The Art of the Whip
I’ll let you in on a little secret…
Every now and then, I love to be whipped or flogged. I get high off impact play and it can bring me to an orgasmic state which can be more satisfying than sex!
Much more often, I am on the giving end of the whip, because I usually find that side more exciting. The intoxicating smell of leather, the weight of a flogger in my hand. The resounding slap of a paddle, the stingy hiss of a single tail.
I enjoy playing with rhythm and timing. The staccato impact of a whip on the skin, the intensity of the pause and the heat of leather-kissed skin anticipating when the next stroke will come.
When I flog someone, I begin by running my fingers along the naked skin to get a feel for the reactions before I use my whips. Then I pick up my flogger and trail it sensually across the skin, tickling out the first sounds in response to the sensation.
I see the flogger as an extension of my hands and I like to use it in the same way, playing with caresses ranging from the barely perceptible to the deeply resonant. I take my time building up the intensity. Seeing how the body reacts to the reverberations of my touch excites me.
One effect that whipping can have is that it brings the receiver into an altered state of consciousness. For me, this happens when the receiver feels they can surrender and give up some of the control they hold in everyday life. I like to check in with the person I’m flogging before beginning and ask how they can best do that. Some people are able to let go more deeply when they are completely restrained. Others enjoy me moving their body to expose the parts that I want to flog. And I’ve also had sessions where the person I’m flogging wants to move freely, showing me through their movement which parts of their body want to be flogged while I follow them.
A flogging session can be so many different things. It can be discipline or punishment. It can be a journey of sensations. It can be bodywork. In all of those cases, I see whips as tools that can bring us to different physical and mental spaces.
I’ve had some of my floggers for over ten years, and they could definitely tell stories. They’ve been part of countless experiences and have brought people (sometimes me) to orgasmic shudders, cleansing tears and deep trance states.
The most recent addition to my collection is a bullwhip that I bought from Ron at a workshop at Refugium Divine in Aschaffenburg. He has been working with whips for 30 years and has a very distinctive approach.
In the workshop I attended, what he taught wasn’t about the crack of the bullwhip, but rather a wrapping technique that sounded so sensual. I wanted to feel it myself before trying it on someone else, so I jumped up and volunteered to be a demonstration model.
He showed us how to land the whip at three different levels on the body: chest, waist and hips. And because of the length of the bullwhip, there were three different sensations with each stroke. First came the thud of the thicker part of the whip coming into contact with the body, followed by a lighter sting as it wrapped around, and finally a focused, electric point when the end came around to the front. It felt like a snake wrapping around my body.
I was intrigued by the different levels of intensity, this makes the bullwhip incredibly versatile. The intensity can be carefully controlled, from gentle to intense, without necessarily breaking the skin.
After all these years of working with whips, I love that there are still new things to discover. And I’m curious where this one will take me next.