serinde: (teh sexx0r)
[personal profile] serinde
Last night, [livejournal.com profile] sweh and I went to a TES panel on "Electric Sex", which is to say, playing around with TENS units, Folsom boxes, and whatnot.

Now, we have several TENS units amongst us, mostly for [livejournal.com profile] naudia's back problems, and also [livejournal.com profile] sweh has a black-box which we've mucked with a bit; but mostly I was aware of the potential of these purely as pain generators, which was of limited interest to me. The thrust (fnarr fnarr) of this panel, however, was supposed to be more towards the sexual end, and I was curious to see what the deal was.

They'd also announced that volunteers were needed to be practiced upon, so we got there when the doors open as advised to see if that was still the case. They definitely had a male volunteer, so Stephen was out of luck (which, in the event, may have been as well, since some of the things that were done on the male side might have been outside my comfort zone, though I think he still would have loved it), but at that time the presenter didn't know if any females were lined up, so I was in the on-deck circle.

But then the organizers came in with their already-arranged female volunteer, so I was also out of luck. And it was a vast quantity of luck I was out of, because--well, let me not get ahead of myself.

The talk started with a basic discussion of electrical play, the do's and don'ts, available equipment, etc. Then, the first demonstration was on a man's arms, so that the audience could see exactly what it is that the device is doing; she hooked it up using the little sticky pads, two on each forearm (TENS units have two sets of independent leads), and showed how, as you increase the current, the muscles start spasming and twitching. (She also noted that this aspect is really useful in control scenes, e.g. ordering the bottom to hold their arms still and then forcing them to move.)

Then came the female volunteer. She stripped from the waist down and got on the padded table so everyone could see what was going on. The presenter started by putting the same kind of sticky pads on her pubic mound, bracketing the top of the slit as it were, and ran low current through that. (Report: "Feels nice.") Then came out a sizeable insertable whatsit. It's one actually intended for anal play, but the presenter said she wasn't personally impressed with the one that's sold for vaginal--narrow and smooth and dull, we were told--and that in her opinion this worked far better. So the other pair of leads from the TENS were connected into the base of that (while the other leads were still on her mound), and in it went. And as the power to the plug was increased, the volunteer started twitching something fierce, and you could see visible vibrations in the plug; and the presenter described this as the plug literally fucking her.

So, we are half naked on a table in front of fifty people being fucked by a machine that's under the control of a wickedly sadistic domme. How many of my kinks can you find in this picture, kids? AND IT WAS ALMOST ME BUT WASN'T ARGHGHGHGH *flail scream* not fair!. I sounded new depths of envy.

Anyways, after while the demonstration moved on to the male volunteer. The presenter began with a cock ring that has sockets for your electro-item, which you can connect both leads to that and just run the current through the ring, but she instead put a medical-purposed cuff around his scrotal sac and connected the other lead to that, so the current was running through all his genitalia. He seemed a little too complacent about that (they are, apparently, old friends) so she switched to some bigger magic, namely putting a urethral sound down his cock, and then a long probe up his ass, and connecting THOSE to the leads. (It should be noted that only the tip of the probe is conductive.) This seemed to have a very salubrious effect, aheheheh, go figure.

We had to leave at the break rather than staying for the roundtable discussion, due to the evil of transit. But I really enjoyed the evening; it's opened up a whole area I hadn't even considered (and we even have a good part of what we'll need, though the electric-enabled plugs are Not Cheap), and it's given me a lot of food for pervy thought.

Date: 2006-11-08 03:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tactisle.livejournal.com
Might I suggest a big discussion forum and media-sharing zone (http://www.smartstim.com) on the subject?

It's mostly men, but there's a good balance of gay'n'str8 (or, well, gay'n'bi most likely), also a good deal of discussion between women about using the Damned Devices. And best of all, lots and lots of advice on making yer own plugs and rings and suchlike.

Including tips on which metals are best (max conductance, minimum leaching of metal salts into the skin, NO LEAD!, etc.), where to get cheap high-conductance rubber tubing, cheap stickypads, how to avoid electrocuting yourself, how to rig a battery-powered pair of computer speakers into an electrostim box so you can "play" custom mp3 files into your tender bits, you name it.

