all 2 comments

[–]wary_observer 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Another aspect. Needles may be needed in times of illness or injury, but probably there is no good reason to stick yourself with a needle when you're healthy.

Maybe the act of piercing the body with a needle is a subconscious recognition of illness (dis-ease)?

[–]wary_observer 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Piercings too.

Getting stuck with needles is unpleasant. There is something unsettling about it. Your person being pierced by a cold, sharp metal implement, delivering a mysterious foreign substance. But maybe there is an appeal for people with certain deviant tendencies.

With drugs, you chase a state of mind that may be very enjoyable, but risk serious injury or death. You receive something with known, but not totally predictable effects into your person in a somewhat traumatic way. For some personalities, this is thrilling.

Tattoos, probably a similar effect when it was an unregulated, seedy thing done in back alleys. Also an initiation rite in certain subcultures, a way to prove you were tough/brave.

Vaccines. Maybe this is an initiation rite for the modern mass culture. A proof of obedience, submission of bodily autonomy/integrity to the medical priesthood.