History Main / BodyMotifs

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'', the arms of [[KnightOfCerberus Chakal]] the [[KingOfThieves bandit lord]] are two large {{extendable|Arms}} mechanical flails, which he can use both as weapons and to BuildingSwing. This represents not only his brutish nature, but also how he wants to keep everybody within his reach, be they friend or foe, bandit or civilian.

* ''VisualNovel/WeKnowTheDevil'': Each main character has an associated body motif that shows through a CharacterTic, an elemental power when fighting the Devil, and a HumanoidAbomination form taken when possessed by the Devil.

** In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus'': [[Characters/InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocusChloeCerise Chloe Cerise]]'s new motif is the neck as it represents how she wishes to express her problems, but all the bullying, parental neglect and her supposed "friend" unwilling to be there for her, makes it hard to. Living every day under this is like imagining all her bullies pressing their feet against her neck, making her unable to get up or breathe, Dr. Yung's Mirage Mewtwo strangles her with a psychic NeckLift to shut her up [[spoiler:and then an Unown copy of her father strangles her ''while currently possessing Professor Ceirse'' himself]].

* ''VideoGame/EldenRing'' has a huge focus on arms, hands, and fingers. Multiple bosses are shown to have numerous arms or Artificial Limbs, most notably the tutorial Hopeless Boss Fight Grafted Scion and Godrick the Grafted, one of the demigods. The former is a spider-like creature with multiple arms as limbs, while the latter has several arms of different shapes and sizes all over his torso. Godrick even cuts off his left arm partway through his boss fight to attach a dragon's head to it. The point of attachment looks fleshy, covered in tumor-esque spots, and looks very unnatural overall.

** In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'', there seems to be a focus on shoulders. For Chloe, this means that she is pressured by everyone to follow in her father's footsteps and it's ''her'' responsibility to get into Pokémon even though she doesn't want to. She also gets her left shoulder injured when she tries to save Lexi from a hot water kettle, and Lexi comforts her by placing his hand on that shoulder. When she returns from her Train trip to stop a maniac from killing her former classmates, she gets shot in the same shoulder that she took the hot kettle from.
** Grace Monroe has two of them: the stomach as shown in ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainKnightOfTheOrangeLily'' and mouth in general. The stomach is based on a scene when Tokio bashes her there [[spoiler:after her callous murder of a gentle rabbit denizen Utahoshi]], reflecting her gluttony on wanting a bigger number no matter the cost, and how she later couldn't ''stomach'' the truth about what the Train is about. The mouth is based on her CharacterTics of trilling her lips like a horse whinny when she needs to focus and that all of her problems stemmed from her ''big mouth'' boasting that she knew how the Train worked. [[spoiler:And in a karmic twist, when she gets reincaranated as Warler, she's a music note that has no mouth.]]
** In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus'': Chloe's new motif is the neck as it represents how she wishes to express her problems, but all the bullying, parental neglect and her supposed "friend" unwilling to be there for her, makes it hard to. Living every day under this is like imagining all her bullies pressing their feet against her neck, making her unable to get up or breathe, Dr. Yung's Mirage Mewtwo strangles her with a psychic NeckLift to shut her up [[spoiler:and then an Unown copy of her father strangles her ''while currently possessing Professor Ceirse'' himself]].

** In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainSeekerOfCrocus'': Chloe's new motif is the neck as it represents how she wishes to express her problems, but all the bullying, parental neglect and her supposed "friend" unwilling to be there for her, makes it hard to. Living every day under this is like imagining all her bullies pressing their feet against her neck, making her unable to get up or breathe, and Dr. Yung's Mirage Mewtwo strangles her with a psychic NeckLift to shut her up.

* Gemkind in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' have this going on, with their personal gems' locations on their bodies often corresponding to some aspect of their personality.

** Grace Monroe has two of them: the stomach as shown in ''Fanfic/KnightOfTheOrangeLily'' and mouth in general. The stomach is based on a scene when Tokio bashes her there [[spoiler:after her callous murder of a gentle rabbit denizen Utahoshi]], reflecting her gluttony on wanting a bigger number no matter the cost, and how she later couldn't ''stomach'' the truth about what the Train is about. The mouth is based on her CharacterTics of trilling her lips like a horse whinny when she needs to focus and that all of her problems stemmed from her ''big mouth'' boasting that she knew how the Train worked. [[spoiler:And in a karmic twist, when she gets reincaranated as Warler, she's a music note that has no mouth.]]

* In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'', there seems to be a focus on shoulders. For Chloe, this means that she is pressured by everyone to follow in her father's footsteps and it's her responsibility to get into Pokémon even though she doesn't want to. She also gets her left shoulder injured when she tries to save Lexi from a hot water kettle, and Lexi comforts her by placing his hand on that shoulder.

* ''Fanfic/RoyalHeights'' places a lot of emphasis on hands and fingers. Students are granted a link to a Second Conscience through a metal chip in their fingers, most magical incantations involve some form of specific hand movement, and a goddess figure hailed as the Royal has [[MultiArmedAndDangerous four arms that begin to grow around the school building.]]

EyeMotifs

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[[quoteright:320:[[Manga/MyHeroAcademia https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shg_2.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:320:He can be quite a handful.]]

Most viewers will wince when they see a wound inflicted on a sympathetic character, since physical injury is something all people can relate to. For similar reasons, a motif that involves a part of the body is a particularly visceral one.

Usually, using a body motif means constantly referring to the body part in question ([[GetYourMindOutOfTheGutter those who have to stop and retrieve their minds from the gutter may do so now]]). This can be done through dialogue or by physically highlighting it, such as someone who's constantly wringing their hands or tapping their foot. A tattoo, scar, piercing, birthmark or mole on a certain part of the body is another way of drawing attention to it.