Sure, there are a few ueberfreaks on the site that carry it, perhaps, a teensy bit too far... but weren't it ever thus? *grin*

Date: 2006-11-08 05:20 pm (UTC)
ext_8707: Taken in front of Carnegie Hall (Default)
From: [identity profile] ronebofh.livejournal.com
I've always lingered on the ES section of Blowfish (http://www.blowfish.com/catalog/toys/estim.html), but it's really too much money to spend on something that sounds cool but i might end up not liking (or liking enough to justify the expense).

Date: 2006-11-08 06:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sweh.livejournal.com
You can potentially start cheap, which is what I did.

eg I bought this from this site: http://www.healthxp.com/ts1211-tens-7000-p-180.html

It is a pretty adequate 2 channel TENS unit. This along with some sticky pads (it comes with 4, I think) would let you play a little. If you like what you find then you can shell out the bigger bucks for the insertables.

And if you don't like it, well it's a perfectly good medical TENS unit which could be resold :-)

Date: 2006-11-08 05:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lunchboy.livejournal.com
Now I keep hearing Johnny Cash singing "Folsom Box Blues": "I shocked a man in Reno / Just to watch him writhe..."

Date: 2006-11-09 12:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crypticgirl.livejournal.com
*sigh*

Some of this sounds like it would be really interesting to at least try. Short circuiting my hearing, however, is not on my To Do list...

Date: 2006-11-09 04:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] syringavulgaris.livejournal.com
Depending on how your hearing stuff works--the TENS current is very localized, so for instance if your set of leads is, e.g., on either side of your labia, the current is only going to be going right between those two points. I mean, certainly check with the doctor (say you're considering it for back pain?), but if your equipment is only up around your head I can't see why, logically, this kind of play should be a problem.

Date: 2006-11-12 05:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crypticgirl.livejournal.com
Logically, maybe it's not an issue. Looking around, I can only find information that prohibits electricity based medical procedures around the head and neck of an implant patient.

But the fact that the little booklet I got with the implant contained all sorts of Dire Warnings about electric shocks in general - wear rubber soled shoes, ground yourself after a static shock, and for the love of frolicking ponies don't go down any slippery dips - it'd be anxiety creating in a bad way to do it. I don't feel qualified enough to know if those warnings are on the same scale as, say, the instructions for eradicating the tiniest bit of moisture from the implant, or whether they're on the scale of seriousness implied by the 'don't go near an MRI or you'll explode' warnings. In a sense it doesn't matter - the reflexive anxiety is the same either way.

Which is fine, because it's one of those things on my 'Wouldn't that be interesting to try?' list, rather than the 'OMG where have you BEEN?' list.

Date: 2006-11-10 03:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sweh.livejournal.com
I remember Matt's comments on how expensive and annoying it was to replace part of your aid when it failed; I certainly wouldn't want to risk breaking it!

However, the current from a TENS unit does flow the path of least resistance between the two electrodes. I'd be very very surpised if there was a measurable difference in body potential measured at the shoulder (compared to earth) between normal use and between when two electrodes are placed below the waist and active.

Check with your doctor, definitely, but I doubt there will be any problems.

Date: 2006-11-12 05:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crypticgirl.livejournal.com
As I've just said in my response to Tori, I'm sure it's the actual risk level that's the problem here, it's the perceived one. I'm not sure I could really enjoy something even with the slight possibility that something might go wrong and my hearing would go kaput niggling at me. There was so much fear and stress around the process of getting the implant - especially because they botched the operation the first time - that I really, really have an aversion to going through it again.

But thanks for weighing in on this. If I do lose that reflexive fear anytime down the track, it might be worth trying out. :)

Date: 2006-11-12 05:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crypticgirl.livejournal.com
Eep. That should be 'not sure' in the first sentence...

Date: 2006-11-09 02:56 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dvandom.livejournal.com
I wonder if Bytesize (http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/misc/Bytesize) has a TENS setting. ;)

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