In fact... from a health and safety PoV pain and bondage is not a good idea to mix them. To explain more about what I mean here, if you are looking for long term bondage then you want the sub to be comfortable and not in pain as a result of the bondage because pain usually means something wrong - circulation is cut off, you are damaging skin, the sub can't breath and so on. So, if the bondage is causing pain then the Top should consider stopping and changing how the sub is tied.

This is seperate from tying someone up and then whipping them/clamping them/pouring hot wax on them or whatever. The important issue is: Do you have full control over how much pain there is and how long it lasts? If not, then stop and rethink.

So I would say: Yes you can tie someone up in a painful way but I would not reccomend it and certainly not for a long period and it does not have to be painful if you or the sub do not want it to be. There are many methods (some already mentioned) of comfortable bondage. Proper wrist and ankle cuffs, support systems for suspension and so on. When I had a turn on a spinning bondage wheel for a photoshoot once, I was not only strapped by my wrists and ankles but also with a fairly secure harness around the body and most of the weight went on the body harness with very little on the wrists and ankles. If that had not been there the bondage would have been very uncomfortable and almost certainly dangerous when Mistress turned the wheel round. As it was, the only discomfort was the blood rushing to my head when turned upside down and Mistress could control that by determining how long she kept me like that.