Like most motifs, the symbolism is normally dependent on the associations most people have with that particular part.
* The eyes, ears, hands, tongue and nose are all connected to the five senses.
* Hands also stand in for actions that one takes and (together with fingers), well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin manual skills]].
* Legs may symbolize movement.
* A person's back can be related to "backstabbing" or "turning your back on someone."
* The neck is usually seen as a vulnerable point -- partly due to years of vampire tales, but also because that's where many predators aim for when taking down their prey.

Of course, if the body part in question has been separated from the rest of the person it belongs to, it's a given that there's a PoeticSerialKiller around. Giving some thought to which part of the body he uses as a "trophy" is usually a clue to his motives.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'': Since this is a WorldOfFunnyAnimals, it is not limited to human body parts.
** Legosi, who is a wolf has several of these but the most focus is given to his hands and his teeth. His clawed hands are always there to remind him of his nature as a carnivore and he always tries to hide his sharp teeth. A recurring theme in the series is that whenever Legosi goes through an important moment in his character development, his appearance changes in some way, often by [[ScarsAreForever gaining new scars]]. Bill the Tiger gives Legosi scars on his back resembling tiger stripes during their fight as a symbol of how the two of them aren't so different. When Legosi metaphorically loses his virginity by consuming a live insect in order to experience what it is like to kill something, his fur, which had been cut short at the time, instantly grows back to its normal length. When Yafya threatens to kill Legosi if he doesn't apologize for being born a carnivore, Legosi goes a step further and rips out his own teeth as a sign of his rejection of his carnivore nature. And those are just some of the major ones.
** Another character who gets body motifs is Louis, mainly his antlers, symbolizing his pride, and his right foot, which represents his weakness. In an early chapter he jokes about offering Legosi one of his legs. Shortly after he ends up breaking his right ankle and keeps it a secret so he can keep performing despite being in agonizing pain from the injury. Later it is revealed that he has a tattoo on his right foot from when he was illegally kept as livestock to be sold as food as a child. He later ends up feeding his right foot to Legosi to give him a power boost for his final battle with Tem's murderer, thus getting rid of the tattoo and with it moves on from his past. Whenever he sheds his antlers he tries to avoid being seen without them.
** The villain Melon, a self-hating leopard-gazelle hybrid has his leopard spots, which he tries to cover up with melon leaf tattoos, but he keeps growing new ones.
* The bonus OVA for ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' [[PlayingWithATrope decides to goof around with this trope]] by making Hei's ''collarbone'', of all things, a plot point.
* Hands, big time, in ''Manga/DawnTsumetaiTe''.
* ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' has [[BigOlEyebrows those eyebrows...]]
** And hands, too. Hands must be popular in Creator/StudioGainax works.
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'':
** Hands and arms, especially [[GraspTheSun outstretched towards the sky]]. Many State Alchemists have their circles imprinted on gloves or tattooed to their hands. Edward has his automail arm and Scar has his [[spoiler:brother]]'s right arm. Almost all alchemists normally perform alchemy by placing their hands on transmutation circles.
** In addition every alchemist who had performed human transmutation must give up a part of their body symbolic of their motivations.
*** Izumi attempted to resurrect her dead child, and was so given a body that would never allow her to bear a child again.
*** Edward lost his leg, as it was "the leg that supported the family". He later gave up right arm to save Al's soul, as symbolic virtue of Al acting as a 'right hand'.
*** Al lost his body of flesh and was thus unable to feel his mother's warmth.
** The overwhelming amount of back motifs with [[EveryoneCanSeeIt Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye]]. From Riza's Flame Alchemy tattoo, to the way Riza has been appointed by Roy to "watch his back", and if he ever stray from his path to shoot him in the back as well. [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7y4snqM161qbmv14o1_500.gif This motif occurs frequently through their interactions]].
** Teeth. If you see a mouth in which the teeth are drawn with detail, look out. It's first seen with the Truth's too-wide smile, and recurs with Gluttony's HorrorHunger. Then there are the mannequin soldiers (who don't even seem to have lips), which tear people apart with their large flat teeth. And the Gold-Toothed Doctor has a smile similar to Truth's.
* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'': Yoshikage Kira, the BigBad, has an excessive focus on hands. His whole MO as a SerialKiller is to kill women and keep their hands as "girlfriends" doing so after finding arousal upon seeing the Mona Lisa's hands. His RedRightHand involves his fingernails growing at an alarming rate whenever he feels the urge to kill, resulting in a lot of focus on his hands as his pent up aggression makes them grow longer and longer. His Stand, Killer Queen, makes bombs out of things by touching them with his hands, and Sheer Heart Attack is deployed from its hands. The damage to Sheer Heart Attack is synchronized directly to Kira's hand, and he later chops it off to set SHA free to attack everyone.
* In ''Manga/{{Monster}}'', Johan likes to tell people to shoot him in the head [[spoiler:(which happens, in fact, twice)]]. This is done as a parallel to the beast from Revelation, as well as being imitated in a puppeteer's play later on in the show.
** Another body motif is embodied in Tenma's hands, which are steady during surgery but shake before his attempt to [[spoiler:kill Johan]].
** As well as [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Lunge/Runge's]] hand, which moves as if he's typing whenever he is learning new information or recalling something he has already learned.
* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', the villainous Tomura Shigaraki has hands as these. His Quirk, [[TouchOfDeath Decay]], rots anything when held with all five fingers. [[spoiler:It's revealed early on in the Meta Liberation Army arc that they're actually ''the preserved remains'' of his biological family after accidentally killing them with his Quirk. He wears them on his body as a twisted SecurityBlanket.]]
* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
