History Main / MachoMasochism

* In ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' #1/2, Rose Wilson (a.k.a. Ravager) demonstrates her loyalty and worthiness to her father Deathstroke by [[EyeScream gouging out her own eye]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' cartoon, Draaga burns an "S" on his chest to remind himself of his vendetta against Superman.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'', Sargent Weenie Arms forces Chicken, Flem, and Earl to shave with smooth rocks and chop trees down with their faces, among other things.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': The [[ALoadOfBull Manotaurs]] from "Dipper vs. Manliess" seem to love hurting themselves and each other for fun.
* The Salty Spitoon in the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarePants'' sometimes asks its patrons to prove their toughness in this manner. Apparently eating a bowl of nails for breakfast isn't enough to get in... [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/welcome-to-the-salty-spitoon-how-tough-are-ya unless eaten without any milk]].
* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack'' centered on the idea that "real adventurers" [[AnOddPlaceToSleep sleep in the most uncomfortable places imaginable]], like on rocks or in boxes, earning Flapjack all sorts of mockery for being a "cuddler" who always winds up sleeping on the whale Bubbie's tongue. [[spoiler:It was actually K'nuckles who had to sleep that way and kept hiding it while moving Flapjack in his sleep so he could feel better about himself, which he admits in an EngineeredPublicConfession.]]

* In order to prove your devotion to the cause of the Assassins in ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'', you have to hack off your own ring finger. This is why the Hidden Blade is designed to be unusable unless the ring finger is missing. Heavily lampshaded in the second game, where Leonardo modifies the Hidden Blade to be usable with the finger still on (and then briefly tries to talk Ezio into removing the finger anyway), and some of the Codex pages (written by Altair) mention that the Assassins eventually decided this was a stupid tradition. They still keep part of this tradition, however. An Assassin's initiation from Ezio's time onward involves branding the Assassin sigil onto the neophyte's ring finger with hot iron and having him perform the Leap of Faith immediately afterwards.

** In the pilot episode of ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', Voq is a Klingon who is ostracized for [[AlbinosAreFreaks being an albino]] and known as "pach puqloD" ("Son of None"). To prove his devotion and worthiness to the warlord T'Kuvma, he holds his hand in a fire until the skin is crispy. T'Kuvma is impressed.

* ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'' takes this trope to the logical extreme in [[http://oglaf.com/beot/1/ "Beot."]] There's not much left for the monster to do.

* Subverted in ''Literature/TheExecutioner #46: Bloodsport'', by Raymond Obstfeld. A female terrorist leader gets one of her men to hold his hand over a camp stove's flame in a demonstration of his fanaticism (then presses the injured hand [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence against her naked breast]]). The injury gets the terrorist killed later because he fumbles when reloading his weapon.

* In ''Anime/MegaloBox'''s semifinal episode [[spoiler:Yuri intentionally removes his Gear with the help of a BackAlleyDoctor]], and refuses to use painkillers or to convalesce properly because he believes the pain is necessary to prepare him for the pain ahead of him [[spoiler:in fighting Joe]]. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome as [[spoiler:he's crippled during the fight, and is left permanently handicapped afterwards.]]

* In ''Anime/MegaloBox'''s semifinal episode [[spoiler:Yuri intentionally removes his Gear with the help of a BackAlleyDoctor]], and refuses to use painkillers or to convalesce properly because he believes the pain is necessary to prepare him for the pain ahead of him [[spoiler:in fighting Joe]]. RealityEnsues as [[spoiler:he's crippled during the fight, and is left permanently handicapped afterwards.]]

* One Shrine quest in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' requires Link to stand on top of a roasting hot platform to prove to the "Goron Blood Brothers" that he is tough enough to earn a Shrine Orb.

* Manga/{{Naruto}} does this way early, when they're first leaving Konoha for the Wave Country on the C-ranked-mission-that-turned-out-to-be-A-ranked. Nobody's taking him seriously, because he's Naruto, so when he's scratched on the hand by an enemy with a poison weapon, Sakura uses the argument that he needs medical treatment to suggest they should give up and turn back to Konoha, with Kakashi musing that maybe it's too much for them. Furious at being underestimated, Naruto drives a kunai into the wound to bleed out the poison, insisting that they will carry on with the mission and he will protect the old man Tazuna. He panics comically once Kakashi points out that if Naruto doesn't do something about his now self-inflicted wound he's going to rapidly ''bleed to death,'' although when he treats Naruto's injury he notices that, thanks to Naruto's HealingFactor, it's already starting to close.

* In ''Film/XMen1'', when asked to put out his cigar, Wolverine looks around to find something to stub it out on, but doesn't find anything within reach, so he resorts to his own palm. It's not a case of machismo; his own regenerating skin was the only option at the moment (other than his boots, which is how non-mutant smokers usually put things out).

** The Burned Men clan's name come because they mutilate their own flesh with fire to sacrifice a body part when they come of age. (The other clans of wild men consider them crazy for it.) Most will sacrifice a finger or something similarly small. Those who remove something at the scale of a ear are considered brave and greatly respected. Timmett, son of Timmett, put out his ''eye'', and even the other Burned Men have a sort of fearful reverence for him. He was made a war leader on the spot despite his youth.

