Hand fetishism or hand partialism or also cheirophilia is the

sexual fetish Sexual fetishism or erotic fetishism is a sexual fixation on a nonliving object or nongenital body part. The object of interest is called the fetish; the person who has ''a fetish'' for that object is a fetishist. A sexual fetish may be regard ...

for hands. This may include the sexual attraction to a specific area such as the fingers, palm, back of the

hand A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the koala (which has two opposable thumbs on each "h ...

and/or nails, or the attraction to a specific action performed by the hands; which may otherwise be considered non-sexual—such as washing and drying dishes, painting of the fingernails and nail-biting. This fetish may manifest itself as a desire to experience physical interaction, or as a source of sexual fantasy. Hand fetishism is recognized by the porn industry; however, aside from

handjob A handjob, also spelled hand job, is a sex act, performed as either foreplay or as non-penetrative sex, that involves the manual stimulation of the penis or scrotum by another person to induce an erection for sexual pleasure, sexual arousal and s ...

s, it is one of the least common fetishes, despite

foot fetishism Foot fetishism, also known as foot partialism or podophilia, is a pronounced sexual interest in feet. It is the most common form of sexual fetishism for otherwise non-sexual objects or body parts. Characteristics and related fetishes Foot f ...

being the most common.

Characteristics

A hand fetish involves a sexual attraction to the hands. This attraction is most commonly expressed with fingering, handjobs, sucking on the fingers, and licking the palms.

Fingernail fetishism

A sub-type of hand fetishism that is often expressed with attraction towards the fingernails. Most commonly scratching with the fingernails, painting the fingernails, and fingernail length.

Frequency

In 2007, a study was conducted by the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

on around 5000 fetishist participants to see the prevalence of fetishes. The study analyzed the content inside online fetish communities and found only 669 participants (less than 1%) referring to nails, an extension of hand fetishism. This did not refer to fingernails specifically.

In popular culture

Hirohiko Araki is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for his long-running series ''JoJo's Bizarre Adventure'', which began publication in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' in 1987 and has over 120 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling ...

's popular manga series, ''

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was originally serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1987 to 2004, and was transferred to the monthly ''seinen'' manga ...

Part 4: Diamond Is Unbreakable'', the main villain, a

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

named Yoshikage Kira, has a notable hand fetish which drives most of his homicidal actions. He often goes for the hands of females he deems as “pieces of trash” and murders the woman while severing one of their hands easily with his ability. He keeps the hands of his victims as his 'girlfriends', which he treats like an actual person until they start decomposing, where he will then search for a new victim. His hand fetish had been stated to have begun early in his teens after he witnessed the portrait of the

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known ...

, saw her hands, and “got an erection”.

References

{{Sex fetish Paraphilias Sexual fetishism

Characteristics

Fingernail fetishism

Frequency

In popular culture

See also

References