Jay Kastile, 42, who has been involved in the tickling community for more than 20 years and is an administrator for the Tickling Media Forum, one of the community’s largest
online hubs, said that those who enjoy tickling usually fall into two camps. For some, tickling is an erotic act that causes sexual arousal. For others, tickling is a form of playful intimacy that people use as tool to strengthen relationships through touch and intimate contact.
A person does not necessarily fall into one group or the other, he said, and intercourse is not necessarily part of the equation. Many consider sex separate from the tickling experience.
“To me it’s a sexual thing,” Kastile said, counting himself among those who are aroused by tickling. “But everyone who enjoys tickling is going to approach it differently.”
Although opinions differ as to when tickling developed into a fetish, tickling enthusiasts contacted for this article, which include tickling video producers, professional ticklers living in New York and members of the Tickling Media Forum, agree that tickling media first became available to the public in the early 1980s when video companies like CalStar productions and Harmony Concepts began selling videos showing tickling.
“That’s like the silent era of fetish films,” Master Jay said. “When CalStar released ‘Tied and Tickled’ in 1982, it was like ‘Oh my god! Somebody else is into this!’”
The Internet has contributed to the community’s growth as more people who are into tickling can gather on web forums like Tickling Media Forum and Tickle Theater. More than 21,000 users joined Tickling Media Forum between 2007 and 2008, bringing its total membership to more than 70,700 users. In April 2006, the same year Tickling Media Forum’s web site began appearing among Google’s top search results for “tickling,” the forum’s membership was just 33,900.
Over time, the community has developed its own language and customs. A “ler,” short for “tickler,” is someone who only enjoys tickling another person while a “lee” is someone who enjoys serving as the “ticklee,” or person being tickled.
Despite the playful images that the word tickling connotes, life inside the community isn’t all feathers and fun. Kastile said that he often has to penalize or remove users for posts that violate forum’s strict decorum policies.
“We have a simple golden rule: If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it,” Kastile said. “We are not going to have people fighting each other on an open forum and creating an atmosphere that’s unpleasant.”
Kastile said that members of the forum who watch the same video will often argue whether or not the ’lees featured are actually ticklish or not. For tickle fetishists, quality is key and a sharp eye can spot a fake.
