Tough Spikes and Studs

Chun-Li, Street Fighter's most iconic Action Girl, rocking spiked wristbands since 1991.

Spiked/studded accessories and clothes are commonly worn by tough guys and gals in fiction. There is just something about the image of a character sporting a band of spikes or studs around their bodies that give them an intimidating, aggressive, or rebellious image. Collars and wristbands are the most common forms of this trope but it can also include gloves, belts, jackets, and footwear.

These can be worn by both heroes and villains alike. A heroic character who wears these is likely to be an Anti-Hero, a Badass Biker, a Delinquent, a Goth, a Dominatrix, a '90s Anti-Hero, or The Quincy Punk. Spiked wristbands may also be worn by a Barbaric Bully.

Characters who wear Tough Spikes and Studs may express their toughness in various ways. Some may be loud and aggressive, others more reserved and stoic, and a few may choose to only reveal their toughness when the situation calls for it.

Spiked collars are quite common in cartoon bulldog characters.

Sister Trope to Badass Longcoat, Scarf of Asskicking, Sleeves Are for Wimps and Badasses Wear Bandanas. May overlap with Spikes of Villainy

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Digimon:
  • Digimon Adventure: WereGarurumon, the ultimate form of Gabumon, has a hard, street-brawler look, which includes spiky rings on one hand, a spiked elbow pad and studded arm bands. His mega form, MetalGarurumon, also qualifies for this trope, wearing metal armor with spikes on the shoulders.
  • Digimon Adventure 02: Ankylomon is the champion form of Armadillomon. He has spikes on his back, tail and head, and wears spiked bands on each leg.
  • Digimon Tamers: Beezlemon is a Badass Biker Blood Knight. His attire includes steel-tipped boots, each with three spikes.
• Magical Pokaan: Liru is a wolf-girl who wears a studded bracelet on each wrist in human form. However, she's not so much a badass as she is a Bokukko in a Stripperiffic outfit.
• The Seven Deadly Sins: Ban wears a red jacket and pants with metallic studs sewn into both. He is every bit a badass as all the other sins. Somewhat inverted as he discards this outfit after becoming more powerful.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Rafael wears biking gloves with studded knuckles and is the most powerful of Dartz's three primary minions.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Tania is an Amazon warrior princess who defeats Bastion and comes very close to besting Jaden. She wears a spiked collar.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds: Jack Atlas is Yusei's rival and uses an aggressive strategy in dueling, reflecting his vicious and ruthless personality. He wears a studded neckband.

Comic Books

• The Authority: Midnighter is a superhuman whose genetic enhancements make him virtually unmatched in melee combat. His primary outfit has spiked gloves and he has another costume with spiked shoulder armor.
• Lady Death:
  • During the earlier years of her solo comic, Lady Death wore a version of her signature Stripperiffic outfit that featured spikes across the gloves and around the top edges of her boots. The 1997 run also had her in a less revealing, armored outfit that had spikes on the belt, torso, arm bands, and choker. The solo comic is also where Lady Death's characterization as a powerful Action Girl (or Dark Action Girl depending on the story) was established.
  • Cremator, Lady Death's ever-loyal blacksmith and enforcer, is a large brute of a man who has sometimes worn spiky pauldrons and gauntlets.
• Marvel Universe:
  • Spider-Man:
    • The Black Cat is Spider-Man's first Action Girl Love Interest. During the 90s, and occasionally after that period, she sometimes wore a spiky collar similar to the one she wore in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
    • Sergei Kravinov is a skilled hunter and fighter. He has occasionally worn a belt adorned with poison-tipped spikes.
  • Ghost Rider:
    • The Danny Ketch incarnation of Ghost Rider wore a jacket with spikes on the sleeves and shoulders. And like his predecessor, he was a very powerful hero.
    • Some artists and adaptations also depict Johnny Blaze with spikes on his outfit.
  • The Mighty Thor: Dargo Ktor, from an alternate 25th century, has spikes and chains a'plenty in his outfit as Thor, contrasting the fact Dargo himself is actually quite nice. Secret Warps pays homage to this with Dargo Stark, the Iron Hammer of 2099 (a merge of Dargo and the Iron Man of 2020), who has some of Dargo's spikes on his outfit too.
  • New Warriors: After the death of his grandmother, Rage goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge to find the person responsible while donning a new outfit with spiked pauldrons and knee pads. Rage ultimately finds the murderer of his grandmother and kills him.
  • She-Hulk: Titania is She-Hulk's Arch-Enemy and one of her toughest opponents. Her costume often features spikes along the sleeves and boots.
  • X-Men: Magik wears a spiky pauldron on one shoulder and has been depicted as a ruthless Anti-Hero (and sometimes Anti-Villain) for a long time.
• Red Sonja: Scavenger Hunt: In this story, Sonja wears a single spiky shoulder guard.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW):
  • Surge the Tenrec is a vicious Blood Knight. Her gloves have black cuffs with six metal studs on each wrist and her shoes have metal plates embedded with studs.
  • While timid and submissive, Kit the Fennec also wears gloves with studded cuffs and is quite powerful in his own right.
  • Rough and Tumble are a pair of mercenary skunk brothers. Tumble is the larger and stronger of the two and wears two black, spiked bracelets with gold buckles.
• Vampirella:
  • Vampirella: The New Monthly: The conclusion of the "Hell on Earth" arc has Vampirella's rematch with Nyx, the villainess who killed her in the previous series. For this battle, Vampirella dons a costume with a number of special features. These include spikes made from the One True Cross of Christ which are lethal to Nyx's followers.
  • Vengeance of Vampirella (2019): The monster dogs guarding the facility Cobb infiltrates have spiked dog collars.
• Zits: Jeremy adopts an "edgy" look which involves wearing a spiked dog collar. Unfortunately for him, his parents see this as a cry for help and decide to spend more time with him, the opposite of what he wanted.

