Whipping and Flogging

 

Please read  also Safety, and Safety: whips

 

In these articles we will explain the techniques related with the use of whips, scourges, floggers, straps and similar flexible instruments in a BDSM context.

We will differentiate among techniques common to all instruments and the ones specifically for floggers or for multi- and single-tailed whips.

Even when the flogger, the short BDSM whip with many tails, is a multi-tailed whip, it is different, in form and in use, to other multi-tailed whips as the cat o'nine tails, the pleti or the flagrum.

The flogger, with its tails made of almost any material, is a modern whip designed with sensual games in mind. Depending on its materials and weight, it can caress, it can massage or it can punish. The other multi-tailers, the scourges, were designed with pain in mind. They were intended for hurting, for tearing the flesh to ribbons, and were used for severe punishment.

Another consideration: with the exception of some lightweight floggers with tails made of softer materials most whips are not toys, they are weapons. Be sure you read Safety, Safety: the whip, and How instruments work, before continuing with this article.

Practice a lot on inanimate objects before hitting you sub.
 

Sensations

We said elsewhere that hitting your submissive is, for the people in BDSM, just a different way of touching, caressing or stimulating the other. Flogging is a powerful way of touching a submissive, powerful as much physically as psychologically.

With a paddle, a cane and other rigid instruments, you can hit with any force you like, from a pat to the hardest blow. With a whip, there is a minimum speed for hitting, which is the speed that allows for the tails extending in the air before hitting. With multi-tailers, you have to add additional speed in order to get all tails hitting together without tangling. And each whip has a different weight. As the force of impact depends on the weight of the whip and its speed when it hits the target, there is a minimum force of impact different for each whip. That is why most dominants have several whips.

But having them, for instance two or three floggers made from different materials and of increasing weight, a strap or belt (or a whip with a wide and flat tail, like a rebenque), a multi-tailer like a cat, and a short single-tailer, the range of sensations and the intensity of stimulation can be varied in many ways.

You can pass the tails over the skin, caressing it, you can hit softly as in a massage or you can just revolve the tails near to the flesh for air only caressing the skin. You can hit from softly to very hard, with the end of the tails or with as much of them as you like. You can hit for stinging or for deeper pain (and if you are not careful, you can cut your partner's flesh). The level of sensations and the intensity of stimulation can be varied as with no other instrument but the human hand.

Of course, only you and your partner can decide what you like and which the limits are.

And for the psychological part, being bound, defenseless at the hands of the dominant, seeing him or her holding the whip, the instrument that will hurt you, brings back all the flogging scenes you saw at the movies. You know that you will be punished and well punished. If the session will be one just based on sensations, feeling the tails of the whip on your skin, alternately caressing and hitting, touching and threatening your body, your most intimate parts, is a feeling to remember. And with a cat or single-tailer, the fact that she knows that you will give her pain, and that you could actually hurt her if you choose to, will make her feel deeper the fact that she is in on your hands, at your mercy.

So, a flogging can fit all tops and submissives, whether they like just rough caresses or actual and humbling pain.

The whips

Floggers

We'll call floggers to short (between 1½ and 3 feet) multi-tailed whips. The tails are many, (more than 20 and usually from 30 to 50) thin flat tails. They are modern developments from the traditional whips and they are used only for BDSM.

There are many types, the basic one being made from thin (1/4 of an inch) leather strips with a rigid handle.

The feeling of the flogger depends on the materials, width and thickness of the tails. Wider tails tend to sting, while narrower tails enter more deeply in the skin, producing more pressure and stretching it, producing more pain.

There are floggers made of soft leathers, like suede, for a lighter weight and a softer feeling, which can at most redden the skin, to increasingly hard ones, as latigo or kangaroo, heavy and "thuddy", which can welt, bruise or even cut the skin.

There are others made from rubber, which is especially stingy. The ones made from horsehair are stingy, as the tails, even if thin, are too light to bruise or cut the skin. And they say that the feeling of hundreds of hairs hitting is something special.

There area also floggers made of different plastics, and each with a different feel. Some are made of small chains. These are used for passing over the skin for the feeling of the metal, not for hitting.

Floggers are best when hitting vertically, using the weight of the tails for hitting. They require some speed in order to keep the tails together. If hitting too slowly, the tails will spread, and will likely hit in undesired places.

Whips receive a lot of stress when used hard. A good flogger should be strong enough for withstanding such a use, and the critical part is the "shoulder", where the tails joint the handle.

Another important feature of a flogger is its balance. The best floggers are balanced at some point around the shoulder. A flogger with a good balance is much easier to use, and can be used for prolonged periods with less fatigue.

We can consider a martinet as a flogger, because even if it has less tails, it is light, as it is used for punishing children

My advice is that you should buy a good, professionally made flogger from a specialized store, even if it is more expensive. Avoid buying cheap sex shop toys. Now, with the internet, it is easy to get a good one.

 

Published: 05/07/04