** Hands.
*** Most frequently shown in the hand signals which are used to cast jutsu or control techniques.
*** Also demonstrated in the [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan jinchuuriki ability]] to summon extra hands and limbs for various purposes.
** Tails are easily recognizable through the various [[{{Kaiju}} tailed beasts]] in the story, with ten in all.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' focuses heavily on hands, eyes, (usually symbolic) vaginas, and disturbing combinations thereof.
** In particular, a wounded/damaged right eye and broken left arm is a recurring combination, to the extent that when Rei first appears in the OP a window pane is covering said eye and arm.
** Hands get focused on a ''LOT'' in the original series, TheMovie, and ''[[Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion Rebuild,]]'' to the point where someone even [[http://www.en-soph.org/archives/23738746.html wrote a whole essay about it.]]
* ''Manga/TegamiBachiLetterBee'' has two; eyes and hands.
** Eyes: One of Lag's eyes was replaced by a piece of amber when he was a baby; Ninche and [[spoiler:her sister]] both have cat-like eyes; [[EyePatchOfPower Dr. Thunderstone]] and [[spoiler:one other survivor of the airship crash]] are missing one eye each; the twin gate keepers are missing both eyes.
** Hands: several characters have oversized claws instead of normal hands. These characters include Niche, Hunt, [[spoiler:Niche's sister]], and Zeal.
* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' uses faces as a motif (more so than [[ThisIsADrill drills]]) -- all their mecha are designed as giant heads with limbs, creating a significant shift in the status quo when the Gurren Lagann becomes the first truly humanoid mecha. After the first TimeSkip, civilisation has been rebuilt, with faces as a recurring motif in architecture -- and finally, [[spoiler:the Anti-Spiral mecha deliberately subvert this motif, being designed without a face or anything that might indicate that they were of this world. [[http://gurrenlagann.wikia.com/wiki/File:Antispiralkantai.gif Their spaceships]], however, have ''too many'' body parts, being covered in faces and arms, with smaller ships being flying hands and feet with faces on them.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/DirtySympathy'' has a continuing focus on the throat and neck. The story opens with Apollo trying to find medicine to treat his neck injury, given courtesy of Kristoph and his bleeding neck is what attracts Klavier's attention to him in the first place and inspires to latter to help treat his injures, despite being strangers. Klavier is nearly strangled to death with chains wrapped around his throat. When Apollo feels immense guilt he describes it as a pressure gathering in his throat.
* ''Fanfic/RoyalHeights'' places a lot of emphasis on hands and fingers. Students are granted a link to a Second Conscience through a metal chip in their fingers, most magical incantations involve some form of specific hand movement, and a goddess figure hailed as the Royal has [[MultiArmedAndDangerous four arms that begin to grow around the school building.]]
* In ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'', there seems to be a focus on shoulders. For Chloe, this means that she is pressured by everyone to follow in her father's footsteps and it's her responsibility to get into Pokémon even though she doesn't want to. She also gets her left shoulder injured when she tries to save Lexi from a hot water kettle, and Lexi comforts her by placing his hand on that shoulder.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'', when a fish character is injured, the injury will always be on or on the area of the fin -- analagous to the hand, anatomically speaking, but in practice bearing a greater resemblance to a damaged leg: Nemo's fin is shriveled due to an accident before his birth, Gil's fin is deeply scratched from an escape attempt, and even Dory's fin gets stung badly from jellyfish tentacles.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Subtle and not-so-subtle references to the groin abound in ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' -- Whereas the [[spoiler:entirely powerless]] titular Lebowski has his hands and/or a blanket over his groin at all times, the Dude constantly stretches out his legs as often as he can. Miss Lebowski has a whole conversation about how men are uncomfortable with the word vagina and yet bring up variations on the word penis at the drop of a hat. Plus the whole, "We'll cut off your CHONSON!" part. Supposedly, this represents each characters desire for power versus the power they do wield.
* ''Film/{{Bound|1996}}'': Fingers. The mafiosos cut off fingers as MutilationInterrogation, but the lesbian protagonists make love with their hands. The final shot is their IntertwinedFingers.
* In ''Film/{{Chinatown}}'', Gittes' nose is cut. Because the crooks found he was too nosy.
* In the films of Creator/DavidLynch, injury to the head is very common. Especially in the appropriately titled ''Film/{{Eraserhead}}''.
* In ''Film/{{Hancock}}'', Red, the villain, has his hand cut off by the badass hero. From that point, Red is always associated with hands (mostly just for laughs).
* ''Film/TheInterview'' makes use of a Hand motif (note David Skylark's [[LargeHam use of overly grandiose gestures]] on his show), presumably in reference to the initial plan of assassinating Kim Jong-un via handshake while wearing a poison patch on his palm.
* ''Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate''. Done so (ahem) ham-handedly that the [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]] crew shouts "SEEN IT!" when the hand design on The Master's robes is not-so-subtly revealed for the umpteenth time.
* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' saga, the severing of the hand or arm occurs frequently. This is such a well known motif that in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', Anakin's disarming is teased during the factory sequence before actually occurring at the hands of Count Dooku. In ''Franchise/StarWars'' the severing of the arm or hand of an adversary is the most common way to defeat an opponent ''without killing them'', making Count Dooku's actions particularly significant.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/Birthright2017'' frequently mentions bones, especially when magic is being used, in reference to the deepest part or 'core' of someone.
* ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'' (a novella of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''): A random beggar asks passers-by what part of a body they are, and takes their answers completely seriously. He says that he is working on a theory that each person is actually just a part of the organism that is the city. [[spoiler:He himself is a HiveMind of [[TheWormThatWalks thousands of insects called hordelings]], so this isn't just idle curiosity]].
