Hasta La Ideas

Design graduate Dmytro Nikiforchuk has created a range of sex toys for the elderly, including a tickling thimble and an ear trumpet for listening to a lover’s heartbeat.

Nikiforchuk created this kit, called Dotyk or Touch, as his graduate project at the Pedagogical University of Kracow (Institute of Design and Graphics).

The young designer chose to focus on the more mature user because they are often left out of the traditional 18 to 49 age bracket for the design and marketing strategies for sex toys.

“Most ‘classic’ gadgets are designed to meet the needs of the ‘average middle-aged user’,” Nikiforchuk told Dezeen.

“Instead, I believe that in the production process of any item should focus on specific consumers considering their age and needs.”

Dotyk consists of a translucent plastic tube that contains a steel ear trumpet, a magnifying glass lens with a metal handle, a tube formed of two steel nozzles connected with a sponge, and an over-the-finger gadget with interchangeable attachments.

Each object is designed to be used by a pair of lovers to stimulate their own and each other’s senses of sound, smell, touch and sight.

Nikiforchuk designed the sex toys for the kind of sensory foreplay that could help partners to reconnect and rediscover each other’s bodies. The objects are designed to be accessible for older people experiencing restricted mobility.

Dotyk comes with circular prompt cards that users can follow as a game in a process of intimate flirtation.

Informed by medical devices such as stethoscopes, the headset toy allows the user to place the funnel end against their partner’s chest and listen to their heartbeat.

A smelling tube allows a couple to sniff each other or tease one another by spritzing their perfume in one end. Nikiforchuk said the device is designed to be a playful combination of an exploratory elephant’s trunk and a gas mask.

A device for stimulating touch slips over a finger like a thimble and has different attachments to produce a variety of sensations.

Metal bearings can be used as a massager, or a wooden pointed wheel can be run across the skin to create a pinching sensation. A silicon cone-shape imitates the feel of a fingertip, and a tuft of horsehair can be used to lightly tickle.

Nikiforchuk combined the shape of a magnifying glass with medical scissors to create an easy-to-hold visual intimacy tool.

Users can choose between using a magnifying lens, a mirror, a coloured glass disc that acts as a filter, or a faceted piece that produces a kaleidoscopic effect.

The kit and all its component parts are deliberately ambiguous in shape, rather than overtly phallic. This design decision was motivated by a combination of wanting to make the toys both unintimidating and enjoyable to look at.

“When it comes to things like sex toys, it’s important to remember it’s about discretion,” said Nikiforchuk.

“So I decided to make them in this style – minimal, restrained and simple in a positive sense.”

Although Dotyk is aimed at the more mature user, Nikiforchuk said that anybody could enjoy it.

“I think that younger users can also use my product to diversify their sex life,” he said.

“My project focuses on establishing closer contact between partners. Therefore, if the partners have jointly agreed that this product can help them, then why not try.”

Contemporary sex toy designers are moving away from the traditional, penetration-focused models, with many experimenting with more ambiguous and sensory-focused designs.

Swedish designer Coby Huang designed a series of objects from wood, metal and wool called Rituals of Sexual Pleasure, to encourage the user to discover what sensations they enjoy. Designers Hsin-Jou Huang, Szu-Ying Lai and Chia-Ning Hsu created the Ripple Suit to allow disabled people to masturbate.

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