Leather List Definitions 1

Age Play -- A role play where one or both partners take personas of people older or younger than they really are. Common examples are Teacher/Schoolgirl, Babysitter/Naughty child.

Alternate lifestyle -- An umbrella term for those whose sexuality is not in the common mold. Includes BDSM, swingers, gays.

B&D -- Bondage and Discipline. A subgroup within BDSM which is largely involved in making the submissive physically helpless and applying stimuli which outside of a scene would be painful.

Bastinado -- Striking or whipping the feet with a cane or rod.

Bell Dancing -- Using temporary piercings as attachment points for bells and other noisemakers and then moving in such a way as to make them ring.

Birching -- Striking with single birch rods or bundles of birch twigs. Often causes minor scratches and is considered a mild form of blood play.

Black snake -- Single tail whip that is flexible throughout its entire length including where the user's hand rests.

Blood Sports -- A group of techniques in which the submissive's skin is broken and blood is allowed to escape. Since the advent of AIDS and the spread of hepatitis, interest in blood sports has declined and those who practice it have developed techniques to protect themselves. The most common blood sport is cutting.

Bondage -- A group of techniques for rendering a submissive physically helpless. These include rope ties, handcuffs and manacles, wrapping and mummification.

Bottom -- Someone who engages in stimulation play as the receiver of the stimulation but who does create a semblance of submission as part of his or her play.

Bottom drop -- A kind of seeming depression that may follow scenes. It is hypothesized that the body interprets the return to normal sensation levels as a depression and the mind creates a further downward spiral in attempting to explain the perceived depression.

Boundaries -- Limits agreed to during negotiation.

Branding -- Burning the skin with a piece of hot metal, usually to create a design.

Breath Control -- A form of play where the dominant controls the breathing of the submissive. This may be through air-tight masks, strangulation, drowning or other techniques. The safety of this is the subject of major debate within the BDSM community with many holding that it is impossible to do with reliable safety. The majority of BDSM related deaths (solo or partner play) have come from breath control play.

Brown Showers -- Defecation upon a submissive.

Canes -- Not the type used by people to walk with. In BDSM, they are thin and flexible. Traditional ones are rattan. Recently, space age materials have been used with great success. Avoid bamboo canes as they have a tendency to split and produce edges that can cut the skin.

Cat -- A multitailed whip. For purists, the only true cat is made from unwinding a thick rope in the naval tradition.

Catheterization -- Inserting a sterile tube into the urethra for the purpose of controlling urination.

Code Words -- Another term for safeword used by some dominants and submissives.

Collared -- To have accepted a collar from a dominant. This presumes a certain degree of continued submission the degree of which is up to the individuals involved and may range from highly dedicated to extremely casual.

Consensual -- Agreed to. Most people feel that informed consent is necessary during all BDSM play. This means that both parties are aware of the inherent risks and accept them.

Cupping -- Use of a vacuum device to stimulate the submissive's skin, often the nipples. The vacuum can be created by suction cups, vacuum pumps or heating the air in a rigid container and allowing it to cool.

Cutting -- A technique in which cuts are carefully made in the submissive's skin to produce an aesthetically pleasing pattern and stimulation to the submissive. The cuts are sometimes made into permanent markings by placing sterile foreign substances in them before they heal.