As my avatar suggests, I have ben crucified multiple times - some of those with female masochists joining me; facing each other while left crucified for a while.
We enact crucifixions as part of BDSM, and it does not involve standing conveniently and just tied to a cross, but straddling a penetrating sedile or (less often) solely riding on a peg. Since the penetrating versions are attached with a horizontally arranged threaded bar, they give safe but painful support underneath both buttocks - just using a peg underneath the crotch (whether with penetrating object or without) is deliciously painful, but a blood vessel and major nerves are compressed too much for prolonged sessions.
Main issues for prolonged crux play are overstreched arms (to the rear) or a high arm position in general, which can be felt by dropping blood pressure. Topping co-players take care of cold skin when playing with new crux positions.
We once did that on a 1-week BDSM event with lots of friends and many kinks, good food and a huge play room where we put up heavy instruments (including a painful "wooden" horse manufactured by Matthias Grimme's craftshop - he is a famous publisher of a BDSM bulletin in our country, and he himself and his play partners are into anything from soft bondage to flesh hook suspension and nailing etc..).
As I have made various experiences such as with flesh hook suspension or nailing stainless steel nails/horse shoe nails through mine or my co-players' flesh, I am physically aware of typical elements of suffering ...which actually looks far more drastic than it feels (if hurting at all after a short while). There has been a book about crucifixion, written more then 100 years ago where the author seems to be far more acquainted with pain and wounds, knowing that certain things like penetration with nails and tension thereon does indeed not hurt too much after a while (disregarding the overall stress, e.g. if suspended). Modern people do not practice rituals like hook suspensions etc. so they have lost awareness about pain and certain types of wounds.
For example, hanging on flesh hooks does not cause pain, but being pulled up does (i.e. when the skin is dislocated by the hooks). So, I was hanging completely pain-free... which is not the ideal knowledge if thinking of crucifixion with nails (and getting aroused by the sight of nails through flesh rather than other parts, impossible to re-enact in BDSM, of course). As the author had written (correctly!), most pain from nails will vanish unless there will be infection/inflammation over time - or many movements. While hanging on hooks, we swing each other ("moving"), which still did not cause pain. I am writing this sort of "excursion" to explain the issues when enacting BDSM crux play with the purpose of suffering... because it is not an easy venture to keep pain level up over time - all that remains is a difficult position (making one sweat) and pain from pressure - which is why we use sediles instead of just standing on a plank and getting nails between the toes. Those do not hurt - which counterfeits the idea of suffering.
In a few weeks, a young friend of mine (a 24 year old masochist I just met for mulled wine on Xmas market and subsequent BDSM play dates) wants to join the next crux play in my guest house that contains play rooms with high ceilings and hooks and so on... and T-shaped crosses with saddles manageable from "inconvenient" to "painful". As I get to know female play partners (both, as tops and as bottoms) through FetLife, they all see that crux play is one of my kinks, and some want to try (while I keep receiving requests for other things like artistic needling of course... - no wonder, if one conducts S/M sessions and shows them - together with real life network of players - in his profile and profile gallery). People "like" crux play photos in my gallery... and so we get to know each other and arrange meetings for play.
Well, anyway... to me the whole point of crucifixion is prolonged exposure in either stressful or (ideally for me) painful way, and I have loved those face to face plays, because there is so much time to share and stare at each other, hear each other moan (pain- and lustfully...) and get each other into a sort of mind fuck about the whole thing.
A dear friend of mine had helped to design details of our crucifixion plays, and in the end she commanded: "Don't you change anything on it now!" ...as it has cost us hours of trying and straddling and adjustments till positions of arms and feet (aside the cross beam, no support) and the angle of the "cornu" (wooden dildo) was perfect enough not to push on a major blood vessel that supplies male or female genital region.
...things which are not even noticeable during regular S/M sessions (straddling on a threaded bar for like 10 minutes or hanging stretched out from suspension cuffs for such short periods etc.) become real issues, if applying them over long time (starting from half an hour onwards). Tiniest changes can make huge differences in safe/do-able sessions.
