Notes supplied by a doctor who
is also a bondage and leather enthusiast.
This information is particularly valid in the light of action described
in so many fantasy stories.
BONDAGE, SAFETY & HEALTH
Maurice - as per our conversation here is a suggested INTRODUCTION for
the new Info. Sheet. Give me a call.
INTRODUCTION
One of the basic attractions of bondage is the sensation of restriction
- the surrendering of freedom of movement. A person deprived of this
freedom, however, is very vulnerable. Part of the enjoyment for the
captive is the acceptance of this vulnerability; but a captive is vulnerable
to more than just sexual and mental pleasures - he may be risking his
life. Fetters has always aimed to increase their customers' enjoyment
of restraint. Whilst bringing such frightening subjects as death and
injury to your attention may detract from this enjoyment, serious discussion
of safety and health for those practicing bondage is long overdue.
This fact sheet deals with several topics, but the following two points
will not be mentioned again. Safe sex in our modern times with AIDS
must be accepted by all sane individuals. And health issues aside, anyone
practicing bondage with strangers risks robbery, bodily harm and even
murder.
This fact sheet has been written with the help of a doctor and a pathologist
(with their own keen personal interest in bondage!). They wrote it,
with the serious and professional intention of saving you from harm.
Our pathologist says 'If it saves one life, it has been worthwhile'.
Please read it - The life it saves may be yours.
TOPICS COVERED:-
SUFFOCATION
& HANGING
OVERHEATING
DEHYDRATION
ANAESTHETICS
PLASTER CASTS
BONDAGE FOR THE UNFIT
SUFFOCATION AND HANGING:
These
two words may turn some of our readers on. But playing with freedom
to breathe is literally dicing with death, particularly for the person
experimenting by himself, or left alone by his captor, with breathing
in jeopardy. Our pathologist comments that he, and most of his colleagues,
in most towns and cities in the country, have been asked to conduct
postmortems on men who have died as a result of such experiments. Case
reports in police forensic and medical journals illustrate a great range
of circumstances in which death occurred. We can assume that the unfortunate
victims did not intend to die - but the most important point to grasp
is that they did not expect to die as a result of their experiments.
Many of the lessons to be learnt from each of these sad deaths are all
too obvious to the policeman or pathologist who is called to the scene;
the rubber hood with only nose holes that became blocked when the hood
slipped as the handcuffed man struggled; or the sliding noose that didn't
loosen off as the man lapsed into unconsciousness, and his slumping
body tightened the noose. The lessons may be obvious to some, but apparently
had not occurred to those who died. We must learn from their mistakes
- sooner or later, everyone who ties himself up, or who leaves a helpless
captive alone, with some obstruction to breathing will come up against
a situation he hasn't predicted; such as the victim vomiting against
an obstruction gag or hood. It's difficult to produce guidelines that
cover the remarkable range of behaviours that go on behind closed doors.
Try to reflect on your own particular practice. In general we strongly
advise against self-experimentation, or leaving someone alone when gags,
hoods or nooses are involved.
Remember 3 general rules if you choose to continue -
1)
NEVER rely on nose breathing alone - the nose frequently bungs up
during a scene. Do not seal the mouth.
2) NEVER use nooses/belts/ tight collars around the neck.
3) ALWAYS anticipate vomiting (especially likely if poppers are combined
with tight strapping on a full stomach).
OVERHEATING:
Restraint in lots of layers of coverings, such as rubber suits, leathers,
extra clothing and sleeping bags, can be great fun, as the gear is restricting
in its own right, even before extra bondage is added. Whilst such 'heat
scenes' can be exciting, there is very real danger of damage to the
body, particularly the brain, by overheating. Struggling makes matters
worse, as heat is generated but cannot be got rid of because sweat can't
evaporate. Most heat is lost from the body through the head and hands,
and if these are covered too it is very easy to produce sufficient heat
to damage the body. This over-generation of heat in a covered body is
thought to be the reason for the deaths of young naval recruits forced
to run in dry suits, and the brain damage currently suffered by a naval
officer forced to run in thick clothes on a hot day.
Signs that someone is overheating start with confusion, then unconsciousness
with convulsions. If you think someone is overheating, uncover them
quickly (starting with the head) and leave them to cool in moving air,
dressed only in a single layer of their wet clothes, or draped in a
wet sheet. If they are unconscious or fitting, turn them face down and
check their airway stays clear, and get some help from a doctor if they
don't recover immediately.
DEHYDRATION
Whilst control of eating and drinking may be stimulating part of a scene,
dehydration can lead to problems. It can be brought on faster by struggling
against bondage in hot rooms or in thick clothes. The main danger comes
from having no fluid left to make sweat with - this makes overheating
worse.
The other danger is that it makes blood thicker and more likely to produce
a thrombosis. This is a kind of blood clot, and these form especially
in immobile legs - which may also be the case in bondage games.
