History Main / SelfMutilationDemonstration

Sometimes, the empowered individual will ask someone to just HitMeDammit This is either a stylistic variant of the same thing, or a character is using to mock {{Mook}}s by revealing that [[ShootingSuperman this is one thing they have in common with Superman]], particularly to justify hitting them back to much greater effect.

* ''Anime/AngelBeats'' right off the bat in a variety. Otonashi asks Angel(Kanade) to prove him he's dead. She stabs him in the heart. He survives! ....Or not. Now he knows he's dead for sure.
* In the final fight between Dio and Jotaro in Part 3 of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure''. Dio Brando, after [[spoiler:draining Joseph Joestar's blood, finally allowing him to properly connect with Jonathan's body]], decides it'd be fun to demonstrate to Jotaro just how invincible (and insane) he now is by laughing maniacally as he begins to severly scratch the sides of his head to the point that his nails dig in then rip off flesh and ramming his finger through his own skull then drilling it in while he taunts him. With his newfound power, the damage [[HealingFactor heals instantaneously]].

* In ''ComicBook/TheMask'' (the original Dark Horse version), Walter is a MadeOfIron hulking bruiser with a masochistic streak, who regularly hurts himself just for fun or to gross out other people. On one occasion, he takes a switchblade and starts cutting the side of his face casually as his employer tries to tell him what he wants Walter to do, and looks quite startled when his employer snaps and tells him to knock it off. On another occasion, he pounds nails into his hand to form a smiley face, then clenches his palm so the blood runs out around the nails and walks away, smiling to himself.

* A member of ''ComicBook/{{Youngblood}}'' once cut off his own arm when asked what powers he had.

* In ''Literature/TheDanilovQuintet'' by Jasper Kent, this trope is inverted, when the protagonist sees a vampire's fingers get cut off and they ''don't'' grow back. (It turns out vampires can, with willpower, stave off regeneration. At at the time, several years before the events of the book, it wasn't known that he was a vampire.) Played straight when in the second book said vampire cuts of the same two fingers and lets them grow back, in order to jog the protagonist's memory. The protagonist's son, who at the time is unaware of the existence of vampires, is understandably freaked out.

* Subverted in ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'', when Kevin Burkhoff stabs himself in the hand (which heals) to prove that he has created a [[SuperSerum serum that can give people abilities]].

-->'''Michael:''' [narrating] There's a saying in interrogation: "Violence perceived is violence achieved." You don't want someone screaming. You want him asking questions, asking "What is he doing with that knife?" Asking, "lf he'll do that to himself, what will he do to ''me?''" Mostly you want him asking, "How do I make this stop?"

* Happens occasionally in the ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'' series.

* Freddy Krueger does this a few times in the ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' series, mostly just to horrify his victims. In [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984 the first film]], he says "Hey, Tina! Watch this!" then lops off two fingers, leering at her as green liquid squirts from the stumps. Later, he answer's Nancy's "What are you?" by slashing his chest, revealing more green ichor and what looks like maggots under his skin. In [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreetPart2FreddysRevenge the second movie]], he emphasizes his "You've got the body, I've got the brain" line by peeling back the skin on his own skull. In [[Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare the sixth]], he cuts off his fingers (again) while counting the ways people have tried and failed to put him down for good.

* In the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' sequel ''New Moon'', Jacob offers to show Bella his new power to heal that he got as part of being a werwolf. Bella, being AfraidOfBlood vehemently asks him not to.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In the second scene of the series, Louis de Pointe du Lac exposes his arm to the bright Dubai sunshine, [[WeakenedByTheLight which immediately scorches his skin]], to remind Daniel Molloy (whom he hasn't seen in 49 years) that he's a bona fide vampire.

* ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'': In the pilot, Louis de Pointe du Lac exposes his arm to the bright Dubai sunshine, [[WeakenedByTheLight which immediately scorches his skin]], to remind Daniel Molloy (whom he hasn't seen in 49 years) that he's a bona fide vampire.

* This is [[Creator/JimCarrey Fire Marshall Bill Burns]]' whole shtick whenever he appears on ''Series/InLivingColor'', complementing the people present on whatever they're doing, only to move right into InsaneTrollLogic speculation on a potential safety hazard, before subjecting himself to such hazard.
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'':
** Claire has been known to do this quite a few times. To prove to herself that she really can heal, Claire cuts off her own toe and watches her foot grow a new one to replace it. It was more to test how well she can heal, not that that makes it any less crazy.
** Adam, upon finding out about his HealingFactor, starts to mutilate himself just to watch his body heal within seconds.

