Also known in personal ads and internet profiles as:

• tit play
• TT
• nipple play/torture.

Hanky code

Pink

What is tit torture?

Tit torture or tit play can be squeezing, sucking, biting, rubbing, clamping or pinching someone's nipples. It can be with fingers or objects like tit/nipple clamps, clothes pegs or bulldog clips. Tits can be stimulated by piercing the nipple, either permanently with jewellery or just for one sex session with needles. Also used are suction cups (including ones to remove snake bite poison), hot wax, ice, sand paper or weights hung from the nipple.

The areola (the darker coloured circle of skin around the nipple) isn't sensitive. The actual nipple - the raised bump of flesh - is where the sensitive nerve endings are, with the absolute tip of the nipple being most sensitive.

What's the attraction?

More and more we're getting fixated on men's tits. Big pecs and erect nipples are a major fetish, from beefcake porn to Tom of Finland-style pictures.

Nipples are one of the body's erogenous zones: as tits get aroused they get hard and erect. The sight of this can be a real turn-on. The more work tits get, the more they stand out, becoming an even more powerful sexual symbol. For some men their tits are hot wired to their cock, with tit play the quickest way to get them rock hard and groaning with delight.

The pain involved can be pleasurable, with the body releasing endorphins. These are natural chemicals that act as painkillers (the reason tit play can get quite rough) and can cause a feel-good sensation.

For a top the kick comes from exercising power by subjecting discomfort (mixed with pleasure) on the bottom and enjoying their reaction. A sadistic pleasure comes from controlling the sub's experience, switching between different levels of force and using tit play as punishment, made even more of a turn-on if the sub's hands are tied behind his exposed chest.

The bottom gets his kicks from feeling helpless and at another man's mercy, with sucking on a nipple symbolic of submission and surrendering to the power of another man.