History Main / AfraidOfNeedles

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': Myne is used to getting fevers that leave her bedridden for days on end. The setting requires some contracts to be stamped with one's own blood, and Myne needs to sign several of them over the course of the story. Every single time, the part the step that makes her wince the most is the one where her finger needs to get pricked to draw blood.

** The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Little Green Men" shows Quark screaming at having received repeatedly ineffective injections of Sodium Pentethol.

* Edward Elric from the 2003 anime adaptation of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' acts like an adult, but betrays his young age when he has to be restrained to have an injection. This is the child, who, after performing an unholy ritual and ''losing a limb'', does it ''again'', even offering his ''heart'' to bring back his brother... Then, when being fitted for automail to replace the arm and leg and having things connected to his nerves, didn't cry once. Mustang commented he had seen grown men break down crying from this process.

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': As an IllGirl, Myne is used to getting fevers that leave her bedridden for days on end. The setting requires some contracts to be stamped with one's own blood, and Myne needs to sign several of them over the course of the story. Every single time, the part the step that makes her wince the most is the one where her finger needs to get pricked to draw blood.

-->-- '''''Music/JudyPancoast''''': '''Gotta Get a Shot'''

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Baymax}}'': Mbita drives away from Baymax wanting to give him a histamine shot for his new fish allergies. Albeit Mbita ''would'' be terrified at a strange balloon robot with a needle finger coming out of him, something that Baymax himself lampshades. Mbita finally relents after the allergies killed him.

A subset of FatalFlaw, and often portrayed as an AbsurdPhobia or IronicFear. See also AfraidOfDoctors. Can be the driving force of an InjectionPlot, especially if the GiantMedicalSyringe is involved. ScienceFiction often deals with this fear by switching to {{Futuristic Jet Injector}}s.

--->'''Kendra Frank:''' Stork was completely phobic about needles. He was the only roadie I've ever met that didn't even have ''one'' tattoo! I mean he missed a whole South American tour last year because he wouldn't get vaccinated!

* "Normal" example: Eriko from ''Manga/HighSchoolGirls'' is deathly afraid of injections as shown in Episode 2.

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[[quoteright:300:[[Anime/DragonBallZ https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_needleshy.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:"GET ME OUTTA HERE! Please, I'd much rather be sick than get a needle!"]]

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* Yumemitchi of ''Anime/{{Tamagotchi}}'' is scared of needles and, to get herself to tear up for her acting class at Dream School in episode 9 of ''Yume Kira Dream'', imagines a past experience she had with getting a shot. It doesn't work.

* ''Mr Kiasu'': Kiasu's boss, Saboh Singh, is an almost fearless man even during his Reservist NS training exercises. He has only one FatalFlaw -- the fear of needles.
* ''ComicBook/{{Lanfeust}}'': Hebus is a nine-foot-tall troll. He gets pierced by arrows, sliced by swords and axes, and burned by magic nearly on a daily basis. He has such a fear of needles that his reaction when faced with a deadly illness was to take a butcher knife, cut his leg and say "It has to go in the blood, right? Then pour it there, that's better!"
* Beast Boy from the ComicBook/DoomPatrol and later ComicBook/TeenTitans has this problem. Thankfully, his powers give him universal immunity, but that doesn't stop the writers from forcing him to take shots anyway.

* Used as the punch line in one strip of ''ComicStrip/FunkyWinkerbean''. The high school is doing vaccinations. A student with tons of tattoos and piercings faints at the sight of a needle, and the improbability of this is {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by the nurse.

* Roger from ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' is afraid of needles, which is why the family was surprised when he donated blood after 9/11.

* ''Film/SawII'': Slightly subverted in the "needle pit" scene. [[spoiler:There's a trap with a key to a door. The resident {{jerkass}} tosses Amanda into a trap set for himself: A pit filled with dirty syringes. Though shocked at first, she rises to the occasion and gets the key out of the trap as everyone else looks on in cowardly fear and revulsion]]. [[spoiler:Also she was a recovering drug addict, which made it much scarier for her.]]

* In the movie ''Film/{{Help}}'' starring Music/TheBeatles, Ringo had to get an injection and was noticeably scared through the entire ordeal. At one point he even claimed to be "allergic to penicillin and all them other wonder drugs." George immediately passes out at the sight of the needle in question.

* ''Film/{{Sleeper}}'': Creator/WoodyAllen's character, examined after being revived from cryogenic sleep 200 years in the future, is approached by a technician with a ''huge'' hypodermic...he stares in horror as the man walks by him to inject a potted plant, and promptly blacks out. Allen plays an anti-badass -- he claims he was beaten up by Quakers.
* Ernest in ''Film/ErnestGoesToCamp''. And just after he brags about how tough he is..."Is that your smallest needle?"
* In the documentary film ''Film/TheForgottenFrontier'', a nurse is about to immunize Appalachian schoolchildren when an extremely unhelpful local tells the kids not to get the shots, saying "It HURTS!" The kids cringe and don't step up to get their shots until a grown man steps up and bares his arm and gets a shot for himself.

