Not in the least. As "ticklishness" is an uncontrolled response to stimulus, I doubt that a long-term barefooter would be susceptible.
They once were, in fact I was very ticklish all over. I guess it all really depends how I am touched. Just last week I had a full body massage and asked the gal to concentrate more on my chest and feet. I can't begin to tell you how great it felt. There is nothing I like more than having my feet massaged!!! Totally awesome experience.
I think there's a lot more to ticklish sensations that simply external stimuli. A lot of it is psychological - just look at the nervous response it generates in some people - and the fact that you can actually tickle some people without even touching them! But I'm not the best to judge being that I'm a long-term flip-flopper with mildly ticklish feet. ;-)
After thirty barefoot summers, my feet are still ticklish under the arch, though not the ball or heel area, which are very thick and leathery.
Nonetheless, a nervous reaction is still an uncontrolled response to a stimulus, and the tickling movement is a stimulus as well, albeit visual. In either case, the "victim" has no control over their reactions, ergo, my statement. I was terribly ticklish as a child, even reacting to visual stimuli, but was able to overcome it as I grew older. Perhaps this makes me a bit biased in regards to the OPs question...
Same here. But I also note a difference, on any part of my body, between the very light touch (ticklish) or a heavier press, (not as ticklish.) Part of it may be my tactile sensitivity---truly a mixed blessing, because when it feels good, it feels very very good, while the opposite---
Weird question, isn´t it. But let me explain. It´s something I don´t really understand. We have discussed this in Sweden and we didn´t come to any conclusion. My feet are not ticklish, it seems like the feeling are individual. But I thought that barefoot people had less ticklish feet. Now to my point. My grandma were very supportative to the idea of going barefoot. Her greatest childhood memories were the enjoyment of grass tickle under her bare feet. But what i didn´t understand were that, she grew up as a farm girl going barefoot as much as possible, about 6 months a year. Her soles became so tough she could go barefoot on sharp gravel roads without any problem, but still sensitive to feel the grass tickle her feet. Or maybe I miss some point? Maybe great stimulation of the feet actually "wake up" the senses. Maybe the pressure nerves and the tickle nerves are not the same and are not located at the same spot.
Yeah, that was what I was trying to say - I think the tickle response is individual, and that it doesn't rely solely on one's degree of barefooting. Certainly tickling is one of those phenomena that even science doesn't fully understand, so anything that we say here is pure conjecture or theory, but as I stated before, I think it's as much in the mind as it is in the nerves.
Choosing to go bare foot hasn't altered the degree of sensitivity of my feet; I still laugh as much today when my feet are tickled as I did before choosing to go barefoot; I'm still very much the dictionary definition of ticklish.
