I feel like the theme of "things I wish I'd known when I started rope" comes up again and again when chatting to other rope bottoms. This article really resonated for me, especially making the mistake of thinking "rigger knows best" when I was too much of a beginner myself to recognise risky tying practices.

I'd love to know what else folks in this channel think new bottoms should know?

Quick intro post from me too! I'm Annie (they/she) and I'm the editor of the Shibari Study blog and the person behind most of the words you see on Shibari Study. I'm originally from South Africa, where my interest in shibari really got started thanks to a then tiny DIY rope scene, and I'm now based in Berlin, where my ropey horizons expanded more than I ever imagined they could.

I started working for Shibari Study way back in 2020 when we were still a scrappy team of three. To plagiarise myself pretty directly from my blog bio, my career has taken me from undercover goth agony aunt to lads’ mag sex columnist to ropey copy creature, which makes writing an intro post like this fun and a CV hard. I love rope, writing and snacks, and it's wild that I get to dabble in at least two of those professionally.

Feel free to message me about anything blog related. I'm super excited to connect with folks in this space, and can't wait to get to know you better – and, hopefully, for you to get to know us too!