Feather Ticklers: The Softest Way to Drive Someone Fucking Crazy

It's barely there. A faint brush along your collarbone, then down the side of your breast, so light you're not sure you felt it. Your whole body's straining towards the next touch, and you've got goosebumps from your neck to your knees. You'd pay good money right now for someone to just fucking touch you properly.

Or it hits your foot, you laugh hard enough to frighten the cat, and you boot your partner in the chest. Both outcomes are possible with a feather tickler. The fun is finding the soft touch you love, rather than assuming anything fluffy gets unrestricted access to your body.

Teasing isn't the same as tickling

A slow sweep across an arm or shoulder feels nothing like an attack on the spot that makes you kick. Keep the touch slow and light, and follow the long lines of the body: neck, spine, ribs, inner arms and inner thighs. Go around the nipples and stop before you get between the legs. It's the going around that does it.

If you're painfully ticklish in one spot, leave that spot alone. And if someone says stop, stop, even if they're laughing. The feather will survive being put down.

Blindfold them first

When you can see it coming, you know exactly what's about to happen. A blindfold takes that away. They might still recognise the feel of it, but not the moment it'll arrive or where it'll land next. Suddenly someone who knows you well can keep you guessing with something that looks as though it escaped from a very small cabaret costume.

You don't need cuffs unless you both want them, though "no touching me back" is a very fun rule. Our blindfold and sensory play guide has more ideas.

Pick your plume

A big, full plume brushes over a wide patch of skin, and a small tuft gives you a narrower touch. Neither is automatically sexier. The OUCH! Feather Tickler keeps it simple, with a feather plume and a handle to hold while you tease. It's an easy way into the softer side of kink. Our sensory play toys have other kinds of touch if feathers aren't your thing, and you don't have to become less ticklish to deserve a bit of mischief.

Make it part of something bigger

Use it as the slow first act. Feather first, then your fingertips, then your mouth. Each step will feel like a huge relief, and you can always go back a step when they start getting greedy. Or use it in the middle of everything else, when they're already sensitive and shaking, and watch what a tiny touch does to them then.

Try it right after an orgasm, if they can stand it, and stop the moment they tell you to.

Give it some room

A plume gets squashed in a drawer full of toys and cables. Give it some space so that it stays fluffy and doesn't come out looking like a pigeon after a hard commute.

If you're buying a bondage kit, the tickler in there is an option, not homework. Use what you like and leave the rest. Our first bondage kit guide helps you keep that purchase focused.

And if you try the feather and decide you'd much rather have vibration, a little bullet vibrator is a very different kind of tease. You're allowed to change your mind.