V. M. Johnson

V. M. Johnson, also known as Viola Johnson, born in 1950, is a leatherwoman, leather activist and author.^[1][2][3][4]

Life

Johnson claims that when she was seventeen years old a vampire gave her some of his own blood to drink and thus she became a vampire.^[3]

In the early 1970s, she joined the BDSM and leather scenes.^[1] In 1988, she became an honorary member of Tulsa Uniform Leather Seekers Association (T.U.L.S.A).^[5] In 2005, she started The Carter/Johnson Library & Collection, a "collection of thousands of books, magazines, posters, art, club and event pins, newspapers, event programs and ephemera showing leather, fetish, S/M erotic history".^[6]

She was a judge for many leather-related contests, including Ms. World Leather.^[1][7]

She is on the board of governors for the Leather Hall of Fame.^[8]

She was on the board of directors of the Leather Archives & Museum and is a member of the Lesbian Sex Mafia. She is married to Jill Carter.^[4]

Notable awards

• 1995: National Leather Association's Jan Lyon Award for Regional or Local Work^[9]
• 1995: National Leather Association Lifetime Achievement Award^[10]
• 1995: Pantheon of Leather Lifetime Achievement Award^[11] (Johnson was the first person to receive the National Leather Association Lifetime Achievement Award and the Pantheon of Leather Lifetime Achievement Award in the same year.)^[12]
• 1998: Pantheon of Leather Couple of the Year award (shared with Jill Carter and Queen Cougar)^[13]
• 2000: Pantheon of Leather Woman of the Year^[14]
• 2005: SouthEast LeatherFest Jack Stice Memorial Community Service Award^[15]
• 2005: Master/slave Conference slave Heart Award^[16]
• 2005: Pantheon of Leather Forebear Award (tied for the win with David S. Kloss)^[13]
• 2007: Black Beat Lifetime Achievement Award (This was the first Lifetime Achievement Award given by Black Beat.)^[12]
• 2012: Master/slave Conference Guy Baldwin Master/slave Heritage Award^[16]
• 2012: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Leather Leadership Award^[17] (Johnson was the first woman to be given this award.)^[4]
• 2018: The Carter/Johnson Library & Collection received the Nonprofit Organization of the Year award as part of the Pantheon of Leather Awards.^[13]
• Unknown date: Induction into the Society of Janus Hall of Fame^[18]
• 2021: Leather Archives & Museum’s Chuck Renslow & Tony DeBlase Founders’ Award^[19]

Works

Books

• V. M. Johnson, Dhampir: Child of the Blood. Mystic Rose Books, 1995. ISBN 978-0-9645960-1-6
• Laura Antoniou (ed.),Some Women. Masquerade Books, Inc, 1995 (contributed "Journal entries")^[20]
• V. M. Johnson, To Love, to Obey, to Serve: Diary of an Old Guard Slave Mystic Rose Books, 1999. ISBN 978-0-9645960-2-3

Contributing author, notable periodicals

• Black Leather in Color^{[citation needed]}
• Black Mistress Review^{[citation needed]}