Injected and Inhibited

Pain without ecstasy, cosmetics without the Cosmos

I recently saw a fascinating TikTok by a creator called clios_world (see full transcript below). She made an incisive observation: lip filler is medical BDSM—a stylised facial injury that eroticises pain under the guise of enhancement. The syringe, she notes, is a phallic instrument. The swollen lips, a symbolic gag. The entire procedure evokes submission, silencing, and laceration, inferring seduction into the logic of domination. The TikTok felt like a necessary intervention, and it prompted me to reflect on how the cosmetic industry’s sadism is not incidental, but a design feature.