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redirected from Main.Aichmophobia
alt title(s): Aichmophobia; Fear Of Needles 
And you're saying that's not creepy?
"Oh, quit your whining. I have a three year old daughter that complains less than you!"
You're tough. Tougher than tough. You're Made Of Iron! What's more, nothing, and we mean nothing can surprise you or unsettle your Stoic countenance. Except for injections, that is. Those make you scream like a little girl and hide behind your Love Interest. Trypanophobia, the fear of injections and hypodermic needles, is a recognized disorder in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the psychiatrist's bible) which is estimated to afflict up to 10% of adults.
For some reason, the Fatal Flaw of many a Badass is fear of hypodermic needles and antiseptics. Not knives, not absurdly large guns, not even Snakes! There's just something deliciously ironic about a Big Damn Hero who routinely gets cut up with huge knives, beat to within an inch of his life and without giving up, becoming squirmy and panicky when his lady friend comes over with a simple syringe and sanitary cotton to clean his wounds. It seems most any non-battle pain can cripple this dude. It's certainly a "clever" way to bring a Badass Longcoat into a less Marty Stu-ish territory, and is a very humanizing flaw to have. In extreme cases, expect fainting— even if the needle isn't going into him!
Even the Fearless Fool can fear needles.
This can help make the pain of the fight more recognizable. Few viewers will have been riddled with bullets or been hit by a speeding motorcycle, but most will have had antiseptic rubbed on a wound or a bandage removed, and know how much that hurt.
This is a common enough fear among many people, and a particularly fun example of Truth In Television. It may be related to the fact that while combat injuries and the resulting pain are usually suppressed by adrenaline, the pain that comes along with tearing off bandages, or putting peroxide into wounds is not.
A subset of Fatal Flaw.
Examples
Live Action TV
- Jayne Cobb is Firefly's resident Badass, but even he whimpers when forced to tear tape off his abdomen.
- Then again, he's kind of... hairy. Hirsute men in real life exhibit that all over the place.
- River is also deathly afraid of needles, operating theaters, and the like, for perfectly understandable reasons.
- The various Star Trek series use hyposprays, which are supposed to be painless and which don't pierce the skin. Nevertheless, many recipients wince when the spray is "injected."
- If a needle piercing the skin isn't painful, what can be painful is when whatever is being injected into the body swells the area of injection, which can cause pain. I've never minded the needle part of the injection, just the soreness from the swelling of the area caused by the injected element. Tetanus shots cause a few hours of discomfort where administered, but the nail I just stepped on didn't.
- Magnificent Bastard Benjamin Linus of Lost actually declares he can't stand needles. Of course, at the time he was manipulating Sawyer, so this may have been a lie to play up the drama.
- While Adrian Monk is afraid of close to everything, needles are second only to germs on his list. (Of course he has a list. He's afraid of not having lists.)
- At least twice on What's Happening!, when someone mentions "a needle" around Raj, Raj can only whimper a rough approximation of the question "A needle?"
- Battlestar Galactica. In "Rapture", Badass pilot Starbuck winces repeatedly as Dualla jabs her with morpha needles, despite already being in incredible pain from 2nd degree burns to both hands. Mind you, as Starbuck was having an affair with her husband at the time, Dualla clearly wasn't trying to be gentle.
- Oz. Neo-Nazi inmate Robson hates needles, so he insists on laughing gas while getting his receeding gums replaced. This has serious consequences for him when he racially insults his Middle Eastern dentist while high; in revenge the dentist implants him with the gums of a black man, then lets everyone in prison know about it. After which needles become the least of Robson's worries.
Literature
Anime and Manga
- In an example very similar to the above, Oscar from Rose Of Versailles - a woman who regularly gets into bar fights, duels, etc., and who towards the end happily storms the Bastille whilst suffering from terminal tuberculosis - bursts into floods of tears after scratching her hand on a broken violin string.
- However, this is probably due to overemotional Wangst after her father puts her through the whole marriage thing, and she starts to read the new age books, all of which makes her very susceptible to the emotional.
- In one episode of Dragonball Z, Goku goes into a panic when he sees a syringe among a pile of medical equipment, much to the embarrassment of his son Gohan. This was anime only.
- Also, the hospital scene after the Vegeta fight
 . Poor guy.
- Dragonball Z fangirls tend to accept this as canon and milk it for all its worth in their fanfics.
- The anime also gave Vegeta a fear of, as he put it, "squirmy things". Worms, leeches, and the like. This was written out of the English version, making his behavior during that scene seem bizarre and out of character.
- Mamoru of Sailor Moon comments on this jokingly to Ami, one of the few personal quirks we ever learn about him.
- Edward Elric from Full Metal Alchemist acts like an adult, but betrays his young age when he has to be restrained to have an injection.
- Yet he apparently didn't make a sound when he got his automail transplant, which apparently makes grown men howl in pain...
- Like the Dragon Ball Z example, the needle thing was only in the old gecko ending anime.
- A creepy example is Cowboy Bebop 's Pierrot Le Fou, an insanely violent assassin who is impervious to guns - and yet, when he gets hit with a small knife, he starts bawling his eyes out. This event reveals his true nature.
