Saturday, July 4, 2009

Ms160 watches a blood cupping scene....


This post is part of the
Edgeplay Series.


Please don't read it if you are not

interested in learning about:
blood play , blood cupping
and cutting.



Last weekend we attended two events at Mistress_Angelicca and paddy's home in Brisbane: a Femdom tea party and a play party.

I was Dungeon Monitor at the latter, along with our hosts. You can read about what DMs do on this post in the Going Real Time series. Briefly, they keep an eye on play and make sure all is well. You can tell when I'm in DM mode because I wear the tiny red and black torch you can see below on my right wrist:


Having extra light fast is extremely helpful if something goes wrong during a scene, and you need to undo or cut something fast. I can either just point the torch from my wrist, or quickly put it around my head - its actually a caving torch and is supposed to be worn on the forehead.

The nice thing about being a DM is that it gives you the authority to perv. You get to watch everything closely. There were two scenes I remember from that night. One was done with licorice by a couple I knew from Midori's visit. Licorice. Yep, you read that correctly *grin* ... I'll do some research on that particular form of impact play and get back to you!

However the most interesting scene that night was a blood cupping scene. This is an example of edgeplay. Regular readers will be aware that I like to write about edgeplay scenes now and then on this BDSM For Beginners blog so that you become familar with more advanced types of play that you might encounter at play parties. The References + Online Resources section at the bottom of the post also provides an opportunity for you to read more about these topics, if they are of interest.

This particular scene was between tntnikki and her sub, of whom she writes so expressively on Fetlife:
"We own a "squishie", who IS submissive, and he fits nicely into the mix- having a live in who is service oriented in nature is certainly a much welcomed plus- but aside from that, his brain, both smart and funny is a welcome addition to our Tribe"
Squishie had just served with grace and distinction at our tea party. I look forward to sharing many more tea party experiences with them.

You will probably have heard of cupping, but possibly not of blood cupping or wet cupping. Cupping of course is derived from a traditional form of therapeutic treatment that's very common not only in Asia, but all around the planet. Originally bamboo cups, and then metal and glass cups were developed, with fire being used to create a vacuum in the cups once the latter were firmly positioned on the skin.

Fire cupping makes a striking BDSM scene, I've done it once. In Nik's scene a hand-held pump was used to extract the air from valve-fitted cups and create the vacuum. This pulls the skin upwards. Either way the end result is a very erotic form of sensation play.

And that's the important thing to remember if you see a cupping scene like this at a play party. It's not being done as a traditional treatment. The traditional technique is simply providing a source of inspiration for innovative sensation play. However, because kinksters - especially the true sadists amongst us - can be very innovative in their desire to create new ways to inflict sensation, sometimes they devise something new ... that turns out to be something very old. LOL. And that's what was going on during this particular scene...

In the case of cupping bruises occur under the cups, where the skin is raised into the cup via the suction stimulating an acupressure effect. The skin often becomes very dark once the cups are removed. It looks painful but done properly, is not. What cupping doesn't usually do is bleed, lol. Let me tell you what I saw.

I arrived at the point in the scene where all the cups were in place, and Nik was doing nasty things to Squishie's back, alternating gentle fingertips with sharp objects and a violet wand on his incredibly sensitive skin:


I was stunned by the amount of blood in the cups, and found myself sharing a quick glance to the party's first aid officer, who like me, had only just arrived:


From her expression we were in agreement: what was all that blood doing there?! It was only later in the scene when Nik removed the cups that we realized she had made an incision into the skin under each cup. Brilliant.

This technique - of making the incision under the cup - was intriguing for me to see. It reminded me of the blood cupping I'd seen in the Middle East. It's called hijamah in Arabic, which translates as "sucking". It's a form of traditional therapeutic blood letting that is even referred to in the Qu'ran. It's usually performed on the head - the back is not especially recommended, as one should not lie down during the treatment. The cup is left to cling to the skin for a few minutes, then it is lifted off and several tiny incisions are made in the skin. The cup is then put back as it was before until it is filled with blood.

Now Nik was not filling the cups with blood, not by any means. But the technique certainly made a very effective and erotic kinky blood play scene. I continued to watch as Squishie's body responded delightfully to Nik's various tortures:


Sparks flew as the violet wand again came into play...

When it was time to remove the cups, Nik donned latex gloves and several of us stepped forward to help with holding up the plastic sheet draped over the massage table. As the suction in the cups vanished, the taut skin began to relax and the blood dribbled and ran...


Nik swirled her hands through the blood to stop it dripping too much down the sides.


It looks very dramatic but it's really not painful. Soon Squishie was sitting up, and then was accompanied down to the shower by Nik's husband and the first aid officer. The sheet was quickly folded up and removed. Nik then disinfected the massage table top as well. It's always important to take these kind of precautions after blood play, as you will see if you read some of the articles on blood play, cutting, cupping etc I've listed in the References + Online Resources section at the bottom of the post.

Later I wrote to Nik asking about her technique, whether she had heard of wet cutting or hijamah. She replied that she was aware of bloodletting and blood cupping in Asian cultures, but not of the Middle East link:

"I've used my cupping set often - and had it used on me often and it is a wonderfully relaxing thing! I've done cuttings often too, but that was the first time I have combined the two. It was only Squishie's second time being cut.

"And I used just a scratch, not an actual deep cut. I scratched small X marks- not deep enough to draw blood on their own- because it was interesting to watch the X's burst open on the first suck in!

"I plan for more decorative things in the near future- the circular bruises will lend themselves to interesting designs when combined with cuts- I'm thinking a pentacle and an eye design soon, which will incorporate the larger circle"

I never cease to be dazzled by the creativity of kinksters, in their search for new games to play and new techniques to inflict. Inspiration is quite literally, all around us. I find myself wondering if Nik will ever be tempted to push her experiments further and completely fill those cups. With any luck I might be DMing again :).


REFERENCES + ONLINE RESOURCES:
H. A. Hâyar Albinali, Traditional Medicine Among Gulf Arabs Part II - Blood Letting,
Heart Views
, Volume 5, No.2, June-August 2004
Titanium Angel Blood play
Subhuti Dharmananda CUPPING
Fire play
Leather Barbie Cupping and fire play
Noir Silence Blood play
Rose Veraga Playing with blood
Healthy Muslim Hijama


Have any questions you'd like to raise? Try:

Thank you:

to our weekend / party hosts
Mistress_Angelicca and paddy
and
to
tntnikki
and squishie
for sharing photos and their scene

Photos:
Ms160
Scootah
reproduced with permission


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