Fan Works

• Oversaturated World: From Group Precipitation: "Pointed Fashion Statement, by FoME": Former villainess Sunset Shimmer wears a jacket with spikes, which her girlfriend even calls Spikes of Villainy.
  Sunset: "Fine, the truth is that I like leather jackets because they're a harmless way for me to feel like a bad girl, and this one is ridiculous enough to make it farcical while still giving me that safe little thrill."

Films — Animation

• How to Train Your Dragon: Astrid is a skilled Viking warrior and the best dragon rider after Hiccup. Her attire includes a segmented skirt with spikes.
• Kung Fu Panda: Monkey of the Furious Five wears studded leather wristbands. He is just as skilled a fighter as his teammates.
• Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost: The Hex Girls sport the usual goth look, including Dusk, the drummer who wears a large studded choker.

Films — Live-Action

• The Millennium Trilogy: Lisbeth Salander is a trained kickboxer and is occasionally shown wearing a truly impressive leather choker with long spikes.
• Rollerball: Many players have chrome studs on their gloves, especially those that carry the rollerball. These are made visible when, under the rules, Jonathan E holds the ball aloft to indicate that he has possession. Jonathan also uses these studded gloves on the woman sent to discourage him from participating further in the sport. He scratches her cheek with them to underscore that he will not be cowed into the shadows of retirement.

Literature

• Adrian Mole: In The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, Barry Kent wears his Hell's Angels clothes to school, with layer after layer of clothes covered in studs. Other pupils in the school then copy him, prompting the headmaster to introduce a rule that studs are only allowed on the soles of sports boots.
• May I Ask for One Final Thing?: Scarlet El Vandimion is the Action Girl protagonist of the story and is known as "The Mad Dog Princess" due to her love of fighting. She wears spiked fighting gloves which are effectively brass knuckles in glove form.
• Smoke And Mirrors: In "Looking For The Girl", the narrator starts a relationship with an angry punk girl who likes talking about hopelessness and anarchy, and he mentions she would come to bed wearing "nothing but a spiked leather dog collar." Her toughness is subverted when she leaves him for a life of luxury with an Arab prince.
• Warrior Cats: The cats of BloodClan frequently gloat about their battle prowess and wear collars embedded with dog teeth in order to look intimidating. Their leader, Scourge, takes it a step further and has dog claws over his own natural claws to make himself even scarier.

Live-Action TV

• Cobra Kai: Tory wears a spiked bracelet which she also uses as a weapon. She uses it to scratch Sam during their fight in the season 2 finale.
• Power Rangers Time Force: Ransik has a spiky pauldron and several studded belts across his torso. Ransik is also a very formidable fighter, having defeated the Rangers every time they faced him and was only captured because he chose to turn himself in.

