Balloons Turn Me On, and I Don't Think There's Anything Wrong with That

When Dennis, a life-long looner (a.k.a. balloon fetishist), first became aware of his intense attraction to gas-filled fun bags, he thought he was all alone. Even as late as six years ago, there was very little information about looning culture online.

Dennis was a normal hormone-fueled and extremely confused teenager at the time and didn't know what to make of his yearnings to fuck something usually reserved for children's birthday parties and family outings to the zoo; he had no idea that his was a relatively common desire.

Now in his early 20s, Dennis is the self-anointed gatekeeper for looning and looning culture in general. He has appeared on Discovery Channel's Forbidden and owns an online balloon emporium that's dedicated to servicing the needs of people like him all over the world. And now, he wants you to start thinking of balloons in a whole new way.

VICE: So what exactly is looning?
​Dennis: Looning is about sexual attraction to balloons. For me, it's about the attraction of latex balloons. Some people like pool toys or balloons made of foil.

Is there an overarching term for being attracted to balloons and inflatable objects?
​The box that you can put it all in is called "inflatophilia." Basically what that means is that we are commonly turned on by something you can inflate. For me, in particular, I'm what I consider a looner, or someone who is attracted to balloons made of latex.

What turns you on about balloons?
​​First of all, it's this relatively small object becoming so huge in a couple of breaths. The skin-like feeling of a big soft balloon—when you're lying on it feels like lying on a cloud. The lively colors, the sounds of inflation, the smell of high quality latex, and of course the "bounciness"—basically more or less everything about that feeling.

And your girlfriend is into balloons too, right?
​Yes. She was into latex, herself, before she met me, so she found it very easy to relate to.

So nuts and bolts of it all—how do you fuck a balloon?
​I can of course do solo play with a balloon, doing activities like humping it, masturbating during inflation and such. But the real deal is when my girl is lying on top of a big balloon (40 inches or so), naked, with her ass pointing at me, surrounded by soft latex, inflating a balloon with her mouth [and] waiting for me to take her doggy style, where the balloon would be bouncing her back and forth, thereby gaining more powerful thrusts, thus giving more pleasure.

Any misconceptions about looning you'd like to address now?
​One of the most common questions I have met with during my time as an "out of the closet" balloon fetishist is: "What the heck do you do at children's parties? Can you suppress your desires during such circumstances?"

I personally believe that question can be answered with a question: "What the heck do you do when you meet a pretty man or woman in the streets? Do you go fuck him or her out in the open streets, or can you suppress your desires too?"

It's simply a matter of situational awareness, and balloons did not have anything to do with being a children's toy when I started to see the balloons the way I see them.

You also run a website about balloon fetishes, along with owning an online balloon emporium. Why have you made this fetish such a staple in your life?
​When I first realized that I was into this, it was a hard job to find information about this (looning) and I felt that I was very alone and I was the only one in the world that had this interest.

I wanted to help people find this information. [That is], people in general, but also kids, because it involves their sexuality. They need to know this, or they are going to go through what I did.

My mission is to spread the word and help other people like, myself, find out who they really are. I think that you should stand up for what you believe in and who you are as a person, and also with your sexuality.

The bigger the balloon, the better?
​To a certain extent because it can also get too big. You can't really do much with an 80" balloon, other than going into it.

And craziest place you've ever made "whoopie" with a balloon?
​Probably on the toilet at a discount store [laughs].

For more information on inflatophilia, visit ​Dennis's website.

Follow Mason Miller on ​Twitter.