Just to touch briefly on the 'hardware' vs. 'software'...I don't know how one could differentiate between their tickling fetish 1) being in their DNA, or 2) being the result of experiences that occurred before their earliest memories. Very few people can recall events before the age of 3 (childhood amnesia). Just as a vignette, I've got a 1.5 y/o nephew who I get to spend a lot of time with, and I have fun being a 'tickle monster'
Don't worry, I keep it playful, and he loves it (he's able to sign, and he'll let me know 'more') He's always excited when he's knows it's coming b/c he gets the 'anticipation giggles' XD and he'll give me big hugs afterward <3 And, recently I'm quite sure he's trying to tickle
me so that I 'get revenge'. He came up to me when I was just standing, hugged my leg, then gave me sorta just wee little pinches smiling up at me really big. I got the idea that his intention was tickling, so I squeezed his little thigh in 'retaliation', and he laughed like crazy and immediately was signing 'more'. aww. So anyway...he obviously
won't remember anything specifically thus far in his life. He's just too young.
Might he grow up to have the fetish? Maybe..maybe not. If he does,
will it have been influenced by me (or his experiences in general), or will it be that he has 'always had' it?
Might it be that a tickling fetish is a potential in everyone (or most people), and it just takes the right set of conditions to 'activate' it? I don't know. And yes, I'm obviously not the first person to contemplate 'nature or nurture'. Also, please spare me incestuous innuendo...obviously tickle fetishists are able to have a non-sexual tickling fascination in their early years, only for it become sexual later on. I think that's the case for most of us.
I can't pin down
the first time tickling caught my attention. Any memory I have of seeing or hearing about tickling, either on tv or irl, is one where I felt a visceral connection to it. It always stood out. But, those
would be the tickling instances I can remember, wouldn't they be? If I had encounters with tickling that
didn't 'strike a cord' in me, those would've been truncated from my memory decades ago. I'm 28 today. Very early (~5 y/o), I remember being drawn to tickling scenes like in Jungle Book, Popeye, TMNT. Back then, when there was such a slim selection, I would take anything tickle-related I could get. Most scenes definitely feature feet tickling, which I enjoy. But what I think I enjoy more is upper body tickles of underarms/sides. And most of that I would see in real life; often I was the victim of it. But if I'm watching vids these days...so many are foot-focused, and I can really enjoy those because mine are very ticklish. But, I think I like seeing underarm/side tickling to a higher degree, because I'm
really freaking ticklish there
And the type of ticking I like, fingernails/feathers continuously stroking underarms/sides until the lee is hysterical, rib-tickly poking, fingernails and feathers on helplessly restrained feet/toes...because these all work on me. Or
DO they? XD