Strap in for the sexiest ride of your life! If you and your partner want to learn how to BDSM and try something new, hot, and adventurous in the bedroom, it may be time to get sexy with some bondage techniques that are sure to take your erotic BDSM play to new levels. Bondage is an exciting, sexy way to really spice things up for everyone involved. The person who is tied down is at the mercy of their dominant partner, held in a provocative position and ready to be admired, worshipped, and used.
However, there are a few things to remember before you jump right into tying your partner up. Obviously, safety always comes first! So, the first thing is that you need to make sure you leave enough allowance or slack to ensure that your partner’s wrists won’t chafe from too tight of a knot. Rope burn can be a serious downer and ruin the mood during bondage play. Many types of bondage gear kits include padded cuffs to keep your ankles and wrists safe.
Another aspect is circulation. If you tie your restrained partner in a certain position, you need to be careful not to put too much pressure on their joints or their limbs will fall asleep after a few minutes of holding the bondage position. Part of the fun with bondage play is that your partner is held down and won’t be going anywhere for a while. You are probably planning on playing with them for more than a few minutes, so try to find positions that are comfortable to lay or sit in while still being appealing and erotic.
Lastly, don’t feel compelled to participate in anything that goes outside of your comfort zone. Just because you both agree to use one aspect of BDSM practice, doesn’t mean that you need to engage in any other types. If you ever feel uncomfortable with a situation, even if you consented earlier, always feel free to alert your partner to stop what is happening or to change things up during your sexual activity. If you have researched “what is BDSM?” and are interested in incorporating this practice into your sex life, it is essential to maintain open lines of communication with your partner to build a foundation of trust when experimenting with new techniques.
With all of that in mind, let’s dive into the seven different types of bondage for BDSM play and find that heart-pounding ecstasy you’ve been longing for!
1. RESTRICTIVE BONDAGE
This is the most serious type of bondage and often includes metal chains or strong ropes. The purpose of this type of bondage is to stop your partner from squirming away when you take them and coax yet another orgasm out of them. This is also the type of bondage that requires a lot of safety precautions, so you and your partner should try things out when you aren’t aroused to ensure you know what works and what doesn’t.
This type of bondage may involve one of the following in your BDSM scene:
- Tying the hands together behind the back
- Binding the feet to the arms
- Chaining a partner to the bed
- Putting a spreader bar between their knees
2. SENSORY DEPRIVATION
This can be seen as a somewhat more extreme version of bondage restraints because it removes one or more senses from the bound restrained partner, as the name implies. By removing one or more senses, it forced the bound partner to focus on the remaining senses more acutely. Have you ever noticed that when your eyes are closed, it is easier to hear small noises?
That’s because 80% of human perception is performed by the eyes alone. Our other four senses only make up a fifth of our total perception in everyday life. That’s why sight is the most common sense to take away. For people who don’t want to go to extremes, a blindfold can be a fun way to enhance your romp in the hay without needing any fancy or expensive equipment that might be intimidating for your partner.
Sensory Deprivation Toys
However, for people who want to step it up, there are plenty of BDSM toys available that work to deprive the other senses as well. Earmuffs or earplugs can drown out noise and masks can completely eliminate any sensations from the face. When your other senses have been drowned out, it is easier to focus on touch, the most important sense when it comes to intimately exploring your partner.
On the other side of the mask, it is an addictively powerful feeling to know that you are in complete and total control. Without their sight or hearing, your partner is completely reliant on you and at your mercy. They can’t see or hear you, so every second that your hand isn’t on their body means that they have no idea where you are or what you might be planning next.
For people who are also interested in dominance and submission, there is no greater way to take control. A devious Dom can come up with some fun ways to take advantage of that lack of control and surprise their partner in a sexy way.
3. SHIBARI
Also known as kinbaku, Shibari has become well-known as a particularly flashy type of Japanese rope bondage. Shibari features silken ropes or scarves and is less about securing someone in place than it is about showmanship. If you and your partner are interested in the look of bondage but are uncomfortable with actually being so well tied down that you can’t move, Shibari might be right for you.
