van Darkholme as a part of his Sade project in the same year.{{Cite journal |last1=Gilbert |first1=Alan |last2=Schmidt |first2=Suzanne |date=2011 |title=Paul Chan: the body inscribed : Paul Chan's sade project = auf den Leib geschrieben : Paul Chans Sade-Projekt |url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=ptt-001:2011:0::621#104 |journal=Parkett: The Parkett series with contemporary artists = die Parkett-Reihe mit Gegenwartskünstlern |volume=- |issue=88 |pages=94 |doi=10.5169/seals-679753 |issn=0256-0917}}

Van appeared as himself in an episode of the TV series BadComedian in 2011.

He also starred in the documentary Kink (2013) about Kink.com. In it he mentions how corporal punishment in Catholic boarding-school education planted the seed of BDSM for him,{{Cite web |last=Lodge |first=Guy |date=2013-01-23 |title=Kink |url=https://variety.com/2013/film/markets-festivals/kink-1117949061/ |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=Variety |language=en-US}} and that he grew up fantasizing about whipping the muscular football players he saw on TV.{{Cite web |last=Hunt |first=Drew |date=2014-08-18 |title=Review: Kink |url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/kink/ |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=Slant Magazine |language=en-US}} Describing his relationship as a director with models who take the submissive roles in his films, he says– “I respect and love the subs when I’m working . . . I care for them a lot.”{{Cite journal |last=Davin |first=Julie E. |date=2017-04-01 |title="We control it on our end, and now it's up to you" -- Exploitation, Empowerment, and Ethical Portrayals of the Pornography Industry |url=https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/543 |journal=Student Publications |page=18}}

He started streaming on Twitch in 2020, and started a YouTube channel as well.

Van became famous in Japan as an Internet meme, after a clip from his gay porn movie Lords of the Lockerroom was posted on Nico Nico Douga in 2008. He was nicknamed VAN-sama (Japanese: VAN様) by his fans. He also had another nickname, TDN Kosugi (TDNコスギ), because his looks resembled Kazuhito Tadano (who was called TDN) and Kane Kosugi.{{Cite web |date=2008-06-22 |title=TDNコスギとは (タダノコスギとは) [単語記事] |url=https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/tdn%E3%82%B3%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AE |access-date=2025-03-29 |website=ニコニコ大百科 |language=ja}}

Deep Dark Fantasies, a 2017 visual novel about a pornstar who runs a BDSM dungeon, was inspired by fan-made mash-up videos of Darkholme posted on Nico Nico Douga. The main character Van is a loose amalgam of Van Darkholme and the characters he has played on screen. In his review, Dan Starkey from Kotaku criticized the game for misrepresenting kink.

Van was born in Vietnam. He immigrated to the US as a child, and lived in the Midwest as a farm boy, before moving to Los Angeles.{{Cite web |date=2014-08-12 |title=San Francisco Bay Guardian |url=https://issuu.com/sf.guardian/docs/48.46 |access-date=2024-05-05 |website=issuu.com |page=40 |language=en}}

• List of actors in gay pornographic films
• Gachimuchi

{{reflist}}

• {{imdbname|1449637}}
• [https://www.iafd.com/person.rme/id=6f76dcb1-bdd0-47ed-bd9e-5057f7b039ae Van Darkholme] at IAFD
• [https://www.twitch.tv/vansamaofficial Van Darkholme] on Twitch

{{catimprove|date=April 2025}}

Category:1972 births

Category:Living people

Category:Actors in gay pornographic films

Category:Internet memes

{{Wikiquote|Van Darkholme}}