BlowTheLights

Mainstream scenes gags, some are gag snobs - some want better bondage.

Gag scenes are usually lumped by families: stuff, cleave, OTM, tape, ball and etc.

Let's talk (ironic) about gags, tape gags to be precise. There are many types of tapes in many sizes and colors, the main things we are going to take a look at is: stickiness, size, length, number of pieces and sometimes the material itself (papery, microfoam, duct tape, medical etc.)

Now with no further introduction let's get to the fun!

Stickiness

No. 1 - The loose papery

The only way this thing sticks nicely is wraparound and how many scenes like that have we seen? none. The bright side however is that we get to see the lips, especially if the damsel has some nice lipstick on. Look at the sides of the tape, ever rolled up few pages and later when you tried to straighten them up they refused and curled right back? Same here with this buddy... the more time goes by the more it lets loose. This however can be fixed if the tape is double wide because then it sticks a lot better.

No. 2 - The loose but smooth and shiny looking

So it isn't the most sticky thing ever, it does look cute however. Don't count on it to do the job, but it will look nice, maybe some don't like it for its metal plate look rather than "See those lips? they are mine! all mine! I'll never leave them".

No. 3 - The this is so sticky

It's there to stay, it looks good enough to keep the damsels lips tougher and it will take some force for the damsel to open her mouth rather than just open it like the two previous types.

No. 4 - OMG! This is gonna leave a mark!

Just take a look at that... It seems the tape is obsessed with her lips, hugging them hard refusing to let go. As said before "See those lips? they are mine! all mine! I'll never leave them". Sometimes it looks like you need pliers to remove it from the damsels lips.

Lengths

No. 1 - The are you cheap or something?

Look at this, it just covers the lips, edge to edge. Not very impressive or taking control. However, it is not the worst (we will get to it in the wideness section).

No. 2 - The eye to eye

This is the first one I find satisfying, it covers enough area to look somewhat convincing. If you look at the edges of the tape you will see that they are in direct line to the outer edges of her eyes. Some times I find it cuter than longer pieces since we can see some cheeks and blush.

No. 3 - The between eye to eye and ear to ear

It is longer than the eye to eye and almost ear to ear, not much to say. This is the most common of them all.

No. 4 - The ear to ear

Not very common but it does look great.

No. 5 - The over the ears but no wraparound

This is when the tape length is misjudged and ends up covering the damsels earlobes.

No. 6 - The wraparound

Even if it is not very sticky, as long as it is at least stick to itself it is still effective OTM gag, but when it is sticky it is even better doing the job in stopping clear understood speech (nothing no matter how good doesn't stop noise, not even a 3" ball gag). You can add to its effectiveness by mouth stuffing, another wrap from top of the head to bottom of the chin (to close the jaw in place), and a strip over the bridge of the nose that connects to the rest of the tape (you may want to bury its edges behind another wrap around the lips and head). I might have a tape gag guide article some day (I got some creative ideas).

Sizes

No. 1 - The WTF! I know this is just a movie but this is so unbelievable even for this

Basically it is a small piece that is smaller than an inch and it is barely the size of one of the lips and even if it is exactly the size of both lips it is still so stupid. And the picture you see above is the good case scenario so you can understand how lame it is with one piece...

No. 2 - The bubble-gum wrapper tape

One level below the average 2" tape and the first one in my book that is worth collecting. It is called bubble-gum wrapper since it resembles in color and size a wrapper opened to its maximum size. As we can see in the picture above, early 2000's pop star Anastacia (always loved her sunglasses and lipstick choices) beautifully wears it, we can see it covers just a little bit over each lip to a satisfactionary level. However it is Anastacia that makes it look good and not the other way around.

No. 3 - The classic 2" tape

This is the size we are all accustomed to see, it gives an inch beneath and above each lip and seems secure enough to make 'mmmph' mumbles seem a bit legit.

