Shibari Study app: learn shibari online as a couple

Shibari Study: a rope school that comes to your living room

Shibari is the art of rope bondage, and Shibari Study calls itself “an online rope bondage school with hundreds of membership-streamed video classes.” It was founded in 2019 and is run from Berlin by Shibari Study GmbH, whose directors are Anton Martin and Marika Roux. The iPhone app arrived in October 2020 and was last updated in September 2026.

It’s the odd one out among the kink apps we cover: less a place to meet people than a place to learn a skill with the person you already have. The school sums up its students in one line, “Riggers, rope bottoms, self-tyers and couples all learn here,” which in plain words means the one who ties, the one who’s tied, people who tie themselves, and pairs like you two, who often end up taking turns. Its beginner classes “require no prior experience or partner,” so one of you can start alone and bring the other in once the first knot stops being a wrestling match.

Clothes on, by design

In its own words, the classes are “fully clothed, consent-driven instruction,” made for adults and free of explicit material. If you came expecting something racier, think of it as a quiet advantage: the lessons are about hands, tension and attention, and what the two of you do with all three afterwards is your own business.

Why rope works on a couple: slow is the whole point

Most of the time, desire is in a hurry. Rope isn’t. Every wrap takes a few seconds, every knot asks for a pause, and the person being tied has nothing to do but feel each one land. Marika Roux, Shibari Study’s co-founder, has described shibari as “a way of communicating through rope,” where “speed, tension and tempo” create the sensations and the emotions. She has also said it treats “the act of tying as the end goal in itself,” which is a relief: there’s no finish line to rush toward.

The pull is different on each side. For the one tying, it’s focus and care, a kind of control that is mostly responsibility, with a canvas who keeps breathing under your hands. For the one being tied, it’s being held, being looked at for a long time, and the delicious permission to stop deciding things. Roux believes rope can “deepen intimacy and trust between partners,” and anyone who has spent ten minutes untying someone very, very carefully will understand why.

Three styles, one rope

Shibari Study sorts its classes into three moods, and the labels are refreshingly direct:

• Casual: “Shibari for platonic fun,” rope as a craft and a puzzle.
• Artistic: “creative expression,” the sculptural, photogenic side.
• Erotic: “Shibari for pleasure and kink,” where the rope becomes part of the tease.

You don’t have to pick a lane. A casual Tuesday is allowed to drift somewhere warmer, and nobody grades you on it. You don’t need to become a master, either: the educator Midori, talking to Mashable, said a few basic ties are “fine, good, and hot for most people.” And if your BDSM Test results put a rigger on one end of the couch and a rope bunny (someone who loves being tied) on the other, consider this your homework.

Finding your way around: levels, live classes and the community

Levels and categories

Classes climb from level 1 to level 4, with an open level, marked ∞, for safety, lectures and performances that don’t belong to one stage. Categories let you follow a thread across the levels: Getting Started, Rope Safety, Rope Bottoming, Discourse & Dialogue, Floor Play, Wearable Bondage and Self-Tying, among others.

Two of them deserve a couple’s attention early. Rope Bottoming gives the tied partner a curriculum of their own, so being tied is a skill you build, not just a job of holding still. Wearable Bondage is rope you wear, and the school’s own date-night post picks a harness that fits under an outfit, which is exactly as fun as it sounds.

Live, from someone’s living room

The live classes are billed as “intimate living room-style classes and performances,” and anyone can watch them for free while they stream. Subscribers keep the replays for 60 days, handy when a class lands on a Wednesday and you’d rather try it on Saturday.

Offline and subtitled

The app lets you download classes to watch offline, so a cabin weekend with no signal doesn’t have to mean no lesson. Classes taught in English, Japanese and French come with English subtitles.

A community, and now Studios

Members share a community with channels such as getting-started, bottoming and self-tying, plus challenges: in October 2026 a pinned one invites wearable harnesses for Halloween. Newer still is Studios, a directory of in-person rope spaces. Some are listed as “Vetted spaces in active partnership with us,” in Tokyo, Berlin, London, Austin and Oakland; the rest are community listings, “self-reported and reviewed for basic alignment.”

Shibari for couples: five date nights with a length of rope

Pick one, silence every phone except the one playing the class, and keep it short the first time. Stopping while you both still want more is the best cliffhanger there is.

