Hope I'm not too late to the game here!
I fall more on the "stay" side - IF SHE'S PERFECT, like you say, in every other aspect of your relationship.
Let me put my situation out there first: I'm a very happily married man for going on 15 years. My wife is the greatest woman I know, happens to be very pretty, has a great body, has beautiful feet (yes, THIS was a requirement early on, lol), and is very ticklish. She does NOT like being tickled however, at all. I've tried every which way to get her to enjoy it in bed, but she doesn't. She never will, in fact I gave up trying to get her to like it years ago. (Sexually, that is. I tickle her all the time in a playful manner when not in bed, explicitly TO annoy her for like 5 seconds when she deserves it, like any good spouse does to the other, lol.)
Here's something you need to understand: Our fetish is very rare. Extremely rare. You've got to trust me on this (I've done quite a bit of research, and this includes plenty of "real world" research). Unless you start with it (on social dating sites, or even HERE at TMF) and work your way outward (which it looks like a lot of TMF people have done, and good on them!) it's going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find someone who is absolutely perfect for you AND ALSO shares your tickling fetish. It happens occasionally (outside of the internet) I'm sure, don't get me wrong, but so does hitting the lottery for 300 million dollars. My point is you don't need to hit the lottery for 300 million dollars to have an extremely happy, successful and sexually fulfilling life with a spouse.
Here's how: you can find someone (and maybe this is your girlfriend), like others have pointed out, who tolerates your fetish as just one of your interesting quirks, even if they don't let you tickle them sexually. A little compromise is if that someone has no problem indulging you in it with YOU as the 'lee. My wife does that all the time. She found out in our first year together that tickling my feet gives me a hard-on. So as foreplay, often, she'll do that. I LOVE that she does that. It seriously makes me love her so much. Hell, if she told me that saying rumplestilzkin to her every 5 seconds during sex got her super hot, I'd do that for her every time, even though saying rumplestilzkin does nothing for me. Seriously, that's love. If, however, pinching me really hard on MY nipples every 5 seconds during sex made her hot, that would DEFINITELY get annoying for ME pretty damn fast. I'd let her do it once, maybe twice, and then I'd say okay sorry, this pinching thing not only does NOT turn me on, it makes me VERY physically uncomfortable, even though it turns you on, so we're going to need to quit doing that during sex. That, my friend, is what tickling is like to people like your girlfriend, and my wife (and hell, 98% of people I bet).
Quick side story: I had a serious girlfriend before my wife that fit this category too. We were very much in love at one point, she was very pretty, had amazing feet, and was super ticklish everywhere. But like most people, she didn't like it. I spent way too much time on her feet during sex and it got very annoying to her (and VERY embarrassing to me when she called me out on it). But one day she discovered that tickling ME got me hot. She LOVED doing that to me (almost too much--Hell I still fantasize about what she did to me some days!) But THAT ALONE does not a relationship/marriage make. We broke up because so many other things didn't line up...she was a very jealous person, she didn't support my career goals, she didn't get along with my friends, we had differing opinions on having children, she never wanted to move away from the west coast (which was not where I grew up), etc. THOSE are red flags. Not being into tickling is not a red flag, IMO. It's called being "sexually normal."
My wife is perfect to me in every aspect, which is why we got married. EVERYTHING matches up...except the tickling thing. And I'm totally okay with that (It helps that I've become much more of a 'lee over the years...being a 'lee is AWESOME. It's the best of both worlds! lol.) Since I've been with my wife (20+ years), I have never, ever cheated on her. Absolutely never will. We have a very healthy marriage in every aspect (I mean, we're not perfect...we fight about money, but who the hell doesn't?). She's not jealous at all. She supports what I do, I support her. We love each others families. We do things together and thoroughly enjoy each others company. We have extremely similar senses of humor. We genuinely LIKE each other as people, in addition to LOVING each other as husband and wife. We've built a happy life together -- till death do us part.
AND here's the kicker...I'm still able to indulge my tickling fetish (and mine is huge, trust me) both in and outside of our relationship. Quite a lot, actually (both in the real world and by just simply surfing sites like this one...and I'm NOT cheating with anyone, trust me). It IS possible. But that's a whole other discussion!
Bottom line, my advice is to take the tickling thing out of the equation, and then evaluate your relationship on all of the other things. If she's indeed PERFECT in all other aspects, THEN come back to the tickling issue -- Will she indulge you occasionally, with you as the 'lee? Will she be okay with you surfing porn every once in a while, and not judge you about what you're looking at (not that you need to send her a report or anything, haha)? Is she accepting of this quirk you have, and truly loves you in spite of it? "No" to any of these questions might not be deal breakers, but they WILL make the relationship a lot harder in the future. If "yes" to all of them however, then I think it can work. I can attest, because it's worked for me/us.
Good luck my friend ~
