Interview with a vamp...pornstar [Tia Ling]

I'll be honest with you...you won't believe me but I'll say it anyway....I don't look at porn...[anymore lol...well, I may have done some research on Tia before our interview]. BUT, much like my fascination with organized crime and black market enterprises, I'm very intrigued with this whole sub-culture that is adult entertainment. I was curious how it works, what do they like doing? Do the actors do things they don't like doing? Do their families know?

What luck that in Cleveland, Ohio we have the lovely [and intelligent], Tia Ling. I was able to talk with her about all of the aforementioned topics along with some other things about what makes Tia tick.

Enjoy.

Essince: First of all, thanks for your time, ms. Tia Ling. I'll just come right out and say it, how [the heck] did you get involved in the adult entertainment industry? What made you want to?

Tia Ling: My boy friend at the time had a good friend that shot adult in the downtown Cleveland area.  Got my start there and next thing I knew [I] started shooting in Miami and ended up at the AVNs meeting an agent :) I love sex, I love money .... just seemed like a good combination, lol

Essince: [who doesn't. lol] Do you ever get recognized in the streets? Does your family know yet?

Tia Ling: Yes I do, not constantly, but I do. For some reason I seem to get recognized at airports and grocery stores a lot, lol, but no, my family actually does not know. At least if they do they've never said anything.

Essince: I follow you on twitter and I see some of the things people [men] say and as unsurprising as it is...it's still surprising. lol. Does it bother you having to interact as Tia Ling the pornstar 24 hours a day and not just off-camera you?

Tia Ling: Nah, doesn't bother me .... I really enjoy interacting with the fans.  Some of them can be a bit crude, lol. But most of the time it's all in good fun.  If someone gets out of line, I let them know about it.

Essince: [Pardon my ignorance] Are there managers and agents in the adult entertainment industry? Or do you kind of have to learn and do industry things on your own?

Tia Ling: Yes there are agents.  My first couple years in the business I needed one. After that I learned to book myself mostly. I seemed to be booking a lot of my own stuff through agents and paying them for my work, just didn't seem to make sense.

Ess: Do you do your work from here in OH? I see more advertising about working here but thought of it more as a California business.

TL: I do a lot of stuff for my website here in Ohio at a local studio in Cleveland called Voodoo Media Group. However, most of the larger dvd stuff is shot in LA / Miami.

Ess: Are the films you're marketed in your sexual turn ons in real life? What do you like doing?

TL: Most of the stuff I shoot I do truly enjoy, even some of the extreme fetish stuff. However, there have been a couple scenes that I just wished I had never done lol. (With the exception of getting paid) I just didn't enjoy them. I've been very lucky though in that I've been able to really enjoy 95 % of my scenes. There's not a lot I don't like sexually, though :)

Ess: What's your best work experience?

TL: I'm assuming you mean best scene for adult, I'd say it's a toss up between quite a few, but Invasian 3 and Asian Fucking Nation 3 always stood out in my mind.

Ess: I remember hearing your first kiss wasn't until college...how did you jump from being a late bloomer into this? lol. Kinda making up for lost time?

TL: Haha , well I was definetely a late bloomer. [I] lost my virginity my freshman year of college. Porn came pretty late for me though, around 28. So I didn't shoot porn anywhere near college really.

Ess: If you could do a scene with ANYONE, porn or not, who would be it?

TL: Oh god, hard to say .... lol ... I guess I'll go with a real common answer, Brad Pitt, lol :)

Ess: Do you ever meet your fans offline? You said something about a fan shoot or something?

TL: I only meet fans at shows or for fanshoots, which is a little thing I started doing for my website where the member shoots with me for a scene for my site. I 'm very interactive with my members for my websites, tialing.com and tialingfetishworld.com, as well as with email and twitter.

Ess: Do you have an exit strategy? Do pornstars transition to work behind the scenes? Do you plan to?

TL: I'm currently in school for Interior design, 1 year left , so that's my plan when I'm done with porn.

Essince: Any final shout outs? Links?

Tia Ling: Just a thank you to all my fans. Without you guys watching me I never would have been able to enjoy all of the crazy scenes I've gotten to do!  You can check me out on twitter, @TiaLing76, as well as facebook at the same. Check out my websites at TiaLing.com and TiaLingFetishWorld.com, hope to see some of you inside!