Suturing

What is suturing?

Suturing (from the medical term for stitching a wound) is a form of play piercing in BDSM where the skin is sewn with a sterile needle and thread, for example into a corset pattern or to hold a temporary decoration in place. It is edgeplay: high-risk play that calls for sterile technique, anatomical knowledge, and experience.

How suturing works

Suturing is the sewing variant of needle play. According to the encyclopedia, in play piercing needles are placed temporarily in the skin and removed afterward, and they can be laced like a corset or used to sew on a temporary decoration with sterile thread. That sewing with thread is exactly what suturing is. It is about sensation, ritual, and trust, not a permanent piercing. Because blood and skin are involved, it is risky by nature: play piercing carries the risk of blood-borne diseases and puncture wounds.

Why safety here is everything

This is not a game to just try. What already applies to needle play applies more heavily here: single-use sterile needles, thoroughly cleaned skin, and enough anatomical knowledge to avoid veins, arteries, nerves, and organs. In suturing the thread also passes through the skin and the wound stays open longer, so the blood contact and the infection risk are greater than with a single prick. For you that means: suturing belongs with experience, not with curiosity alone. It is not an entry-level technique. Anyone who wants to explore it first learns the basics of needle play with someone who has done it many times.

What I see myself

I am Victor, a gigolo for women, and I don’t do suturing. It sits alongside cutting and scarification on my no-go list. Sewing the skin shut is more invasive than a cut, it legally counts as grievous bodily harm, and it belongs with someone who does this professionally and sterilely, not in a bedroom. That is not a judgment about anyone who does want it, it is simply not something I offer.

Almost everyone who asks about it is looking for the sensation of something that goes through the skin and leaves a trace. That feeling can also be reached with things that need no wound and no scar.

What you can do yourself

• See it as needle play that stays open longer. Everything needle play requires applies more heavily here: sterile needle and thread in sealed packaging, once, on one person, then straight into the sharps container.
• Stay away from veins, arteries, nerves, and joints. Work only in skin you can lift free, shallow, never deeper than you can see.
• Arrange for the needlestick incident in advance. Ask about hepatitis B vaccination and agree what you do if someone pricks themselves on a used needle, including which number you call. The Dutch national guideline on needlestick incidents works with time windows, so waiting until tomorrow can be too late for PEP.
• Treat the wound as a wound. Once the thread is out, it is no longer a scene. Rinse with lukewarm tap water without soap and press it closed until the bleeding stops.
• See a doctor if the bleeding does not stop, the wound edges do not close, or in the days after you see yellow-white discharge, increasing pain, warmth, redness, or a fever of 38 degrees Celsius or higher. Stitching by a doctor is best done within twelve hours.

Sources

• Play piercing. Wikipedia. Provides that needles are placed temporarily in the skin and removed afterward, that they can be laced like a corset or used to sew on a decoration with sterile thread, and that play piercing carries a risk of blood-borne diseases and puncture wounds.
• Landelijke Richtlijn Prikaccidenten (the Dutch national guideline on needlestick incidents). National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). Provides what has to happen after a prick on a used needle, the role of hepatitis B vaccination, and that there are time windows within which PEP has to be started.
• Ik heb een wond (I have a wound). Thuisarts.nl, the Dutch public health information site from the Dutch College of General Practitioners, the Federation of Medical Specialists, and the Dutch Patient Federation. Provides the advice to press closed until the bleeding stops and to rinse with lukewarm tap water without soap, the preferred window of twelve hours for stitching, and the infection signs to watch for: yellow-white discharge, increasing pain, warmth, redness, and a fever of 38 degrees Celsius or higher.

Related terms

• Play piercing. The broader practice that suturing is a sewing variant of.
• Needle play. The wider term for play with needles, which suturing falls under.
• Edgeplay. The high-risk category that suturing belongs to.
• Bloodplay. Related, because blood and skin are involved in suturing.