Abstract

This article aims at questioning narratives abaut pain in the BDSM (Bondage/ Discipline, Domination/submission, Sadism/Masochism) scene of North-Eastern Italy. The research is based on fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with members of the above context. The focus will be practitioners’ narratives on the boundaries drawn around pain, power, pleasure, and violence, while often facing stigmatization from outsiders. Painful practices are engaged willingly and collaboratively within the scene, challenging the idea of pain as inherently undesirable. I argue that hurting is used in this context to access a sense of authenticity, which delivers a wide range of subjectively positive meanings to practitioners, as well as strengthened feelings of belonging within the reference BDSM group. The paper has broader implications for the study of the body in pain as a situational, enhancing, and co-constructed activity, urging deeper insights for inquiries into «pain positive» situations