Bondage in BDSM is the activity of tying or restraining people using equipment such as chains, cuffs, or collars for mutual erotic pleasure. According to the Kinsey Institute, 86% of females and 74% of males respond erotically to BDSM.
A number of bondage positions and methods are used in rope bondage and other BDSM activities. Ropes are a common element of these positions, although straps, webbing, chains, hooks, manacles, spreader bars, collars, common furniture, purpose-built frames, various gags and monogloves may also be used. The ties and frictions often are variants of Japanese bondage, shibari and kinbaku from where they derived.
Whole body ties Ball tie
The ball tie is a bondage position in which a person is bound into a ball position with the knees against the shoulders. A ball position (also called a fetal position) can be tightly bound so that the legs are also bent double so the heels press against the buttocks; the legs must be brought up so that the thighs are pressed against the chest. Pressing the thighs tightly against the abdomen may restrict breathing.
The hands may be tied either in front or behind the back, however behind the back is more typical. If behind, there may also be elbow bondage, or the arms may be in a reverse prayer position, with ropes round the arms and torso (or arms and legs) to hold the arms firmly against the back. If in front, the arms may be tied hugging the legs, or possibly with each wrist bound to the opposite elbow. The ankles may also be tied together, as well as the knees. Typically, the ankles are tied to the thighs in a frogtie.
Sometimes the submissive wears high-heeled shoes and has ropes wrapped round the heels and fixed to the wrists. This adds to the visual impact, and should be used as a supplement to other secure bondage. Under strain, the shoes may come off or the heels may break off. When tied this way, the shoes cannot be removed.
The head may be pulled back in some way, such as in head bondage. However, purists argue that this goes against the idea of binding into a ball. Alternatively, the head can be pulled forward to force the chin to press against the chest.
The position can be stringent while stimulating. At the same time, it is comfortable and the subject may remain in it for quite some time.Easternrope.com, retrieved on Aug 25, 2009
The ball tie is one of the positions possible in self-bondage. The mobility is limited so extra independent escape mechanisms should be used over and above the usual bondage precautions.
Hogtie bondage
Hogtie bondage requires all four limbs to be tied together behind the back. It typically involves connecting a person's wrists and ankles behind the back using some form of physical restraints such as rope or cuffs, but may in some BDSM contexts also refer to the binding of arms and legs behind the back. The binding may be loose with the ankles and wrists some distance apart, or more stringent with all four bound together even with the wrists and ankles crossing and being cinched to the knee or shoulder harness.
A classic western hogtie would be made more stringent by binding together the elbows and binding together the knees.
A variation of the hogtie involves tying bound wrists to frogtied legs, providing the dominant easier access to the submissive's crotch for sexual play.
Safety The hogtie position places pressure on the abdomen of the tied person, which may create difficulty in breathing known as postural asphyxia. Care should be taken to ensure the person being bound can breathe easily throughout all stages of play. This is particularly important if gags, collars or rope are used to create a more stringent tie.
Crab tie
The wrists are tied to the ankles, and the elbows attached to the knees. It is restrictive, allowing only the opening and closing of the legs and some rolling.
Shrimp tie (ebizeme)
A (also known as an or a ) is a type of Kinbaku bondage. A chest tie, such as a box tie, is constructed. The participant sits cross-legged, and the ankles are tied together using a single column tie. The rope is looped over the participants neck (or chest harness), and back to the ankles; this is then progressively tightened, bringing the ankles up to the head.
Due to the forced bent-down position of the upper body, this position sends a burning sensation through the body if the subject remains in it for a long time. As the knees are widely spread, the position resembles the legs of a prawn or shrimp.
The shrimp tie originated over 300 years ago in 1742 in Japan as a torture and interrogation technique.
Variations Knees are bound inward to further restrict movement The ankles are tied to the neck instead of the chest harness
All variations have the crossed position of the ankles in common.
Reverse shrimp tie A Gyaku ebi: A chest tie, such as a box tie, is constructed. The participant sits cross-legged, and the ankles are tied together using a single column tie. The participant is moved onto their stomach, and the rope is passed from ankles along the back, pulling them and securing them to the buttocks. This is also called the Japanese hog-tie or crossbow tie.
Rope harness
A bondage rope harness (sometimes referred to as a bondage web, rope web, rope dress, or karada) is a binding which involves the tying of an intricate structure of rope around the body in a complex web-like fashion.
A rope harness is similar in effect to a leather bondage harness, in that both are not in themselves normally used to bind a person, but are used to apply pressure over the area bound and can provide securing points for other bondage techniques, including suspension bondage.
