Badly copied bondage
It's an unfortunate problem that sometimes people copy your bondage badly. Not just that it looks bad but that the person copying something they have seen is copying it without understanding it.
The above is particularly worrying when applied to suspension bondage. Some people seem not to get this but, suspension bondage is dangerous if you get it wrong! Honestly it really is.
I find that the problem of bad copiests particularly effects me when I see pictures of bondage or in some cases hear tell of bondage that is bad, dangerous etc. done by people that I know have seen me rigging. I should not feel this but sometimes I cannot help but feel that I see poor, badly implemented or just plain wrong imitations of things I have done either at a shoot or workshop or demonstration. Did they think that it looked easy therefore it would be easy?
What to do? Nothing unfortunately I have absolutely no desire or right to be some kind of bondage policeman. I don't want to spend my time arguing people out of their decisions. At the end of the day they're adults and responsible for their own actions. But! Should you leave these people to their own mistakes? Unfortunately you have to. You cannot babysit the world, you cannot forcibly educate those that will not learn.
What bothers me is that in the case of bad rigging it is the trusting bound who is going to suffer the consequences of bad bondage not the unskilled rigger.
Many times it seems to me that people are relatively new to rope bondage and see what they perceive to be "cool suspensions" and want to be doing them. Well there's nothing wrong with wanting to do suspensions. What's wrong is when they do suspensions without grasping the basics and getting a firm grip on them first. What's wrong is when they do suspensions without a firm grasp of the consequences of getting it wrong!
Everyone has something go wrong sometime. I've had things go wrong. Regardless of knowledge of bondage, anatomy, experience and however many successful suspensions. Regardless of all I've learned in order to try and reduce the risk of something going wrong it happens. Suspension bondage is risky and it is incumbent on those who do it to be as well prepared as possible.
Now in the light of that statement consider how much more likely it is for something to go wrong with someone who isn't as well prepared. Who doesn't fully understand the risks. Who's technique and skills are at the rudimentary level. People who aren't experienced or knowledgeable to the point where they should be attempting suspension bondage. And I don't just mean the risks of instant damage. Nerve damage problems can be cumulative. Bad placement of ropes can cause problems that aren't immediately obvious and by the time they do become obvious it's too late.
Feeling responsible.
When teaching people I find that I have a very great feeling of responsibility for those that I teach. Consequently I want to ensure that nothing is mistaken or miscommunicated and that the student has fully understood what I want to get across. This is particularly true of bondage safety.
I want those I teach to be fully seized of the nature of the danger that they can cause to their partner and the responsibility that they bear for their partners safety. Yet at the same time I don't want to frighten them away from bondage or make them think that bondage is more dangerous than it is.
If I've taught them well I hope that they will go on to enjoy bondage for many years without avoidable misfortune.
I sometimes think that I worry too much about how a student will fare after they have left my teaching. That is to be concerned for their ongoing development and care of safety.
I know that it is foolish to harbour such feelings too deeply. My students are adults and responsible for their actions. The care of the teacher can only extend so far. And yet I cannot seem to help feeling this concern. In teaching someone, to some extent, I feel that the safety of those that they then go on to tie is also to an extent my responsibility, an extended consequence of my teaching. This is why I'm so concerned to teach well.
Perhaps this is too much feeling. And yet I do feel this concern for students and for their partners as yet unmet.
Yes I know this is something that must be limited, you can only help someone on their journey, you cannot travel it for them. It's not something that rules my life or causes me to not teach or to pursue or observe students out of my care. But it is there somewhere.