What it's like to "be" tickled

[TMF Jeff]

There was a philosopher, Thomas Nagel, who asked "What is it like to be a bat?" in an attempt to scrutinize subjective experience vs objective. In other words, to be a bat isn't like being a human with wings. They have different senses and different bodies, their brains are structured differently than ours, and so on. The interior experience of being a bat is completely different from the interior experience of being a human being.

Reading about that made me wonder, and I put the question to you all - "What is it to 'be' ticklish?" and "What is it to 'be' tickled?"

 

[WickedTouch]

What serendipitous timing! I just wrote an article related to this:

What Does it Feel Like?

In the past year or so, I've come across an interesting question more than once in a few different online tickling communities that has really prompted me to think deeper on the whole experience of being tickled. It's a deceptively simple question with a heartwarming innocence around it. It's...

• WickedTouch
• May 7, 2025
• 7 min read
• 5.00 star(s) 1 ratings
• Reaction score: 1
• Comments: 3
• Reviews: 1
• Category: Tickling
• Blog: Deviant Outpost
• experience tickling ticklishness

 

[duderino84]

I think to "be" ticklish involves having a building sensation of neurological overload and to "be" tickled (at least on the giving end) is a frantic laughing reaction to the discovery of all potential regions that the person being tickled probably never anticipated would cause that overload while areas they are familiar with are being easily triggered.

 

[natscott6282]

1. vulnerable
2. agony

 

[sensitivesara02]

What is it to be ticklish: I think our owner has raised a fascinating question to us lees, thanks for that! To me, I view our bodies as a "minefield" of hyperaware nerves. Every brush of fabric, every breeze, every graze feels as a "spark". Ticklish people in particular, like myself, are never really "unconscious" to that. "To be ticklish" means there's not really an "off" switch for our nerves, its all just anticipations.


What is it to be tickled: Personally for me one aspect to this would be that tickling certainly is a kink, its a turn on to me, but going deeper I feel like I’m “dissolved” when tickled, my laughter/squirms become a beacon, my world narrows to the breath of my ler, their fingers/tools tracing every inch.


Nagels Bat: To me true tickling is an experience of total sensory colonization, where my body becomes a map for my lers, and a true ler can navigate that map effectively, they can understand every move, every laugh/squirm of the lee, perhaps beyond too!

 

[sman9000]

What is it to be ticklish: I think our owner has raised a fascinating question to us lees, thanks for that! To me, I view our bodies as a "minefield" of hyperaware nerves. Every brush of fabric, every breeze, every graze feels as a "spark". Ticklish people in particular, like myself, are never really "unconscious" to that. "To be ticklish" means there's not really an "off" switch for our nerves, its all just anticipations.


What is it to be tickled: Personally for me one aspect to this would be that tickling certainly is a kink, its a turn on to me, but going deeper I feel like I’m “dissolved” when tickled, my laughter/squirms become a beacon, my world narrows to the breath of my ler, their fingers/tools tracing every inch.


Nagels Bat: To me true tickling is an experience of total sensory colonization, where my body becomes a map for my lers, and a true ler can navigate that map effectively, they can understand every move, every laugh/squirm of the lee, perhaps beyond too!

Love this!

 

[Bellylaughs]

What is it to be ticklish: I think our owner has raised a fascinating question to us lees, thanks for that! To me, I view our bodies as a "minefield" of hyperaware nerves. Every brush of fabric, every breeze, every graze feels as a "spark".

Actually? Accurate. To me maybe more like a sparkle? Needs more research.

 

[sman9000]

Actually? Accurate. To me maybe more like a sparkle? Needs more research.

For sure!

 

[torturoustickle]

"To be ticklish" means there's not really an "off" switch for our nerves, its all just anticipations.

Absolutely this! 😬

 

[inflight82]

A weird clash of sensations. I start laughing but I'm not telling my body to laugh or responding to comedy, my body just drops out of my control and the laughter pours out. Beside this comes a creepy crawly feeling that is unbearable and my body desperately wants to get away from it even when I don't. I like the sensation though it isn't long before I'm squirming at the voluntary and involuntary level. It's also a weird kind of panicky sensation because it becomes hard to breathe. I have to make myself breathe and fight the laugh urge long enough to do so. In very intense tickling sensations I could almost compare it to flailing in water when you can't swim. You're fighting with the laughter to breathe like you would be fighting to keep your head above water and it feels like any second you won't be able to fight any more.

 

[alex]

I've been tickled, but I've never been a bat, so this should be an easier question than Nagel's. Yet I find it impossible to answer the question in words. It doesn't feel quite like sexual stimulation, or like pain, or like bugs crawling, or like electric shocks. That some people love being tickled and some people hate it makes it even more impossible to say what it's like. Like so many things, it has to be experienced and once you've experienced it you know.

 

[luvgirlsfeet]

Thrilling and torturous

 

[vellicator]

What is it to be ticklish: I think our owner has raised a fascinating question to us lees, thanks for that! To me, I view our bodies as a "minefield" of hyperaware nerves. Every brush of fabric, every breeze, every graze feels as a "spark". Ticklish people in particular, like myself, are never really "unconscious" to that. "To be ticklish" means there's not really an "off" switch for our nerves, its all just anticipations.


What is it to be tickled: Personally for me one aspect to this would be that tickling certainly is a kink, its a turn on to me, but going deeper I feel like I’m “dissolved” when tickled, my laughter/squirms become a beacon, my world narrows to the breath of my ler, their fingers/tools tracing every inch.


Nagels Bat: To me true tickling is an experience of total sensory colonization, where my body becomes a map for my lers, and a true ler can navigate that map effectively, they can understand every move, every laugh/squirm of the lee, perhaps beyond too!

Well said !

 

[Ghostwriter727]

To me it seems similar to appreciating music.
Any favorite song of ours can be broken down to even the most finite tunes, and prods of an instrument. Or it can become a complex work of art like a Beethoven Concerto, or an electronic set of beats.

Tapping a spoon to a plate can be bass, and sawing at a tree can be relative to heavy metal; and so on.

Becoming a ticklee is alot like becoming the lers musical instrument, and the ler will poke, prod, tickle, blow, lick, and stimulate you in ways that you may or may not even be aware of.

As the ler you bare the responsibility of creating the most unique experience for the lee, and other witnessing spectators possibly, but too much stimulation can cause bad experiences for all practitioners, while too little stimulation could leave something more to be desired.

Maybe calling tickling an art similar to music is a stretch, but I for one can practice on the instruments just about as much as the second player is willing to practice with me me.

Interesting take on our playful games here.
Hope you all make some beautiful music tonight.😉