CULT’S BRAND ’FESS
Mack: Was my idea
Branding the flesh of female “sex slaves” was her own idea, says formermer “Smallville” actress Allison Mack — now an accuseda leader of the upstate cult Nxivm. Speaking with a reporter for The New York Times Magazine, Mack scoffed at the idea of merely tattooing the women. Tattoos are for wimps, Mack implied in the interview, which she gave six months before her arrest on federal human-trafficking charges. “I was like: ‘Y’all, a tattoo?’ Mack told reporter Vanessa Grigoriad is, Grigo speaking from her apartment in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, for a Nxivm profile running Sunday. “People get drunk and tattooed on their ankle ‘BFF,’ or a stamp,” said Mack, who played Clark Kent’s buddy on the long-running WB series. “I have two tattoos, and they mean nothing.” Apparently, searing their flesh with a cauterizing pen instead, leaving them permanently scarred with the initialsin of both Mack and accused cult boss Keith Raniere would be far more meaningful — even if the branded women themselves didn’t know the meaning. “Not all the women were told that these initials were present in the symbol,” Grigoriadis writes.
Astoundingly, she adds, some of the women saw being branded as a way to conquer their fears.
“Some of them kidded around through it,” the article says.
“Even if they cried when they were getting the brand; even if they wore surgical masks to help them with breathing in the smell of burning flesh . . . they were still able to transcend the fear and cry out to one another: “Badass warrior bitches! Let’s get strong together.”
Grigoriadis also spoke to Raniere, who easily admitted he was “polyamorous” but insisted that he never brainwashed anyone.
Both Raniere and Mack are due to stand trial in October on conspiracy and trafficking charges carrying a minimum prison term of 15 years.