* TS Eliot had a thing for talking about separate body parts, especially eyes, to symbolize what he viewed as the fragmentary nature of modern life. See "The Hollow Men" and "Literature/TheWasteland" for some of the more prominent examples.
* John Singer's hands in ''The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter''.
* ''Literature/JacobHaveILoved'': Sarah Louise develops a theory that a person's hands, not their eyes, are the window to the soul.
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' does a rather subtle theme involving the senses. Most good guys, if they have heightened senses, have heightened sight and/or hearing. The bad guys on the other hand, (particularly the Orcs and Nazgûl) have heightened smell, and are often either impaired in the light or even partially blind. The effect of this is giving a much more animalistic or uncanny feel to the bad guys, while the good guys have cleaner, more human senses emphasized. The major obvious exception is Sauron, whose symbol is the eye.
** Saruman's symbol is the hand, which ties with his skill at artifice.
* In the British murder mystery ''Messiah,'' the serial killer brutally murders his victims, [[spoiler: who have the names of the Jesus' twelve apostles,]] and takes out their tongues, replacing them with spoons. [[spoiler: This isn't just a reference to "speaking in tongues" -- his final target is Judas, the "silver tongued devil" -- or to put it another way, the liar. The manner in which his eleven victims are killed echo the death of their biblical namesake]].
* George Macdonald, in ''[[Literature/ThePrincessAndTheGoblin The Princess and Curdie]]'', gave Curdie the ability to tell what a living being was truly like by taking its hand, or other limb, in his own. The "hideous animal" Lina's paw feels to Curdie like "a child's hand"; his own mother's "horny, cracked, rheumatic old hand, with its big joints, and its short nails all worn down to the quick with hard work", feels like that of Irene's great-grandmother (implied to be an angel); the king's courtiers have hands that feel like the limbs of pigs or donkeys.
* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'' : The protagonist loses his [[spoiler: left hand during ''The Baron of Maleperduys''. It is later replaced by a semi-functional iron hand, which often moves when Reynard is agitated or angry, seemingly against his will. He calls it his "ghost hand."]]
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': hands appear with near-monotonous regularity, often as the objects of injury and symbols of a character's power.
* Franchise/StarWarsLegends:
** Creator/TimothyZahn often uses a hand-as-title motif in his ''Star Wars'' novels. In Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy, Mara Jade was revealed to have been the Emperor's Hand, a sort of agent. In the Literature/HandOfThrawn duology, characters speculate that the Hand of Thrawn is an agent like Mara or a superweapon; it turns out to be a five-towered fortress with a massive repository of Thrawn's greatest weapon, knowledge. [[spoiler: And a very special clone.]] The Empire Thrawn set up out in the Unknown Regions is called the "Empire of the Hand". Most recently, in ''[[Literature/StarWarsAllegiance Allegiance]]'', the five do-gooder renegade stormtroopers accidentally name themselves the Hand of Judgement. The 501st Legion, Darth Vader's personal BadassArmy, is sometimes called "Vader's Fist", though to be fair the 501st is an AscendedMeme/Reverse {{Defictionalization}} and not Zahn's creation. At the end of ''Allegiance'', the Emperor's Hand saves the Hand of Judgement from Vader by claiming them as hers, saying, "You have the entire Five-oh-first. You certainly won't begrudge me my Hand of Judgment." Then she hears the five out, concludes that while they ''are'' technically deserters they are also good Imperials, and lets them leave, telling them to lose the name. There's only one Hand in the Empire, and she's it.
** In the ''Literature/RevengeOfTheSith'' novelization, Anakin's mechanical hand aches when Count Dooku is near, crushes things when he's angry, and is mentioned often.
* C.S. Lewis' ''Literature/TillWeHaveFaces'' mentions faces frequently. Aside from the title, Orual's ugly face is compared with Istra's beauty and with the many faces of the goddess Ungit. For many years, Orual [[TheFaceless wears a veil]].
* ''Literature/VergeStories'': The strangeness of body parts in unusual locations and situations is a motif in many of the stories.
** "The Organ Runner" in particular. Anastasia suffers a field accident where her hand is severed, and she spends six months with it sewn to her ankle to heal before it can be reattached. After her recovery, she is sold to a crew of child smugglers carrying organs for illegal transplants, where she learns to compartmentalize her own body and see each individual part in terms of its value. She also has a toy stuffed monkey, and a cruel boy cuts its hand off and swallows it to mock her.
** In "How to Lose an I," the protagonist's missing eye (and its replacement) become a metaphor for his damaged sense of self following a car accident and the loss of his partner.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E22Restless Restless]]", Xander is TheHeart of the group, so the First Slayer rips out his heart.
* In the show ''Series/{{House}}'', the titular character's leg injury serves this purpose.
* The Highness Dukes of ''Series/HyakujuuSentaiGaoranger'' are all patterned after body parts: Shuten has lots of eyes, Ura is basically a walking nose, and Rasets is a mass of mouths. Their adaptational counterparts in ''Series/PowerRangersWildForce'' are given the fitting {{Meaningful Name}}s of Retinax, Nazor, and Mandilok, respectively.
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': The consistent attacks on John Locke's legs, which seems to connect to his self-perceived helplessness.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* This is also true in songs written by John Flansburgh, both in Music/TheyMightBeGiants ("Contrecoup") and his side-band, Mono Puff ("Unsupervised, I Hit My Head").
* Music/ThePaperChase, by WordOfGod are "fascinated with the idea of hands as independent from their owners", with songs like "Goddamn These Hands (I Let Them Touch You)" "Where Have those Hands Been" "Wait Until I Get My Hands on You", as well as heads, eyes, hearts, arms, ''kidneys''... In fact, their lyrics ARE this trope.
* Music/{{Mitski}} seems to have a borderline sexual fascination with hands. They appear prominently in the videos for "Your Best American Girl", "Washing Machine Heart", "Geyser" and "Nobody".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' has numerous references to eyes. Angelica and Eliza sing about Alexander's beautiful eyes. Jefferson, Madison, and Burr point out Hamilton's deceptive eyes as one reason to distrust him. Eyes are also mentioned each time a character engages in a duel. Alexander describes his situation in "Hurricane" as being in the eye of the storm. He also says that while writing to earn passage to the mainland, the people of his hometown had their eyes on him. And in the finale Eliza says she sees Alexander in the eyes of [[spoiler:the orphans she helped raise after his passing]].
