Erotic Alphabet by Joseph Apoux - 1880.

High-quality Giclée greeting cards.

Our fine art greeting cards are individually printed on 324gsm Mohawk card.

Each card is supplied with a complimentary brown craft paper envelope, which is included with the card within a protective biodegradable OPP bag.

Printed using water based inks. Sustainably sourced paper or wood from sustainable forests.

Vegan-friendly: Contains no animal products.

Can be recycled.

Image from Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing's 1886 tome Psychopathia Sexualis: eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie. The book, first published in 1886 (and translated from German into English in 1892), features 200 case studies to help physicians, psychiatrists and judges know more about fetishism, sadism, masochism (terms the author coined) homosexuality, nymphomania, necrophilia, pederasty, coprophilia, bestiality, transvestism, exhibitionism and incest. Before Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing’s work, all fields of sexuality were branded as “perversions”.

Now named, these “deviant sexual behaviours” could be better studied and discussed. Science was now in control of those unnatural urges.

High-quality Giclée greeting cards.

Our fine art greeting cards are individually printed on 324gsm Mohawk card.

Each card is supplied with a complimentary brown craft paper envelope, which is included with the card within a protective biodegradable OPP bag.

Printed using water based inks. Sustainably sourced paper or wood from sustainable forests.

Vegan-friendly: Contains no animal products.

Can be recycled.

Learning your ABCs and working out what each letter stands for with French artist Joseph Apoux (1846-1910). In 1880, Apoux gave the world his Erotic Alphabet.

And original erotic cartoon, in the manner of Arcimboldo contained Napoleon, 1810 - watercolor on paper.

Letter A Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880

Letter M Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880

Letter S Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880

Letter W Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880

E.J. Bellocq (1873–3 October 1949) photographed the prostitutes of Storyville, New Orleans' legalized red-light district. Date: c.1912.

'Love-a-la-mode, or two dear friends' - Lady Strachan and Lady Warwick making love in a park, while their husbands look on with disapproval. Coloured etching, c. 1820. Wellcome Collection.

Our high quality custom postcards are produced on recyclable, sustainably sourced card. Each card comes with an envelope, allowing you keep or gift as smaller artworks for a mantlepiece, fridge or wall.

Our postcards are printed on thick 324gsm Mohawk card.

Postcards are available in 6 inches x 4 inches.

Printing method: Giclée

Eco credentials: Water-based inks.

Printed using water based inks.

Sustainably sourced paper or wood From FSC-approved forests.

Plastic-free: Contains no plastic.

The last stage of mental & bodily exhaustion from Onanism or Self-pollution, 1845, from The Secret Companion, R J Brodie, London, 1845.

Our high quality custom postcards are produced on recyclable, sustainably sourced card. Each card comes with an envelope, allowing you keep or gift as smaller artworks for a mantlepiece, fridge or wall.

Our postcards are printed on thick 324gsm Mohawk card. 

Postcards are available in 6 inches x 4 inches.

Printing method: Giclée

Eco credentials: Water-based inks.

Printed using water based inks.

Sustainably sourced paper or wood From FSC-approved forests.

Plastic-free: Contains no plastic.

This Letter' S' From Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet of 1888 was made bespoke. 

If you'd like on of our prints in a particular size, please get it in touch via info@flashbak.com. 

Penis Measurements by Kawanabe Kyôsai - c. 1870 - c. 1880

Angela on the Album Shoot for Bon Jovi by Mark Weiss, 1986.

Mark Weiss:

The album was done. Three-hundred-thousand copies, with Angela in her provocatively cut wet t-shirt clinging to her 34DD breasts, had already been released in Japan. Everything was ready to go in the US. But this was 1986, and the PMRC was in full swing. Record stores were telling the labels to ease up on the explicit content and imagery or they wouldn’t sell the products. Polygram knew they had a smash album on their hands, and they didn’t want to jeopardize that success. They also knew the music stood on its own, so we went back to the drawing board to come up with another cover. Mercury destroyed nearly 500,000 copies before they ever left the warehouse to be distributed in the U.S.

Jon had issues with the Angela cover as well. Only in his mind, it was more about the color of the border around the photo than the actual photo itself.

Recently he told Howard Stern that his thinking was, “My career is over if we put out a hot pink album cover.” But if the pink border was the problem, why not just take it out?

I asked him what we were going to do and he replied: “I don’t know, but this is our last chance or the album gets held up.” Jon arrived at my studio, walked inside and didn’t even say hello. “Garbage bag. Spray bottle,” was all he said. I followed orders. I propped up the black bag and sprayed it with an oil and water mixture. Then Jon wrote the words SLIPPERY WHEN WET. As he was leaving he said, “That’s it. That’s their cover.” He didn’t even wait to see the Polaroid. The next day I delivered the photo, and the rest is history.

Own a limited edition print signed by Mark Weiss. Prices for limited edition signed prints are below.

