You may be familiar with that tingle and rush if someone runs their fingers through your hair or nibbles at that spot just behind your ear. Or do your knees go week when someone lightly peppers your inner elbow with their fingertips? How about that spark of electricity cascading in torrents if someone kisses your shoulders. What on earth is going on?
Well, chances are, one or more of your erogenous zones have just been stimulated!
There are two types—genital and extragenital erogenous zones.
Genital—speaks for itself—we have lots of fab erotic blog articles exploring the delights of those particular erogenous zones the vulva, pleasuring your penis, anus and everything in between.
But today, we’re more interested in the other areas that make our knees go weak, our legs turn to jelly and our throats to gurgle that grrrrr or unnnnf sound, those extragenital erogenous zones.
In essence, any part of your body could be called extragenital erogenous zones — a place where if stimulated through touch, massage, kisses etc, it causes a delicious sensation that elicits a sexual response. In other words, turns you on. The more obvious places might be the nipples, in fact read our article on nipplegasms, but why does a scalp massage or foot rub get those juices flowing too?
So what is the purpose of this interconnected arousal. One study seems to show that while you can stimulate your erogenous zones during masturbation, much fewer are triggered than during partnered sexual play. Could this be a clue to their importance? Is it more to do with creating intimacy which then leads to arousal, then intercourse?
The release of those feel-good hormones is initiated, and we begin to get the reward centre in our brain stimulated too—the more we arouse these areas, the more we want those euphoric sensual feelings.
Let’s look at a few examples of extragenital erogenous zones
Most of us know where we love to be touched and rubbed—feet, shoulders, neck scalp, all gorgeously arousing places to lavish attention on.
But have you ever tried the inner elbow? Or wrist? The skin is particularly thin there meaning nerves are stimulated and excited in the most delicious way. The Achilles tendon at the back of the lower calf has been reported as bringing a very powerful response.
Fans of the 90’s show Aly McBeal will remember the famous move that involves some knee pit action. One of the characters, Fish, is able to render women orgasmic by stimulating behind their knee… the technique is never actually revealed but it is always worth exploring this area as you never quite know which zone will end up zinging.
Here’s some of my top sensitive areas to try giving a little attention to, whether solo or with a lucky partner. It has also been reported that stimulating a partner’s special spot can be just as arousing for the zoner as the zonee!
1 – The face! Seriously, if you’ve never had a face massage, get on it! We can forget just how sensitive the face is. Try it now—go on, why not tickle the tiny hairs at the corner of your lips… that’s it… Oooo feels good right? Now keep going all around your mouth then eyes, down your jaw, side of the neck… see? I told you EVERYWHERE is a zone. In fact, I had a bit of an embarrassing moment at the salon once when the beautician applied eye liner on the tear line of my upper eyelid… that sparkly twinkly feeling cascaded right down the back of my neck then straight to my pussy. Luckily this was a friend I could tell exactly what was happening and she let me wriggle in my chair for a few minutes before continuing…
2 – Head, neck and shoulders of course. I think we have all had thrills from being attended to there—remember the Orgasmatron —that wire cap thing that delivers a shot of pure white-hot pleasure over your scalp? What about the ears? Breathing behind them, heating them, rubbing the lobes, pulling gently, up to the shell at the top—a really relaxing and surprisingly sensual area to explore.
3 – Arms and hands. Oh a hand massage can be very hot. The tips of the fingers both giving and receiving pleasure. Remember playing round and round the garden? Why not try an adult’s version… where you don’t just end after the tickly under there! As well as the inner wrists and elbows, don’t forget some featherlight touches with your nails up and down the triceps. The underarms are a very sensual area too.
4 – The sides. Touching the side of the breasts and just underneath is tantalising indeed. Leading on down to the side ribs, if you can bear the ticklishness and see it through, you might be rewarded with a sweet mainline of pleasure right to your clit or penis. Then onto the hip… some of you might be curling up with The Fear even thinking about having someone touch your hip bone… I am a bit. Let’s try and take a breath together… and… ahhhhh.
5 – The back. The whole of the back is delicious to have massaged, but have you ever had anyone rub your backside? Just where your back turns to ass, then down into the buttock dip. Oh yes, that is lovely indeed. Then to the underside of your butt cheek, that delicious crease that rarely sees the light of day can really send you.
6 – Legs. So we’ve talked the knee pit and Achilles tendon, how about the inner thighs, sides of the knees, inner and outer, then down to those sexy tootsies!
7 – Feet. Some people love them some people hate them, but stimulating your feet can be the key to some really hot sensations. Perhaps take some time out to see where in Reflexology each part points towards. You could hold each other’s feet, guessing where the sensations lead… toes, sucking licking rubbing, all the good stuff, but don’t forget the thinner skin at the tops of the feet where the ankle begins and down to the arch. Mmm lovely
And so on and so on—it really is endless if you let yourself go and explore where you can.
Remember to use lots of different techniques—fingers, nails, lips teeth, tongue—and tools too. Feathers, paintbrushes, anything nearby that will apply just the slightest pleasure. Ahhh you’ll be in sensation heaven in no time.