Was tickling ever used as real torture?

[Tickle4444]

I found this exerpt from a wikipedia article on tickling:

The Chinese are perhaps the best known for using tickling as torture, however most legends of Chinese tickle torture are surrounded by myth. The Chinese saw tickle torture as a perfect punishment for nobility, in that the torture left no marks and the victim could recover relatively quickly. What few records that exist today, regarding Chinese tickle torture, often speak of persons restrained with bare soles exposed to professional torturers who would tickle the feet for hours on end.

Tickling as torture survived into the Middle Ages and Colonial American times, but to the lesser degree of being used as public humiliation. The stocks were a device which were specifically designed to restrain a victim's bare feet, thus allowing passersby to tickle torture the soles.

Do you think that really happened - or do you think it's a bit far-fetched? If it's true, do you know of any websites with more info on that?

 

[CellarDweller]

There is an book called "The Men of The Pink Triangle" written by a Nazi death camp survivor.

This prisoner was in a cell in a room, when a younger man was dragged in to be tortured. He was stripped naked, he wrists were tied together, and he was hung from a hook in the wall.

They started with tickling him, and the author said that for a while, he held it in, and then began a hysterical laughing, which progressed to sobbing/screaming and gasps for breath.

They moved on to more painful, graphic things, and then finally killed him.

 

[TickledToDeath]

Mostly heresay unfortunatly. One word against another. Not sure if there is any real proof out there that tickling was used as real torture.
Perhaps in some instances it should be used today and probably in some instances, of a non professional manner or situation it is.

TTD

 

[Tickle4444]

Do you guys think tickling someone for punishment would fall under 'cruel and unusual punishment' - or do you think it would be more humane than, say, hard labour?

 

[outspacer11]

Yes, I think it definitely would count as "cruel and unusual punishment", whether or not it is more humane than hard labour. In any case, I don't think corporal punishment of any kind is likely to be introduced in the English-speaking world or Europe any time soon (with the exception, of course, that capital punishment is still practiced in some US states), though maybe over there in Tickleland you do things differently.

 

[Tickle4444]

So are you also opposed to hard labour and spanking?

 

[MistressValerie1]

So are you also opposed to hard labour and spanking?

I am opposed to both if judicially ordered, as they have been from time to time, although I enjoy mild spanking as a romantic game with a consenting partner 🙂

 

[outspacer11]

Couldn't have said it better myself. As a judicially ordered punishment, yes, I am opposed to both. If you mean spanking as a form of parental discipline it's not something I would consider helpful or necessary, although I'm not one of those people who believe in banning it (however, I don't think corporal punishment in schools should be legal). If you mean spanking as consensual foreplay then of course I don't have a problem with it.
This is a separate issue from whether judicially ordered tickling would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. I'm not familiar with the US law on the subject, but I'm sure it would have to fall into that category - at least, that's my intuitive reaction. For one thing, as I understand it punishments involving humiliation (such as tarring and feathering) have generally fallen under this heading; in any case, tickling as punishment strikes me as the sort of thing which would have to be unusual if anything is. For another thing, punishments involving the direct imposition of unpleasant sensory stimulus (whipping, etc) have generally been abandoned as inhumane in the Western world.
I should add that hard labour has also been banned in a number of countries - it is no longer used in Australia, where I live, and I'm fairly sure it is also no longer used in the UK.

 

[Nerobob1]

I doubt Tickling has been used as torture widely. Why tickle someone, when you can stick a flaming poker in their eye?

Besides, not everyone is ticklish, and some people actually enjoy it.

 

[gilmourwaters]

i know of the reports of the ancient chinese using tickling as torture..also the romans.

but wasn't there a passage in the diaries of anne frank (that i could swaer was posted online not long ago)saying that while she was imprisioned the guards used to grab the girls regularly and take them off somwhere for tickling.She even noted they perferred tickling brunettes

 

[alchemy1]

I doubt Tickling has been used as torture widely. Why tickle someone, when you can stick a flaming poker in their eye?

Besides, not everyone is ticklish, and some people actually enjoy it.

Well, tickling is a way to torture someone without leaving them with scars or injuries. Secondly, I've found that like 9 out of 10 people out there are ticklish and some of them would probably rather be subjected to pain rather than be tickled. I mean, take the S&M community. I personally know people that have no problem with someone leaving welts on their body with a bull whip, yet go into a panic if someone threatens to tickle them.

 

[maniactickler38]

I think the number would be more like 3 out of 10 of people that would consider tickling torture. the number of extremely ticklish people out there is pretty slim pickings.

 

[Tickle4444]

i know of the reports of the ancient chinese using tickling as torture..also the romans.

but wasn't there a passage in the diaries of anne frank (that i could swaer was posted online not long ago)saying that while she was imprisioned the guards used to grab the girls regularly and take them off somwhere for tickling.She even noted they perferred tickling brunettes

Didn't the Romans use the goat licking - so the torture was not in the tickling and and of itself? What about with the Chinese? Would it be pure tickling used as torture - or did itt include pain as well?

 

[laughingboy2000]

i know of the reports of the ancient chinese using tickling as torture..also the romans.

but wasn't there a passage in the diaries of anne frank (that i could swaer was posted online not long ago)saying that while she was imprisioned the guards used to grab the girls regularly and take them off somwhere for tickling.She even noted they perferred tickling brunettes

If I remember the book correctly, I think that after she was taken away, there were no more diary entries.

 

[NMKamikaze1]

I remember hearing tickling was used as a form of torture in Medieval times.

 

[Nerobob1]

There are plenty more effective ways that simillarly don't leave marks. I bet any respectable torturer from any era would slap you about if you suggested tickling as an effective method.