Shibari originated in Japan, with colorful bindings of all shapes and sizes. This method of binding was popularized in Kabuki theater when actors wanted to simulate tying up their captives in a way that dazzled the audience but still left their fellow actors with enough room to move or to escape from them dramatically.
Some people use this type of Japanese bondage to find a meditative state by relaxing their muscles against the bindings and freeing their mind. This is similar to a mindset known as subspace wherein the submissive partner who has been tied up lets themselves fully immerse in the physical sensations and sexual pleasure, as well as effectively turns off their brain.
4. FACIAL BONDAGE
Facial bondage is a broad term that can refer to:
- Blindfolds
- Gags
- Ear plugs
- Other ways of holding the head in place
Holding the head in place should never mean tying ropes or chains around the neck, however. BDSM collars are a popular way of showing someone’s ownership over another and are often found in the bedrooms of people practicing dominance and submission, but they are a far cry from putting a harness around someone’s neck and causing a choking hazard.
If you want to secure someone’s head, there are collars available that have small hooks that can be connected to thin ropes or ribbons tied to bed frames, but otherwise leave the neck be. It is a particularly vulnerable area that doesn’t take much to seriously injure. Again, safety first!
5. CHASTITY BONDAGE
The term chastity belt may have mostly gone out of vogue in the medieval centuries, but some people still enjoy using chastity bondage for other things. This can be in the form of a cock ring or a cock cage for people with penises. Anything that prevents someone from having an orgasm counts as chastity bondage. For someone with a vagina, a chastity belt often completely covers the vaginal opening and stops any access.
6. BREAST BONDAGE
Nipple clamps and nipple suckers are popular adult sex toys for, well, nipple enthusiasts. Whether or not you have breasts, everyone has nipples, and those nipples can become quite sensitive when aroused. It’s true, not everyone enjoys nipple play and, generally, female nipples are more of an erogenous zone than male nipples, but there is no reason why people of all genders can’t enjoy a pinch of pain to enhance the sexual experience.
Some nipple accoutrements work like suction cups and stick on with a little bit of lubricant. Higher-end nipple suckers can have tiny bristles inside and a vibrating mechanism to brush those bristles over your nipples to make them more sensitive.
7. PREDICAMENT BONDAGE
This type of bondage is for more advanced practitioners who have been doing this for a little while and want to take their bondage efforts to the next level. For those who are new to the process and are still learning how to be submissive to a dominant or vice versa, it is best not to jump right into predicament bondage. The whole idea of predicament bondage is to tie someone into a purposefully uncomfortable position, one that likely puts a lot of stress on joints and other under-utilized muscles. This bondage is used specifically to make your submissive partner squirm.
As noted above, any position that is extremely uncomfortable should not be held for very long. If you and your partner decide to try predicament bondage, make sure that there is an easy and quick way to release them when your partner’s muscles finally give out or they can’t hold the position any longer. Go ahead and punish them afterwards, or reward them depending on their performance, but be ready in case they need to make a quick escape from the bondage rope work.
8. TORTURE BONDAGE
Don’t panic just yet! If you and your partner have established a safe word and have decided to incorporate sadism and masochism into your sex life, this is the type of rope bondage that you have been looking for. Torture bondage is when you tie down your partner, so you can inflict pain on them. Usually, torture bondage doesn’t put people into uncomfortable positions because that would lessen the impact of your impacts.
You want to find a position that exposes areas like the back, buttocks, and thighs which are prime targets for you, or the genitals depending on your preference, and it should be a position that your partner can stay in for a while, so you can really take your time punishing them and enjoy the BDSM scene.
PICK A TYPE, ANY TYPE
Bondage anyone? Are you turned on just thinking about your partner tying you up and taking you over and over again? Now that you have some ideas about different types of bondage for BDSM, feel free to bring this fun and exciting trend into your bedroom. Talk with your partner to make sure you are both on the same page with expectations and boundaries first. It’s usually best to ease into the bondage scene with a light blindfold or loosely tied rope work. It can easily start out just knowing that the restrictions are present, but they can be part of your fantasy. After all, there is no reason why your partner can’t play at being tied down. If you both talk it over beforehand, when the mood strikes, your partner is sure to love it! So, now the only question is to be tied up? Or to do the tying?