22 Terrifying Sexual Fantasies That Must Be Talked About

Feeling kinky? Memorize SSC and RACK. SSC stands for “Safe, Sane, and Consensual.” RACK stands for “Risk Aware Consensual Kink.” Your sex play must meet these requirements — no exceptions. 

Not every fantasy or fetish is safe, legal, or right to act upon. “Safe, Sane, and Consensual” was the universal safety mantra until we admitted that some acceptable sex practices are implicitly not “safe,” although their risks can be alleviated by playing smartly. Then RACK — “Risk Aware Consensual Kink” — was coined. 

Are you interested in fisting, suspension bondage, gut-punching, ball-busting, or heavy BDSM? That’s fine. You can do these things as long as you do them consensually and fully prepared for the risks. SSC and RACK draw a hard line at consent. You’re not allowed to cross this line. Ever. You may never do anything to anyone without their permission. While these rules sound obvious, they exist for a reason. There are many terrifying fetishes in the world — fetishes that fall far outside these limits. Acting on them will land you in prison, hurt you, hurt others, or worse. 

These need to be talked about because they’re real and many people have them. Knowledge is power — talking about them keeps everyone safer. Browse these 22 terrifying fantasies that you need to be aware of.

MedicineNet.com states that around 1,000 Americans annually find loved ones dead of self-inflicted autoerotic asphyxiation. These deaths are rarely seen as suicides. Most are simply dangerous acts of self-pleasure gone wrong. 

When you cut off oxygen to your brain, the result can be a euphoric high. Some attempt this during masturbation — with rope, cords, and plastic bags over their heads. Doing so is deadly. It’s easy to pass out, suffocate and die. 

The most famous case of autoerotic asphyxiation is the 2009 death of David Carradine, who played the title character in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 2. Carradine was found dead in his Bangkok hotel room. Although his death was immediately assumed a suicide, two separate pathologists later ruled that it was accidental. Shortly after, two of his former wives came forward and said Carradine was into self-bondage — another dangerous fetish. Never do bondage solo. 

Kinksters (kinky people) know the risks of breathplay. As a kink, it should only be done sober and with someone else. If you’re interested in gas masks and the sexy accoutrements of breathplay (cigars, rubber, etc.), you can be one of those healthy, happy kinksters who enjoy it. 

Ederacinism is the fetish practice of ripping off your cock and balls. Some opinions on the internet, professional and nonprofessional, say this is less of a fetish and more of a sexual impulse done as the result of intense sexual shame. Some folks feel the urge to manually remove what they perceive to be the source of their “sinful” sexual impulses (which is not your genitalia — it’s your brain). The result is a bloody, self-castrating mess. 

If you’re struggling with shame for your desires and have contemplated ederacinism, seek a therapist. 

Bug chasing is when an HIV-negative person seeks HIV. “Bug chasing” is Grindr speak — a casual phrase for a heavily tabooed practice. 

I’m HIV-positive. I have been approached by many men who’ve asked me to “poz” them. When this happens, I say no — for two reasons. 

The first: HIV criminalization laws are severe, and no jury is going to believe someone asked to be infected, even if it’s true. These laws exist because of widespread cultural pozphobia and an outdated legal system, one which refuses to understand the modern reality of HIV. We easily criminalize HIV-positive folks while those who willfully and consensually play with us get an automatic free pass. 

The second reason: I have an undetectable viral load, so I have almost no chance of spreading my virus, even if we bareback for hours. 

Many sexperts say bug chasing is formed out of fear of HIV, an offshoot of pozphobia itself. When the fear gets too paralyzing, we reason, folks develop a fetish for getting it — to alleviate the fear.

HIV is now a manageable illness and hardly warrants paralyzing fear. I will attest to such. But there is a line, however murky, between eroticizing risky sex and eroticizing the virus that may come as a result of it. Self-destructive behavior may sound fun, but make sure you are eroticizing the behavior, not the self-destruction. The latter leads down a dark road, one I’ve seen many folks get lost on.

Somnophilia is erotic arousal from intruding on a stranger sleeping or waking someone up by touching them sexually. Consent cannot be given when someone is asleep, so acting on this impulse falls far outside SSC and RACK. This is molestation and sexual abuse — plain and simple. It can be deeply scarring to people. Don’t do it. 

