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CP (Corporal punishment)
Obviously mutual consent is crucial.
HIV risks
There is no risk of transmission unless the skin is cut, which rarely happens. Even if the skin is cut, the risk is very small and the only danger would be if blood or semen came into contact with these cuts.
Ideally you should throw away a toy with blood on it, or if that's not possible, find out how to sterilise it properly (see Sex toys, below). For instance, if you use canes and get blood on them they are cheap enough to throw away and get a new one.
Other risks
If you are going to do `heavy' CP, it is important to be aware of the risk of damage. Some safety considerations:
- Make sure you don't hit delicate parts of the body: common sense will guide you about most parts of the body which are delicate; but you also need to be careful about internal organ damage which might not show
- The best rule of thumb is: stick to parts of the body which have very large muscles: for instance it is much safer to hit the buttocks rather than the lower back (where, for instance, the kidneys are)
- Practise on yourself and inanimate objects first, so you know how accurate your aim is and how painful different strokes are
- Don't believe what you see in the movies! It is much easier to seriously hurt someone with a whip than the impression you might get from a whipping scene in a film.