A balloon fetish is a sexual fetish that involves balloon

Balloon

A balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig...

s. A balloon fetishist is also referred to as a "looner". Some balloon fetishists "revel in the popping of balloons and [others] may become anxious and tearful at the very thought of popping balloons". Others enjoy blowing up balloons or sitting and lying on them.

Psychology

Like many paraphilia

Paraphilia

Paraphilia is a biomedical term used to describe sexual arousal to objects, situations, or individuals that are not part of normative stimulation and that may cause distress or serious problems for the paraphiliac or persons associated with him or her...

s, the origins of a balloon fetish are complex and vary between individuals, but may be explained as a form of sexual imprinting. Many "looners" attribute their fetish to early sexual or pre-sexual experiences with balloons, often involving their being burst by members of the desirable sex. These experiences frequently accompany or instigate a phobia

Phobia

A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational...

 of balloons in the individual, most often associated with the sudden loud noise when they burst, a form of ligyrophobia

Ligyrophobia

Phonophobia is a fear of loud sounds. It can also mean a fear of voices, or a fear of one's own voice.For example, listening to a CD that starts with a minute of silence and then suddenly goes into loud rock music would be extremely startling for most people, assuming they had no prior knowledge...

. Psychologists recognize a deep link between phobia and fetishism, but this link is not completely understood.

Depending on the extent to which this phobia persists through and after puberty

Puberty

Puberty is the process of physical changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of reproduction, as initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads; the ovaries in a girl, the testes in a boy...

, balloon fetishists may regard balloons bursting as either essential to the sexual experience (and frequently refer to themselves as poppers), or to be avoided at all costs (as non-poppers). Even those who are not phobic of the act of a balloon popping may prefer not to pop due to an anthropomorphized emotional attachment to the balloon. One hallmark of the distinction between poppers and non-poppers may be in seeing balloons' bursting either as a metaphor for orgasm

Orgasm

Orgasm is the peak of the plateau phase of the sexual response cycle, characterized by an intense sensation of pleasure...

, or as a metaphor for death

Death

Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....

.

That popping balloons is central to several popular party games suggests that enjoyment of the act, the challenge, and the anticipation of popping is not confined to fetishists. However, for fetishists the adrenaline rush

Adrenaline Rush

An adrenaline rush is the fight or flight response of the adrenal gland, in which it releases adrenaline . When releasing adrenaline, one's body releases dopamine which can act as a natural pain killer. An adrenaline rush causes the muscles to perform respiration at an increased rate improving...

 associated with the "danger" that a balloon will pop produces a sexual response. This helps to explain why even non-poppers who have an intense phobia of balloons popping in non-sexual contexts may be aroused by the possibility within safe sexual contexts. It may even suggest that balloon fetish, for poppers and non-poppers alike, is part of the BDSM

BDSM

BDSM is an erotic preference and a form of sexual expression involving the consensual use of restraint, intense sensory stimulation, and fantasy power role-play. The compound acronym BDSM is derived from the terms bondage and discipline , dominance and submission , and sadism and masochism...

 spectrum of fetishes in which a controlled amount of danger is used to elicit a pleasurable fight-or-flight response

Fight-or-flight response

The fight-or-flight response was first described by Walter Bradford Cannon....

 in participants.

Hazard

A true fetish

Fetish

Fetish may refer to:* Fetishism, the attribution of religious or mystical qualities to inanimate objects* Sexual fetishism, sexual attraction to objects, body parts, or situations not conventionally viewed as being sexual in nature....

 is characterized in the DSM-IV by its social and occupational impedance. Aside from these hazards, balloon fetishism carries with it the hazards of bursting balloons in close proximity to one's body. Eye and ear protection is recommended for such exposure to avoid eye damage or hearing loss. These hazards may be heightened since balloon fetishists often employ larger-than-average balloons and high-energy forms of popping them, such as overinflation.

In addition, those who sit, stomp, or lie on large balloons may be vulnerable to fall injuries

Falling (accident)

Falling is a major cause of personal injury, especially for the elderly. Builders, electricians, miners, and painters represent worker categories representing high rates of fall injuries. The WHO estimate that 392,000 people die in falls every year...

 when the balloons burst.

Media

• So Graham Norton
  So Graham Norton
  So Graham Norton is a British television programme, hosted by Irish personality Graham Norton. It ran from 3 July 1998 to 1 March 2002.-Theme:...
  
  , 1998-2002 British television series that featured a recurring segment where the main character, Graham Norton, looked for people on the Internet with different fetishes, including balloon fetish
• The Poughkeepsie Tapes
  The Poughkeepsie Tapes
  The Poughkeepsie Tapes is a mockumentary directed by John Erick Dowdle and stars Bobbi Sue Luther, Samantha Robson and Ivar Brogger.-Plot:...
  
  , 2007 mockumentary horror film
• SexTV
  SexTV
  SexTV is a Canadian documentary television series which explores many issues about human sexuality. The show premiered in 1998 and spun off a television channel called SexTV: The Channel in 2001....
  
  season 9 episode 23, 9 June 2007
• Strange Sex
  Strange Sex
  Strange Sex is a 6-part TLC documentary television series produced by Sirens Media about sexual dysfunction that premiered on 18 July 2010...
  
  episode 5, 1 August 2010