tickling as an art

[lusty1929]

I happened to find a very tickling-negative thread in bondage.com, which prompted me to post the following comment.
I wonder what tickle media forum members think about this.

It seems that all those disliking being tickled have been abused one way or another. But it does not have to be that way. Being tickled can be a very satisfying experience. Dont say a violin is bad because some idiot scratches it the wrong way. One must learn to play the violin, and in the same way, one must learn to be an artist tickler.
To the experienced tickler, the human body is like an instrument, and playing it right can produce wonderful experiences. Yes, it can be sexually arousing, but it also can be therapeutic, and even spiritually satisfying.
However, there are some key ingredients: moderation, knowing and respecting the needs and limitations of the ticklee, and a willingness to learn from each and every experience. In other words love for the art of tickling.
Unfortunately, we have no schools for tickle therapy. I believe a lot of suffering could be eliminated by the prudent use of tickling in chronic illness and in the care of seniors, for instance. Nor do we have any churches allowing for tickling rituals. And I do not know of any sex-positive organizations who teach tickling as an aphrodisiac. Consequently, we are all left to our own learning experiences.
And if tickling, indeed, is an art, look for the born artist. But even if one is born with the gift, one must learn and practice to use the gift for the benefit of others.
There is something mysterious going on in tickling. The body of the ticklee is charged with energy. Similar to electricity. The tickler does not create this energy, but you may say, the energy is being freed by the tickler to run through the body of the ticklee like a current of vitatily.
Used correctly, tickling may well be considered the fountain of youth and the secret of longevity.
lusty1929

 

[milagros317]

That is an excellent comment. Any fool can make noise on a piano, but it takes much practice to make beautiful music (which is called "tickling the ivories", furthering the analogy). 😀

 

[lusty1929]

thank you, Midnight Mage,

you touched on something very important: the loosing of controll when being tickled. and i think that is the key to the benefits. and you point out very correctly, if there is no trust, the door to satisfaction and healing will never open.

thanks for your thoughts
lusty1929

 

[chickles_:)]

Hiya!
Wow! so many wonderfully expressed views! And so very sensitively put.

It's so true that society has thrown the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak, when it comes to the tickle.
-I know that's not exactly the best grammar but i can't help it, there is something happy in that word-
Seriously, when i even hear or read the word "tickle" it triggers some of that spiritual/erotic/liveliness within me that makes life worth living.

Maybe that's what it takes to overcome much of the unfortunate, if understandable stereotyping: just talking and being willing to share our own feelings and experiences. It is hard to attack someone seriously who says, "I like it, it makes me feel good." People try, i know, but it generally sounds ridiculous because it's just our feelings.

And as has been mentioned it doesn't hurt to acknowledge that there are reasons why people think it's bad. (even if we strongly disagree. Showing people that they've been heard always opens doors to people hearing you.)

Anyway, what i really wanted to say is, that tickle is about relationship. Though i gather some few can, I can't tickle myself. Tickling, unlike most other physical thrills and affirmations, (even sex to a point) actually requires at least another 'person' to be involved. -And he or she needs to be attuned to your body and it's unique hot-buttons. 😀 and vice versa.

As a mainly ticklee, the tickle is all about letting go with another person. Being tickled is all about sharing my weakness and vulnerability with someone, it's about giving in to my own body's cravings and savouring the rich sensuality of having those cravings teased to the max.

When i'm giving the tickle it's the same thing only in reverse. What really inflames my heart is being allowed to share the unique pleasure strings of my partner's body. Being invited to sense his mood, and then moving myself to give him a deep rich experience of ecstasy by tuning myself to his needs and desires
- even if it means taking him to places he might not know he wants to go - is such a privilege.

(Sorry, i didn't intend to get that emotional. )

For me, tickle is all about sharing and discovery together. That bond between people in opening up and exchanging pleasure to me is the magic that links the sensual to the spiritual and makes the whole experience truly special.

Thanks for listening. 😎

Chickles_🙂

 

[tommytikl]

Awesome posts to all but I really like what chickles_🙂 had to say on this...
It is the connection you have with the lee that can make all the difference!

Great posts by all!

 

[ericr]

I agree that it is an art. I think it is an art in at least two ways.

