Nina Arsenault (born January 20, 1974) is a Canadian performance artist, freelance writer, and former sex worker who works in theatre, dance, video, photography and visual art. Early life Arsenault grew up in a trailer park in Beamsville, Ontario. She has two master's degrees. At one point prior to her transition, Arsenault was an instructor at York University, where she taught acting. She has said she realized that she was a trans woman in August 1996 and her transition was in full force around 1998. By 2007 she had undergone over $150,000 in surgery during her transition, financed through work in the sex trade as a web cam girl, a stripper and a self-described "hooker [performing oral sex only]". Career Arsenault wrote a regular column on transgender issues for 36 issues of fab, a biweekly Toronto-based LGBT magazine. Her last column was in early 2007. She has appeared on the television series Train 48 and KinK, as well as the Showtime movie Soldier's Girl. She had a well-publicized encounter with Tommy Lee where he flirted with Arsenault for some time before discovering that Arsenault was transgender, and subsequently left in a hurry. Arsenault appeared in a one-act play written especially for her by Sky Gilbert in November 2007 entitled Ladylike. She also wrote her own one woman show called The Silicone Diaries, directed by Buddies in Bad Times Artistic Director Brendan Healy, which toured across Canada to sold-out houses and critical praise. She appeared also in The Jon Dore Television Show, appearing the episode "Manly Man". She stated the reason why she does not want to remove her current genitals: In 2010, she performed an autobiographical play entitled i was Barbie. In 2012, she performed for 40 Days and 40 Nights as part of the inaugural SummerWorks Live Art series in Toronto. For this performance, she spent 40 days undergoing a spiritual experience and opened the last 11 days to the public. As part of this performance, she spent two hours a night whipping herself while riding an exercise bike. She has also performed For Every Time You Shattered Me I Made Myself Again, a six-hour performance in The Henry Moore Sculpture Room at The Art Gallery of Ontario where she appeared in a myriad of different personas live and onscreen, dressing, undressing and washing herself with a number of unspecified fluids in front of the audience. In 2013, at