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All the risks below are possibilities of the listed activity. They are listed in no particular order. Please do not consider it to be exhaustive or use it as your sole determining factor when it comes to your safety. Some risk possibilities must nearly always be considered; a few of these can be found in the second tab below. Additionally, please note that the list below does not account for acts of intentional malice or for every complicating medical condition. Possible mitigation strategies or more information sometimes appear under risks when given. These should not be considered solutions that bring a risk to 0%, nor should they be considered the only possible solutions or information. Likewise, lack of a mitigation strategy or research being listed does not mean none exists.
What are the safety risks of rough body play and BDSM takedown scenes?
Many risks also seen in impact play
IMPORTANT NOTE: If your rough play involves any kind of hitting or punching beyond face-slapping (which is below), please review BOTH lists. Impact risks exist regardless of if the impact is with a hand or a toy and it should not be assumed that one issues less risk than the other.
Craniocervical Instability (CCI); both causing it and the increased risks that result from having it: the rather annoying feeling that one’s head is too heavy for their neck (I call it “bobble-head syndrome” myself!), vertigo, dizziness, or weakness and numbness pretty much anywhere in the body due to the kinds of neurological pathways that stem from the cervical spine. CCI in more extreme cases may also dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), sleep dysfunction, memory loss, or paralysis
Those with connective tissue disorders are at increased risk of CCI and may already be experiencing it, so those with hypermobility of any kind should take extra precaution. CCI is often something people are unaware they have until something goes wrong.
Mitigation: Avoid yanking people any distances via neck or head (e.g. hair-pulling). Using hair-pulling/holding as a means to control where one can move (preventing movement as opposed to using hair-pulling to cause it) may have less risk.
Incisional hernias, particularly with stomping or kicking
Broken bones and sprains, partic. from people falling in non-stabilized ways
Tearing out piercings
Injuries to top resulting in lack of ability to respond to bottom emergencies
Dislocations
Carpet burn
Pulled muscles; tendonitis
Asthma attacks
Bruised/fractured ribs, fingers, etc, including from rolling into objects in the area
IUD being dislodged
Most of the below submissions were in the context of face-slapping, but are likely to apply to other elements of rough handling as well.
Vertigo
Burst/perforated eardrums
Tinnitus
Eye injuries including detached cornea, traumatic iritis, eye rupture, bleeding into eye, glaucoma as a result of trauma, future complications with cataract surgery due to trauma
Mitigation of above with slapping: a lot of people will flinch, causing hits to land wrong; stabilize by holding chin
However, mitigation ≠ elimination of risk, and eye injuries can be pernicious and may occur when there is impact to the face or head even when it seems like “nothing went wrong.” See an eye doctor for decreased vision, pain or light sensitivity after impact near eyes.
Burst capillaries
Breakouts
Chipping and breaking of teeth
Whiplash
Risks/possibilities to always consider include (but are not limited to):
Psychological trauma, which can be unexpected and long-lasting
A resulting lack of ability to communicate (incl. safewords)
Pre-existing conditions or triggers not being disclosed, therefore increasing other risks without the other party’s knowledge
Equipment failure and the risks therein, both of structural elements (e.g., furniture, hard points) and toys (i.e., risks resulting from the toy breaking and associated jagged edges, shattered glass, etc)
Medical and legal misadventures
If there’s an emergency, who will get this person to the ER? Do you know their first and last name(/how to get to their ID if not) if they’re unconscious? Does any party want/need a cover story, particularly if the answer to the consent-to-assault question is “no”? Has everyone agreed on one that is as close to the truth as possible (medical professionals need what fully happened)?
Can you consent to assault in your state (assault in this case = near any kind of pain purposefully inflicted on a person)? If not, is the person facilitating the experience prepared to accept consequences if a worst-case scenario happens?
Thoughts and reactions of overhearers/onlookers, both kinky and non
Increased danger that comes from the prevalence of whiteness in Fetlife and popular media kinky pictures, leading warning signs and various medical conditions unnoticed on darker skin
To learn how this might appear, please see Mind the Gap here.
Allergies
Fungal/Staph infections from shared equipment
Shock
Fainting from pain, dehydration, shock, prolonged standing etc. and hitting head/bone/nerve
Panic attacks and related symptoms incl. shaking (dangerous especially with sharps) and inability to communicate
Financial responsibility
There’s a very expensive world of possibilities between “nothing went wrong” and “death”; when folks cannot take time off work, complications from play lead to loss of income for some, and job loss for others (or increase of severity of injury/trauma due to lack of ability to rest)
Changes/decreases to ability to heal even if experienced before due to natural aging and wear on the body
Death