Bullet Ant Glove
When it comes to painful initiation rites, ant-filled gloves take the cake. That’s exactly what the Satere-Mawe people of Brazil do, but with bullet ants. You might think that ants are no big deal, but the bullet ant has a sting which is not only incredibly powerful, but also venomous. In fact, the sting hurts so much that it has the maximum rating on the Schmidt sting pain index, equal to that of being shot (hence the name).
The fearsome jaws of the bullet ant. Source: National Geographic
The Satere-Mawe people make special gloves with hundreds of bullet ants woven into the interior. The initiates must then slip their hands inside the gloves and keep them there for ten minutes in order to complete the ritual. By the time the rite is finished, the arms of the boys are paralyzed from the venom, and it will take days until the pain goes away.
Source: Oddity Central
As if that’s not bad enough, the initiates don’t have to wear the gloves just once. In order to become “real men”, they have to repeat the ritual 20 times over the course of months or even years.
Source: Pennsylvania State University
