The History and Application of - Cupping

Cupping has a long history and can be traced back as far as 3000 B.C. It was a technique mentioned in The Papyrus Ebers, the oldest known medical book found in Egypt. In Greece, Hippocrates used cupping as a remedy for internal disease and structural problems. In western medicine cupping was considered one of the basic skills a doctor must know up until the end of the 19th century. It is still practiced by many homeopathic health practitioners and in traditional Chinese medicine as a method of applying acupressure.

Cupping is the practice of creating a low pressure area inside a cup that is sealed against a persons skin. The difference in pressure pulls the skin into the cup and draws blood flow to the area. There are many ways to accomplish this and they involve a number of fetishes and this is why it has gained some notoriety in the BDSM community. It was first introduced into the public BDSM and Kink community as an extension to fire play. The low pressure is created in the cup by heating the air inside the cup and then placing it on the skin. When the air cools, it creates a vacuum inside the cup. The next fetish group that was draw to this practice were those connected to blood play. Blood cupping is a form of blood letting and has gained a lot of popularity with this fetish group. A small incision is made in the skin and then the cupping is done over top which draws blood up into the cup. It has reached beyond these two groups and is now quite popular with anyone interested in sensation play or marking. Cupping can leave little red marks where the cups were placed that can last several hours all the way up to deep bruising caused by repeated application to the same area.

There are far too many aspects of cupping to cover in this one post so I will be focusing on vacuum pump cupping and fire cupping. Many look at this as a completely safe activity but keep in mind that it was a medical procedure long before it became a kink and can have many negative side effects and ramifications. First and foremost is it should not be done on pregnant women without a good understanding of acupressure as it can induce labor. Adhere to SSC (Safe Sane and Consensual) Practices and utilize RACK(Risk Aware Consensual Kink) practices. Understand the risks, discuss them with your partner, and make certain it is understood and consented to.

Mechanical vacuum cupping is probably the easiest and safest to get started with even though there is specific equipment that you will need. The first thing to know before you start is how to release the pressure. Most sets have a rapid release system. Be very familiar with it. Test it on gentle settings before you move on to more extreme play. This form of cupping can create far more vacuum than other systems. In a lot of cupping sets there are a number of different sizes of cups. They can be used on different parts of the body for different effects. Some of which can be quite painful. Some cups have pressure stimulating nodes that can allow the skin to be drawn up around them so that they apply pressure to a specific point while creating a vacuum all around the center. Some of these are metal and can also be used in conjunction with electro stimulation.

Fire cupping doesn't create as much suction but is much more dramatic to watch. This one is fraught with dangers though and a firm understanding of fire play techniques, safety, and protocol is highly recommended before you try this. Make absolutely certain that all of the dangers inherent to fire have been addressed before starting this procedure.

Instead of using a vacuum pump, a vacuum is created by air (heated by fire) in a glass cup placed flush against the recipients skin. As the air cools in the cup, a vacuum forms that pulls up on the skin, stimulating the desired effect. There are several ways of heating the air in the cup with fire:

1. One can swab rubbing alcohol (70% or 90%) into the bottom of a cup, then light it and place the cup immediately against the skin. By creating the seal the immediate loss of oxygen puts the fire out, preventing the person from being burned. The smaller the amount of alcohol, and the quicker the flame is extinguished by application of the cup, the better, so long as there is no risk of the cups falling off due to lack of a proper seal.
2.  One can hold the cup inverted over a flame (e.g. a lit candle), heating the air, then place the cup immediately against the skin. Care must be taken not to heat the glass itself. Even so, the person to whom the cup is applied will feel distinctly more heat than in the previous method.
3. One can ignite a flame with a small alcohol-soaked cotton wad resting on a small pad of leather or other insulating material that rests directly on the recipient's skin, then place the cup immediately over the flame, putting out the fire. The quickness with which the flame is extinguished depends on the size and shape of the cup.

Methods 1 and 2 heat the glass to some extent and have a risk of burning the recipient if not carefully executed. Method 3 risks the cotton falling off the insulating pad onto the recipient's skin, and leaves the pad and cotton wadding inside the adhering cup which could be considered cumbersome.
Baby oil massaged onto the skin first causes a better seal to form, making it possible to use this technique with less heating of the cup. It is often possible to slide the adhered cup around on the skin, preserving the suction seal as it glides. Care must be taken not to move the cup over protruding moles, skin tags, scabs, etc. This can prove to be an interesting sensation.

The longer a cup is left on, the more of a circular mark (like a hickey) is created. The skin pores are more open, and the patient may have a feeling like sunburn.  There are, of course, more techniques and ways to apply this. Which ever way you choose to play, make certain it is as safe as it can be made and that all risks have been assessed. Surprises with fire are never a good thing.