Is putting an arm around someone battery?

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I was wondering if putting an arm around someone in what I thought was a friendly manner is battery?

I thought my sister's boyfriend was feeling left out, so I put my arm around him to include him in a photo. He shoved his shoulder into my armpit with force enough for me to feel it down my leg I instinctively braced myself with. It hurt a lot.

So did I commit battery upon his person?

Social situations confuse me.

In the future I'd suggest following a rule I've implemented in my own life. Unless someone explicitly asks you to touch them, don't. Better to appear odd, or cold, than end up in situations like this.

It sounds as if he didn't want your arm around him and he demonstrated his reaction in an overblown manner. Many people don't want to be fraternized through touching, especially an encompassing touch such as a whole arm draped across; myself included. He's let you know, now you know better than to touch him.

Battery (which implies repeated blows) does not enter into this scenario.

If someone asks you not to touch them and you do so, only then is it battery, so no, it wasn't battery. And that person who you put your arm around sounds immature and socially awkward. If they don't wanna be touched, there's more appropriate ways to communicate than forcefully rejecting you.

Any unwanted touching is considered assault. You can rip a piece of paper out of someone's hand and that would be considered an assault. Brushing someone's hair out of their eyes could get you arrested if they are offended by what you just did. So leave people you do not know alone.

A guy pushed me out of the way at the mall one time and I had the mall cops detain him until the police arrived. His wife yelled at him for 20 minutes until the police showed up. The cops yelled at him for 15 minutes about keeping his hands to himself. I did not want to go to the Cheektowaga police station to press charges so they made him leave.

I find his reaction to it a bit hostile/aggressive to be honest. Unwelcome touching is no excuse to hurt anybody.

He might have thought it inappropriate in the presence of his girlfriend (your sister) maybe?

Don't touch people unless it is explicitly wanted. So for example you could have said, "maybe you should have asked if you could put your hand on his shoulder, so the photo would look better". I myself would find that to be very intrusive, but I don't like to be touched.