Well, tickling is a way to torture someone without leaving them with scars or injuries. Secondly, I've found that like 9 out of 10 people out there are ticklish and some of them would probably rather be subjected to pain rather than be tickled. I mean, take the S&M community. I personally know people that have no problem with someone leaving welts on their body with a bull whip, yet go into a panic if someone threatens to tickle them.

 

[Dude'sonfire]

lol one way they tortured without external signs of it was to stick a metal tube up your ass, and then insert a hot poker into your bowels. I think they killed an English king that way, as a joke because he was gay... heh.
As for tickling, I have read that in many periods/situations, it is used peripheral to or preceeding torture, but that it is never the meat of the matter. I have tickled people hard, but I'm also a member of Amnesty international and have read much and talked to people about torture, and to say to anyone who had been through torture that tickling, no matter how ticklish they were, in any way compared to what had happened to them, they'd spit in your face.

 

[George Hull]

Hey guys, let's keep this civil, okay? Slapping people, spitting in faces --- this is a respectable discussion about torture, there's no need to be rude. Dude'sonfire, if you're as hip as you claim to be you know torture comes in all styles, and inflicting anything even mildly unpleasant on someone long enough can become intolerable. Tickling someone who can't stand tickling long enough could certainly become torture, even if it isn't as bad as having your fingernails torn out, which in turn might not be as bad as having your eyes gouged out and molten lead poured in the sockets. And Nerobob my man, there are probably real he-man torturers who'd look down on tickling as a form of torture but others who'd get off on the subtle kinkiness of it. Four thousand years of history show that just making someone suffer isn't enough, you can do that with a sharp stick, but no --- people have to spend endless loving hours crafting all kind of fiendishly clever instruments for inflicting agony because they enjoy the creativity of it! Someone at some time must have looked down at a helpless victim and said "You know, I'll bet if we tickled her feet long enough she'd tell us anything we wanted to know!" and then tried it. Probably had a hard-on while they were doing it too. Which brings me to my last point: we may not have any written documentation that victims were ever tortured with unrelenting tickling but we know they must have been, and if you don't think so just ask yourself one question: if YOU had a helpless victim at your mercy and knew you could to anything you wanted to them, for as long as you wanted, and no one could stop you and there'd never be any repercussions, what would YOU do? I think we all know the answer to that, and there must have been tickle fetishists all through history and some of them must have grown up to be judges or magistrates or jailors or inquisitors. Ladies and gentlemen, I rest my case.

(General applause from the audience.)

 

[gilmourwaters]

johnny cochrine (sp) couldn't have said it better!

case dismissed.....this court is ajourned!

WHAP!

 

[outspacer11]

Biggeorge - you are one sick, twisted muthaf***a! And I must say I still agree with Dude'sonfire - in any genuine situation of torture tickling might be tried out for the sake of interest or because of some fetish on the part of the torturer, but ripping someone's fingernails out is going to be far more effective as a way of extracting information (not that I believe torture is an effective way of extracting information).

 

[SF85]

I know for a fact that the goat licking was used in Frane a few centuries ago. But I think it was more to do with punishment than torture.

 

[Dude'sonfire]

Hey biggeorge, I apologize if I came across as rude; it wasn't my intention. The only reason i said what i did is that torture is something that really bothers me, and that to have it compared to tickling just seems like placing Everest beside an an hill. I did say that tickling has been used in association with torture. The chinese did use it at certain points, but only as a small part amidst a whole aray of other foot tortures, most of which were much worse. Also, the romans did use goats but again is was preceeding real pain (read the link 'tickled to death a possibily!' for more info). I'm sure if they had untied the person after a couple hours of tickling they probably wouldn't have cared too much, judging from personal experience of tickling others.
Anyway, again i apologise if i seemed rude.

 

[George Hull]

Hey biggeorge, I apologize if I came across as rude; it wasn't my intention. The only reason i said what i did is that torture is something that really bothers me, and that to have it compared to tickling just seems like placing Everest beside an an hill. I did say that tickling has been used in association with torture. The chinese did use it at certain points, but only as a small part amidst a whole aray of other foot tortures, most of which were much worse. Also, the romans did use goats but again is was preceeding real pain (read the link 'tickled to death a possibily!' for more info). I'm sure if they had untied the person after a couple hours of tickling they probably wouldn't have cared too much, judging from personal experience of tickling others.
Anyway, again i apologise if i seemed rude.

Apology hardly neccessary. Like you, I was just trying to put things in a reasonable perspective.

 

[GuldenVleugel]

Translation to English:

And? Some wishes for the New Year?
- Yes, lose 5 kilos!
Anyway, a dumb wish.

 

[George Hull]

I'm sure if they had untied the person after a couple hours of tickling they probably wouldn't have cared too much, judging from personal experience of tickling others. QUOTE]

I think many members of this forum forget that most people don't enjoy being on the receiving end of tickling. Many people absolutely hate it, and the idea of tickling being used as torture doesn't seem far-fetched to them at all. I remember a girl I knew back in high school, a cute, petite brunette, who was telling me how "horribly, horribly ticklish" her feet were and how much she hated having them tickled. I'd tickled her ribs a few times and she always went absolutely nuts but in her own words "Tickling my ribs is bad enough, but tickling my feet is MURDER!" So of course I grabbed an ankle and pulled off her shoe to find out for myself, but she fought so violently I gave up --- I was about five times her size but I think I'd have needed a couple of friends to hold her down before I could have tickled her foot, and she wasn't fighting back playfully, she was serious. She actually got angry with me for trying to give her foot a tickle and we didn't talk for a while. I don't think if you gave a person like that a couple of hours of tickling they "wouldn't care very much", I think the experience would be absolutely horrible.