When it comes to sex, the concept of safe boundaries is relative. What may seem like going too far to you may just be a start for someone else. Let’s take, for example, the art of fingering.
Some people insert fingers into their bodies when they masturbate, and when they have sex with a partner, they sometimes request that fingers be inserted into their vagina or rectum.
While that may sound like a very normal thing to do, some people can only allow the penetration of two fingers while others can deal with the insertion of three or more.
The question here is, is there a limit to the number of fingers that should be allowed into the vagina or rectum? The answer depends on the individual.
In this article, we will be exploring another unique sexual activity that involves the use of the hand and is beginning to gain more popularity in the present day. Let’s talk about fisting!
While fingering involves the insertion of just two or three fingers into the vagina or the rectum, fisting involves penetrating these areas with a minimum of four fingers but mostly involves inserting the whole hand into the vagina or rectum.
Fisting goes by many other names; you can call it handballing, fist-fucking, and brachioproctic or brachiovaginal insertion.
Once the hand in fully inserted into the desired area, the fingers are either left straight or clenched into a fist.
Some people have become so good at fisting that they find it easy to do it when they masturbate. However, fisting is usually a partnered activity especially when the hand has to go into the rectum.
A brief history of fisting
Fist-fucking’s popularity over time as an accepted sexual practice is commonly attributed to male homosexual culture, and most people believe it may not have been in existence until the late twentieth century.
There has also been the establishment of fisting clubs around the world with the most famous of them being the catacombs located in San Francisco. The catacombs operated around the 1970s to 1980s. Another of such clubs that became popular was the Handball express.
Some people who heard the name of the club but had no knowledge of what it was about, mistook it was a sports club. Because the human body needs to be lubricated before penetration, and unlike the vagina, the butt hole cannot self-lubricate, Crisco was used as a form of lubricant before other lubricants began to creep into the market.
Furthermore, in the 1980s, it was believed that unprotected fisting was dangerous and unhealthy as it usually caused small sores on the anus allowing microorganisms’ access to the blood. People feared that diseases like HIV could easily be transmitted via fisting.
The fear of health dangers and the fact that straight people were uncomfortable with the public fisting culture in gay establishments around San Francisco, Randy Shilts, a gay writer, was moved to campaign for the closure of gay relaxation spots, clubs, and bathhouses that permitted open fisting.
The practice of fist-fucking died down for a few years but began to creep in again over the next three decades.
Types of fisting techniques
Duck billing
This fisting technique entails shaping the hand to be inserted like a duck’s beak and gently penetrating. The person engaging in hand insertion is not supposed to clench his fist and enter as that would be “punching” instead of fisting.
All five fingers of the inserter are to be kept straight and as close together as possible. The rectum or vagina of the receiver should be appropriately lubricated before the hand goes inside.
Punching
This is a more rigorous form of fisting that involves forcefully penetrating a rectum or vagina with a clenched fist and withdrawing it slowly. The rectum or vagina is also to be adequately lubricated before the insertion that that doesn’t guarantee that the process would be less painful.
Some people who have been involved in fisting for a long time can take in two fists at a time and still enjoy it. The difference in the pleasure derived from having a single fist inside and having double fists is the stretching of the vagina or rectum.
While those who accept single fist enjoy the to and fro movement of the hand, those who take in two fists get pleasure from the stretching of their skin.
Dangers associated with fisting
Fisting might be enjoyable, but it has some risks you should know before you decide to engage in it. One of the dangers that fisting exposes a Fistee to as a perforation of the vagina, rectum, perineum, and colon which results in some severe injuries and sometimes death.
Also, fisting and other sexual activities that allow air to enter into the vagina can cause a fatal air embolism, with a probably higher risk during pregnancy. For Anal fisting, there is a risk of colorectal perforation. Thus participants are advised to make use of lubricants and latex gloves.
There is also a need to come up with a safe word which the receiver is to speak out when he or she feels any discomfort so that the practice can be stopped before further damage is done.
Fisting and inserting other hard objects or sex toys into the anus has been discovered to have links with the traumatisation of the rectal mucosa. When the rectal mucosa is traumatised, there is an increase in the likelihood of infection such as Hepatitis B.
There are different reasons why people want to engage in fisting during sex; sometimes for the love of kink, the desire to feel full inside, the love for pain during sex, and others too numerous to mention.
The point is, whatever your reasons are, make sure to take proper precaution to prevent sex-related injuries and infection as your health should be your priority.
