Blog·Safety

On Suspension: What No One Tells You Before You Try

Suspension is the image that draws many people to shibari. Someone floating, held entirely by rope and trust. It looks effortless. It is not. What follows is not meant to discourage anyone — it is meant to give an honest picture of what the work actually involves.

The body in the air is not the body on the floor

Floor-work and partial suspension share many of the same ties, but the forces are entirely different. When a person's weight is supported by rope, pressure concentrates on specific nerve pathways in a way that simply does not happen during ground work. The radial nerve, the ulnar nerve, the peroneal nerve — these become the real variables in every suspension.

You are not tying rope. You are managing pressure on a nervous system.

Nerve compression can cause temporary loss of sensation, weakness in the hands or feet, or in serious cases lasting injury. These outcomes are not rare exceptions — they are the central risk that every rigger working at height must understand and actively manage.

Time is the variable most people underestimate

A tie that feels fine at two minutes can become problematic at six. The rope does not move, but the body does — muscles fatigue, positions shift slightly, and what was adequate clearance around a nerve path becomes compression. Riggers who work with suspension develop the habit of checking in constantly and moving efficiently.

Before attempting any suspension, even partial, you should be able to tie and untie your primary load-bearing harness under five minutes. In an emergency, five minutes is too long — but it is a minimum baseline. A rescue cut is always faster, which is why having quality safety shears within reach is not optional.

What "enough experience" actually looks like

There is no certification in shibari. No governing body issues licences. This means the burden of assessing readiness falls entirely on the individuals involved. Practically, this means: have you tied the harness hundreds of times in ground work? Do you understand what the tie is doing to the body structurally? Have you had the conversation with your partner about signals, limits, and how to communicate if sensation changes?

• Partial suspension before full — learn to load a single limb before lifting the whole body
• Ground rehearsal of the tie at least 20–30 times before taking it to height
• Safety shears accessible to both rigger and person in rope at all times
• Explicit check-in protocol agreed before the session begins
• Know how to perform a safe emergency descent before you ever lift anyone

Suspension done carefully is a profound experience for everyone involved. Done carelessly, it causes real harm. The line between those two outcomes is not talent or aesthetics — it is preparation and honesty about what you do and do not know.