by Fledermaus (aka Tony DeBlase)

Sometimes it is the simplest BDSM torture toys that can be the most effective. The Sandmutopia Supply Company “research and development lab” is filled with a great variety of equipment, including literally hundreds of different kinds of clamps. But high among my list of favorites are still plain old ordinary snap clothespins.

Of course, I like to use them on more than just the nipples. Sometimes I decorate him with over 300 pins, stopping not because I’ve run out of places to put them, but because I’ve run out of clothespins!

I generally start this scene with a pair on the nipples, then pinching up a fold of skin with one hand and putting on clothespins with the other as I extend lines all over the body. I generally like to let the bottom watch the application or, if I have him blindfolded, remove the blindfold after putting them on so he can see himself. If he not blindfolded, I keep the main supply out of his sight so he can’t see how many more I plan to apply. As the clothespins go, the pressure and the pain build up slowly, and the bottom generally thinks he can take a little more, stand it a little longer. But he may eventually beg you to stop putting them on.

When you do stop putting them on, however, the scene has only just begun. After you have him all decorated, you can play him like a musical instrument, use a drumstick or other slender rod (or better yet a pair of them), and tap selected clothespins making them vibrate and him ‘sing’. Run the stick along a whole row. As the clothespins move, the pinched skin that had been rather numb becomes awake. As you put the pins on he was conscious mainly of the most recently added ones. As you tap him rapidly all over the body, he becomes conscious of all of them at once. He will ‘sing’ out in pain and, with a little experimentation, will tell you which taps and how much pressure will produce the notes you most like to hear.

When you tire of this, you are still not done. Whatever goes on must come off. If my subject has never been in this scene before, my greatest pleasure usually is derived from the look on his face after I take off the first few clothespins and massage the pinched skin with my finger. As I start to remove the clamps he generally has a look of pleasure and relief. But as soon as a few come off he realizes the agony that their removal brings, he realizes how many more have to be removed and, best of all, he realizes there is absolutely nothing he can do about it.

Unless he wants to wear the clothespins for the rest of his life they must come off.

There are two schools of thought on clothespin removal. Some like to remove all of the pins as fast as possible so that the pain in the awakening skin is very intense and widespread. Others like to go slowly, taking off every third pin, then every second one, playing with remaining ones as they do . I can never decide which of these methods I like best, so I use hem both. Some rows come off fast and some I make agonizingly slow. Of course, the most sadistic method of all is to pull off the pins without squeezing to release pressure. I usually only do a few that way just to let him know that things really could be worse.

However the pins come off, I always make a point to massage the track marked skin to get the circulation flowing again and to produce some lovely screams. I usually leave the cock, scrotum and nipples for last, taking great care to see that he feels every pin as it is removed, and sometimes use my lips and tongue – even my teeth – to provide the much needed post-removal massage.

Clothespins can also be a great do-it-yourself game. But whether you plan to decorate yourself or someone else, get a lot and have fun!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tony DeBlase (1942-2000) was a longtime leather activist, co-founder of the Leather Archives and Museum, publisher of Drummer magazine and designer of the Leather Pride Flag. He was also a world expert on bats (hence his literary nom de plume Fledermaus). He was inducted into the Leather Hall of Fame in 2010, as “perhaps the most transformational figure in the history of the leather community”.

Drummer Magazine was an influential gay leather journal, published in the US from 1975 to 1999. Some of the issues have been scanned and uploaded in full and are available on Scribd and the Leather Archives and Museum has a full set of 241 covers on Pinterest.

This article first appeared in S/M Perspectives (Vol 1, Issue 2), independently published in Vancouver by Rainfall Press.