Distinguishing between self and other is fundamental for social interaction through touch and central to bodily self-awareness. Self-touch is known to feel different from being touched by others—typically perceived as less intense—but the underlying mechanisms behind this self-other difference remain a contemporary topic with crucial implications for robotics, virtual realities, and human-machine-interactions. Previous research has largely focused on the body part being touched, overlooking the role of the touching body part, which is equally vital in shaping the tactile experience. Here, we aimed to disentangle the two components of self-touch – touching and being touched – and compared them to other forms of active and passive touch. Across two experiments we examined subjective experience, neural activation, and physiological response using self-report and functional near-infrared spectroscopy. We show that the reduced intensity of self-touch is primarily driven by the touched area, while the touching hand mirrors responses seen in other active touch conditions. Receiving touch was rated as most pleasant, while self-touch was less pleasant than concurrent giving and receiving touch. At the neural level, we introduce novel k-shape clustering for functional near infrared spectroscopy. We found increased bilateral activity in temporal areas during self-touch in comparison to touching while being touched as well as when only receiving touch. Additionally, heartrate and heartrate variability differed between conditions. In conclusion, distinct behavioral and neural responses during self-touch demonstrate that self-touch is not simply a combination of simultaneous touching and being touched sensations and processing. Instead, it constitutes a unique sensory and neural phenomenon—highlighting its critical role in bodily self-representation and offering new insights into the multisensory foundations of self-other distinction.