While it is clearly wrong to judge the sexual preferences and kinks in other people, it is also undeniable that some paraphilias are usually considered weirder than others. Talking about the hundreds of uncommon sexual behaviors I have catalogued in my book XXX – The dictionary of unusual sex, in example, I generally see the most astonished reactions whenever I mention the trifecta of dendrophilia (sex with plants),furries (sex while dressed as giant plushies) and tripsolagnia (arousal from getting a shampoo).

Another seemingly inexplicable practice is however balloon fetishism: people just don’t get how someone can find pleasure in such objects – both conceptually and technically. Moreover, balloon fetishists are usually quite closeted, so you just don’t have many chances to meet one and discuss his proclivities. I was then very intrigued when I discovered that National Geographic’s show Taboo had one among its featured subjects – and judging from this brief preview, it looks like many preconceptions were challenged.