Tabletop Games

• Paranoia adventure Vapors Don't Shoot Back. In the Briefing Room portion of Mission One, one of the guards is a Vulture Squadron unarmed combat instructor who is vicious in close combat. He wears a collar fitted with four-inch-long spikes around his neck.

Video Games

• Battletoads: Initially, all three toads wore spiked bracelets on their arms and knees. Both Zitz and Rash lost them due to Divergent Character Evolution, but Pimple kept the spiked bracelets.
• Brütal Legend: Practically every character in the game has this aesthetic, which is appropriate given the setting. Eddie Riggs and Ophelia in particular stand out, wearing spiked bracelets and being capable of slaughtering hordes of demons.
• Dead or Alive:
  • Bass is a large and powerful wrestler whose outfits tend to be biker themed. He wears a jacket with spiked sleeve cuffs in 2 and studded bracelets in 6.
  • Bass's daughter Tina also has this aesthetic. Three of her costumes in the first game have studded jackets and her primary outfit in Dead or Alive 6 is a black studded overcoat with a red-and-black studded bikini top and pants. And like her father, Tina is a wrestler.
• Deltarune: When Susie falls into the Dark World with Kris, she gets a new outfit that comes with golden studded bracelets on her upper arms and wrists greatly complimenting her bad girl persona.
• Final Fight: Hugo Andore is a large hulk of a man from a Wrestling Family. He wears studded wristbands.
• The Ground Gives Way: You can equip a guard dog with a spiked collar for a strength bonus.
• Honkai Impact 3rd: Kalpas, the Flame Chaser codenamed "Decimation", is a brutal Blood Knight who revels in violence and destruction. While he was alive, he was almost as much of a danger to his allies as his enemies in battle. His outfit includes a spiked band that wraps across his right shoulder.
• Ninja Gaiden: Rachel is a hardened, super strong fiend hunter. She wears a leather leotard adorned with studs, a red spiky pauldron on one shoulder and studded leg bands over her leather boots.
• Persona 5:
  • At first glance, Makoto Niijima seems like a straight-laced honor student with rigid morals. However, once she awakens her Persona, she reveals herself to have a lot of repressed anger over the injustice around her. Makoto fights with a pair of knuckle dusters and her Phantom Thief outfit comes with spiked shoulder and knee pads. Fittingly, her Persona takes the form of a bike in both base and ultimate form.
  • Once Akechi drops his Nice Guy act, he reveals himself to be extremely aggressive, bloodthirsty, and dangerous, with the Phantom Thieves acknowledging that the only way to defeat him is by utilizing their greater numbers. Akechi's thief outfit also changes accordingly, going from a prince uniform to a bodysuit with studded belts wrapped around his arms, hips, and legs.
• Pokémon: Granbull, the evolved and stronger form of Snubull, has a collar with two studs.
• Rival Schools: Akira Kazama is a tomboyish fighter and motorcycle enthusiast whose attire include a biker jacket with spiky shoulder pads.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Knuckles the Echidna lives up to his name by being a tough, no-nonsense brawler. He wears a pair of spiky, white boxing gloves which help with digging and wall climbing. Additionally, each of his shoes has a studded metal plate (think of a 2x4 Lego plate) on top.
  • Espio the Chameleon is the most skilled and serious fighter of the Chaotix, being a trained Ninja and martial artist. He wears bandage-wrapped cuffs with gold studs on his wrists and ankles.
  • Sonic Lost World introduces a new team of villains called the Deadly Six. Their members include their leader Zavok, the Ax-Crazy Blood Knight Zazz and the Villainous Glutton Zomom. All three wear spiked bracelets and are as deadly as their team name implies.
  • Sonic Unleashed: In his werehog form, Sonic's shoes have spikes on the surface, and the bottom of each sole is covered with eighteen small metal spikes.
• Street Fighter:
  • Chun-Li's large spiked bracelets are a consistent part of her attire. Canonically, the bracelets serve as a counterweight to stabilize her center of gravity for balancing when she performs her kicks. They are also used to tone and exercise her body.
  • Super Street Fighter IV introduces Juri Han, an Ax-Crazy Blood Knight trained in the art of Tae Kwon Do and possessing a cybernetic eye that enhances her abilities. She is powerful enough to take down Chun-Li, Guile and Cammy, three of the franchise's heavy hitters, either individually or all at once. Juri wears spiked bracelets in her primary outfit and her Street Fighter 6 appearance adds a spiked collar and anklets to her attire.
  • Street Fighter V: Abigail is a large, violent ex-gang member and wears a studded collar.
• Super Mario Bros.: Bowser's spiked bracelets are an iconic and consistent part of his appearance, exuding a sense of danger and power befitting his status as Mario's archnemesis. His wedding outfit in Super Mario Odyssey features a fancier silver variant of his bracelets.
• Tekken:
  • Kazuya Mishima is a ruthless villain whose personality and outlook have been shaped by the harshness of his upbringing. He wears red finger-less fighting gloves, with several metal studs on the back of his hand, arranged in a triangular pattern
  • Marshall Law is a Bruce Lee Clone and Chef of Iron. Initially, his wristbands were plain, but he has worn studded wristbands since Tekken 5.
  • Steve Fox is a champion boxer. Starting from Tekken 5, his player 2 outfit (a casual civilian outfit) includes blue fingerless gloves with studded knuckles.