* Cho-won from ''Film/Marathon2005'' is terrified of needles. His mother sometimes uses the threat of shots to get him to do what she wants. After he passes out during his first marathon, he resists the paramedics' help because he thinks they will give him a shot. His mother unsuccessfully tries to dissuade him from running in the second marathon by saying that he will have to get a shot for real if he passes out again.

* Alanna from the ''Literature/SongOfTheLioness'' Quartet receives any number of battle wounds and continues to fight back. But when she has her ears pierced, she faints.
* The protagonist of Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/AWorldOutOfTime'' died of cancer before the book begins ([[HumanPopsicle he got better]]). He reflects on how that experience cured him of any fear of needles.
* In Creator/DanAbnett's Literature/GauntsGhosts novel ''The Guns of Tanith'', Gaunt arranges to have his shot before his men rather than in his cabin to set a good example; Dorden says they've had a few shirkers.
-->''They'll bayonet anything, but the sight of a needle --''

* {{Downplayed}} and {{Justified}} in ''Literature/{{Twig}}''. After spending most of his life enduring the most [[PsychoSerum painful injections possible]]--and getting addicted to the effects--Sy has developed a deep hatred and mild fear for needles. That doesn't stop him from stabbing himself with one, though.

* As a thirteen-year-old noncombatant, Tash Arranda from ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' is not terribly badass, but [[ActionSurvivor she's still been through a lot of traumatic events]]. And she still gets anxious and shudders when she sees her brother being injected. He's fine with the things, himself.
* In ''Literature/{{Doom}}'', Fly can blast his way through alien monsters and swim through toxic goo with few reservations. He needs to work up the nerve to give himself injections and fight off the excuses not to.
* In Creator/JohnHemry's ''[[Literature/PaulSinclair Burden of Proof]]'', Santiago bravely fights the fire in the compartment, even when the heat gets through her suit and "broils" her arm. After, Paul has to order her to get treatment, and she begs -- she doesn't need a shot, does she?

* Literature/LordPeterWimsey at one point claims to be afraid of needles. [[spoiler: Lord Peter (though possibly not yet the reader) has figured out that the doctor is the murderer, and fears the doctor wants to quietly dispose of him through a poisonous injection. He is correct.]]
* In ''{{Literature/Animorphs}}'', the Andalite Ax mentions that he's not afraid of needles. He denies it so quickly that while it doesn't raise the [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial suspicion]] he really does have the phobia, it sounds like some members of the Andalite race have the phobia (despite, or maybe because, each Andalite has an AbsurdlySharpBlade on its tail). And it would be shameful for a warrior to have this phobia, but it's not necessarily rare among them.
* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': As an IllGirl, Myne is used to getting fevers that leave her bedridden for days on end. The setting requires some contracts to be stamped with one's own blood, and Myne needs to sign several of them over the course of the story. Every single time, the part the step that makes her wince the most is the one where her finger needs to get pricked to draw blood.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Downplayed in "Doctor Who and the Silurians"--the Third Doctor is decidedly unhappy about having to get an injection against the Silurian plague, but grudgingly relents.

* At least twice on ''Series/WhatsHappening'', when someone mentions "a needle" around Raj, Raj can only whimper a rough approximation of the question "A needle?"

* Logan Cale from ''Series/DarkAngel'' admits he doesn't like needles in the episode "Female Trouble" when he tries to undergo therapy to prevent him from ending up back in a wheelchair.
* Diego Hargreeves of ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'' straight-up faints when he tries to volunteer himself to donate blood to his sister. [[FridgeBrilliance It almost certainly stems from the time his father gave him and his siblings homemade tattos when they were thirteen.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'', it is stated that resident ButtMonkey Johnny Sasaki has skipped out on mandatory shots due to his fear of needles. This leaves him with [[spoiler:no nanomachines in his body]], unlike every other soldier out there, and [[spoiler:makes him immune whenever anybody futzes with the nanos.]] Although he's never shown being afraid of needles and only mentions it right in the middle of his BigDamnHeroes moment, this also explains the character's trademark chronic diarrhea; because he skipped out on the shots, he's also not immunized to any bugs that might be in the local water.
** Prior to getting an injection to update his own nanos from Drebin, Snake resists, and Drebin asks if he is scared of needles. In this case, his fear, or rather hesitance, was justified, since [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid the last time]] he received an injection before a mission, he got an unwanted gift: the [[TyphoidMary FOXDIE virus]]. [[spoiler:His gut instinct turns out to be correct, as Drebin also injected him with a new FOXDIE strain programmed to kill EVA/Big Mama, Ocelot, and Big Boss himself, but also serves as a blessing in disguise, as the new FOXDIE uproots and cancels out the original mutating strain and helps prevent Snake from becoming a [[PersonOfMassDestruction walking biological weapon]].]]
* Montley from ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' suffers from this, being afraid to the point that being close to a Lancer and their [[{{BFG}} Lances]] causes him to hyperventilate and lose health.
* In ''Tamagotchi Corner Shop 2'', at the clinic, one of the phrases that Mrs. Frill says is "I should tell you, I dislike needles."
* In ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonAndTheUnwoundFuture'', if you go to the hospital later in the game and talk to the girl behind the counter, she teasingly offers to give everyone free flu shots. Cue the young Luke freaking out (though he does stay more composed than some of the examples on this page).

