SSC, RACK, PRICK, and SSICK: Understanding BDSM Behavioral Codes

written by Micah Brown

By its nature, the practice of BDSM activities can oftentimes be considered unsafe. That’s not to say that every act of BDSM is life-threatening, but certain kinks can absolutely be life-threatening if they are not approached with the proper caution and preparedness. To help navigate the way through BDSM activities, there have been a variety of behavior codes that have come along to help people have a basic overview of how to approach their behavior within BDSM.

While it is impossible to account for all possibilities, the idea behind these codes of behavior is simply to help guide and protect the participants, whether they are in a Dominant or submissive position during the scene.

Consent

There are common throughlines for each behavioral code, however, the most important of these is consent. Consent is at the center of why practitioners branch out into many different behavioral codes. While they all essentially boil down to the same things, there are key differences in how consent is approached in each one.

The most important thing to remember about consent is that you get consent before partaking in any form of BDSM play.

Safe, Sane, and Consensual - The Classic

This is where it all started. Keep things safe, stay sane within the scene, and make sure everybody is consenting. It was simple, elegant, and on its surface appeared to cover all the bases that everybody could need to be covered when partaking in some of the more extreme BDSM activities.

If this covers everything, why are there more than just this?

Well, there was some concern about what was being portrayed here. While some may read “Safe” as a catch-all for remaining as safe as possible within the activities being performed, others saw that term as a misnomer since some activities within BDSM and Kink are decidedly UN-safe.

The use of the word “Sane” again ignores, according to some, the fact that these activities are often viewed as not at all sane by the general public and those who lean more vanilla.

Surely nobody had an issue with “Consent,” did they?

Well, the short answer here is yes. They had an issue. Not with the idea of consent, but with the generic approach to it in its usage here. Some argued that you couldn’t consent to play if you weren’t fully informed as to the activities.

A basic example would be that somebody consents to be spanked, but they don’t feel as though they had consented to be spanked with a paddle.

All of these concerns were addressed in the next iteration: RACK

Risk Aware Consensual Kink - The Next Iteration

The purpose of RACK was to address some of the concerns around SSC. This places the responsibility of each participant more front and center so that an open discussion can be had around what is expected, how the scene will play out, and what risks may be involved within the play itself. This helps ensure that everybody involved feels safe, even if the S isn’t present in RACK.

Often, RACK is used with some of the more risky behaviors around BDSM and Kink, such as Blood Play, Breath Play, Play Piercing, and Knife Play.

While RACK does promote Risk Awareness, which implies personal responsibility, PRICK goes a little further in that department.

Personal Responsibility, Informed, Consensual Kink - It’s a Mouthful

PRICK is meant as a way to put even more ownership on the individual involved in the kink. This essentially says that every person involved knows their own kink, understands the exact nature of the activities that will take place, including any risks from these activities, and can offer full consent because of understanding all of these facets.

One way to look at this would be to say that RACK offers the idea of risk awareness – this activity will make me bleed – while PRICK would demand a more detailed understanding – this activity will make me bleed and may increase my risk for bloodborne disease, infections, and may end up requiring emergency medical attention. At that point, an individual can fully consent to the activity, knowing all the risks involved and taking personal responsibility for their own part in those risks.

One of the issues that some practitioners had with both RACK and PRICK was the lack of a specific callout for Safety. So, now SSICK enters the chat…

Safe, Sane, Informed Consensual Kink - The Final Frontier...

This goes back to the beginning and then incorporates the idea of Informed Consensual Kink. How does the Safe and Sane differ from those in SSC? Ultimately, they don’t – but the discussion around them in SSICK makes some assumptions. In this case, SAFE is a relative term based on the activities being performed - think “As Safe As Possible considering we’re playing with knives.” SANE, like SAFE, focuses on the idea of remaining sane within the scope of the scene. Basically, everybody needs to keep their heads even in the most intense scenes so that if something goes wrong, the participants and spring into action and fix things or stop the play to address the issue.

Communication in Behavioral Codes

While none of these behavioral codes contain a letter for COMMUNICATION, each of them is all about it. Regardless of how you may interpret each of these codes, they all boil down to communicating with the participants of a scene how a scene is going to go, what activities will be in the scene, and what the various risks of each activity may be as well as what may be done to mitigate those risks such as wearing medical gloves when doing anything with blood or bodily fluids or having safety scissors available for quick removal of ropes.

The Constant Evolution of Behavioral Codes

While we have talked about four of the more prominent behavioral codes in the BDSM community, there are others out there that focus on more mainstream ideas of consent as well, such as FRIES (Freely given, Reversable, Informed, Enthusiastic, Specific), CRISP (Considered, Reversable, Informed, Specific, Participatory). Additionally, there are some that are more focused on specific Kinks like CCCC (Caring, Communication, Consent, and Caution) which focuses heavily on 24/7 Total Power Exchange Dynamics. Why do some of these become so very specific in what they are calling out? Because how you view something isn’t necessarily how somebody else views the same thing. Focusing on specificity helps to define boundaries and expectations in people who feel more comfortable with that level of communication.

There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to the behavioral codes. Be sure to communicate with your partner(s) about what your preference is and always make certain everybody is on the same page.