One is the manual skill of tickling itself. Some tickler's dancing fingers, gentle pokes, sliding finger nails, etc. simply tickle much more than others'. I think that some of this skill is learned by practice. On the other hand, I think that ticklers who are themselves terribly ticklish to both light and firm tickles have an advantage over not very ticklish ticklers in their first hand understanding of what tickles the heck out of a ticklee.

A second part of the tickling art is reading the ticklee's reactions in a sensitive way. Knowing when the ticklee is starting to have a resistance to the tickling (as when a spot is tickled too long and starts to become numb or just not tickish anymore) or knowing when ticking is becoming more painful than ticklish (as can happen with pokes in the ribs or brushes on the feet).

 

[Abellytickler1980]

You have to know how to tickle the person in order to produce the desired effect. I like to be graceful in form by starting with soft, almost massage-like strokes. Then work up momentum a little bit at a time until I can cause an all out laughter by running my fingers all over the ticklish terrain.

Sometimes tools like a feather (my favorite), or a pen/pencil on the ticklish spot produce an even better effect. It is all based on the skill of the tickler and their methods, which cannot be learned. But hey, that's just my humble opinion.

 

[WorkInProgress]

Lusty1929: This link might interest you.

http://www.room2grow.org/BN10.html

This guy Bobby Newman, a psychologist, agrees with you completely about tickling as a form of therapy, and he cites Paul Carter as a further source on the subject, with a particular tape.

 

[lusty1929]

thank you very much, WorkInProgress.
i appreciate this lead very much, a really interesting article.
thanks again.
lusty1929

 

[featherfingers]

Tickling is as much of an art as mastering a musical instrument or painting on a canvas is. Notice that all involve the sense of touch. Press too hard or too lightly on guitar strings or on piano keys and you'll distort the sound, unless that's what you want. If you press too hard on the canvas with your paintbrush, the paint will smear or bleed into the other colors. Treat the body that you are tickling as an instrument or a canvas on which to apply your talents, and you'll discover that you are indeed an artist.

Many thanks to Milagros' comment which inspired me to write mine.

By the way, tickling is very therapeutic. I've been told this time and time again by my tickle ladyfriend. She usually feels a lot better after the tickling than she did before the tickling began.

Another lady whom I gave a tickle session to became so 'turned on' that she pulled down her pants and underwear and was moaning and begging for more. The next day she called to apologize for reacting that way. I never heard from her again. A case of too much of a good thing.

 

[Jimblast]

BCom and Ccom

Bondage.com is an excellent source of information within the BDSM community if you look in the Forums section. I saw that thread before and just haven't had the time to respond to it. Collarme.com is another excellent source. In reading this thread, it's great to know there are other Masters and Doms within the tickling community! I knew of some, but I'm seeing that maybe there's a few more. Tickling, like spanking, can be both vanilla and bdsm oriented. It can be a hard limit (a 'don't go there' limit) to some submissives. There are a number of threads pertaining to tickling within Bcom.

I wrote an article called 'The Erotic Art of Tickling' back in the late 80's for Penthouse Forum Magazine. It was an 8 page article. Through that, we started one of the first worldwide 'tickling clubs' in which a database was created to try to get people to start communicating called 'FeatherMates. Our newsletter was called 'The Tickling Digest'. I recognize a few people on the TMF who were subscribers, it's good to see they are alive and well! This was right before the internet and you can imagine, for years leading up to the internet, many of us thought we were the only people in the world who had this fetish! You wouldn't believe the mail I received from all over the world! Anyway, feel free to refer to that article when posting on Bcom and certainly I have others if you're interested. Crazy Jane just posted a couple of excellent sources pertaining to BDSM that you can use as well. Good luck with it! 😀

 

[ticklkitten]

Wow, Jimblast, that is an awesome opinion, as well as featherfingers, you guys seem to have it mastered. It IS an art form, you have to know the woman and how she likes it and what your skills are... keeps it up if you know it. And for those that don't, pay attention to your lees needs and wants... you can find out a lot about how she might like to be tickled.

 

[Abellytickler1980]

Methods

The art comes in knowing how to start slow and speed up to the point where the ticklee cannot stand it. I think alternating between the two is the best way to tickle someone.