Prompted by the surprising reaction of a young man with a borderline personality to an interpretation of castration anxiety, this paper sets out to explore some of the unconscious determinants of tattooing and piercing. Recognizing that such acts can have an initiatory function, sociological, anthropological and psychoanalytic views of initiation and the role of the father in masculine development are examined. In some boys oedipal development is forestalled and castration anxiety is not experienced. A bifocal approach using object relations theories based on regression and Lacanian perspectives that highlight reactions to an oedipal impasse is used to understand these processes. Symbolic body modifications are differentiated from those that are non-symbolic.