* In ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', Hamlet's father was killed by ''[[ArtisticLicenseBiology having poison poured in his ear]]''. This allows [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] to sprinkle the play with such auditory references as: "So the whole ear of Denmark is by a forged process of my death rankly abus'd".
* Along similar lines, hands are a major motif in ''Theatre/TitusAndronicus'' even before characters start having them chopped off.
* ''Theatre/RichardII'' is a play that's very concerned with speech and speech acts, which is why it's full of references to tongues. Unlike most of the examples on this page, this motif is never literalized (and isn't generally visualized in productions) -- although it ''is'' full of scenes that are mostly talking, with very little physical action until the final scenes.
* Creator/SamuelBeckett's classic [[{{Absurdism}} absurdist]] play ''Theatre/WaitingForGodot'' substitutes clothing for this purpose, but the association is still there: the high-minded Vladimir is always looking at his hat, and the humbler Estragon complains that his boots are too tight. Lucky also cannot speak unless he has a hat on.
** Beckett invokes this trope often. ''Play'' consists of three heads sticking out of 3 foot urns and literally nothing else. In ''Not I'', the only thing the audience ever see is a disembodied mouth that speaks rapidly for about 15 minutes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin'' places a lot of emphasis on the brain, including the upgrade material -- a viscous green fluid-represented by a BrainInAJar icon, and upgrading your character has the icon of a brain with nails in it.
* ''VideoGame/NeverendingNightmares'' takes place in a WorldOfSymbolism dreamscape, and so the particular focus on arms is probably not a coincidence. The main character inflicts SelfHarm on his forearms, some enemies' arms are bound or misshapen, there are severed arms laying around in one particularly gruesome section of the game...
* ''VideoGame/{{Paracentric}}'' takes place across three worlds that each outlaw one of its citizen's senses, and each world contains imagery relating to the sense that has been forbidden. Eyes for the first world, ears for the second, and tongues for the third.
* ''VisualNovel/WeKnowTheDevil'': Each main character has an associated body motif that shows through a CharacterTic, an elemental power when fighting the Devil, and a HumanoidAbomination form taken when possessed by the Devil.
* Of all the BodyHorror that appears in ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'', that involving [[EyesDoNotBelongThere eyes]] and hands is the most prominent.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'' both Dan [=McNinja=] and Gordito possess the Mustache of Authority.
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' removes an arm and injures an eye of a harlequin doll within Act 1. Thereafter, the missing-arm-missing-eye pattern reoccurs again and again, usually with evil or morally ambiguous characters.
** Another similar motif is the loss of a leg and a tooth followed by [[EyeScream both eyes]], associated with BigBad [[TimeMaster Lord English]]
* ''Webcomic/{{Metacarpolis}}'': The comic is filled with hand references, like the names of Metacarpolis, the Digits, and the Handeymen. Possibly due to how the 'Master' who built the city seems to be an expy of the Master from Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate.
* ''Webcomic/MissGuillotine'' has a motif of eyes, as a representation of the "public eye" and the way that the magical girls in the series are always in it. There is a recurring ArtShift where when one character does something that will make others judge them negatively, the others are drawn with huge eyes and no other facial features.
* ''Webcomic/{{Nebula}}'': Panels focused on one of a character's hands reoccur, and usually indicate either that an important decision has been made or realization has been had. In addition, the BigBad's [[RedRightHand six-fingered hands]] are used to signify her, and are shown as a symbol of her control over Ceres and Pluto.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Finn from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' has his right arm repeatedly focused on and brought to the audience's attention, with many alternate selves, imagined futures, or past incarnations missing that arm or having a prosthetic one. This is all foreshadowing for when he eventually [[spoiler: loses his right arm in the Season 6 premiere, grows it back a few episodes later, and loses it permanently in the Season 7 finale]].
* Zuko in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. Most or all of the character's self-worth and daddy issues are all tied up in his hugely noticeable facial scar.
** [[spoiler: Aang ends up getting his own scar in the Season 2 finale, when Azula blasts him from behind with lightning. Throughout the third season, we get constant shots of Aang's horrible burn in the centre of his back.]]
* This seems to be the entire idea behind the ''Crimson Chin'' [[ShowWithinAShow Comic/Webshow Within A Show]] in the ''[[WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents Fairly Odd Parents]]''. Aside from the eponymous hero and his [[InkSuitActor Jay Leno]]-parody chin, nearly his entire rogues gallery is based on various body parts. This includes the Bronze Kneecap, Iron Lung, Copper Cranium, Titanium Toenail, Gilded Arches, Golden Gut, Brass Knuckles, Hair-Razor, and his own evil counterpart, the Nega-Chin.
* Gemkind in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' have this going on, with their personal gems' locations on their bodies often corresponding to some aspect of their personality.
** The protagonist Crystal Gems also have a subtle secondary facial theme: Garnet hides three eyes behind her vizor, Pearl's most easily-noticed feature is her nose, and Amethyst bears the poutiest lips in the series.
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** The eyes, ears, hands, tongue and nose are all connected to the five senses.
** Hands also stand in for actions that one takes and (together with fingers), well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin manual skills]].
** Legs may symbolize movement.
** A person's back can be related to "backstabbing" or "turning your back on someone."
** The neck is usually seen as a vulnerable point -- partly due to years of vampire tales, but also because that's where many predators aim for when taking down their prey.

* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', the villainous Tomura Shigaraki has hands as these. His Quirk, [[TouchOfDeath Decay]], rots anything when held with all five fingers.

** Legosi, who is a wolf has several of these but the most focus is given to his hands and his teeth. His clawed hands are always there to remind him of his nature as a carnivore and he always tries to hide his sharp teeth. A recurring theme in the series is that whenever Legosi goes through an important moment in his character development, his appearance changes in some way, often by [[ScarsAreForever gaining new scars]]. Bill the Tiger gives Legosi scars on his back resembling tiger stripes during their fight as a symbol of how the two of them are NotSoDifferent. When Legosi metaphorically loses his virginity by consuming a live insect in order to experience what it is like to kill something, his fur, which had been cut short at the time, instantly grows back to its normal length. When Yafya threatens to kill Legosi if he doesn't apologize for being born a carnivore, Legosi goes a step further and rips out his own teeth as a sign of his rejection of his carnivore nature. And those are just some of the major ones.

* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' saga, the severing of the hand or arm occurs frequently. This is such a well known motif that in ''Episode II: Attack of the Clones'' Anakin's disarming is teased during the factory sequence before actually occurring at the hands of Count Dooku. In ''Franchise/StarWars'' the severing of the arm or hand of an adversary is the most common way to defeat an opponent ''without killing them'', making Count Dooku's actions particularly significant.

** The neck is usually seen as a vulnerable point - partly due to years of vampire tales, but also because that's where many predators aim for when taking down their prey.

* In ''Manga/{{Monster}}'', Johan likes to tell people to shoot him in the head [[spoiler:(which happens, in fact, twice)]]. This is done as a parallel to the beast from Revelation, as well as being imitated in a puppeteer's play later on in the show.
** Another body motif is embodied in Tenma's hands, which are steady during surgery but shake before his attempt to [[spoiler:kill Johan]].
** As well as [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Lunge/Runge's]] hand, which moves as if he's typing whenever he is learning new information or recalling something he has already learned.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' focuses heavily on hands, eyes, (usually symbolic) vaginas, and disturbing combinations thereof.
** In particular, a wounded/damaged right eye and broken left arm is a recurring combination, to the extent that when Rei first appears in the OP a window pane is covering said eye and arm.
** Hands get focused on a ''LOT'' in the original series, TheMovie, and ''[[Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion Rebuild,]]'' to the point where someone even [[http://www.en-soph.org/archives/23738746.html wrote a whole essay about it.]]

** The overwhelming amount of back motifs with [[EveryoneCanSeeIt Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye]]. From Riza's Flame Alchemy tattoo, to the way Riza has been appointed by Roy to "watch his back", and if he ever stray from his path to shoot him in the back as well. [[http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7y4snqM161qbmv14o1_500.gif This motif occurs frequently through their interractions]].

* The bonus OVA for ''Anime/DarkerThanBlack'' [[PlayingWithATrope decides to goof around with this trope]] by making Hei's ''collarbone'', of all things, a plot point.
* ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' uses faces as a motif (more so than [[ThisIsADrill drills]]) - all their mecha are designed as giant heads with limbs, creating a significant shift in the status quo when the Gurren Lagann becomes the first truly humanoid mecha. After the first TimeSkip, civilisation has been rebuilt, with faces as a recurring motif in architecture - and finally, [[spoiler:the Anti-Spiral mecha deliberately subvert this motif, being designed without a face or anything that might indicate that they were of this world. [[http://gurrenlagann.wikia.com/wiki/File:Antispiralkantai.gif Their spaceships]], however, have ''too many'' body parts, being covered in faces and arms, with smaller ships being flying hands and feet with faces on them.]]
* ''Manga/TegamiBachiLetterBee'' has two; eyes and hands.
** Eyes: One of Lag's eyes was replaced by a piece of amber when he was a baby; Ninche and [[spoiler:her sister]] both have cat-like eyes; [[EyePatchOfPower Dr. Thunderstone]] and [[spoiler:one other survivor of the airship crash]] are missing one eye each; the twin gate keepers are missing both eyes.
** Hands: several characters have oversized claws instead of normal hands. These characters include Niche, Hunt, [[spoiler:Niche's sister]], and Zeal.
* ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' has [[BigOlEyebrows those eyebrows...]]
** And hands, too. Hands must be popular in Creator/StudioGainax works.
* Hands, big time, in ''Manga/DawnTsumetaiTe''.

* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable'': Yoshikage Kira, the BigBad, has an excessive focus on hands. His whole MO as a SerialKiller is to kill women and keep their hands as "girlfriends" doing so after finding arousal upon seeing the Mona Lisa's hands. His RedRightHand involves his fingernails growing at an alarming rate whenever he feels the urge to kill, resulting in a lot of focus on his hands as his pent up aggression makes them grow longer and longer. His Stand, Killer Queen, makes bombs out of things by touching them with his hands, and Sheer Heart Attack is deployed from its hands. The damage to Sheer Heart Attack is synchronized directly to Kira's hand, and he later chops it off to set SHA free to attack everyone.
* ''Manga/{{Beastars}}'': Since this is a WorldOfFunnyAnimals, it is not limited to human body parts.
** Legosi, who is a wolf has several of these but the most focus is given to his hands and his teeth. His clawed hands are always there to remind him of his nature as a carnivore and he always tries to hide his sharp teeth. A recurring theme in the series is that whenever Legosi goes through an important moment in his character development, his appearance changes in some way, often by [[ScarsAreForever gaining new scars]]. Bill the Tiger gives Legosi scars on his back resembling tiger stripes during their fight as a symbol of how the two of them are NotSoDifferent. When Legosi metaphorically loses his virginity by consuming a live insect in order to experience what it is like to kill something, his fur, which had been cut short at the time, instantly grows back to its normal length. When Yafya threatens to kill Legosi if he doesn't apologize for being born a carnivore, Legosi goes a step further and rips out his own teeth as a sign of his rejection of his carnivore nature. And those are just some of the major ones.
** Another character who gets body motifs is Louis, mainly his antlers, symbolizing his pride, and his right foot, which represents his weakness. In an early chapter he jokes about offering Legosi one of his legs. Shortly after he ends up breaking his right ankle and keeps it a secret so he can keep performing despite being in agonizing pain from the injury. Later it is revealed that he has a tattoo on his right foot from when he was illegally kept as livestock to be sold as food as a child. He later ends up feeding his right foot to Legosi to give him a power boost for his final battle with Tem's murderer, thus getting rid of the tattoo and with it moves on from his past. Whenever he sheds his antlers he tries to avoid being seen without them.
** The villain Melon, a self-hating leopard-gazelle hybrid has his leopard spots, which he tries to cover up with melon leaf tattoos, but he keeps growing new ones.

