Elektroplay

What is elektroplay?

Elektroplay (English: electro play, in full erotic electrostimulation) is play in which weak currents are put across the skin and stimulate the nerves beneath. The stimulation comes not from touch but from the device, and runs from a tickle to a sharp sting. Elektroplay has one rule that is not up for negotiation: the current stays away from the heart.

How elektroplay works in practice

Elektroplay almost always starts too low. That is on purpose: you look for the bottom and climb up from there.

A common run. Two pads on the thighs, skin clean and dry, and the strength slowly up until there is something to feel. What happens then surprises almost everyone: it does not feel like touch but like something that begins from the inside. Low, it tickles; halfway, it throbs along with a rhythm the device picks; above that, it turns sharp. And the muscle under the pad tightens without you doing it.

The mistake people make is turning the knob up too fast. Unlike a blow, you see nothing coming, so the person holding the knob announces every increase out loud.

The limit is not optional. The British NHS prescribes for TENS: not on the neck, the mouth or the eyes, not on irritated, damaged, inflamed or numb skin, and not on the chest and back at the same time. That last one is exactly the route that runs through the heart, and that is where the scene rule “never above the waist” comes from.

How current works on a nerve

Not by making pain, but by disrupting nerve conduction.

The device comes from pain management. UMC Utrecht describes TENS, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, as a treatment that reduces pain with weak currents, and names three effects: disruption of the nerve conduction that makes you feel pain, release of pain-relieving substances, and muscle relaxation. The NHS adds that it probably works by the body releasing endorphins and blocking pain signals on their way to the brain.

That explains the strangest feature of elektroplay: the same device that can make pain is designed to dampen it. The difference sits in setting, place and duration.

The limits are set down medically. UMC Utrecht is brief about it: electrodes absolutely must not go on the carotid arteries, the skin under them has to be intact, and with a pacemaker or ICD the cardiologist has a say. The NHS adds epilepsy and pregnancy.

Why people do elektroplay

For a stimulation you cannot make with hands.

The appeal sits in the lack of a run-up. With a hand or a whip you feel the movement and the air before it. With current there is nothing: it is there, or it is not. So you cannot anticipate, and that is exactly what people find exciting.

What it does per person:

• For the person receiving it, the gain is that your body does something you cannot hold back yourself. A muscle that tightens while you do nothing is a different experience from enduring pain.
• For the person holding the knob, the pleasure sits in fine control. One click of difference is felt, and that makes this the most precise tool in the box.
• For two people together, the conversation beforehand gets more concrete: it is about place, strength and a signal.

Misconceptions about elektroplay

“As long as it is not set high, nothing can happen.” Wrong. The risk to heart function exists, according to the encyclopedia, even at low current and voltage. What makes it dangerous is the route through the body, not the setting of the knob.

“A TENS unit is a medical device, so it is safe.” It is a medical device with contraindications. UMC Utrecht rules out the carotid arteries, requires intact skin, and refers you to the cardiologist with a pacemaker or ICD. A device is only as safe as the place you put it.

“You can build one yourself.” That is exactly the form things have gone wrong with in the past. Home-built devices on mains power, with the current through the chest, are the recurring factor in serious incidents in the literature. So buy equipment made for this purpose.

What I see myself

I’m Victor, a gigolo, in the BDSM world since 1990 and with a background as a psychotherapist. Current play is part of what I do on a BDSM date, and my profile lists under my training, in so many words: needles and electro play, for sure. So this is not book knowledge.

The first time is the most striking. Women who handle pain well are startled sooner here, and not because it is harder. Someone who hears a whip braces. With current that does not work.

The second thing: it almost always goes too fast. Not because someone wants to go too far, but because the lowest settings seem so slight that you think nothing is happening. So I turn it up in steps that feel ridiculously small, and I say what I’m doing each time.

And this I always ask, before a pad touches the skin: do you have a pacemaker, epilepsy, heart trouble, or are you pregnant. That is not a form. At a single yes, this does not go ahead.

What you can do yourself

• Ask about a pacemaker, ICD, neurostimulator, epilepsy, heart rhythm disorders and pregnancy before you connect a device, and stop at a single yes.
• Keep everything below the waist and never let the current run from one side of the chest to the other.
• Use only equipment made for this. Nothing home-built, and nothing on mains power.
• Only put pads on intact skin, and never on the neck; UMC Utrecht explicitly rules out the carotid arteries.
• Turn up in small steps and say what you’re doing each time, because the other person cannot brace here.
• Agree that the knob may come back down without explanation, in both directions.

More on elektroplay

On this site the English spelling with the device overview is at electro play, the category this play falls under is at edgeplay, and the corner the male variant is usually placed in is at CBT. The blog category on the dangers of BDSM covers the risks in plain language.

Off this site, the UMC Utrecht patient leaflet is the most sober piece on what a TENS unit does and where it is not allowed, written for people who take the device home. The NHS page on TENS gives the same rules in English.

Sources

• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). National Health Service (United Kingdom). Provides the description of TENS as a treatment that reaches the nerves with a weak current, the presumed working through endorphins and the blocking of pain signals, and the exclusions: not with epilepsy, a pacemaker or pregnancy without medical clearance, not on irritated, damaged, inflamed or numb skin, not on the neck, mouth or eyes, and not on the chest and back at the same time.
• Pijnbehandeling met TENS. UMC Utrecht. Provides the meaning of the abbreviation, the three effects (disruption of nerve conduction, release of pain-relieving substances, muscle relaxation), the requirement that the skin under the electrodes is intact, the explicit ban on placing electrodes on the carotid arteries, and the advice to consult the cardiologist with a pacemaker or ICD.

Related terms

• Electro play. The same practice under the English spelling, with the terminology and the devices.
• Edgeplay. The category elektroplay falls under, and what that frame asks.
• CBT. The corner erotic electrostimulation is filed under in the professional literature.
• Endorphin. The substance named in how TENS works, with what has been measured of it.
• E-stim. The gear: which units and electrodes exist and what the knobs do.
• Neon wand. One of the devices elektroplay is done with, with the origin and the hard limit.
• TENS. The unit itself, and why “never above the waist” is a summary of one real rule.
• Violet wand. The device that sparks at a distance rather than sending current through you.