* ''Series/{{Highlander}}: The Series'':
** An episode has Duncan doing this to an Immortal that has lost his memory.
** In another episode it's shown in flashback how he convinced Tessa of his immortality. [[spoiler:He shot himself.]]
** Methos does it in another episode, cutting open his palm to demonstrate his immortality to a Watcher he knew.
* In ''Series/BloodTies2007'', Henry demonstrates his vampiric nature to Vicki by shoving a knife through his hand.

* In ''Series/{{Eureka}}'', recently-fired scientist Carl Carlson sticks a knife through his hand to prove to his old boss that he has, in fact, finally created a process for [[HealingFactor spontaneous cellular regeneration]].
* ''Series/TheCollector'': One of the Devil's [[DealWithTheDevil clients]] doesn't remember or believe that she made a deal when the deadline approaches, so Morgan convinced her by cutting himself, showing his [[IncendiaryExponent hellfire-powered]] healing.
* Subverted in ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'', when Kevin Burkhoff stabs himself in the hand (which heals) to prove that he has created a [[SuperSerum serum that can give people abilities]].
-->'''Diana:''' (''astonished'') You've successfully manifested a 4400 ability.\\
'''Burkhoff:''' It's getting there. It doesn't always work.\\
'''Diana:''' ...you just stabbed yourself in the hand.\\
'''Burkhoff:''' Yeah. I was a little worried about that.

* Played with in an episode of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' where Clark demonstrates his NighInvulnerability by taking a pistol and firing it several times into his hand. He then drops the expended rounds and shows the other guy his sooty but otherwise completely unharmed hand.

* On the pilot episode of ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'', Queenie shows off her human VoodooDoll abilities (she can injure herself and cause it to appear on other people without harming her) by stabbing herself with a fork in order to injure Madison.
* In Season 6 of ''Series/{{Dexter}}'', [[spoiler:this was how Travis proved to Professor Gellar that the two of them were chosen by God to bring about the apocalypse by recreating scenes from the Book of Revelations. Travis stabbed Gellar with a holy sword, and Gellar's skepticism vanished as he watched his own wound heal miraculously... or at least that's how Travis saw it. Gellar actually died from the stab, as you'd expect, and the "Gellar" that has been calling the shots throughout much of the season is actually Travis's hallucination.]]
* Inverted in an episode of ''Series/LoisAndClark''. After Superman tries to stop a world-ending asteroid by slamming into it, he succeeds, but the blast sends him crashing down, resulting in LaserGuidedAmnesia. As he's slowly recovering, his parents are shocked to find out that he doesn't know that ''he'' is Superman. Naturally, Clark is a bit scared when his father picks up a baseball bat and prepares to hit him, while claiming that it's going to hurt him more than Clark. Naturally, the bat breaks into splinters, convincing the amnesiac Clark.

* ''Series/BurnNotice'' frequently reminded viewers that while ''physical'' torture [[TortureIsIneffective simply doesn't work]], mind games (while risky), can work wonders. One of their interrogations involved Sam convincing the guy he was talking to that Sam was a crazy sadist by having Sam pretend to get all worked up about how he was going to use the giant knife in his hand on the guy being interrogated, and then "crazy" Sam sliced open his own finger and starting dripping the blood all over the guy's face while continuing to babble on. As you can probably imagine, this ''completely'' freaked the guy out.
-->'''Michael:''' [narrating] There's a saying in interrogation: "Violence perceived is violence achieved." You don't want someone screaming. You want him asking questions, asking "What is he doing with that knife?" Asking, "lf he'll do that to himself, what will he do to ''me?''" Mostly you want him asking, "How do I make this stop?"
* ''Series/MyHero2000'' has George shoving a wooden spoon through his ears at one point to show Janet's parents that he's (to quote him) "completely impervious to pain and injury". A second later, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome he realizes they've fainted.]]
* ''Series/IZombie'': When protagonist Liv finally confronts [[spoiler:her cop partner Clive]] and reveals to him zombies exists, he is understandably skeptical about it. Being unable to convince him without proof, she demonstrates her zombie nature by stabbing herself with a kitchen knife, which triggers her GameFace and allows her to [[HealingFactor heal the injury]].
* In ''Series/BabylonFive'', Narn who swear a blood oath against someone customarily send the target of their wrath a video of them making the oath and then slicing themselves on the head.
* An interesting variation is shown in the ''Series/Charmed1998'' episode "[[Recap/CharmedS5E8AWitchInTime A Witch in Time]]". Piper goes a little back in time and is trying to recruit her past self to help her. To prove that she's who she's saying, and not some doppelganger demon, she pinches Past Piper really hard and then shows the bruise that appears on herself.