Visual artists are using the coronavirus crisis as a chance to showcase their skills — by making sexy face masks with used panties and kinky tongues.
New York City artist Hannah Bates is selling face masks fashioned from her used panties — and hawking them for a hefty $950 per mask, which she calls “pantyrespirators.”
The “pantyrespirators” come with a legal warning that they are not intended to replace medical respirators.
“These masks are not intended to protect the user from inhalation of any irritant, or inhalation or spread of any bacteria, or virus, including COVID-19, or any other germ,” her website reads.
Bates, a multidisciplinary artist, uses her work to “explore women, gender and sexuality,” according to her website.
“I make face masks out of my used panties and sell them for roughly the price of an abortion,” the product description on her website reads.
The mask project is an act of protest against the states that have shut down abortion clinics for being elective or nonessential during the pandemic, Bates said in an interview with Dazed.
The inclusion of used panties is also meant to explore sex positivity and the boom of cybersex during the coronavirus lockdowns, she added.
“There’s a surge in supply and demand for cybersex during this crisis, as we are isolated in our apartments and lacking touch,” she said. “People are getting creative with their outlets for sex, and I believe the sex-positivity around communication and exploration that comes from that is beautiful.”
Bates isn’t the only one producing underwear-inspired masks.
Icelandic artist Ýr Jóhannsdóttir also designed wearable-art face masks during her isolation, featuring kinky-looking tongues dangling off the knit mask.
“I made them to cheer up people in difficult times — [with] the idea of them also being kind of scary, making people stay away. I’m very happy they are making other people happy,” Jóhannsdóttir tells The Post.
The masks are not yet for sale, Jóhannsdóttir says, as she tries to figure out what to do with them — but hopes they can inspire awareness and influence others to knit.
“They take such a long time to make, I’m still thinking about what to do with them. They’re not really meant to be worn for safety, it’s more the idea of them keeping people away,” Jóhannsdóttir says.
The fashionable masks come after furriers in New York City also switched gears to produce masks.