1. Class night. Watch a beginner class all the way through first, the way Shibari Study itself advises, on the couch with popcorn and no rope in sight (or catch a live one, free while it streams). Then play it again and follow along on the floor. The second viewing is where the giggling turns into concentration.
2. The questions, out loud. Shibari Study has a free Consent & Negotiation page of questions to ask before rope: a safeword for “stop” and another for “slow down,” injuries, aftercare, photos. Read them to each other over dinner. Every answer tells you something new, and at least one will make you both blush.
3. The Feelings Game. The school’s “Shibari For Lovers” post suggests a Feelings Game, and here’s our take: the one being tied names a feeling (safe, teased, adored, a little helpless), and the one tying tries to say it in rope, through speed, pressure and pauses. Then swap and see who reads whom better.
4. Dinner with a secret. Learn a simple wearable harness, tie it before you go out, and spend the evening knowing something nobody else in the restaurant knows. That slow-burn anticipation is the heart of tease and denial, with rope as the reminder every time you shift in your seat. Tie it loose enough to breathe and laugh in, and off it comes at the first tingle.
5. Switch weeks. A switch, in kink terms, enjoys both sides, so try being one: this week you tie, next week you’re tied, each of you with your own classes to learn from. Compare notes over breakfast: which wrap felt like a hug, which one made you hold your breath, and which trick you’re stealing from each other.

Shibari safety for beginners: low, slow, scissors within reach

Rope is gentle until it isn’t, and the good news is that most of the care is simple. Shibari Study’s own advice is “low and slow,” it tells you to watch a class in full before trying it, and its rope safety course is free. Start there, then Getting Started, and stay inside your level for a while, however tempting the performances look.

Hands are the early warning

Its blog calls nerve compression “one of the most common risks of shibari,” and tells of a tie where a hand went limp and the rope had to be cut. So check hands often: ask for a squeeze, a wiggle of the fingers, a quick “how’s your arm?” Tingling, numbness, coldness or a weak grip mean the rope comes off now, not after one more wrap.

What Midori keeps in reach

The educator Midori recommends soft cotton rope in short lengths, safety scissors nearby, and nothing near the neck and head. Add two rules of your own: the tied partner can end things at any moment and doesn’t owe anyone an explanation, and a yes to one tie isn’t a yes to the next.

Plan the landing, too

Shibari Study’s blog describes the “high” a session can leave and the “drop” that can follow, within hours or a few days later, for the tied partner and for the one who tied. So plan the after: a blanket, water, something sweet, and a check-in text the next day that says more than “fun last night.”

Photos, privacy and meeting rope people in person

Rope is photogenic, and the urge to capture a good tie is real. Agree on photos before the rope comes out (it’s one of the questions on that consent page): a photo leaves the phone only with both yeses, and faces, tattoos and recognizable rooms stay out of anything you might share. The community is safe for work: its guidelines say “We unfortunately cannot have explicit NSFW content on the community” and ask members to be “mindful when sharing photographs.” The terms add that chat and forum messages “are not private communications,” so treat them like a room full of people.

On the data side, the App Store privacy label lists usage data for analytics, and your name and email for the app to work, all linked to you, with no tracking shown. The website’s privacy policy names Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel. Members must be 18 or older: the terms ask you to confirm it, and the App Store rates the app 18+.

If something about an instructor, an affiliate or a staff member worries you, Shibari Study asks you to email its Director of Education with the subject “Community Safety Report,” or a separate safety address when that would be a conflict of interest.

Taking it offline

Studios can point you to a real room with real teachers, but its community listings are self-reported, so vet them yourselves: read up on the space, go to an intro or a social evening first, and tell a friend where you’ll be. For the wider scene, try a munch, where kinky people meet for a drink and every rope stays at home; our FetLife guide covers how couples find one.

Getting Shibari Study: iPhone, Android, web and the free trial

App Store, browser and Android

It’s in the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, and it also works in a web browser. Android takes a detour: Shibari Study says “circumstances beyond our control” led to its app being removed from the Play Store, so Android users install it as an APK from Shibari Study’s own site, which has an installation guide. If you go that way, download it only from there, and switch the permission to install unknown apps back off afterwards.

How it’s paid for

It’s a subscription, monthly, quarterly or yearly, after a 7-day free trial, and in the app the pricing varies by location. A few things are free for everyone: the rope safety course, the consent page, and live classes while they stream. Monthly and quarterly members can pause for one to three months, once every twelve months, which suits couples whose rope habit comes in seasons. Each quarter the school also gives out 20 scholarships by lottery. Its terms make payments non-refundable, so use the trial week to decide.

A refresh on the way

In late October 2026, some of its pages carry a banner: “Shibari Study is getting a refresh. Coming November 5.” It doesn’t say what will change.

Questions