The obvious solution is to give captives plenty to drink - which can
produce for the captive the equally stimulating but safer problem of
what to do with his urine. And don't keep a captive tightly immobilised
in one position for too long; reducing the restraint and changing the
position before tightening it again can be more stimulating than constant
confinement in one position.
ANAESTHETICS:
We know of several customers who fantasise about bondage scenes involving
anaesthetic equipment, and we have come across several stories in which
such equipment is used to render helpless captives unconscious - they
usually 'wake up' in the next chapter in different gear and new predicaments.
It is our firm belief that these fantasies should remain just that:
fantasy. It is dangerously unrealistic to imagine that untrained and
ill equipped individuals can perform such skilled, complex and high-tech
feats in their own playrooms.
Our pathologist comments 'The severe risks involved must be obvious
to anyone who remembers the tragic anaesthetic deaths and accidents
that occur every year in our finest hospitals, to patients in the hands
of the best trained, best equipped anaesthetists'. Our doctor comments
'Definitely a fantasy that one should never attempt to realise. Beside
the obvious dangers, when people wake up from an anaesthetic, sex is
the last thing on their minds. Vomit, however, is frequently the first
thing on their pillows'.
Before we leave the subject, a vital word on gas masks and tubing. Many
people get off on wearing gas masks, and several heighten their pleasure
by adding lengths of tubing to the end of the mask. But remember, the
desperate breaths you can take only pull in about 4 litres of air into
your lungs. If the tubing you have attached to the front of your face
contains 4 litres of air within the length of tubes, when you breathe
out and in again, you breathe straight back in the SAME AIR you just
breathed out - you just move the same air backwards and forwards up
and down the tube. And quite rapidly all the oxygen in this 4 litres
of air gets used up and you suffocate. So remember - do NOT add extra
tubing to your gas masks (at least not more than approx. 18cm MJS).
Similar problems apply to confinement in poorly ventilated boxes, chests
and coffins. (ED. for the scientifically minded this concept is known
as 'anatomical dead space' - DEAD being the word to
remember).
PLASTER CASTS:
We have heard of people who wish to experiment with Plaster of Paris
casts on limbs, believing it to produce the most rigid and semi-permanent
restraint and therefore the most excitement. And again we have copies
of stories in which our hero is put in plaster casts for weeks, with
all the normal happy endings such tales contain. Our doctor, however,
brought the following points for our attention.
1)
Absolute immobility for limbs, such as is produced by plaster casts,
is a necessary evil, used in medicine to permit a broken bone to heal.
As anyone who has had a fracture and a cast knows, when it is removed
the limb is far from normal. There has been severe muscle wasting,
loss of calcium from bones, and arthritis in the immobile joints,
and it takes literally weeks and months of painful physiotherapy to
bring the limb back to normal. These problems are especially severe
if the hand or ankle are inside the case. Some older patients NEVER
regain the range of movements they had before their fracture, purely
as result of immobility in plaster. Total immobility for more than
a few hours may be a pleasurable fantasy but it has disastrous effects
on living tissues in reality.
2) Arthritis aside, Plaster of Paris is messy to apply, takes at least
24 hours to set, and decomposes in water, all of which make it extremely
unsuitable for bondage scenes. Our advice is "Don't bother".
BONDAGE
FOR THE UNFIT:
As any captive will tell you, (provided he's not gagged) struggling
against severe restraint for more than a few minutes gets to be pretty
exhausting. If you're the struggling type, a 2 hour session can be as
hard on the body as a game of rugby or a heavy contest on the squash
courts. If you are not quite at the peak of physical condition, if you
are not as young as you used to be, if you suffer from any condition
that effects your exercise tolerance, or if you take medicines or tablets
on a regular basis, it is only sensible to ask your own doctor if strenuous
exercise is OK for you. You don't have to tell him exactly what you
plan to do - 'a game of rugby' or squash or whatever will give him the
right idea. With your own doctors advice and that given by our doctor
and pathologist here, you're well set up to enjoy safe and healthy bondage
from now on.
OTHER TOPICS TO COVER?? ... (invite further correspondence)
CIRCULATION & CRAMPS = interruption of, pins & needles, cramp
attacks?
CATHETERS & DILDOES
ELECTRICAL SCENES & STUN GUNS?
VIBRATORS, MUSCLE STIMULANTS
DRINKING PISS (OWN) + RECYCLING
FORCED DRINKING SCENES
MILKING SCENES
PSYCHOLOGICAL CIRCUMSTANCES AFFECTING PHYSICAL STATE
ISOLATION & SENSORY DEPRIVATION GAMES
SIMULATED TORTURE
ACTUAL PHYSICAL ABUSE = effects on nervous system of continual pain,
beatings, humiliation?