Tourniquet

The album Antichrist Svperstar, which this song is taken from, tells the story of the rise and fall of the Antichrist. The first song, Irresponsible Hate Anthem, shows the hatred felt by the world for everything. A great majority of the people in the world have been infected by the Worm, which is symbolic of hatred, drugs, sex, and violence. These people are so dead in their hatred that they refuse to think for themselves. They become irresponsible. Eventually this parasitic Worm finds his host in a little boy, whom the Worm completely takes over to serve his own purposes. The Beautiful People speaks of the judgemental mentality so many people have adopted which adds to the resentment building in the boy. In Dried up, Tied up, Dead to the World, the Worm is completely used, and so then tries to make his own lover in Tourniquet. Antichrist Svperstar is very centered in the Christian numerology. This track is number 4, the number for creation. And so, the song is about creating a facade of love.

To me, this song signifies wanting something, but not being quite sure of what you want. On one hand, you want to feel love, but on the other, it cripples you. The worm's greatest fear is to be crippled by another person, to completely trust in another person. He feels the need to be in control of the situation, but he finds that impossible to love someone completely without giving up his control. You have a void you want to fill, but nothing fits. Hence you create something to fill that void. This creation, however, only serves its purpose temporarily. The name tourniquet is significant because it shows that no matter how much he tried to heal their broken relationship, he was only able to do as much as a tourniquet. Just as a bandage doesn't heal a cut, he only put off the end of the relationship.

In the chorus, "Take your hatred out on me, Make your victim my head", is symbolic of the desperation felt by Manson when he can't fill the empty void in himself. He does anything to make her love him, although she only uses him. She uses him as a tourniquet, and after he isn't needed, he is forgotten. Also, if you listen to this song in reverse, you can hear him whispering "This Is My Lowest Point Of Vulnerability". In his desperation, he made himself believed she loved him, but as the song quotes, "Flies will lay their eggs". Everything eventually didn't work out. Another interesting point is that flies lay their eggs in dead corpses, which implies the relationship is dead. He had become so enamored with this imagined love however, that he is completely filled with self-hate. This self hate is the fuel for the fire that turns him into the Antichrist later in the album.

This is my general take on the song, compiled from what others on here thought, and also some of my own thoughts. I'm not necessarily trying to say this is the most correct meaning, its just what it means to me.