Tied up in tragedy

I read a very sad story today that I came across on Fetlife. It was a link to an article on yahoo news about an Italian student who had died during a rope session. The student along with a friend and a rope expert had gone out partying in a club, had drunk and taken drugs and then decided to do shibari in a suburban car park. Two girls were tied together, however one of them fainted and caused the other one to suffocate. There were attempts to revive her but these were unsuccessful.

I read this story this morning, and it scared the bejaysis out of me. Myself and Adomis have been getting more and more adventurous with shibari (as you can see from some of our pics) but news like this is concerning. In untrained hands, rope can be lethal. Even in the right hands, rope can be lethal, and I suppose to some extent, I like the excitement and the thrill associated with engaging in risky business.

But one thing that jumps out of this story for me is the importance of limiting alcohol and drug intake when engaging in BDSM. I don’t take drugs. I did, but I don’t anymore and have not done so in quite a while. I’m also not a big drinker. I drink on special occasions like birthdays or maybe at Christmas but I could happily live without the stuff, so this is not a major thing for me. But I do think it very important that other kinksters experimenting with shibari don’t ease their nerves with a bottle of vodka before getting started. Alcohol and drugs seriously impede your brain’s ability to make logical and rational decisions. If you think about this, how can you give consent if you are not thinking right? That is clearly not sane and definitely not safe.

I can see where the safe, sane & consentual comes into bondage and that phrase should never be used in conjunction with drugs and alcohol in my opinion. G’wan have a pint or a vodka and coke. Treat yourself to a mojito. But if you’re going to try ropework, regardless of how experienced you are, I’d imagine you are better of keeping it to the one, if even!