A rope harness uses around of rope to tie, and involves multiple passes of rope from front to back around the body to build up the characteristic diamond-shaped rope pattern. It typically starts from a rope halter, the double rope with four specifically placed overhand knots falls down the body, and is pulled loosely beneath the crotch and up to the back of the neck halter. The single strands are then passed from back to front, looping into the stem or using Munter hitches. In some cases, a rope harness may extend beyond the torso, into diamond-patterned webs that extend down the length of the arms or legs.
Though a rope harness is not normally used to bind the limbs, it can be used for that purpose by simply going around the arms rather than under. A rope harness can be used with a crotch rope or a shinju ("pearl") breast harness.
Japanese karada The Japanese term shibari means simply "a tie", while kinbaku is a decorative tie; where the aim is to produce a beautiful rope pattern around the body. The Japanese term karada means simply "body". Traditionally, a distinction was made between kikkou ("turtle-shell" pattern; hexagonal) and hishi (diamond) patterned ties, although many modern sources just use the term kikkou to refer to any rope body harness.
Ties of the lower body Crotch rope
A crotch rope (known in Japanese bondage as Matanawa, Sakura or Sukaranbo) is a rope that passes between the labia to apply painful or pleasurable pressure to the vulva. The rope is anchored by being tied around the waist. A crotch rope is most commonly made of hemp or jute, but webbing, straps or a harness are also used. It is sometimes combined with other bondage techniques including predicament bondage.
A crotch rope may be tied over clothing or directly onto the skin; it can be worn under clothing or in full view. While crotch ropes are most commonly used on women, variations exist for use on men. A crotch rope can also be used as an unsophisticated type of chastity belt.
Technique
A crotch rope may consist of either a single line running between the legs to stimulate the genitals, or two lines running either side of them to leave them exposed. In the former case, the rope may pass between the labia majora or deeper through the pudendal cleft of the vulva. Knots can be tied in the rope to apply specific pressure to the anus or clitoris. A crotch rope is usually fixed in place by tying it to a rope around the waist just above the hips or by tying the two ends to a fixture. Crotch ropes are sometimes used in BDSM activities, especially on female submissives, most commonly as a part of tease and denial. A crotch rope is sometimes combined with the damsel in distress pose used in silent films, where the arms are tied together behind the back at the elbows and wrists, and the legs are tied together at the knees and ankles. To prevent the transmission of infection, crotch ropes are often kept solely for the use of one partner.
Variations For abrasion play if the rope is not tied to the waist it can be moved forward and backward between the labia or the subject can be made to walk across it.
The ropes may be wrapped tightly around the waist and tied off in front, fed down across the genitals, then pulled back up behind and tied to other cords wrapped around the wrists, doubling as a cinch to tighten them further. This allows the rope bound person some ability to vary pressure on the genitals (often causing sexual stimulation) at the cost of reduced freedom of movement. If such a cord is pulled extremely tight the wrists and arms will have very little freedom of movement particularly when combined with elbow bondage and the hands will be firmly forced in contact with the buttocks.
Frogtie
The frogtie is a lower-body bondage position in which a person's legs are bent fully at the knees. They are bound separately ankle-to-thigh, and also just behind the knee, in the likeness of a crouched frog. The knees may be left free, closely together or widely spread. This is the starting point of many other ties.
This tie places the person in a position where they are vulnerable but not completely immobilized and can still move about, albeit in an awkward crawling motion. The frogtie, with the person restrained so, can also be used as a restrictive sex position or as a basis for more restrictive bondage. The bound person's wrist tie can also be tethered to some sort of immovable ring by an arbitrary length of cord, allowing some limited freedom of movement while preventing escape. Kinbaku enthusiasts could use a futumomo tie.
The wrists on each side are often then tied to the ankle/thigh combination on their respective sides, although it is possible to tie each wrist to the opposite ankle and make the position noticeably more strict.
In a similar position, the person's wrists are simply bound to their corresponding ankles. However, that position cannot be fully considered as a frogtie, because it does not match the "bound ankle-to-thigh" condition.
Positions of the legs The legs may be tied together, sometimes described as the "virgin position", or apart, known as the "slut position". The submissive can be standing, kneeling, sitting, or have the knees drawn up to the chest. The standing position may be relaxed, on tiptoe, or, at the most extreme, en pointe. A common technique in Japanese bondage is for the bound person to stand on one leg while the ankle of the other leg is bound to the standing thigh. This is a form of asymmetric bondage and the lack of balance is disorientating for the subject.
Lotus position Some more flexible submissives are comfortable sitting in the yoga lotus position.
Ties of the upper body
Box tie
The box tie is a tie of the chest and upper arms, and is combined to create with ties of the lower limbs as a component or variation of other ties. Both arms are supported in parallel behind the back by a core and made immobile by a tensioned rope connecting the midpoint of the upper arms.