No. 4 - The nose to chin double wide

This is the king/queen of all tapes, as you can understand by the picture above and its name this tape covers the whole lower face and sometimes it goes even beneath the chin to add more vertical mouth shutting. If it is sticky and covers ear to ear it might be the most effective of all the good looking tape gags (never found wrap-around as beautiful just effective)

Number of Pieces

No. 1 - The simple one piece

The one piece is the quickest to use, just tear a piece and put it in place. It doesn't gives much to work with however.

No. 2 - The few pieces aligned the same

From two pieces and above, it may look like a double wide tape gag and therefore they are my favorites (of the few piece, My biggest fave will always be the double wide single piece). It provides more strength since the above piece keeps the below piece in place.

No. 3 - The few pieces all over the place

In some cases it might be more effective, but they are by far the ugliest effective ones. Or maybe I think like that because I'm such a symmetry freak.

No. 4 - The wraparound

See section Lengths - No. 6

No. 5 - The dog muzzle

I don't think it exist in mainstream scenes, this is a wraparound with additional strip over the nose bridge that has its edges taped to the tape gag at each side of the face. Effective? A lot. Looks? Horrible.

Materials

Preview

Yes, there are plenty of tape types like PVC in example. But this is not a hardware review and therefore it will not be very informative to what tape you should use to fix your sink and such. It will be just about the way it looks and about how well it goes with lips and skin.  

No. 1 - The clear cellotape

Don't let the picture above fool you... It looks horrible most of the time. The damsel opens her mouth a bit and then we see her teeth, the cloudy marks left by her breathing onto the tape and the mouth moving freely. Usually it is trash bag worthy.

No. 2 - The papery tape

Slightly better than the cellotape but has some serious sticking issues. When it is not sticky it just folding into itself like papers that been folded for too long, maybe it has something to do with it being actual paper that is forced to stay rounded around its roll until used. When it isn't sticking we can see the difference in shades between the sides that are on and the sides that are off. But when it is sticky, oh boy... We can see lips and the shade they are which is one small detail that we all seems to like.

No. 3 - Classic parcel-tape

Has all the same fabric type of the cellotape, however thanks to it not being clear we don't run into the things that kills the cellotape gags. It gives a nice look of how the lips are shaped, sometimes you can see the color differences of the lips sticking from beyond the tape original color. It is not very stiff and that is why it works well with lips visibility.

No. 4 - The stiff duct tape

This tape is so stiff you can't now if there is some lip protection below or if it's just that much stiff it doesn't change it looks. Kind of look like a glued metal plate to some extent. I happen to really like it but I know how many people hate it.

No. 5 - The nicely conforming duct tape

This is also duct tape but the difference it that it changes its shape to the shape of the damsels mouth which makes it looks one of the most effective types. It is like the parcel-tape and stiff-duct-tape combined.

No. 6 - The electrical tape

The most mean stickiness machine out there, you might want to check if after removal it doesn't have the damsels lips on and that they are still attached to her face. Just look at this evil sexy thing. It is the most sticky and most conforming, not safe for lips material out there. Not sure if even clown makeup will protect her lips.

No. 7 - Medical tape

It is medically approved, nice and sticky and suitable for skin. However there is a tape that is even better than this...

No. 8 - Microfoam tape

(Picture above is not the common type of microfoam which is far more smooth and shiny looking white) 

Might be the best thing ever, friendly to the damsel and effective to help the kidnapper muffle her. It is just like the medical tape, however, it has one more extremely helpful advantage, it is highly conformable and flexible. It will stick to every part of the damsels face almost as a second skin, if she opens her mouth to try and break its hold it just stretches along with her mouth accompanying the lips on their way apart and on their way back tougher. It is a real bitch, but not because of pain (it doesn't, it is made for skin) it is because of the never giving up attitude that might get the captive to just accept the fact. It is most of the time double wide which makes it better.

No. 9 - Plaster/Band-aid

One of my faves since it is so rare. Not very effective and comes with natural lip protection (it isn't really meant for lips however). It is very decorative most of the time and will probably look even better with some lace clothing.