How To Get A Fabulous Signed Print

Please submit requests for signed prints via our CONTACT page (click here). 

Write 'Mark Weiss' in the subject line and for a limited time get 25% (!) off the price of Mark's fabulous signed prints.  

Mark's signed prints are on premium 75lb Arctic Polar Lustre Big Sheets paper. 

"I put prints in sealed plastic envelopes back with white board packed with strong cardboard preventing bends. Guaranteed not to be bent or a new print will be shipped," Mark Weiss. 

Prices for Mark's Signed Prints:

Letter E Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880

Letter C Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880

Letter L Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880

Letter P Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880

Letter U Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880

Ernest Joseph Bellocq (1873–3 October 1949) was an American professional photographer who worked in New Orleans during the early 20th century. Bellocq is remembered for his haunting photographs of the prostitutes of Storyville, New Orleans' legalized red-light district. 

Wrapping Paper:

Sheets: 70cm x 50cm - available as single sheets and in packs of 3 sheets

Eco-Friendly: Our unique Giclée wrapping paper is recyclable and FSC accredited.

Paper: 95gsm satin finish paper

Packaging: All wrapping is shipped in a poster tube - we use rigid spiral-wound cardboard tubes.

Shipping: Order 1 sheet, 3 rolls or whatever, shipping costs the same.

Packaging: Your order is sealed in a robust cardboard tube.

Young Man Smoking with a Courtesan by Kitagawa Utamaro, 1799.

The Kiss by Edvard Munch - 1895

Turning Out the Light, from New York City Life by John Sloan - 1905.

In his late teens, John Sloan worked for a Philadelphia print dealer and bookseller and taught himself to etch by reading a handbook that described the technique. Between 1891 and 1904, he made approximately one hundred etchings for a publisher of calendars, illustrated books, and novelty items. After taking classes with Ash Can School painter Robert Henri, a proponent of realistic depictions of everyday life, Sloan applied these lessons to his printmaking when he embarked on the series New York City Life in 1905–06. Despite critical acclaim for the ten etchings in this series, the public found them too risqué, and Sloan initially exhibited and sold few of them. One of these prints, Turning Out the Light, is an example of the sort of innuendo that some viewers found objectionable. However, in choosing ordinary people for his subjects, Sloan was following the example of artists he admired, including Goya, Dürer, Rembrandt, and Hogarth, as well as contemporary illustrators. In fact, a humanitarian outlook informed much of his art, and part of the appeal of printmaking for him was that it made art more affordable and accessible. As art editor for the Socialist magazine The New Masses from 1910 to 1914, he also published many political and satirical drawings. - MOMA

Untitled picture from an erotic album Isoda Koryūsai (Japan, 1735-1790) early 1770s

A woman representing syphilis; advertising Dr Abreu's sanatorium for syphilitics in Barcelona. Colour lithograph by R. Casas, ca. 1900

A young man and a young woman with her breasts exposed are seated on a settee; table with two glasses in the foreground. Woodcut, ca. 1780. Wellcome Collection - by John F. Nugent.

Water Carrier by Kawanabe Kyôsai - c. 1870 - c. 1880.

Kawanabe Kyōsai Prints (1831-1889) was a Japanese artist born into the age of feudalism and maturing into the Meiji period, when the country became a modern state. Nicknamed “The Painting Demon”, he became a caricaturist, lampooning the great and good, and later painted ‘makimono’, aka ‘battle of the farts’. He co-created what many consider to be the first manga magazine in 1874, Eshinbun Nipponchi, and later a scroll depicting sex scenes, nudity and people with enormous genitalia.

Connected Penis by Kawanabe Kyôsai - c. 1870.

Kawanabe Kyōsai Prints (1831-1889) was a Japanese artist born into the age of feudalism and maturing into the Meiji period, when the country became a modern state. Nicknamed “The Painting Demon”, he became a caricaturist, lampooning the great and good, and later painted ‘makimono’, aka ‘battle of the farts’. He co-created what many consider to be the first manga magazine in 1874, Eshinbun Nipponchi, and later a scroll depicting sex scenes, nudity and people with enormous genitalia.

Orgy by Kawanabe Kyôsai - c. 1870.

Kawanabe Kyōsai Prints (1831-1889) was a Japanese artist born into the age of feudalism and maturing into the Meiji period, when the country became a modern state. Nicknamed “The Painting Demon”, he became a caricaturist, lampooning the great and good, and later painted ‘makimono’, aka ‘battle of the farts’. He co-created what many consider to be the first manga magazine in 1874, Eshinbun Nipponchi, and later a scroll depicting sex scenes, nudity and people with enormous genitalia.

Orgy (2) by Kawanabe Kyôsai - c. 1870

Orgy (3) by Kawanabe Kyôsai - c. 1870.