* Plays a big part in ''VideoGame/NightmareNed'''s Medical Nightmare stage.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' has a boss called Grobbulous who may have been created to instill this fear in players. A giant flesh golem, he's ugly, gross, and has a giant needle in place of a right hand which he uses to spread some sort of lethal toxin.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Grow}} nano vol.3'' you need to place objects to help a sick man to recover, one of these objects is medicine which turn into a doctor with a giant syringe after some turns, if the sick man is awake he will be scared and avoid the shot.
* A random cutscene in ''VideoGame/HarvestTown'' reveals that both Duke Evans and Chris Ford are nervous about getting their routine shots, and both quickly escape from the clinic when they are called for their turns.
* Holly, in ''VisualNovel/MaxsBigBustACaptainNekoraiTale'', is deathly afraid of needles, as is shown when she gets an injection of cat DNA to treat her cat allergy after becoming a CatGirl. She's so afraid, in fact, that she nearly dislocates Max's arm as the latter holds her down for the injection. Afterwards, [[BetterThanABareBulb of course]], she admits that it wasn't so bad and she got herself worked up for nothing.

* Subverted in one of the ''Webcomic/LeastICouldDo'': Beginnings comics, wherein a young Rayne goes to the doctor and receives a shot without batting an eyelash. However, when the tongue depressors come out...

* In ''Webcomic/CharCole'', Cole faints due to this. [[http://charcole.kyrio.net/?comic=charcole222-falling-in-pieces It didn't go unnoticed]], as Pokémon hardly ever have phobias. It also leaves him as a deer in the headlights when charged by a Nidoran.

* There's a [[http://bloodyurban.smackjeeves.com/comics/1414964/blood-test/ whole strip]] devoted to this in ''Webcomic/BloodyUrban'', where Murray expresses his fears of needle-related death to his vampire girlfriend Camille.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Dissonance}}'' Pandora [[http://dissonanceonline.tumblr.com/post/130422880691 freaks]] when she spots Sarah with a needle.

->''I made my bed, I fed the cat. I cleaned my room, imagine that. No matter what I do or say, I still got to go to the doctor today....and I gotta get a shot! (No! No! No!) I gotta get a shot! (No! No! No!) Call it vaccination, immunization, inoculation...I gotta get a shot.''
-->---'''''Music/JudyPancoast''''': '''Gotta Get a Shot'''

** Alcatraz officials eventually convinced him to get one after they found him too sick to move one day. The disease was pretty much terminal already, though, so all it did was stabilize his health for his last few years instead of improving it. Part of the reason he was let out of prison early was that they didn’t think he was going to live long enough to see it out.

* Former adult film actress Aurora Snow was afraid of the pain of getting a piercing or tattoo; she wouldn’t get her ears pierced let alone a tattoo covering her whole back. As a result, she marketed herself that way via an IMDB quote.

* Plays a big part in VideoGame/NightmareNed's Medical Nightmare stage.

** [[MadDoctor Mordin]] claims this about [[TheBigGuy Urdnot]][[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Wrex]] when he's eager to leave his lab and donate tissue samples later. Mordin's comment on the matter implies that this is common among male Krogans:

For some reason, the FatalFlaw of many a hero is fear of hypodermic needles and antiseptics. [[NeverBringAKnifeToAFistFight Not knives]], [[{{BFG}} not absurdly large guns]], not even ''[[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes snakes]]''! There's just something deliciously ironic about a {{Big Damn Hero|es}} who routinely gets cut up with [[{{BFS}} huge knives]], [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beat to]] within an inch of their life and without giving up, becoming squirmy and panicky when their {{Love Interest|s}} comes over with a simple syringe and [[AfterActionPatchup sanitary cotton to clean their wounds]]. It seems most any non-battle pain can cripple this person. It's certainly a "clever" way to bring a BadassLongcoat into a less MarySue-ish territory and is a very humanizing flaw to have. In extreme cases, expect fainting -- even if the needle isn't going into ''him''!

-->'''Rachel'''" [[DeadpanSnarker You don't say! Because MINE was licked on by kittens!]]