* In ''WesternAnimation/FindingNemo'', when a fish character is injured, the injury will always be on or on the area of the fin - analagous to the hand, anatomically speaking, but in practice bearing a greater resemblance to a damaged leg: Nemo's fin is shriveled due to an accident before his birth, Gil's fin is deeply scratched from an escape attempt, and even Dory's fin gets stung badly from jellyfish tentacles.

* Subtle and not-so-subtle references to the groin abound in ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' - Whereas the [[spoiler:entirely powerless]] titular Lebowski has his hands and/or a blanket over his groin at all times, the Dude constantly stretches out his legs as often as he can. Miss Lebowski has a whole conversation about how men are uncomfortable with the word vagina and yet bring up variations on the word penis at the drop of a hat. Plus the whole, "We'll cut off your CHONSON!" part. Supposedly, this represents each characters desire for power versus the power they do wield.

* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' saga, the severing of the hand or arm occurs frequently. This is such a well known motif that in ''Episode II: Attack of the Clones'' Anakin's disarming is teased during the factory sequence before actually occuring at the hands of Count Dooku. In ''Franchise/StarWars'' the severing of the arm or hand of an adversary is the most common way to defeat an opponent ''without killing them'', making Count Dooku's actions particularly significant.
* ''Film/TheInterview'' makes use of a Hand motif (note David Skylark's [[LargeHam use of overly grandiose gestures]] on his show), presumably in reference to the initial plan of assassinating Kim Jong-un via handshake while wearing a poison patch on his palm.
* ''Film/{{Bound|1996}}'': Fingers. The mafiosos cut off fingers as MutilationInterrogation, but the lesbian protagonists make love with their hands. The final shot is their IntertwinedFingers.

* In the British murder mystery ''Messiah,'' the serial killer brutally murders his victims, [[spoiler: who have the names of the Jesus' twelve apostles,]] and takes out their tongues, replacing them with spoons. [[spoiler: This isn't just a reference to "speaking in tongues" - his final target is Judas, the "silver tongued devil" - or to put it another way, the liar. The manner in which his eleven victims are killed echo the death of their biblical namesake]].

* C.S. Lewis' ''Literature/TillWeHaveFaces'' mentions faces frequently. Aside from the title, Orual's ugly face is compared with Istra's beauty and with the many faces of the goddess Ungit. For many years, Orual [[TheFaceless wears a veil]].
* Franchise/StarWarsLegends:
** Creator/TimothyZahn often uses a hand-as-title motif in his ''Star Wars'' novels. In Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy, Mara Jade was revealed to have been the Emperor's Hand, a sort of agent. In the Literature/HandOfThrawn duology, characters speculate that the Hand of Thrawn is an agent like Mara or a superweapon; it turns out to be a five-towered fortress with a massive repository of Thrawn's greatest weapon, knowledge. [[spoiler: And a very special clone.]] The Empire Thrawn set up out in the Unknown Regions is called the "Empire of the Hand". Most recently, in ''[[Literature/StarWarsAllegiance Allegiance]]'', the five do-gooder renegade stormtroopers accidentally name themselves the Hand of Judgement. The 501st Legion, Darth Vader's personal BadassArmy, is sometimes called "Vader's Fist", though to be fair the 501st is an AscendedMeme/Reverse {{Defictionalization}} and not Zahn's creation. At the end of ''Allegiance'', the Emperor's Hand saves the Hand of Judgement from Vader by claiming them as hers, saying, "You have the entire Five-oh-first. You certainly won't begrudge me my Hand of Judgment." Then she hears the five out, concludes that while they ''are'' technically deserters they are also good Imperials, and lets them leave, telling them to lose the name. There's only one Hand in the Empire, and she's it.
** In the ''Literature/RevengeOfTheSith'' novelization, Anakin's mechanical hand aches when Count Dooku is near, crushes things when he's angry, and is mentioned often.

* TS Eliot had a thing for talking about separate body parts, especially eyes, to symbolize what he viewed as the fragmentary nature of modern life. See "The Hollow Men" and "Literature/TheWasteland" for some of the more prominent examples.
* John Singer's hands in ''The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter''.
* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': hands appear with near-monotonous regularity, often as the objects of injury and symbols of a character's power.

* ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'' (a novella of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''): A random beggar asks passers-by what part of a body they are, and takes their answers completely seriously. He says that he is working on a theory that each person is actually just a part of the organism that is the city. [[spoiler:He himself is a HiveMind of [[TheWormThatWalks thousands of insects called hordelings]], so this isn't just idle curiosity]].
* ''Literature/Birthright2017'' frequently mentions bones, especially when magic is being used, in reference to the deepest part or 'core' of someone.

