BDSM, what you saying lads?
Anecdotal evidence seem to indicate that more of us are getting into it than ever before, last week for Valentines Day we ran a beginners guide to kinky sex and you lot went mad for it.
Shorthand for Bondage, Domination, Sadism and Masochism, it has become a kind of 'umbrella-term' for a wide range of sexual activities, with the community welcoming anybody whose tastes fall outside of missionary and a cup of Horlicks.
Even if you're into hair-pulling, spanking or choking - you can count yourself as one as them.
But what's the science behind people's desire to gag the person they hold dearest and take a cat o' nine tails to their arse? Well, according to Broadly, the "high" feeling that many people experience during bondage has an actual term: subspace.
Kathryn Klement, a researcher at the Science of BDSM, told them: "Like many potentially stressful or extreme experiences (e.g., sky-diving, fire-walking), individuals' bodies react to that stress when they engage in BDSM
"We interpret these cortisol results to mean that when people engage in BDSM play (as the receiver of sensations) or extreme rituals, their bodies release a hormone usually associated with stress.
"However, we've also found that people subjectively report their psychological stress decreasing, so there is a disconnect between what the body is experiencing, and what the individual is perceiving.
Model Sadie Pinn and designer Pam Hogg arriving for the 2016 Brit Awards. Credit: PA Images
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"We interpret these changes to be evidence of subspace, an altered state of consciousness that people who are receiving sensations (the bottoms) can experience."
Research appears to suggest that, when performed consensually, kinkier sex increases intimacy between couples.
In a 2009 study titled Hormonal Changes and Couple Bonding in Consensual Sadomasochistic Activity, researcher Dr. Sagarin discovered that cortisol levels increase in subs and decrease in doms over the course of their sessions in the dungeon.
It was also reported that when their activities went well showed less stress and increases in relationship closeness.
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Your Stories
When we asked you for your BDSM stories, here are some of the things you told us...
She was sitting on my thighs...
"I once was tied to the railing headboard part of a bed years ago. Was all erotic. Girl hadn't really had much power in the past. So it was fun. However she was sitting on my thighs. Decided to run her fingers down my sides which in turn tickled like fuck. So I tensed and instinctively my legs bucked catapulting her into the wall behind the bed with some force.
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"As well as bending the cheap bars of the bed. I couldn't even do much to apologise bollock-naked and tied down. It's all fun and games until the wall is face-planted and there's plasterboard everywhere."
He was pounding away like a medieval flour-maker...
"I was going out with the hipster lad who liked Mumford and Sons (not a fan myself, but went along with it). He was into light BDSM so he tied me up with his fluffy dressing gown cable. All good so far.
"Anyway, he was pounding away like a medieval flour maker then we heard the front door go. One problem with fluffy dressing gown cables - THEY ARE FUCKING HARD TO UNDO QUICKLY.
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"There's me in blind panic trying to get these fucking dressing gown cables undone before his mother comes in so see me with a throbbing stalk-on to the strains of Little Lion Man. I swear to God, it was like facing The Cube. I got dressed quicker than a contestant in Stars In Your Eyes."
I was nervous and she was wriggling, so I accidentally cut too close...
"I was seeing a girl for a while and she liked to be tied up and whipped. I loved it at first and being a super dominant big guy it felt great. She was only petite. But I had to draw the line. It was okay with hands, belts and paddles, but one day she asked me to whip her bum with the side of a knife then when it was red raw she wanted me to cut across.
"I was down for anything but I don't fuck with cutting people, that's a 'Patrick Bateman vibe'. Eventually, after a couple of weeks' persistence I gave in and did it. But as I was nervous and she was wriggling I accidentally cut too close to the actual butthole and she just leapt up and yelped.
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"I was just sat going 'Oh my God, I'm so sorry I didn't mean it, you told me to', but she was not happy. She text me the day after saying: "it hurts to poo, you prick" or something to that effect. After that the relationship kind of fizzled out. I have put a ban on blades altogether now."
Featured Image Credit: PA Images