Electricity is everywhere, but if you want to get it near your genitals, you need to be smart and safe about it. Don’t go trying that old Benjamin Franklin trick in which you tie a kite around your cock and fly it in a storm. It’s not going to shock you and your penis could fly away.
As usual when we discuss potentially dangerous kinks, we’d like to remind you that this is not a how-to guide, we are not trained professionals, and nothing in this post should make you feel prepared to try erotic electrostimulation for yourself. If you want to explore electricity play, please consult someone with extensive experience.
Lightning Love
Ever lick a battery? Ever drag your socks across the carpet and zap someone with your finger? Imagine those sensations multiplied a few times over and then applied to your erogenous zones: that’s erotic electrostimulation. The proper current can excite nerve endings and/or cause involuntary muscle contractions, which some people find extremely pleasurable. Of course, there are many facets of electricity play that fit in with BDSM, and though the pain received from a well-placed shock can seem intense and explosive, it rarely leaves lasting damage or even a mark. How you play largely depends on what kind of device you’re using. Some examples:
· Pulse Based Toys – Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) machines are traditionally used as a way to fight chronic pain, electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) devices are commonly sold as those weird pads you attach to your abs so you can “exercise” while lying on the couch, but both TENS and EMS gadgets get repackaged for erotic uses because they’re body-friendly. The sensations received from these toys can range from pleasant buzzing to overwhelming roars or full-on spasms, but that largely depends on the strength of the current and the location/arrangement of the electrodes on the body. Generally, both toys involve electric currents traveling through specific parts of the body.
· Quick Shock Toys – These toys command low current, high voltage, and high frequency electricity, but they don’t send it into the body. Instead, they have it stimulate and excite the skin; basically, we’re talking about violet wands here. The active end of the wand is slowly lowered to the skin until a spark jumps between toy and flesh and gives the subject a shock. Since they can’t do much besides cause pain, violet wands are more often seen in BDSM settings than in erotic electrostimulation ones. Also, with the right attachments, violet wands can be used for voluntary scarification both temporary and permanent.
· Homemade Toys – Sometimes people take their stereos apart and use them to shock their loved ones. People can die doing that sort of thing, so don’t follow their lead. Unless you’re a skilled electrician or Zeus or something, just buy the damn TENS machine.
[Above: Watch as electrodes are applied to a young woman's vulva in "A Guide To Electrical Play"]
Safety First, Or Not
We thought about making this the section in which we tell you to be wary of doing this thing or that thing with electricity, but every time we find a professional warning against some practice, we find another professional opinion that contradicts it.
For example, some people believe that you shouldn’t play with any electrical device on or around the upper torso because you risk sending a shock to your heart and going into cardiac arrest. That’s good advice! People with pacemakers should be especially wary of electrostimulation (like, just straight-up never try it), but everybody is technically at risk for heart issues when messing with electricity. If you accidentally leave a TENS machine on and hold an electrode in each hand, the current will pass through your body and can interfere with your heart! However, many toy companies sell bipolar nipple clips that are designed to let a current flow through the small centimeter of flesh being clamped. Also, here’s a gallery from ElectroSluts in which both of Sovereign Syre’s breasts are wired with electrodes.
Even though there are a surprisingly huge number of things you can do with electricity in a sexual way (there are even electric urethral sounding wands!), there are some things you can never ever do: never forget to lubricate the electrodes with the proper gel, never apply electrodes to the head or neck, and never try to pass a current through two people.
[Above: We wonder if she can feel anything in her tongue when she blows and zaps her slave at the same time. Via "She Always Wins"]
Electric Slide, Electric Boogaloo, Etc.
In our opinion, one of the coolest things about erotic electrostimulation is the way it fits into the history of humanity’s mastery of electricity. Our bodies process unfathomable amounts of electricity every single day–from nerve to nerve to muscle to organ–and ever since we figured out how to harness electricity, we’ve been trying to hack our bodies with it. Of course, we’re going to conveniently skip over the parts of history that include executing criminals and shocking mental patients and sticking electric needles directly into the brain.
On the sexual front, electrostimulation has been around since the 19th century when various belts with dick-holding attachments were sold as cures for impotence. TENS-type stimulation didn’t hit the erotic market again until the 1970s, but since then, people have figured out ways to send currents with complex wave forms that play entire electrical symphonies in the body!
Also, scientists have discovered that electrodes implanted in the spine can cause a person to orgasm on the spot. Obviously, we can’t all go and get some metal stabbed in our backs and zap our way to heaven, but this does have some interesting applications. Think about electroejaculation: without that, we’d have to let endangered species mate on their own time.
Electricity play may sound scary, but really it’s one of the most harmless and creativity-encouraging avenues of kink! If you approach it with the respect and caution it deserves–and as long as you get professional advice from people who aren’t us–you could find yourself in a whole new world of sexual gadgetry and orgasmic bliss.
[Above: Be warned, there is a good deal of screaming coming from this clip. We swear it's all positive and consensual though! Via "ElectroSluts: Bobbi Starr And Alani Pi." All clips courtesy of AEBN Porn Pay Per View Network and Video On Demand (theater.aebn.net)]
[At top: Justine Joli watches as Bobbi Starr lowers the wand to her nipple. See more at ElectroSluts (electrosluts.com)]