Web Animation

• Helluva Boss: Among Loona the hellhound's various accessories is her spiked choker which she's rarely seen without. She is also a very powerful fighter, as seen in "Truth Seekers" where she easily slaughters dozens of government agents.

Western Animation

• Danny Phantom:
  • The Behemoth is a monstrous looking ghost that guards the Skeleton Key. It wears studded bracelets on all four of its arms and is powerful enough to smack Vlad from the Ghost Zone all the way back to his house.
  • Pariah Dark wears gray gauntlets with green spikes on the cuffs and knuckles. He is Danny's most powerful foe besides Dark Danny and required a combination of Jack's Powered Armor, all of the ghosts uniting against him and Vlad using the Skeleton Key to seal him away.
• Extreme Dinosaurs: Stegz wears spiked wristbands. While just as tough as his teammates, Stegz differs from most examples of this trope in that he is the technology expert of his team and is very contemplative by nature.
• The Fairly Oddparents:
  • Francis is a Barbaric Bully who wears spiked wristbands.
  • Jorgen Von Strangle is the toughest fairy in the universe and ruler of the Fairy World. He wears studded bracelets and studded boots.
• Family Guy: In "PeTerminator", Brian and Stewie go to a Bad Future where they have started a large-scale robot war. Brian's future counterpart has a mohawk and spiked dog collar.
• The Garfield Show: Hercules is a tough Chihuahua dog who scares people off and can be a trouble-maker (although he feels lonely deep down). In the first season, he wears a spiky collar.
• Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi: Yumi is characterized as the snarky punk rocker of the duo. This is reflected in her appearance, which includes a spiked collar and bracelets in contrast to Ami's more girl look.
• Seis Manos: Isabela wears a pair of studded metallic bracelets. She is trained in Hung Ga, a fighting style known for strong, steady moves and stances.
• The Simpsons: Kearney, one of Springfield Elementary's bullies, always wears a pair of thick, spiked bracelets.
• Sonic Underground: Manic is a punk rocker and has a harder upbringing compared to his siblings, being raised as a thief and feeling like he never had a real home. While he lacks Sonic's speed and Sonia's strength, he is still a capable fighter in his own right. He wears spiked bracelets.
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series:
  • The Black Cat is an Action Girl granted powers by the Super Serum that created Captain America. She wears a studded collar which also fits her Animal Motif.
  • Blade is a ruthless vampire hunter and wears a leather jacket adorned with three spikes on one shoulder.
• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: "Mr. Candle Cares" has Star give herself a punk makeover in an effort to rebel against her future as queen. This includes shaving and dying her hair purple, and wearing a purple spiked belt and boots.
• ThunderCats (1985): Panthro is physically the strongest of the ThunderCats. He wears a studded wristband and a spiked vest.
• Thunder Cats 2011: Like in the original show, Panthro is a strong, skilled fighter. In addition to a spiked vest, he also wears spiky gauntlets and leg guards.
• Tom and Jerry: Spike is a large, intimidating bulldog who often has an antagonistic relationship with Tom. How villainous or heroic he is depends on the episode, but he is often seen wearing a spiked collar.
• Total Drama Island: Duncan is a Delinquent who's been getting into trouble since pre-kindergarten. He also wears a spiked collar.

Real Life

• Spiked dog collars were originally designed to protect sheepdogs from wolves, and presumably other predators that like to go for the neck. They've since then become stock attire for guard dogs in circumstances where they'd be less practical, or just to make a dog (or human) look "tough", usually with blunted spikes.

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