Good question. BDSM isn't a risk-free activity. But there is definitely stuff I won't do because I think the potential risks are too high.
I don't do breath-control or choking scenes. A partner who's more bruised than I intended is bad enough; a partner dead of cardiac arrest would really screw up my day. Whether or not breath-control scenes can be done safely is a hotly debated topic in the SM community, but my position on it can be summed up by a quote from Jay Wiseman, author of SM 101.
"So far not one (repeat, not one) single physician, nurse, paramedic, chiropractor, physiologist... has been willing to step forth and teach a form of breath control play that they are willing to assert is acceptably safe--i.e., does not put the recipient at imminent, unpredictable risk of dying."
Good enough for me. Wiseman's entire essay can be read at http://members.aol.com/OldRope/essays.htm.
I also won't engage in scat-play or brown showers--playing with shit. For health reasons (hepatitis and E. coli among them), I don't recommend this. Giving or receiving an enema is usually pretty safe, assuming the equipment is clean and you use plain water. But even eating your own shit can make you sick, let alone someone else's, and it's also possible to pick up a nasty infection if shit gets into broken skin.
I enjoy long bondage scenes, but I don't do scenes where I put a bound person in a closet alone for an hour. For one thing, I don't have a closet that big. And it's not okay to leave a bound person alone, under any circumstances. I also don't hang people up by the wrists--very bad idea. Those tiny little bones in your wrists are not built to take the pressure of your entire body weight, and can fracture or break. Also, you can sustain nerve damage in your hands, which can last weeks, months, or forever.
I love pain that I intend to inflict. It's accidental trauma that isn't acceptable to me. Have fun and play safe.
