Ten thousand copies of sex magazine Boink are expected to hit newsstands around Boston University in January, bringing a senior's three-month publishing effort to an estimated $20,000 reality.
Head photographer Christopher Anderson said he and founder Alecia Oleyourryk, a senior in the College of Communication, have had difficulty with securing a publishing house for the proposed 96-page magazine.
"Everything's hinging on the printer, but the projected release date is January 28," Anderson said. "It could even be [grow] to 20,000 copies. All those things are up in the air.
"The primary issue is finding a printer that will work with this type of content in the United States."
Oleyourryk said the magazine, set to include full-frontal nudity, sex columns and toy reviews, will not be available for purchase on campus, but will most likely be sold by surrounding retailers and online.
"Condom World and Sweet n' Nasty didn't have a problem with ... selling it, but places like Store 24 and CVS are hesitant," she said. "A good rule of thumb has been if [newsstands] sell Playboy, they'll probably sell this."
Oleyourryk said Boink would be sold on the magazine's internet site, get-boinked.com, at a lower price than newsstands.
Though the text for the magazine has been edited and photo shoots are about 60 percent complete, Oleyourryk said the work will not pay off until readers can leaf through Boink with shocked and impressed faces.
"I won't know if I'll be happy with the magazine ... until I see the finished project," she said. "The writers have been amazing and it's been everything I wanted so far."
But the controversy surrounding the magazine is not the only enticement Oleyourryk hopes will get readers to Boink.
"I want people to like it - not just buy it - and be excited for the next issue," she said.
Oleyourryk said the magazine's creative direction was a collaborative effort and that no editorial or management positions exist among the 30 writers and about 20 models who have joined the magazine since October.
"Everyone is just a contributor," Oleyourryk said. "Even me."
Anderson said he recruited three student photographers during the magazine's pre-production stages and had a more integral role in Boink than in his previous work with H-Bomb, a nude pictorial publication founded by two Harvard undergraduates and released last February.
"I'm involved in just about every aspect of this [magazine]," he said. "It's hard to compare the experience to H-Bomb. I was on the periphery there and ... only did a few photo shoots for them.
"I've learned some stuff from [the student photographers], and they've learned from me," Anderson continued.
Oleyourryk said Boink's content would be more extreme than H-Bomb.
"H-Bomb was very censored," she said. "It only scratched the surface and was really tame to what we're going to do.
"Ours is porn. But there's nothing wrong with that. Porn is not bad. It's educational. And a lot more racy."
Concerns of receiving public criticism after the magazine is released still occupy Oleyourryk's mind, though she said she said quality and accuracy are more important to her.
"We've been going over [the magazine] with a fine-toothed comb," she said. "You don't want to put anything out there that people could tear apart.
Oleyourryk said that although her grades "may not be so high" after this semester, producing Boink has been like taking another class.
"It's definitely a résumé builder, but you have to be willing to sacrifice so much," she said.
Despite plans to shock, thrill and feature what Oleyourryk calls "a pretty racy cover concept," Boink only has about five writers who wish to "keep their identities anonymous" come publishing time.
College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Erica Blom said she will proudly display her name in the magazine's first issue.
Though she had no idea what to expect when she joined Boink in November, Blom admits she is pleased with her ultimate choice to write and pose nude for the magazine.
"I wanted to be involved in the more serious aspects of the first issue," she said. "As a sociology major in CAS, I've never written for any publication before. I enjoy writing and I enjoy sex, so Boink seemed like an interesting way to learn about journalism."
Though Blom said she cannot reveal the content of her written piece in January's issue, she said the "informative" article encourages college students to practice safe sex, even if it is not heterosexual sex.
Blom also said writing for Boink was a very "open" experience, one where she didn't have to worry about language and could be frank.
"People have real experiences; it helps to be more realistic," she said. "You're completely free here. That might change ... right now it's really an experiment."
Blom's only reservation about putting her real name in Boink was not her family or professors, but the children she tutors weekly at Roxbury Elementary School.
"I work with children who are all under 18," she said. "I didn't want them to think I was communicating a message that I wasn't. In terms of professors, I just have to hope they won't judge me upon involvement. My parents know I'm not trying to keep a secret."
Shot by Anderson for one of the magazine's pictorials, Blom was not originally planning to model before she attended a photo shoot just to "get used to the camera."
"It was such a high that ... I just had to do it," she said. "I've never felt so beautiful."
Blom, who often sculpts live, nude models, said she thinks of the results as art produced in the most professional of environments.
"It's very hard to draw the distinction between pornography and art," she said. "I feel more empowered since the photo shoot. My only fear is that people will look at the picture and think I'm something that I'm not. I don't want people to judge my character. That's the hardest part."
Blom said the point of Boink's publication is to counteract the way the public currently views sex.
"We can really change the way people treat sex," she said. "It's going to be an interesting issue. There's obviously going to be flaws, but there's some great stuff in there. It's not that big a deal anyway. It's a magazine. Who knows what's going to happen? Take it at face value. Try something new."
Blom said regardless of Boink's success, she is confident in her visual contribution.
"Either way, I will not regret what I've done."
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