- The page quote comes from the Ranma ½ anime. In one episode, Ranma crash-lands in front of the Cat Cafe after another trip to sub-orbit, and a kindly wandering salesman, who had originally intended to sell to the Amazons (currently out on business) tends to his scrapes with disinfectant. This leads to the Made Of Iron martial artist hissing and wincing in pain, leading to the page quote. Somewhat disconcerting, given the sort of abuse Ranma has stoically endured in the series—and while he has complained at medical treatment before, that's been due to the treatment itself being painful (Tofu brutally snapping Ranma's joints back into place and proper rotation, being burned with the counter-moxibustion, etcetera).
- Not only is he afraid of needles, but Yogi from Karneval utterly fears being anywhere near Doctor Akari, which provides humor for the readers insofar (though there could be more to it). Gareki is probably correct to guess that it's the after-effect of a traumatic surgery done or headed by said doctor.
Film
- No less a badass than Snake Plissken remarks that he "doesn't like needles". When you say it in his voice, it's still cool.
Comic Books
- Max, the psychotic rabbit of Sam & Max: Freelance Police fame, passes out on sight of a needle. At least according to a single 1994 strip in a series that has Negative Continuity up the wazoo.
- In Comix Factory's Mr Kiasu, Kiasu's boss, Saboh Singh, is an almost fearless man even during his Reservist NS training exercises. He has only one fatal flaw - the fear of needles.
- Hebus, a 9 foot tall troll in the comic book serie Lanfeust, who got pierced by arrows, sliced by swords and axes and burned by magic nearly on a daily basis, had 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!".
- Apparantly, Deadpool is deadly scared of needles. When shown one, he "kindly" requested to be sent back to be pummeled more by the Hulk.
- Though, that might have had more to do with who was giving the needle than anything.
- And that would be...?
- The psychotic doctor responsible for his healing factor and his treatment(not good) in the place where he got it?
Web Original
- The title character of The Saga Of Tuck also has a fear of needles. And doctors. And psychiatrists. And hospitals. Childhood asthma with recurrent bouts of pneumonia will do that to you.
Western Animation
- In the Ed Edd N Eddy episode "This Won't Hurt an Ed", Eddy learns that Kevin is afraid of needles and uses this to torment him by convincing everyone it's Booster Shot Day. Though by the end of the episode, Kevin overcomes his fear of needles and it turns out that Eddy has to get a shot, providing a very lulzworthy ending.
- In an episode of Little Lulu, a Badass Biker has been trying to summon the courage to get a tattoo. Near the end of the episode, he observes kids and their mothers coming out of the tattoo parlour with (painted on) tattoos and nearly collapses on his bike with shame.
- In the The Penguins of Madagascar episode Needle Point it reveals that the leader of the penguins is deathly afraid of shots. Even to the point that he almost had his team leave their home forever, then viciously fights them to get out of getting one. The other three even were afraid he might leave the zoo on his own and never return.
- In 6teen, Jonesy is the "cool" guy (although it's already been revealed many times he's not as tough as he acts), but in one episode it's seen that he's afraid of blood when he tries to donate blood.
- Transformers Cybertron. Done with Humongous Mecha, no less, with the Handwave-by-Technobabble version of a needle. The team dreaded, the idea of injection, especially Leobreaker. He's not the worst, though: Red Alert has to chase Jetfire down.
Video Games
- In Metal Gear Solid 4, it is stated that resident Butt Monkey Johnny Sasaki has skipped out on mandatory shots due to his fear of needles. This leaves him with no nanomachines in his body, unlike pretty much every other soldier out there, and makes him immune whenever anybody futzes with the nanos. Technically subverted, as he's never shown being afraid of needles and only mentions it right in the middle of his Big Damn Heroes moment. This also explains the character's trademark diarrhea; without nanomachines to filter it before it is absorbed into his body, drinking the local water gives him stomach bugs a plenty.
- Montley from Valkyria Chronicles suffers from this, being afraid to the point that being close to a Lancer and their 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."
Oral Tradition
- A Real Life anecdote this editor has seen numerous times is of the dental assistant who gets a young man ready for his teeth-cleaning. He's covered in tattoos, has multiple piercings in both ears, and a few studs elsewhere. So of course when the dentist gets there he asks, tearfully, "This isn't going to hurt, is it?"
Real Life
- Truth In Television: Jackie Chan. Does all his own stunts. Cannot be insured due to the guarantee of injury during filming. Terrified of needles.
- To put it into perspective, the man has broken nigh every bone in his body, fractured his nose three (or more) times, has a hole in his skull, burned most of skin of his hand off, to count among others
- Jackie Chan stopped doing his own stunts when he became a Hollywood star.
- That and a head injury that could be fatal if he falls on his head again.
- Al Capone was also afraid of needles. He had syphilis for most of his life (he "interviewed" many of his prostitutes), which could have been cured by a shot of penicillin, but instead suffered for years and eventually died of the disease because he refused to have an injection.
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