my two cents worth...
Okay... I'm kinda new here. Been lurking for a while now... several months in fact, reading all the posts and stories, and enjoying the site as a whole. Finally, I found a discussion I could join in on.
Like the others have said, probably better than I could have myself, Jen, Maria, I'm sorry about the bad things in your past, but happy that you've found an outlet for those feelings, and a way to make something positive of it all. I think Dave said it best... people that abuse children, sexually or otherwise, should DIE... painfully and horribly... and repeatedly if possible. 😡
But, I digress...
The thread was about tickling experiences, how they started, and such... hmm. Let's see. For me, I think it probably started from birth. My parents always tickled me as a baby, which is pretty common. You see a cute little baby and you just HAVE to pick it up and cuddle it and tickle him and tell him how cute he is... you know the drill. My family was also kinda tickle-oriented, which helped. My dad would argue with my aunt, who was taller, and heavier than him, and when they'd wrestle (playfully) the only way he could win would be to resort to tickling. Of course, she would counter with tickling herself, so he'd naturally call us to help him out. 😉
On a side note, I also have a foot fetish, which fit in nicely with my other obsessions. Long story/short, I was a shy kid, usually ignored, and unable to meet people's eyes tended to look down at their feet instead. Which became a fascination. Then an obsession. Then, in later years, a fetish. In childhood, however, I was content to gaze at the lovely feet of the girls in my class and my female friends, and neighbors and such. When we'd play together, things would inevitably turn to tickling, a silly game for them perhaps but one that fascinated me. As I matured, tickle games stopped. It started to become a sexual turn on for me, even though I didn't know why. I felt I was "weird" and strange... that such feelings definitely weren't normal. (sigh) Suffice it to say, I didn't have a girlfriend until later in college, as I couldn't find a way to relate my strange weird feelings to her, and the few that I did reacted badly, and broke things off. A rough time...
Then, college. A whole new world... broader horizons, new faces and exciting times. It was about that time that the internet really came into its own... and I discovered the newsgroup, alt.sex.fetish.tickling and was blown away. Now, for the first time, I didn't feel quite so strange and weird. I wasn't a freak, because there were others, a LOT of others, that had the same feelings as I did. 😀 I found a plethora of websites and stories online devoted to tickling, both playful and erotic, and found the courage to explore this repressed side of myself.
Today, I am happy to say I am engaged to a lovely young woman, a good and close friend of mine. She shares my passion for tickling, as well as some other fetishes, which I won't go into. Looking back, it was quite a journey, from a wee babe being tickled in the crib, to an awkward, shy kid playing tickling games with his female friends, to an even MORE awkward and shy teenager, repressed and confused, to the man I am now. 😎 That's what I love about this Forum... it helps others express themselves and share their experiences, to help other people come to terms with these things.
Well, I went a bit long for my first post. Sorry, I get chatty when I feel relaxed. And I do. This is a nice place, one that issued forth comfort and friendliness like a scented candle. I hope others feel as welcome here as I do. Okay, that's my two cents worth.
J-Dark
(Sorry, just had to use that one, I know it doesn't fit the context). Anyway, I may not have consciously remembered those brief experiences until recently, but they definitly impacted my still forming mind because I can recall thinking about tickling and being fascinated with it for a long time, even though I never associated it sexually (and still generally don't, for that matter).
