Bare Feet As Art, part 4: As Summer 2013 Winds Down..

     Continuing my search for the best in artistic, eye-catching, and FUN bare feet photography from the internet, here's the latest that I've found, as well as my newest, smile-indcuing works, too. And I stay away from "foot fetish" photography, because I tend to find most of those pics very non-artistic, and kinda' lame! Jamming your bare foot into a camera lens and making a kissy "sexy duckface" to the viewer isn't artistically captivating, in my opinion. "C'mon, man! Show me some f***ing creativity!" LOL! ..In the following photos, even in the cases where the photos aren't mine, the color, crop, and text edits are. Enjoy! No shoes required! :)

My very HAPPY toes & soles, sending artsy love!

A Bare Feet Butterfly?! LOL

More outdoor summer bare feet,
done absolutely artistically perfectly!

Emile & Emma's mommy/daughter pedicure fun made
for a perfect barefoot photo moment!

Bare feet perfection from Oggl..
The photographer's daughter reading on the couch :)

"Happiness & Bare Feet"!
Or, Happiness BECAUSE of Bare Feet! xo

Tales of the Ticklish: THE. BEST. PRANK. EVER! (If You Love Tickling the Ticklish!)

     You can never have enough bare feet tickles in life, right? Well, here's a fantastic video that I saw about two years ago on YouTube, and it instantly became an all-time favorite, and a prank that I would have SO loved to have been part of (I might be a hulking gorilla, but, yes, I DO pretty much have the most ticklish bare feet on planet Earth! LOL!!) ..I wish that I had thought of this skit, or, better yet, been one of the people strolling through that mall, thinking that I was about to get lucky & grab some freebie "foot massage" action, only to be caught up in the hilarious joke! The best thing about this prank is that it's fun & harmless, so beautiful in its good-natured attitude, and NOT a malicious prank that embarrasses somebody so badly that they can't show their face in public, afterwards! ..Basically, a French comedy TV show set up a booth for "free reflexology", but, instead, surprise-tickled the customers' bare feet, and those people's reactions are GREAT!! I absolutely LOVE this! ..Except for the goofy-ass clownish music, and that godawful "canned studio laughter" that the segment producer/editor set this video to! I would much rather have no music at all, hear the sounds of the funny scenes as they develop, and actually be able to hear the people laughing! Because laughter rules the roost, always! Enjoy, my friends! Have a great, barefoot, and hopefully tickled, weekend! :)

Tales of the Ticklish: Tickled By Strangers? True Stories!

   

Pretty much how my bare feet were dangling
off the arm of that
Stonybrook University library couch!

     It's crazy how things work out sometimes. On a blog that was created, over two years ago, to talk about the fun of going barefoot in life (as much as humanly possible), and the silly, funny uniqueness of a big dude who gets crazy colors & nail designs on his toes during pedicures, the thing that STILL dominates my writing (because it gets the most replies, AND definitely gets, by far, the most blog reads), are hilarious stories about tickling bare feet! People simply LOVE ticklish feet, even if they never admit it because they think it's "weird"! I mentioned before how absolutely lucky I was, growing up being super-close friends with (and still close with, now as adults) awesome girls who absolutely loved tickling feet and/or having their feet tickled, because it has filled my life with fantastic and memorably hysterical bare feet tickling moments, all of them worth sharing to make other people laugh! And yes, almost all of them have been shared here, able to be found in the previous 12 "chapters" of this blog's "Tales of the Ticklish" series, so scroll back and have some more fun after reading this! ..But the one thing that I haven't written about, until now, is the two occasions in my life where I had my bare feet tickled by complete strangers, thus proving my theory that more people love tickling feet than will ever admit to it! LOL!