Necrophilia is arousal from dead bodies. The dead cannot give consent, and sexual pleasure from a dead body is generally regarded as a deep form of disrespect. Necrophilia is illegal in most of the United States. Most, but not all. North Carolina and Louisiana, moral beacons that they are, allow necrophilia, even though Louisiana still bans sodomy between two (consenting, living) adults. The sodomy ban is not legally enforceable, given the Supreme Court's ruling, but it's still on the books.

Pedophilia is the world’s most widely known and severely criminal fetish. It’s criminal for a reason. There are innumerable cases of pedophilia leading to lifelong trauma and suffering. 

Pedophilia, as discerned from hebephilia, is sexual attraction specifically to prepubescent children. Acting on pedophilia constitutes sexual abuse and will be punished by the law. 

In the social arena, “pedophilia” and “pedophile” are buzzwords often hurled at people who are not pedophiles — which hurts minority communities and exacerbates the real problem of pedophilia. Many LGBTQ people have been falsely called pedophiles by antigay and anti-trans people convinced that we are bent on “recruiting” young people into our “lifestyle.” But this bizarre and dangerous habit of deflecting, pointing fingers, and using scary social buzzwords actually makes the real problem of pedophilia worse, as real pedophiles fly under the radar. 

Pyrophiliacs get turned on by starting fires or seeing open flame. Some like it hot — too hot.

Warning for those who wish to keep reading: The following paragraphs contain examples of animal abuse. 

Folks who enjoy the crush fetish get aroused watching people crush small objects (cigarettes, cell phones), insects, and animals. The latter typically takes the form of so-called “animal snuff” videos in which the “crushers” are usually women in high-heeled shoes. 

Several videos of living insects, small reptiles, birds, kittens, and even puppies being stepped on, sat on, and murdered have made their internet rounds. These videos are banned in the United States and U.K. 

The most notorious story of crush fetishim happened in the Philippines in 2011. Police arrested a married couple that had filmed dozens of crush videos and uploaded them onto the internet. One video showed a dog being blinded by a stiletto heel and puppies being stomped on till they vomited. 

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals took a year tracking down the couple. They were eventually found and charged with animal cruelty, child abuse, and human trafficking. Mark Griffiths, professor of behavioral addiction at Nottingham Trent University, notes on his blog about extreme, compulsive behaviors that China has no animal welfare laws (and has the reported worst cases of institutionalized animal cruelty in the world), so crush videos are unrestricted there. Griffith recounts a Chinese crush video posted in 2010 (intentionally not linked to) of a young girl sitting on a rabbit and crushing it to death while her friends nearby laugh. 

If you’re turned on by crush videos, seek professional help. 

Why is this ethically compromising? Here’s why. Many people with abasiophilia — a fetish for people with limited mobility, and for physical disabilities that create limited mobility — get turned on seeing a disabled person struggle without the devices they need to get around. 

Videos appealing to this fetish, which, like so many videos appealing to these terrifying fetishes, have made their rounds on the internet, feature quadriplegic men and women struggling to crawl up a set of stairs. This fetish borders on cruel — particularly if you take it a step further and fantasize disabling someone so that you may watch them struggle and suffer. 

Autassassinophilia is derived from "auto" (oneself) and "assassin.” This is the fetish of being aroused at the thought of your suicide. Folks with this fetish may speed down winding roads with their lights off to get aroused, or find it titillating to tiptoe close to high ledges. 

If you’re having suicidal thoughts — even erotic ones — then please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, (800) 273-8255.

Zoophilia is arousal from nonhuman animals — dogs, cows, horses, sheep, etc. The young male protagonist of Peter Shaffer’s Eqqus, Alan Strang, displays zoophilia for horses. (Pictured above: Daniel Radcliffe took to the stage in a successful 2007 West End production of the play.)

A quick internet search will come up with countless amateur videos of humans fucking animals and animals fucking humans — some of them notorious, others quite horrifying. 

Most children of the internet remember the viral video Mr. Hands, which features zoophile Kenneth Pinyan of Enumclaw, Wash.,getting anally penetrated by a horse he and his buddies nicknamed “Big Dick.” The video circulated in the dark and scary corners of the internet in the early 2000s when it got out that Pinyan died shortly after the encounter due to “acute peritonitis [resulting from] perforation of the sigmoid colon during anal intercourse with a horse.” The encounter killed him. 

Although some kinksters will claim SSC and RACK only apply to humans, animal rights advocates disagree. Animals cannot give consent. In any case, zoophilia, as detailed above, can kill you.