How to travel with your sex toys
Jan. 23rd, 2003 04:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
patgundFound this in Blowfish's weekly email newsletter. Handy travel and packing tips in these security conscious times......
Notes from the Fish Head: A Moveable Feast
By Christophe, xof@blowfish.com
Travel can be very broadening, but (speaking as a very frequent air traveller, even post-9/11), having an enthusiastic exchange of views with an airport security person is not the kind of broadening experience anyone needs. But it seems a shame to have a vast array of sex toys and just leave them at home when you are off to foreign lands... after all, isn't finding romance one of the whole points of travel?
Thus, we here at Blowfish would like to give you some tips on how to travel with your sex toys, with an absolute minimum of hassle.
1. If it has a motor, it goes in checked baggage.
Yes, we're proud of our vibrator collection, too. But anything with a motor is going to show up as being very, very interesting on an X-ray, and "interesting" is not a good word for an airport screener. Don't think twice; shove it into the checked baggage.
The same goes for FEC and other electrical products. Ideally, they should be left at home, both because of their expense and because a small box filled with circuitry is going to raise eyebrows.
Oh, and a word for international travellers: Don't take your Magic Wand, or anything else with a standard wall-socket plug, overseas and expect it to work, *even with a transformer.* 99% of travel transformers only convert the voltage, not the frequency of the line current, and you can burn out your toy in moments... and the warranty *so* does not cover that kind of damage.
2. If it uses batteries, take them out before packing it.
Airport baggage handlers get points for speed, not style. Your checked baggage will be thrown around with vigor and force, and all of that bumping and jostling will very likely throw that switch from "Off" to "On." Now, you're an airport baggage screener working on checked baggage, and a bag comes down the shoot that is *buzzing*. I think you can play out the rest of the scenario in your head, and it's not a pretty picture. (There has been a least one case of a woman pulled off of a flight because of her vibrator went off in checked baggage.)
Don't tempt fate. Take the batteries out. Ideally, don't even pack them; you can get batteries anywhere.
3. Beware the Bendables
Most bendable dildos (those that can be bent to hold a particular shape) do this magic trick by virtue of a wire that runs down the middle. Wires show up on X-rays. The stuff that bendables are made out of is pretty dense, so what you have in a baggage-screener's-eye-view is a wire running down the middle of a dense plastic. I assure you that when the screener sees this, the first thought is not going to be, "Gosh, I wonder what kind of lube she uses with that dildo." It's going to be "That looks like a detonator."
Our advice? Leave the bendables at home.
4. Being handcuffed, for real, is not bondage play
BSDM toys present a particular challenge. Whips, floggers, flails, even crops should be consigned to checked baggage. No one, but no one, is going to let you on board an airplane with a whip, in this environment, and subtle shades of whip type are not going to be processed by an airport screener.
Handcuffs? Forget it. Pack them in checked baggage, or (even better) leave them at home. Restraints in general should be checked. Remember, anything in carry-on baggage will almost certainly be examined by a human being at some point, and if it looks like it is used to restrain someone, it's going to set off alarm bells.
5. Breakables
If you are going to carry a glass dildo with you (and I'd think twice, then three times about that), put it in your *carry-on* baggage. Checked baggage is handled far too roughly to be sure that you are not going to end up with glass shards at the other end, and no one wants to spend a vacation picking glass out of your clothes.
So, in summary, if you want to take a toy with you, the absolute best bet is a silicone dildo or butt-plug, unmotorized, in checked baggage. They're easy to pack (just stuff it in a sock), tons of fun, and there's nothing about them that is going to give a baggage screener cold sweats. And, really, it's not so much the toy as what you do with it, right? Right.
Have fun, and fly right.
Notes from the Fish Head: A Moveable Feast
By Christophe, xof@blowfish.com
Travel can be very broadening, but (speaking as a very frequent air traveller, even post-9/11), having an enthusiastic exchange of views with an airport security person is not the kind of broadening experience anyone needs. But it seems a shame to have a vast array of sex toys and just leave them at home when you are off to foreign lands... after all, isn't finding romance one of the whole points of travel?
Thus, we here at Blowfish would like to give you some tips on how to travel with your sex toys, with an absolute minimum of hassle.
1. If it has a motor, it goes in checked baggage.
Yes, we're proud of our vibrator collection, too. But anything with a motor is going to show up as being very, very interesting on an X-ray, and "interesting" is not a good word for an airport screener. Don't think twice; shove it into the checked baggage.
The same goes for FEC and other electrical products. Ideally, they should be left at home, both because of their expense and because a small box filled with circuitry is going to raise eyebrows.
Oh, and a word for international travellers: Don't take your Magic Wand, or anything else with a standard wall-socket plug, overseas and expect it to work, *even with a transformer.* 99% of travel transformers only convert the voltage, not the frequency of the line current, and you can burn out your toy in moments... and the warranty *so* does not cover that kind of damage.
2. If it uses batteries, take them out before packing it.
Airport baggage handlers get points for speed, not style. Your checked baggage will be thrown around with vigor and force, and all of that bumping and jostling will very likely throw that switch from "Off" to "On." Now, you're an airport baggage screener working on checked baggage, and a bag comes down the shoot that is *buzzing*. I think you can play out the rest of the scenario in your head, and it's not a pretty picture. (There has been a least one case of a woman pulled off of a flight because of her vibrator went off in checked baggage.)
Don't tempt fate. Take the batteries out. Ideally, don't even pack them; you can get batteries anywhere.
3. Beware the Bendables
Most bendable dildos (those that can be bent to hold a particular shape) do this magic trick by virtue of a wire that runs down the middle. Wires show up on X-rays. The stuff that bendables are made out of is pretty dense, so what you have in a baggage-screener's-eye-view is a wire running down the middle of a dense plastic. I assure you that when the screener sees this, the first thought is not going to be, "Gosh, I wonder what kind of lube she uses with that dildo." It's going to be "That looks like a detonator."
Our advice? Leave the bendables at home.
4. Being handcuffed, for real, is not bondage play
BSDM toys present a particular challenge. Whips, floggers, flails, even crops should be consigned to checked baggage. No one, but no one, is going to let you on board an airplane with a whip, in this environment, and subtle shades of whip type are not going to be processed by an airport screener.
Handcuffs? Forget it. Pack them in checked baggage, or (even better) leave them at home. Restraints in general should be checked. Remember, anything in carry-on baggage will almost certainly be examined by a human being at some point, and if it looks like it is used to restrain someone, it's going to set off alarm bells.
5. Breakables
If you are going to carry a glass dildo with you (and I'd think twice, then three times about that), put it in your *carry-on* baggage. Checked baggage is handled far too roughly to be sure that you are not going to end up with glass shards at the other end, and no one wants to spend a vacation picking glass out of your clothes.
So, in summary, if you want to take a toy with you, the absolute best bet is a silicone dildo or butt-plug, unmotorized, in checked baggage. They're easy to pack (just stuff it in a sock), tons of fun, and there's nothing about them that is going to give a baggage screener cold sweats. And, really, it's not so much the toy as what you do with it, right? Right.
Have fun, and fly right.