* Creator/SamuelBeckett's classic [[{{Absurdism}} absurdist]] play ''Theatre/WaitingForGodot'' substitutes clothing for this purpose, but the association is still there: the high-minded Vladimir is always looking at his hat, and the humbler Estragon complains that his boots are too tight. Lucky also cannot speak unless he has a hat on.
** Beckett invokes this trope often. ''Play'' consists of three heads sticking out of 3 foot urns and literally nothing else. In ''Not I'', the only thing the audience ever see is a disembodied mouth that speaks rapidly for about 15 minutes.

* ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' has numerous references to eyes. Angelica and Eliza sing about Alexander's beautiful eyes. Jefferson, Madison, and Burr point out Hamilton's deceptive eyes as one reason to distrust him. Eyes are also mentioned each time a character engages in a duel. Alexander describes his situation in "Hurricane" as being in the eye of the storm. He also says that while writing to earn passage to the mainland, the people of his hometown had their eyes on him. And in the finale Eliza says she sees Alexander in the eyes of [[spoiler:the orphans she helped raise after his passing]].

* Of all the BodyHorror that appears in ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'', that involving [[EyesDoNotBelongThere eyes]] and hands is the most prominent.

* ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin'' places a lot of emphasis on the brain, including the upgrade material-a vscous green fluid-represented by a BrainInAJar icon, and upgrading your character has the icon of a brain with nails in it.

** [[spoiler: Aang ends up getting his own scar in the season 2 finale, when Azula blasts him from behind with lightning. Throughout the third season, we get constant shots of Aang's horrible burn in the centre of his back.]]

* Finn from ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' has his right arm repeatedly focused on and brought to the audience's attention, with many alternate selves, imagined futures, or past incarnations missing that arm or having a prosthetic one. This is all foreshadowing for when he eventually [[spoiler: loses his right arm in the season 6 premier, grows it back a few episodes later, and loses it permanently in the season 7 finale]].

* In ''Anime/{{Monster}}'', Johan likes to tell people to shoot him in the head [[spoiler:(which happens, in fact, twice)]]. This is done as a parallel to the beast from Revelation, as well as being imitated in a puppeteer's play later on in the show.

* ''Manga/LetterBee'' has two; eyes and hands.

* ''FanFic/DirtySympathy'' has a continuing focus on the throat and neck. The story opens with Apollo trying to find medicine to treat his neck injury, given courtesy of Kristoph and his bleeding neck is what attracts Klavier's attention to him in the first place and inspires to latter to help treat his injures, despite being strangers. Klavier is nearly strangled to death with chains wrapped around his throat. When Apollo feels immense guilt he describes it as a pressure gathering in his throat.
* ''FanFic/RoyalHeights'' places a lot of emphasis on hands and fingers. Students are granted a link to a Second Conscience through a metal chip in their fingers, most magical incantations involve some form of specific hand movement, and a goddess figure hailed as the Royal has [[MultiArmedAndDangerous four arms that begin to grow around the school building.]]

Usually, using a body motif means constantly referring to the body part in question ([[GetYourMindOutOfTheGutter those who have to stop and retrieve their minds from the gutter may do so now]]). This can be done through dialogue or by physically highlighting it, such as someone who's constantly wringing their hands or tapping their foot. A tattoo, scar, piercing, birth mark or mole on a certain part of the body is another way of drawing attention to it.

Like most motifs, the symbolism is normally dependent on the associations most people have with that particular part. The eyes, ears, hands, tongue and nose are all connected to the five senses. Hands also stand in for actions that one takes and (together with fingers), well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin manual skills]]. Legs may symbolize movement. A person's back can be related to "backstabbing" or "turning your back on someone." The neck is usually seen as a vulnerable point - partly due to years of vampire tales, but also because that's where many predators aim for when taking down their prey.

* ''Film/{{Bound}}'': Fingers. The mafiosos cut off fingers as MutilationInterrogation, but the lesbian protagonists make love with their hands. The final shot is their IntertwinedFingers.

** Legosi, who is a wolf has several of these but the most focus is given to his hands and his teeth. His clawed hands are always there to remind him of his nature as a carnivore and he always tries to hide his sharp teeth. A recurring theme in the series is that whenever Legosi goes through an important moment in his character development, his appearance changes in some way, often by gaining new scars. Bill the tiger gives Legosi scars on his back resembling stripes during their fight as a symbol of how the two of them are the same. Legosi's fur, which had been cut short at the time, instantly grows back to its normal length when he metaphorically loses his virginity by consuming a live insect in order to experience what it is like to kill something. When Yafya threatens to kill Legosi if he doesn't apologize for being born a carnivore, Legosi goes a step further and rips out his own teeth. And those are just some of the major ones.

** Legosi, who is a wolf has several of these but the most focus is given to his hands and his teeth. His clawed hands are always there to remind him of his nature as a carnivore and he always tries to hide his shape teeth. A recurring theme in the series is that whenever Legosi goes through an important moment in his character development, his appearance changes in some way, often by gaining new scars. Bill the tiger gives Legosi scars on his back resembling stripes during their fight as a symbol of how the two of them are the same. Legosi's fur, which had been cut short at the time, instantly grows back to its normal length when he metaphorically loses his virginity by consuming a live insect in order to experience what it is like to kill something. When Yafya threatens to kill Legosi if he doesn't apologize for being born a carnivore, Legosi goes a step further and rips out his own teeth. And those are just some of the major ones.

** The villain Melon, a self-hating leopard-gazelle hybrid has his leopard spots, which he tries to cover up with melon leaf tattoos, but he keeps growing new ones. When he sheds his antlers he avoids letting anybody see him without them.