Nipple clamps: the art of pain and pleasure in BDSM
Nipple clamps for women in BDSM: the types, safe tips, and how one small clamp can heighten arousal and connection.
Glossary
Weights
A tool without motion: it hangs, it does nothing on its own, and yet the person wearing it carries it the whole time.
What are weights?
Weights are small, loose weights hung on a clamp, a ring, or a cuff to add pulling force to it. Weights don’t hit and don’t pinch on their own: they hang. What they change is the direction of the stimulus and how long it lasts.
| Names | weights; on the nipples nipple weights, on the scrotum ball weights |
| Also known as | nipple weights; neither has its own entry in this list |
| What they hang from | an alligator clamp or other clamp, a ballstretcher, a labia clamp, a ring |
| How heavy | grams, not kilos; fishing sinkers get used for it too |
| Category | a tool for pulling force, used in CBT and breast torture |
| Main limit | the time limit of the clamp underneath, and a weight makes it shorter, not longer |
How weights work
A weight does two things at once. It pulls, and on some clamps it also pinches harder. The encyclopedia description of nipple clamps names heavy clamps or loose weights as a way to pull on the nipples, which gives a dragging feeling that’s experienced as extra stimulation. With the clover clamp it runs differently: it’s built so that pulling on the chain presses the jaws further shut. Hang something on it and the clamp gets tighter, not just longer.
What gets used is less ceremonial than the catalog suggests. The same source names, alongside weights made specially for it, plain fishing sinkers.
The tool isn’t unusual. Rehor counted, among 1,580 women from the kink community, 47.7% who had some involvement with weights on the body, and 29.9% who did it or received it themselves.
And then there’s the part no one sets: the person wearing them. Every breath makes the weight move along. Every step too, and turning over in bed most of all. A good part of the stimulus is made by the wearer, which explains why weights also get used in predicament setups, where sitting still is the only way to do anything about it.
What pulling does over time
Pulling force and time together do something a slap doesn’t. Wilhelmi and colleagues describe mechanical creep in Annals of Plastic Surgery: skin under a constant load stretches over time further than its own elasticity allows. If that pull stays, biological creep is added, where the body grows new tissue. That’s the principle behind tissue expansion in plastic surgery, and it’s also the principle behind stretching the scrotum.
That literature is about surgery, not the bedroom. So it says nothing about how long something may safely hang.
For that, the limit of the tool underneath applies. With clamps that’s the blood supply, and that rule is on the page about that type of tool. A weight makes the limit stricter: it adds pull to pressure that’s already there. Color and feeling are the gauges, not the scale.
Where this fits on this site
I bring weights, and whether they go on anything is an agreement up front, not a surprise along the way. How an evening like that is built is on the page about the BDSM date.
Sources
- Sensual, Erotic, and Sexual Behaviors of Women from the “Kink” Community. Jennifer Eve Rehor, Archives of Sexual Behavior 44(4), 825–836, 2015. Supplies the figures for “attaching weights to body parts” among 1,580 women from the kink community: 15.1% did it to another, 20.3% received it, 29.9% one or both, 35.1% watched it, and 47.7% took part in some form.
- Creep vs. stretch: a review of the viscoelastic properties of skin. Wilhelmi, Blackwell, Mancoll & Phillips, Annals of Plastic Surgery 41(2), 215–219, 1998. Supplies the definition of mechanical creep as the stretching of skin under a constant load over time, beyond its own elasticity, and of biological creep as the growth of new tissue from a sustained pulling force, as used in tissue expansion.
- Nipple clamp. Wikipedia. Supplies that heavy clamps or extra weights are used to pull on the nipples with a dragging feeling as a result, that with the clover clamp pulling on the chain closes the jaws further, that small weights or fishing sinkers get hung on it, and the use in predicament setups. The article has carried its own note since March 2019 that it needs more sources; the facts named above are descriptive and have been used here only as description.
Related terms
- Alligator clamp. The tool weights hang from most, with the time rule included.
- Clover clamps. The one model where the weight both pulls and pinches harder.
- Ballstretcher. The same pulling force, but built into a cuff instead of hung from it.
- CBT. The collective name for the play where weights get used on the scrotum.
- Breast torture. The practice where nipple weights belong.
- Sensation play. The umbrella that pulling force on the skin falls under.
- Clamps and nipple clamps are the other parents of this tool term. There you’ll find what a weight hangs from and how long that’s responsible.
Frequently asked questions
What people still ask about weights.
What are weights in BDSM?
Weights are small weights hung on a clamp, a ring, or a cuff to add pulling force. They get used on nipple clamps, on labia clamps, and on the scrotum. Unlike a whip or a paddle, weights do nothing on their own: they hang and wait.
How long can weights stay hanging?
Shorter than the tool underneath would be allowed on its own. With clamps the blood supply sets the limit, and a weight adds pull to pressure that’s already there; that rule is on the page about the alligator clamp. There’s no number that applies to weights separately, so color and feeling are what you keep an eye on.
Who can you turn to with questions about weights?
Victor, a gigolo with twenty-five years of experience in BDSM and a background as a psychotherapist. He does pain play from soft to hard and always by agreement, so anyone wondering whether weights are for her can just ask about it beforehand. You can send a message through the contact form, and free chat works too.
Blog
Articles on clamps, nipples, and dosing
Weights hang from something, and that something is usually a clamp on a nipple. These articles describe what happens there and how far you want to take it.
Nipple Pinching in BDSM: Where Pain and Pleasure Meet
Nipple pinching in BDSM: how pain turns into pleasure, what it asks of trust and safety, and how aftercare completes it.
Hard and Soft Pain in BDSM: The Difference
The difference between hard and soft pain in BDSM: what it opens up, how to explore it safely, and why nothing is wrong with you.
Related service
Clamps and weights during a BDSM date
Nipple clamps and pain play are on my profile, from soft to hard and always by agreement. The service page shows how we settle beforehand how far it goes.
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Still have questions about weights?
I'm Victor. Want to know how pulling force feels next to the pain you already know, or how gently you can start with something like this? Ask away. It costs nothing and you're tied to nothing.