Kawanabe Kyōsai Prints (1831-1889) was a Japanese artist born into the age of feudalism and maturing into the Meiji period, when the country became a modern state. Nicknamed “The Painting Demon”, he became a caricaturist, lampooning the great and good, and later painted ‘makimono’, aka ‘battle of the farts’. He co-created what many consider to be the first manga magazine in 1874, Eshinbun Nipponchi, and later a scroll depicting sex scenes, nudity and people with enormous genitalia.

Naked Women by Kawanabe Kyôsai, c. 1870 - c. 1880.

Kawanabe Kyōsai Prints (1831-1889) was a Japanese artist born into the age of feudalism and maturing into the Meiji period, when the country became a modern state. Nicknamed “The Painting Demon”, he became a caricaturist, lampooning the great and good, and later painted ‘makimono’, aka ‘battle of the farts’. He co-created what many consider to be the first manga magazine in 1874, Eshinbun Nipponchi, and later a scroll depicting sex scenes, nudity and people with enormous genitalia.

Kneeling Courtier by Kawanabe Kyôsai - c. 1870.

Kawanabe Kyōsai Prints (1831-1889) was a Japanese artist born into the age of feudalism and maturing into the Meiji period, when the country became a modern state. Nicknamed “The Painting Demon”, he became a caricaturist, lampooning the great and good, and later painted ‘makimono’, aka ‘battle of the farts’. He co-created what many consider to be the first manga magazine in 1874, Eshinbun Nipponchi, and later a scroll depicting sex scenes, nudity and people with enormous genitalia.

Viewing Vaginas by Kawanabe Kyôsai - c. 1870.

Kawanabe Kyōsai Prints (1831-1889) was a Japanese artist born into the age of feudalism and maturing into the Meiji period, when the country became a modern state. Nicknamed “The Painting Demon”, he became a caricaturist, lampooning the great and good, and later painted ‘makimono’, aka ‘battle of the farts’. He co-created what many consider to be the first manga magazine in 1874, Eshinbun Nipponchi, and later a scroll depicting sex scenes, nudity and people with enormous genitalia.

Courtier and naked people by Kawanabe Kyôsai, c. 1870 - c. 1880.

Kawanabe Kyōsai Prints (1831-1889) was a Japanese artist born into the age of feudalism and maturing into the Meiji period, when the country became a modern state. Nicknamed “The Painting Demon”, he became a caricaturist, lampooning the great and good, and later painted ‘makimono’, aka ‘battle of the farts’. He co-created what many consider to be the first manga magazine in 1874, Eshinbun Nipponchi, and later a scroll depicting sex scenes, nudity and people with enormous genitalia.

Resting Men by Kawanabe Kyôsai - c. 1870.

Kawanabe Kyōsai Prints (1831-1889) was a Japanese artist born into the age of feudalism and maturing into the Meiji period, when the country became a modern state. Nicknamed “The Painting Demon”, he became a caricaturist, lampooning the great and good, and later painted ‘makimono’, aka ‘battle of the farts’. He co-created what many consider to be the first manga magazine in 1874, Eshinbun Nipponchi, and later a scroll depicting sex scenes, nudity and people with enormous genitalia.

A young couple making love, woman above. Coloured reproduction of a woodcut by Moronobu - c 1680s.

Women of the World by Bob Hyde - 1960s.

Women of the World (original title La donna nel mondo) is a 1963 Italian mondo film, also described as a "shockumentary", written and directed by filmmakers Gualtiero Jacopetti, Paolo Cavara and Franco Prosperi. It was rushed into release on 30 January, following the international box-office success achieved by its predecessor, the initial mondo film, Mondo Cane, which premiered in Italy ten months earlier, 30 March 1962. The English language print was narrated by Peter Ustinov.

Following the pattern set by the original concept and consisting mostly of leftover footage from the first film, Women of the World is, again, a series of travelogue vignettes which provide glimpses into the lives of its title subjects, with the intention of shocking or surprising Western film audiences. However, unlike the previous film which had no specific central subject matter, but rather presented a kaleidoscopic display of shocking content, the second film was marketed as directly promising a titillating display of feminine flesh and intriguing as well as exotic sexual practices. As with the first film, despite its claims of being a genuine documentary, a number of the depicted scenes are either staged or creatively manipulated.

Woman Riding A Man, c. 1886 - From Sexologist Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing’s Private Papers

Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902) left us his 1886 tome Psychopathia Sexualis: eine Klinisch-Forensische Studie. The book, first published in 1886 (and translated from German into English in 1892), features 200 case studies to help physicians, psychiatrists and judges know more about fetishism, sadism, masochism (terms the author coined) homosexuality, ymphomania, necrophilia, pederasty, coprophilia, bestiality, transvestism, exhibitionism and incest.

Before Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing’s work, all fields of sexuality were branded as “perversions”. Now named, these “deviant sexual behaviours” could be better studied and discussed. Science was now in control of those unnatural urges.

Letter B Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880

Letter D Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880

Letter G Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880

Letter F Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880

Letter H Print from Joseph Apoux's Erotic Alphabet - 1880