Synopsis

In a stark industrial setting, Trent Reznor is led through a ritualistic, sexually charged tableau by a nearly nude woman wearing spelunking gear and a headlamp. He is restrained, hooded, and eventually strapped into an Aerotrim, which spins him through the performance. Around him, couples dance and undress, while fragmented images of fetishistic and anatomical imagery intensify the video's themes of domination, desire, and transgression.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video uses the "Sin (Short)" remix rather than the album version from *Pretty Hate Machine*.

• Its explicit sexual and fetish imagery kept the video from airing on MTV. An edited excerpt was later included on *Closure*, Nine Inch Nails' 1997 home-video compilation.

• The Aerotrim, a rotating exercise device, became the video's defining visual prop as Reznor is repeatedly spun while restrained.

• "Sin" was released as a single in October 1990, making the video part of the early *Pretty Hate Machine* era, before Nine Inch Nails' more widely known visual work for "Closer" and *The Downward Spiral*.

• For a time, the complete video was difficult to find. TVT Records later made the full version available online, while circulation of the edited *Closure* version introduced the imagery to a wider audience.