DEADLY SERIOUS: INFECTION CONTROL

I am posting about the boring stuff first because it is essential and I would be remiss if I did not address these issues. The magical sexy fun comes later. 

So, infection control. 

Infection does not care that you are fluid bonded. 

Infection does not care that you love each other. 

Infection does not care that you are a powerful sorcerer.

Use protection.

On the subject of condoms, they have some other related uses. Burst one and use the resulting ring as a cheap temporary cock ring. They are obvious first temporary choices for storing cum. They are great for beginning digital anal play if you don’t want to use a glove. I did not know when I started that condoms come in different sizes – and I was amused to discover that like a McDonalds shake, there is no size ‘small’!

Use gloves. Change them often. You can’t be fisting your partner, reach round and get a piece of equipment, and go back in without risking infection. Wiping with a tissue doesn’t cut it. Use hand sanitizer. A lot.

Clean toys and equipment. Choose gear that can be properly cleaned, not like fur or leather. Use branded toy cleaner or hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is cheap and effective and safe. I recommend Oxyvir. If you do work with a piece of kit that can’t be throughly cleaned, like a leather gimp hood or a (fake) fur anal bunny tail, inform your partner or client of the risk and do your best. Put condoms on any toys others might use. Serious people own autoclaves, but if you can sterilize equipment, clean it first or you’re just baking on proteins.

Wash your hands often. Chlorhexidine is cheap and it is what they use in hospitals. Like hydrogen peroxide, it’s a simple substance that is safe. Wash your hands for twenty seconds. Sing ‘The Red Flag’ (or similar) as you go, and that gives you twenty seconds. Use hand sanitizer.

For anal play, douche. Unless you like shit of course, but I sure don’t. Douche only when you need to, because it can cause tears in the anal walls. Use water hotter than blood temperature because it needs to break down fat. I sometimes used a drop of tea tree oil. You can buy a unisex douche in sex shops or online. If needs must, any squeeze bottle will suffice. Expect anyone you do anal play with to be clean, and teach them to douche.

Also related to infection control, is lube. Lube minimises the risk of tearing flesh and thus infection. Lube is essential on toys and good on your douche. Use it even if you think you don’t need it.

Visit a sexual health service regularly even if you think you don’t need to. If you are a sex worker, you can get checked for all forms of hepatitis and for other STI’s such as syphilis which is making a comeback in large urban areas. Get checked for HIV. Staff at the clinics can give you free or cheap condoms.They can also vaccinate you against the different forms of hepatitis. 

 Below is a link to Coil's deathly beautiful version of the Marc Almond song Tainted Love. It is replete with images of decay, sensuality, and magical transgression. It breaks my heart. And it is absolutely relevant here. It is a complete downer, so don't watch it unless you want to feel truly sad and disturbed for the rest of the day.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GUnUGKgWDY

 In these times of Covid we are inserting infection control measures into our daily lives. It is an edgy and difficult time, reminiscent perhaps of the AIDS epidemic where so many of us feared that making love would kill someone. Honour to those who died, love to those who survived.