     The first ticklish incident was back in my college days, at the University of Stonybrook, circa 1989-1990. I mentioned previously that, when the weather was warm enough, I would just stuff my flip-flops into my backpack, and go to all my classes barefoot, because I loved being barefoot so much, and it just felt so much better (and stress-relieving) to me to be walking around with bare feet on an 80+ degree day. (And I just never gave a sh*t about wearing shoes, which, of course, still continues to this day!) This also included library study/homework/research time, where I ALWAYS had my shoes off. Winter months had me taking off boots to walk around the library in socks, and the spring/early summer months meant happy bare feet on library carpets. I wasn't the only one, that's for sure. I distinctly & vividly remember bare feet all around that library, so I wasn't alone in my "getting comfortable" ways! The library was HUGE and had many reading areas with couches set up, not unlike a cozy living room. One day, I was laying on one of those couches, on my back, with bare feet propped up on one of the couch arms, soles exposed. I was reading some papers, so I was holding them up above my face, when, out of nowhere, I felt a long fingernail sliding up my sole, tickling my bare foot! It's well known, and I have no problem admitting to it, that I have the most ticklish feet ever.. therefore, I yelped out a laugh, and spasmed badly, as I lurched to a sitting-up position, only to see this smiling, college-age girl walking away. She was looking back at me with a huge grin as she said, "Sorry, but I couldn't resist!" (There's that line again, that we all know so well), and I was like, "Wait, you don't have to go!" (like suddenly I was gonna get a date because she tickled my feet! LOL! Hey, stranger things have happened!) ...She waved & kept walking, I never saw her again, and thus, that was the first mystery foot tickle of my life..

     Fast-forward a few years, to the late 90's, and now I am "on the job" as a NYC police officer. I was on the LIRR train home after a day tour, which ended at 3:40pm, and I remember it was brutally hot summer day, made worse by the fact that the train had little to no air-conditioning. It was a semi-empty train, I was in an aisle seat with no one next to, or across from, me, so off came the flip-flops and up went my bare feet on that empty seat across from me. I put my sunglasses on, put my head back against the headrest, and closed my eyes to attempt to get an hour of zzzzzz's before my train stop. Probably two, maybe three, minutes passed by (because the train hadn't pulled out yet, as stragglers were still getting on), when I was jolted by the sensation of fingernails lightly running up my bare sole! Eyes instantly blasted open, as I once again convulsed and "yelp-laughed", almost out of the seat! This time, it was an older woman, with grey/silver hair, heading down the aisle, who had just tickled my bare feet as she was walking by and noticed them sitting there up on the seat!! Big-ass smile on her face, and she gave me a cute "Atta' boy!" pat on my shoulder as she passed by.. And what do you think she said? Yep, you got it: "Sorry, but I couldn't resist it!" ..LOL! And off she went, the 2nd mystery feet tickler that I encountered in my life!

     I have a psychology theory that those of us (myself included) who LOVE tickling feet, or having our own feet tickled (even if we can't endure it), do that almost on purpose: leave our vulnerable, bare feet in a spot to hopefully be tickled! But I think that we might not even realize that we're doing it! I think, subconsciously, we just pop our bare feet up to get comfortable while we read, nap, watch TV, play with our smartphones, etc etc., and then, somewhere deep in our brains, that part of us that craves therapeutic laughter, good feelings, or pleasant, positive human contact, hopes that someone with similar opinions about tickling will come strolling by, notice our feet, indulge their tickling urge, and then offer up that apology line that I hear played on "repeat" throughout the entirety of my very-ticklish life.. "Sorry, but I couldn't resist!!" ..I hope it continues for as long as people love laughing & making others laugh, and it never makes me mad, or annoyed, to have my feet tickled! ..Uh, if it does make you mad to have your feet tickled, you're probably taking life way too seriously, anyway.. :)

LIRR ride home last Saturday night from NYC, with my bare feet up
and relaxed. Coincidentally, this is EXACTLY how my feet were
positioned in this post's "train tickling" story! LOL!

Tales of the Ticklish: Feet Tickling, 'Party Games'?! Why not?!!

