Does Rope Leave Marks?

If you’re interested in shibari, you may have (understandable) concerns about whether being tied up is going to leave marks on your, or your partner’s skin. You might have concerns about privacy, or you might be worried that you’re going to have a long term feature on your body that you’d rather not have.

So does shibari leave marks? Yes, but in the vast majority of cases, you probably won’t even care - let me explain.

Indentations

In most cases, rope will leave skin indentations that reflect the twists of the rope. Check them out on Eryn below:

Rope indentations on Eryn

For most people, this probably won’t be an issue because of how short term the marks are. They start to fade straight away and they’re usually gone in about half an hour. It’s pretty similar to how the elastic on your socks will leave a distinctive sketch on your ankles. So indentations are pretty much unavoidable, they do show up on most occasions, but they’ll be gone within 30 minutes.

Rope Burn

The most common query from new arrivals to shibari is about rope burn.

Rope burn can happen, but once people have had good training it’s actually quite rare. This is because rope burn is tissue damage created by rope rubbing against the skin. I don’t have any images of this, but it looks like a regular burn or a blister. The speed and tension that’s required to burn someone will vary based on the type of rope you use, but it’s really easy to check this. Take your rope in your hands, and run it through your palms. If it feels hot, you know to move slower or use less tension. The thing is, most people do this without being told, because riggers usually touch their rope quite a lot before they tie someone. Different ropes have different burn speeds. Generally speaking, natural fibre rope doesn’t get as hot as something like nylon so is less likely to burn. But that is a generalisation. 

Rope burn can also be caused by rope harnesses moving during suspension, but this is often a technique issue and can be avoided with better placement and tension.

So rope burn is quite avoidable, but if you’re unlucky enough to get it, much like carpet burn, it’s going to take at least a week to heal up.

Bruising/Petechial Haemorrhaging/Superficial Haematomas

For the sake of brevity, I’m dumping bruising/petechial haemorrhaging/superficial haematomas into one category despite them being different things.

This is the category that can catch people out. It mostly comes up as a result of suspensions or very tight rope. Check out this image of Astro:

Astro's skin showing ruptured capilliaries

This appearance is caused by ruptured capillaries, as this bleeding and inflammation is showing through her skin. As you can see, there is a little patch of it underneath where the rope was tied, and there’s more marks directly where the rope was pressing. It can appear like red freckles. It can also look like a patch of deep red and purple that appears around where the rope was.

It was really difficult to capture photos of super noticeable shibari-related petechial haemorrhaging. But it just so happens that I’m quite susceptible to it.

Christian's arm showing petechial haemorrhaging

People are sensitive to different things. If I have sustained pressure on my body, like a suspension, or I carry heavy equipment, I get these distinct marks on my skin. I’ve struggled to find a lot other people who experience it to this extent, but I’m definitely not the only one. For the record, the marks in the above photo were caused by a relatively long side suspension, and, despite the appearance, I wasn’t in any pain afterwards.

The thing that you might want to be aware of is that, for some people, rope on their neck can cause petechial haemorrhaging which goes upwards covering their whole face. Some people can get little freckles on their face, just from being upside down. This might catch you out if you were planning to wear long sleeves to cover up your rope marks. It’s pretty similar to how you can get facial marks if you have a big coughing fit. This isn’t permanent, it goes away in a few days to a few weeks, but it is harder to avoid if you want to be in intense rope and you’re susceptible to it.

Please note that I’m not a medical professional, but medical professionals have reviewed this content. Remember that this is a shortened summary of a much more complicated topic. If you have concerns, or you have health issues you want to manage, please speak to a medical professional.

In the meantime: know your risks, communicate and have fun.