During Tsarist Russia there was a profession that is “dead” today – the tickler. It was an important profession, since people who mastered it could serve the queen herself. The task of the tickler was to excite, excite and entertain Russian royal women.
Tickling was not only an unusual form of foreplay, it was sometimes performed as a separate pleasure. In his book The Sex Life of the Foot and Shoe, author William Rossi reports that tickling as an intimate pleasure has been practiced in Moscow palaces for centuries.
Only women and eunuchs had the right to master the profession. Thanks to discipline and perseverance, these people could bring their skills to unprecedented heights – and their employer too. The skills of an experienced tickler paid well.
The process of tickling was accompanied by the singing of obscene ballads and reading aloud erotic stories.
Princess Anna Leopoldovna was supposedly served by about six ticklers. There is evidence that many Russian noble women used this professional service. Catherine the Great was the most famous tickler at the time.
But Russia is not the only place where this practice was widespread. As far back as ancient Egypt, according to surviving records, the female pharaoh Hatshepsut used anise oil to prepare her feet for the tickling ritual before sexual intercourse. The eunuch had to tickle her feet with a peacock feather until she was aroused.
The feet are an incredibly sensitive area. According to modern research, tickling activates the areas of the brain responsible for the sensations of pain and touch.
