BDSM Digest

Posts Tagged ‘endorphins’

Needle play, play piercing or recreational acupuncture is an activity involving placing needles through the top layer of skin, or using needles for temporary piercings for the purpose of enjoying the experience rather than producing a permanent body decoration. Needles are removed from the body when the episode is complete, allowing the wounds to heal. Those who engage in play piercing may do so for self-expression, as a part of a ritual imitating mock tribal cultures, for the purpose of spiritual self-discovery, for sexual pleasure, for simple entertainment, raising awareness or relieving boredom. Needle play is considered edge play – the practice which involves significant risk of injury or physical harm.

Needle play or play piercing is different from regular piercing as it’s temporary and doesn’t involve jewellery. During a scene thin needles are stuck through the skin (close to the surface), possibly manipulated during play, and then taken out afterwards, usually with no lasting marks. It can involve one needle or whole rows or a pattern of them, sometimes laced together with threads. The pain received from a needle is a different kind of pain though. It’s more of a flash and then depending on the part of the body it fades to a dull throb and then nothing. But that initial flash is what draws to it.
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Endorphins are endogenous opioid polypeptide compounds. Endorphins are neurotransmitters, chemicals which are directly involved in the brain’s electrochemical workings. They are produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus in vertebrates during strenuous exercise, excitement, pain, consumption of spicy food and orgasm, and they resemble the opiates in their abilities to produce analgesia and a feeling of well-being. According to some reports, laughter releases endorphins in the brain, and long-distance runners also refer to this state as “runner’s high.” Strenuous exercise takes a person over a threshold that activates endorphin production. Endorphins regulate feelings of hunger and are connected to the production of sex hormones.

The euphoria described by people who engage in BDSM is attributed to endorphins too. One theory of why some people find BDSM activities pleasurable is that these activities stimulate endorphins in a controlled way. In 1999, clinical researchers reported that inserting the acupuncture needles into specific body points triggers the production of endorphins. Endorphins regulate feelings of pain – they work as “natural pain killers”. From the BDSM point of view endorphins are naturally-occurring opiate-like chemicals produced in the brain in response to pain, which block pain and can produce an euphoric sensation. High endorphin levels cause a feeling of euphoria.
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