* Peter from ''Series/LeCoeurASesRaisons'' has a VERY bad case of this: because he's insecure about his manliness, he keeps trying to prove it but at the ''worst'' moments conceivable. He insists on leaving to fight a bear while the other characters are busy trying to rescue Criquette from an horrible death and could quite use his help... And he chooses to leave an hospital through the air corridors rather than the doors because it's not badass enough. The result: he spends almost ten episodes lost in the air corridors (this was the excuse used to explain his absence on the show).

* In ''Series/BreakingBad'', Tuco Salamaca puts out a cigarette on his tongue.

* You ever seen videos of Music/{{Rammstein}} performing some of their songs? Example, when performing "Sehnsucht", Till Lindemann (the singer) bashes his head with the microphone until he draws blood. In fact, he kept a bag of fake blood hidden in his hair and beating it with the microphone broke it, making it ''look'' like Till was bleeding. The [[ManOnFire burn injuries]] however, are not intentional.

* In ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' the initiation rituals to join the Cult of the Fanged Mother, a Venusian murder cult, involves both murder and extensive self mutilation. The women's path up the cult's ranks is far worse, involving even more self harm and psychological torment.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'', Sargent Weenie Arms forces Chicken, Flem and Earl to shave with smooth rocks and chop trees down with their faces, among other things.

* Tattooing/piercing/stretchers, especially when gang related. Temporary piercings apply even more, because you're subjecting yourself to pain with no permanent body decoration to show for it.

* Creator/GeorgeCarlin called some womens' insistence on natural (pain reliever-free) birth "childbirth machismo."

* Overlapping with Video Games: some funny person made a console called [[BlandNameProduct PainStation]]. It was a Pong-style game operated holding two buttons with your left hand and operating the paddle with the right. The game can go to eleven points but not holding down the two buttons causes a meter to deplete which also determines if you lose. When the ball gets past your paddle and hits the popup hazards, you get an electric shock, have your hand warmed/burned or even have the hand ''whipped''. Any place that has this game posts a lot of health advisories and disclaimers when using this game.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dueling_scars Dueling]] [[DuelingScar scars]], the result of academic fencing by upper class German university students of the 19th and 20th centuries, were seen as badges of honor and proof of courage. The custom of ''mensur'' duels continue to this day, though the wounds are downplayed, and it's said that several major German companies require a ''mensur'' background.

* OlderThanFeudalism: According to legend, when the Etruscan king Lars Porsena captured a Roman assasin, the assasin (Gaius Mucius) told him that three hundred Roman youths had sworn to assassinate him. Mucius then thrust his hand in a sacrificial flame, saying "Watch this so that you know how cheap the body is to men who have their eye on great glory." Porsena released Mucius and offered peace to Rome; Mucius [[EarnYourTitle earned the name "Scaevola"]] ("left-handed") for himself and his heirs.

* Commander Sam Vimes, in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', intimidates [[UpperClassTwit Lord Rust]], currently in command of Ankh-Morpork's army, by plucking a live coal out of a fire and holding it without flinching. Rust takes it and is burned. He leaves and doesn't bother Vimes further; as soon as the aristocrat's out of sight, Vimes demonstrates that he's NotSoStoic and goes to get the burn looked at. In a ShoutOut to ''Film/LawrenceOfArabia'', Vimes claims the trick is "not to care".

* A DrinkOrder can imply this in different ways. For example, some folks consider drinking your whiskey neat to be manlier than having it with a mixer or with a splash of water (in contrast, many argue that a splash of water, preferably mineral water from the same water source used to make the whiskey, brings out the drink's flavor).

* Colonel Flagg used to hurt himself (or threaten to) in most of the ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episodes he appeared in to try to show how tough he was, however all this did was confirm to Hawkeye and most of the other characters that he was completely crazy.

* Stan Smith from ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''.

See also, but don't confuse with, TestosteronePoisoning. Goes hand-in-hand with MajorInjuryUnderreaction and MenDontCry. For badass injuries that are ''not'' self-inflicted, see RealMenGetShot.

* ''Film/{{Predator}}''. Just before fighting the title creature, Billy cuts two wounds in his chest with his knife.

* A ten-year-old Bruce Wayne does this in ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' by putting his hand over a lit candle. It's enough to make poor Alfred think that the boy is self-harming in his grief, but Bruce explains that he's testing his own endurance.

* The [[RatedMforManly Manotaurs]] from ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' seem to love hurting themselves and each other.

* During UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars it was in some circles considered unmanly to use drinks or opium (the only "anesthetics" available) during surgery. This was, as you will note, a time when most military surgery consisted of amputation with a saw and cauterization ''with a branding iron''. Gotta admit, in a weird way it is CrazyAwesome.

** In the Imperium, the Imperial Fists regularly use a meditation aid known as a Pain Glove, which does pretty much exactly what it sounds like it does.

* Luffy from ''OnePiece'' ''stabbed himself in the face'' in order to prove to his hero that he was tough enough to be a pirate. He still has a scar under his left eye from that. [[SubvertedTrope The pirates mocked him for being stupid enough to wound himself for no reason.]]