Binding

 Dragology for Beginners

Chapter 3

Binding

Alright so far we have covered your name, your attitude, and your style of music and dress. You are officially half way there! In this chapter we are going to be talking about binding, there will be pictures for you to look at because binding is one of the most important things a King needs to know how to do. *Warning! Some pictures are a bit explict!*

Now binding or taping seems easy to do, but it can be very dangerous. If you do not bind yourself properly you can cause yourself short term or long term injuries. Binding takes some time to get use to and it takes practice to do it right. Not binding correctly can cause restricted breathing, displacement of ribs and organs, and it can even cause breast cancer.

When first starting out all I can say is to PRACTICE and always get someone to help you and  you should stay bound as short of time as possible. The more you do it you will understand what works for you and what doesn’t work for you and how to not hurt yourself. I would suggest to bind when you get to your venue you are performing at and to unbind before you leave. And NEVER EVER USE AN ACE BANDAGE TO BIND!!!!

Now there are different ways to bind depending on your outfit or you natural cup size. When binding with tape you should use duct tape. It might hurt taking it off, but it sticks to your skin better and it causes a tighter bind. Other tapes can break and slip during performances which is never a good thing. You can always put a piece of a shirt over the area where the tape will be, but if you are putting it straight on your skin I would suggest to put lotion on first and take the tape off in the shower so it will peel off easier. NEVER USE THE BANDAID METHOD BY RIPPING IT OFF. IT CAN LEAVE WELPS AND EVEN MAKE YOU BLEED. (Been there, done that.)

If you are a person with a small cup size then you could probably get away with not binding with tape, however, not binding at all is not the way to go. If you wear a bra on a day to day bases, you should always bind! Otherwise you are not really a ‘Drag King’, you would fit into a totally different category, but we will get into that in another chapter. Now instead of using tape to bind, you can always go to Wal-mart or Target or someplace like that and get a tight fitting tank top that is used kind of like Spanks, except they are meant for your chest and stomach. (Refer to Diagram A.)Putting that on under your performing clothes should be enough to make your chest flat enough to perform. THIS ONLY WORKS FOR SMALL CHESTED GIRLS. IF YOU ARE OVER A ‘B’ CUP YOU NEED TO USE TAPE!

(Diagram A.)

For girls with a ‘C’ cup and larger you can use the same method as above, however you will also need to add some tape for extra support. This is where things get dangerous so pay attention.

When binding with tape you should never do the ‘mummy’ method. Meaning you shouldn’t wrap the tape all the way around your chest. (Refer to Diagram B.) This is where Kings go wrong because this type of binding doesn’t really do much good because it just causes a ‘muffin top’ and it causes unnecessary discomfort.

(Diagram B.)

The best way to bind is to start on one side of your chest, place one end of the tape in the middle of your chest and pull your breast to the side wrapping the tape around to about the middle of your back. Continue to do this to one side until the entire breast is covered. Then do the same thing to the other side. (Refer to Diagram C.) If your arms are not long enough to reach behind yourself this is where you should get help from someone. This type of binding is best for what we call ‘closed shirt binding’ where you are wearing a t-shirt or any type of shirt that will not be showing your chest.

(Diagram C. Notice the seam in the middle of the chest. The tape does not wrap all the way around.)

Like I said before there are different types of binding depending on what you will be wearing so now that we have covered closed shirt binding, we will now discuss ‘open shirt binding’ and this method applies to every girl with any cup size.

Open shirt binding needs to be done on skin or again you can cover the area with a piece of shirt or cloth. Now it is done exactly how I explained above only instead of starting in the middle of your chest you should start where your nipple is that way you can show off most all of your chest area. (Refer to Diagram D.) When doing this type of binding you have to be careful when you are performing because you shouldn’t let your audience or judges see your bindings, so what you can also do is take some double sided tape and tape your shirt to your chest so it will not open wide enough to see your bindings. (Refer to Diagram E.)

(Diagram D.)

 

(Diagram E.)

Alright well that should be it for how to bind yourself, like I said it takes practice to get use to it so don’t worry if you have problems at first. So get off of here and bring out that duct tape and get started. Again if you have any questions send them in and they will get answered. Peace out.