Tickle Torture

Tickling induces laughter but prolonged tickling can be extremely unpleasant or even torturous. Tickle torture is the use of tickling to abuse or dominate someone. There are historical evidences of tickle torture actually being used in China and Rome.

Tickle torture was practiced by the Chinese, particularly in the courts of the Han Dynasty. Chinese tickle torture was a punishment for nobility since it left no marks and a victim could recover relatively easily and quickly.

There are also tales of the Romans using tickling of the soles of the feet as a punishment. The victim’s feet were dipped in a salt solution or honey, and a goat was brought in to lick the solution off. This type of torture would only start as tickling, eventually becoming extremely painful. After a while the goat's rough tongue would wear away at their flesh causing intense pain.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there are instances when restrained victims were tickled upon the bare soles of their feet, apparently against their will and for the pleasure of their tormentors.

The Illustrated Police News of 1869 features an entry: ‘A Wife Driven Insane by Husband Tickling Her Feet’. This story featured a poor woman who was fooled into thinking that being tied to a plank would help her back problems. Once secured the husband made his wife’s feet bare and then through prolonged tickling of the soles of her feet with a feather drove the poor woman to insanity.

The New York Times dated April 14, 1872 cites about the stocks in ‘old England’ where the soles of the victims’ feet would be tickled relentlessly. The New York Times of September 6, 1903 also reveals how a patient was tortured by the hospital attendant by incessant tickling.

The tickle torture is also mentioned in various books. In the book "The History of Torture and execution" by Jean Kellaway tickling is briefly mentioned in the section discussing the use of stocks. Similarly the book “The A-Z of punishment and torture” by Irene Thompson also mentions about tickling being used as a method of torture by Chinese and Romans and how prolonged tickling can be unendurable. The quote is as follows: “Those of us who are ticklish know that at first it makes you laugh, but prolonged tickling becomes unendurable.”

No doubt, tickling has a very mysterious and interesting history and it has been used as a torture method over the centuries.