     I had such a blast, blogging, a few weeks ago, about how much I loved feet tickling on Howard Stern, plus any feet tickling that appeared on European & South American game shows.. Well, during a fantastically fun conversation, earlier today, about the joyful silliness of tickling trapped, ticklish, bare feet (an irresistable topic that has been written about many times, and very happily received, since this blog was created in 2010), we started giggling about the sheer, hilarious madness that would ensue if you were to combine the craziness of "tickling bare feet" with the structured rules of party/family games, during a dinner/cocktail hang at your house, or one of your friends' residences! Now, before you think that I've completely lost my mind, if you're a bare feet (and therapeutic laughter) fan, just hear me out.. And get the bottles of wine/alcohol ready, even though they're not required! ..(But they WOULD totally add to those games' fun factor)..
      First of all, you would need a way to keep people snugly restrained, and I kinda' like the padded stocks featured in the photos on this particular blogpost! I don't want partygoers getting hurt, cut, scraped, splinters, etc. so ancient medieval stocks aren't gonna work, but the 2013 versions, with the padded ankle cuff areas, would be perfect. As would the back-stretching "inversion table" that I blogged about in an earlier "Tales of the Ticklish", which locks your feet in at the ankles, and then hangs you upside down, trapped. You might be able to flail your arms around, but you're not getting your feet out, that's for sure. I have no idea where you buy padded medieval stocks, so an inversion table might be your best bet. But, on the other hand, being locked in the stocks means you're not upside down with blood rushing to your head while you're laughing/spasming. Remember, this is supposed to be FUN, not an injury-fest!

Wanna play a game?! YES, please!!

      When you're guests arrive, ask them to take off their shoes at the door, to be more comfortable, and also to "help keep your floors clean". Some may be barefoot, some in socks.. Whatever, it's all good (and you could always pull off their socks later, if needed!.. LOL!!). If you're a regular reader of this blog, then you already know that, if I'm coming to your party, I'll either just show up barefoot at the start, or I'll automatically slip off my flip-flops/shoes at the door, even without being asked to.. (Happily, all of my bare feet friends think exactly like I do)..  But, let the drinks, and conversations, and laughs, start flowing freely. When everyone's good & tipsy, it's game time, and here's the two favorites we came up with today:
     1. "Ticklish Pursuit", utilizing Trivial Pursuit, or some other cool trivia/fact game. Person gets asked a question. If they give the correct answer, it moves onto the next person. When someone gets a question wrong, they get locked in whatever the available device is, and the bare feet tickling begins.. Depending on the ticklishness of the person being tickled, it could get really, really, hysterically fun! While they are being tickled, they get asked another trivia question. If they get the answer wrong, or are unable to answer because of their ticklish laughter, they get tickled for a limit of, say, 20-30 seconds, finally let loose, and then the game continues. But, IF they are able to answer the question correctly while being tickled, then they get let out of the device, and they, in turn, get to CHOOSE who goes in the device next to have THEIR feet tickled! Now it's up to that new person to either correctly answer a trivia question while being tickled also (and if so, THEY go ahead and choose the next ticklee), or just endure the tickling, and resume the regular game order after the feet tickling finishes. Brilliant, right??
     2. "Tickle-tionary", utilizing Pictionary, or some other art/charade/guess-what-this-is game. Same premise as above, but the room is split into two teams. The game starts with a team trying to guess the drawing as more & more clues are put on paper. If they guess correctly, fine, the next team goes. The first team that fails in guessing their drawing, has to choose one of their OWN teammates to be locked in the stocks and feet tickled.. And now, here we go again! LOL! As that person is being tickled, by a member of the other team (or a designated tickler), their own team draws out another Pictionary word, on paper that's directly in front of the face of the person being tickled! If they are able to guess the word, they get let out of the stocks, and choose someone on the OTHER team to take THEIR place and be tickled! Then that person's team has to do the same thing for them: try to draw a clear enough picture that the person being tickled can guess what it is while laughing/thrashing about!
     Points can be given for correct/incorrect answers, with bonus points given for answering while being restrained and tickled, this way the game has an actual goal to it! But barring those two examples, you could always just grab a stopwatch and have a classic tickle contest, where everyone takes a turn being locked in, gets timed while bare feet are tickled, and the one who holds back laughing the longest, wins. However, the more I think about it the more that I just LOVE the idea of adding mild tickle torture to any kind of party game. It would totally work, as weird as it sounds!.. Underam & rib tickling is totally permitted, too, if the restrained person doesn't have ticklish feet! If someone isn't ticklish anywhere (then they are an alien from another planet), let them be the "designated tickler", so they can participate! ..I guarantee that NO one goes home from that party in a bad mood!! Now, pour me a glass of wine and let's all take off our shoes (if they're not already off!!).. :)