Chain

What is a chain?

A chain is a run of interlocking metal links, used in BDSM to hold someone in place or to connect restraints, collar, and anchor point to each other. A chain does not give, and it shortens only one link at a time. The weight, the cold, and the rattle are part of the effect.

Where does the word come from?

From keten, which for centuries was the same word.

The Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands shows how the two drifted apart. In Middle Dutch the word was first ketten: “een gulden ketten” for a golden chain, recorded between 1470 and 1490. After that the ending -en gave way to -ing, and in time a difference in form carried a difference in meaning. Keten settled onto the figurative, ketting onto the iron. The oldest attestation of the new form in the sense this page describes dates from 1563 and speaks of “groote lange ysere kettingen”.

Further back, keten comes from the Latin catēna, probably by way of Romance. The French chaîne and the German Kette come from the same source.

Why does steel work differently than rope?

Because a chain does not negotiate.

Rope stretches a few millimeters. Leather gives, and a buckled restraint you adjust until it sits just right. A chain does none of that. You can only shorten it a whole link at a time, so the gap between two wrists never comes out exactly as you wanted it, but one step wider or one step tighter. Metal carries heat away faster than rope or leather, so it feels colder than the room it is lying in.

Audible, too. A chain that shifts gives away every movement, and that turns lying still into something you hear yourself doing.

That same build is also where it goes wrong. Anywhere two links close on each other, skin can get caught between them. So never lay a chain straight around a wrist or a throat. Link it to a restraint or a collar that spreads the pressure.

What does long metal contact do to the skin?

Nickel is the real material problem.

The European legislator set that down in 1994 in Directive 94/27/EC, with the consideration that nickel in objects coming into direct and prolonged contact with the skin can cause sensitization and lead to allergic reactions. The directive names, in so many words, “necklaces, bracelets and chains”. The limit sits at 0.5 micrograms of nickel per square centimeter per week, and on a coated object that limit has to hold for two years of normal use.

That rule covers jewelry and clothing fasteners, not the by-the-meter price at the hardware store. Builder’s chain promises nothing. If you react badly to nickel, choose stainless steel or keep fabric between the metal and your skin.

Where this fits on this site

Chains and steel restraints are part of what I bring. What gets attached that evening, we talk through beforehand. The page on the BDSM date sets out how that conversation goes.

Sources

• ketting. Etymologiebank, hosted by the Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, with the entry from the Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands (Philippa et al., 2003-2009) and the one from Van Wijk’s revision of Franck’s Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal (1912/1936). Provides the Middle Dutch form ketten, the attestation “een gulden ketten” from 1470-1490, the replacement of the -en suffix by -ing to which a distinction in meaning came to be tied, the attestation “groote lange ysere kettingen” from 1563, and the derivation of keten from the Latin catēna, probably by way of Romance, with the French chaîne and the German Kette from the same source.
• Directive 94/27/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 June 1994. Official Journal of the European Communities L 188, 22 July 1994. Provides the consideration that nickel in objects coming into direct and prolonged contact with the skin can cause sensitization and allergic reactions, the list that spells out “necklaces, bracelets and chains”, the limit of 0.5 µg/cm² per week, and the requirement that a coating hold that limit for at least two years of normal use.

Related terms

• Bondage. The practice a chain is one material for, with the agreements that come with it.
• Restraints. The cuffs that spread the pressure where the chain itself does not belong.
• Wrist cuffs. The cuffs a chain most often hangs between.
• Carabiner. What links a chain to a restraint or a fixed point, and what the kilonewtons on it mean.
• D-ring. The eye the chain or the hook catches into.
• Chain whip. The same links, but a striking tool instead of a restraint.
• Collar. The band a chain may attach to, in the place where you never hang weight from it.
• Cage. The other piece of metal you meet in a playroom, the one that holds nothing but closes everything off. Cross and snap hook both have their own entry by now.