5 Of The Most Shocking Fetishes

Some people’s sexual preferences can lean toward the extreme, with some fetishes pushing the boundaries of conventional desires. Dr. Mark Griffiths, a social psychologist who studies fetishes and behavioral addiction, delves into these unusual interests in a recent article for The Conversation (published Nov. 1).

In his research, Griffiths identified some of the most shocking fetishes he has come across, including one particularly disturbing phenomenon known as vorarephilia, or “vore.” This fetish involves sexual arousal from the fantasy of being eaten, eating someone else, or watching such an act unfold.

Source: Larysa Vdovychenko / Getty

1. The Dark Side of Vorarephilia

For individuals with vorarephilia, the primary fantasy often involves the desire to be consumed. This act can be seen as the ultimate submission, while consuming someone else may represent a twisted form of dominance. One of the most infamous real-life cases of vorarephilia involves Armin Meiwes and Bernd Jürgen Brandes, two men from Germany whose tragic encounter brought the fetish to international attention.

In March 2002, Meiwes placed advertisements online seeking a willing participant who would allow themselves to be eaten. Brandes responded and agreed to the gruesome arrangement. Meiwes allegedly bit off Brandes’s private parts, which the two of them cooked and ate, according to Griffiths. Meiwes ended up stabbing Brandes to death, before storing his body away to feast on at a later date. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

According to the fetish expert, vorarephilia is a clear example of illegal paraphilia—a term used to describe atypical sexual interests that are often referred to as sexual deviations, perversions, or disorders of sexual preference. Paraphilias typically involve intense sexual arousal from unconventional or non-sexual stimuli, though not all of them are dark or disturbing. Some can even be more quirky or amusing than truly alarming. Eproctophilia is one example.

2. Eproctophilia

Griffiths claimed to have published the first case study on eproctophilia, individuals who are sexually aroused by flatulence. His research centered on a 22-year-old man from Illinois, who first discovered his attraction to farts in high school. The man recalled having a crush on a girl who farted in class, and told Griffiths, “This blew my mind [I] knew by simple biology that girls farted, but hearing that the girl I had been fawning over was capable of such a thing sparked a strange interest in me.” The participant said he eventually grew fixated on the sound of anyone passing gas as it sounded “appealing.”  

3. Dacryphilia

Here‘s another fetish that isn’t gut-wrenching but bizarre, to say the least. Dacryphilia is a sexual fetish where individuals become aroused by seeing someone cry. Dr. Griffiths has published several studies on this rare fetish, including one in which he interviewed eight dacryphiles—six women and two men—from the U.S., U.K., Romania, and Belgium. 

The study revealed that even within such a small sample, there were distinct subtypes of dacryphilia. Based on these interviews, Griffiths identified three primary categories: compassionate dacryphiles, who are sexually aroused by the act of comforting someone in tears and there are dominant or submissive dacryphiles, people who are aroused by either causing a consenting partner to cry (dominant) or by being made to cry themselves (submissive) during consensual play.

Source: Luda311 / Getty

4. Apotemnophilia

Apotemnophilia is a fetish that can result in serious legal consequences. While many apotemnophiles find sexual arousal in amputations or in being with someone who has lost a limb, some take their desires even further. A few individuals have sought out surgeons to amputate their healthy limbs in order to satisfy their fetish.

Philip Bondy’s fatal obsession with apotemnophilia ultimately led to his death. The 79-year-old New Yorker passed away in 1999 from gangrene after having his healthy right leg amputated below the knee in an illicit procedure, according to the Guardian. 

Bondy paid close to $7,922 to a former doctor, John Brown, to carry out the amputation. For those with apotemnophilia, the act of losing a limb is sexually stimulating. However, the operation went wrong, and just two days later, Bondy died in a San Diego hotel room. Brown, 77, was convicted of second-degree murder in connection with Bondy’s death and now faces a life sentence.

Griffiths said while this fetish may seem like “a type of masochism,” studies show “that there is no eroticization of pain — only of the healed amputated stump.”

5. Salirophilia

This fetish is, quite literally, dirty. Salirophilia refers to the sexual arousal an individual feels from soiling or disheveling someone they find attractive. This can include actions like tearing or damaging their clothes, covering them in mud or dirt, or messing up their hair or makeup, according to Griffiths.

To examine this odd kink further, he looked into the strange case of a man named Jeff in 2019 who said he wanted to masturbate in strange places such as lying under a cabinet in a dirty garage.  

“Jeff said that he engaged in solitary salirophilic practices regularly but very infrequently with female partners because it was difficult to find like-minded women,” Griffiths penned.

He was also a fan of the hit TV show Fear Factor, where contestants were pushed to their limits with challenges like eating disgusting or decaying foods or being submerged in foul liquids.

“I just find the defilement of an attractive woman’s body erotic,” Jeff added during the study.

Some of these fetishes are not for the faint of heart or just downright shocking. Which one surprised you the most?

RELATED CONTENT: 8 Types Of Fetishes You Might Not Know About