Nipple Clamps 101

From my photo shoot Coven 2006 Fatale Femmes Fotography

Breasts and nipples are my favorite parts of the female anatomy because they are so fun to play with.  It is very hot playfully torturing a pair of breasts and watching them respond with pleasure, as your play partner moans and squeals with abandon.

Nipple clamps are a great way to add breast play into your play routine, and they work well on men and women, provided your partner enjoys nipple stimulation.  Most women enjoy having their breasts played with and many men have sensitive nipples as well.

There are several types of nipple clamps, from the very simple clothespins to elaborately styled Japanese Clover Clamps, as well as ones with weights and jewelry.   For the purposes of this article I want to compare the three main types.

Tweezer Clamps

Tweezer Clamps or Pincer Clamps are the cheapest and usually the most popular with novices who haven’t used nipple clamps before.  They are shaped like tweezers, as their name suggests, and are long and thin with an adjustable tension ring that you slide closer to the end to tighten around the nipples.  This type may be a bit confusing to use at first as some people try to place the nipples between the pincher ends, rather than in the wider space where they are supposed to go.  Don’t do this, as it can be very painful, I’ve learned from experience.  These types of clamps are also a bit finicky to put on and adjust if you are a bit clumsy or have larger fingers.  I actually do not recommend these for beginners even though they are cheaper because they are the most difficult to use, and if you are not carefully, you can slide the rings to tight and pinch the nipples in them, which really hurts.

Clover Clamps

Japanese Clover Clamps are not for novice use and are popular in the s/m scene for pain play.  These clamps have an elaborate mechanism of arms that look like little vice grips and tighten slowly around the nipple with weight or light tugging adding increased pressure.  They are larger and heavier than ordinary nipple clamps, and therefore tighten around the nipples just from their own weight.  The pressure they apply is from strong to extreme which is why I’d only recommend these for serious pain sluts.  I am a bit of a masochist and can’t stand these on myself for more than a minute, although I have very sensitive nipples.  Clover Clamps feature gripper pads which helps them stay fixed to the nipples.  Luckily, they unclamp very easily by just pressing the two sides of the clamps to release.

Bull Nose Clamps

Bull Nose Clamps or Alligator Clamps fall in the middle price range between the other two clamps.  To use another tool analogy, these are more like adjustable pliers that feature a screw that can fine-tune the pressure of the clamps, to get the perfect amount of tension between pleasure and pain.  These are my favorite type of nipple clamps because you have control over how much pressure you apply, and the dominant person in play (IMHO) should always be in control.  They are also easy to use, which is why I would recommend them for novices.

Using Nipple Clamps

I wish someone had told me the proper way to use nipple clamps before I had tried them on my first victim long ago.  Many people think they should go on the nipples themselves, but I find they are much more effective if you pinch as much of the areola between them that you can.  You would think that the more flesh you clamp, the more painful it would be, but this is actually the opposite.  The areola can stand more pressure than the nipples themselves, so you can actually make them a bit tighter and leave them on longer.  The longer you can leave them, the more time to play.  So the closer you apply clamps to the end of the nipples, the more they are going to hurt; the closer to the base and areola, the more tolerable and pleasurable they become.  I believe that the right amount of tension between pleasure and pain makes them the most effective.  That way, when you tug on them, your partner will experience more pain and when you release they will experience more pleasure.  So to me, it is a playful balancing act between the two, where you vary sensations for optimum effect.

The Warm Up

So don’t just slap those clamps on before your play with the breast/chest and nipples of your partner first in a little warm-up.  As with every type of pain play, a warm-up increases endorphins and pleasure, which allows for increased force, pressure and pain.  So you can suck, lick, bite and pinch the nipples, as well as squeeze, pinch and slap the breasts to warm them up.

Applying Nipple Clamps

After the warm-up, I like to grasp the nipples between my thumb and the knuckle of my pointer finger and tug.  I try to grab as much flesh as I can, then place it between the clamps and slowly adjust until I get the right reaction from my partner that tells me they are experiencing pleasure, yet discomfort.  Repeat with the other nipple, and now you are ready to play.

Playing with Nipple Clamps

Most nipple clamps come with a chain that affixes the two clamps together.  You can tug on the chain to increase pressure and lead your partner around by their nipples.  You can also get you partner to hold the chain between their teeth to expose the underside of the breasts for light percussion play.  Depending on how tight you have the clamps, depends on how long you can leave them on, just like any other types of bondage or restriction.  It is important to watch the nipples for changes in color (you normally don’t want them to turn purple), and also feel them for temperature.  Nipple clamps constrict the blow flow to the nipples, so it is important no to leave them on too long if they are tight.

The best part about nipple clamps is removing them, for as the blood rushes back to the nipples, the nerves come back to life and this is when your partner will experience the most pain.  This pain is only temporary and will subside as the nipples become very sensitive, which make them much more fun to pain with.  The rest I will leave to your imagination!

See my recommendations of Bull Nose Clamps, Japanese Clover Clamps, and  Tweezer Clamps at PopMyCherry Shop.

Previously published on the Sex Carnival.