Nakita December 9th, 2007 04:51PM  
I think that the song Stinkfist is about addiction to drugs. Part of addiction could be feeling bored without that high as in "Bordom's not a burdan anyone should bare". "It's not enough,I need more nothing seems to satisfy, I don't want it I just need it, to breath to feel to know I'm alive." That would be needing the drug, he's addicted but doesn't want to be, because he needs it. In the song it makes it so that you can understand the gradual addiction. It starts off finger deep in borderline, then moves all the way to elbow deep. I don't know that's just what I think, personally I don't believe it is about anal sex.

anonymous January 9th, 2008 08:38PM  
I Believe A Good Interpretation Is Just Rearranging The Lyrics A Bit

"This Undeniable dilemma has to change; Boredom's not a burden anyone should bear. Constant over-stimulation numbs me, it’s not enough. I need more, nothing seems to satisfy. I don't want it; I just need To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive. Finger deep, Knuckle deep, Elbow deep, Shoulder deep; Blend and balance pain and comfort deep within you till you will not want me any other way. Something is kind of sad about the way that things have come to be desensitized. What became of subtlety? How can it mean anything to me, if I really don't feel anything at all? Relax. This may hurt a little but it's something you'll get used to. I can help you change tired moments into pleasure.
Say the word and we'll be well upon our way. I’ll keep digging ‘till I feel something."

Desired > Addicted > Required > Tolerated > Immune

Pain, Drugs, and other physical feelings, but it can imply emotions as well(compassion,society)

Well That's All I Have To Say

anonymous January 22nd, 2008 11:39AM  
It's about being Hedonistic and trying to satisfy yourself by indulging in physical pleasures. Always wanting the higher high, the better sex. In a literal form in the song it's nice finger banging, deep finger banging, fisting and it's not satisfying just doing more of the same type of pleasure. You need to find out what's real in life that's the whole point. Everyone has to be spiritual to be joyful... Not religious.
That's just what I get from it.

anonymous February 10th, 2008 09:38PM  
I'm surprised... I don't think anybody mentioned how this song embodies borderline personality disorder. If you all take a moment to look up the condition and re-read the lyrics, you'll save me some time. The story of fisting could very well be the "parable" used to express BPD on an individual or societal scale. The taboo would be typical of Maynard, as with Prison Sex. That song's not shallow either, by the way.

anonymous February 26th, 2008 01:56AM  
I think that it means that you are getting deeper and deeper into shit, and by the end you just get consumed by the shit until you are no more.

anonymous April 1st, 2008 06:13AM  
Yes, this song can have many meanings and interpretations, but honestly . . .

"Boredom's not a burden anyone should bear"

"over - stimulation numbs me
but I would not want you any other way"

"Nothing seems to satisfy."

"Finger deep within the borderline.
Show me that you love me and that we belong together.
Relax, turn around and take my hand"

"change tired moments into pleasure"

"Blend and balance pain and comfort deep within you"

"This may hurt a little but it's something you'll get used to"

Anal fisting, anyone?

anonymous April 5th, 2008 12:03AM  
Homzd is the closest. Zaq, I have to corect you though. "Think for selves" although TOOL stress that a lot, the bit you hear on Salival is Timothy Leary. The fact you quoted the saying I figured you were referring to that.

anonymous May 1st, 2008 11:15AM  
Many of the ideas written down here are good, but does the text really have to be about a special subject? drug addiction and the problems of society are two subjects that seems to be popular to write about but, can't just the addiction and the problems be another way of seeing the text, lika a metaphor for your own problems. go deep inside yourself and try to find your problems. If you believe in the drug addiction as the meaning of the lyrics, try to think of the drugs as an other think. you can be addicted to many things. addiction to feel happy in life, but do you really have the strength to go there? and about the society meaning, if the society affects you in a negative way, that's your inner problem. My opinion is that the text reflects on many matters that's perfectly fits in into the text.

As said before, I think that the many meanings of the text are just different ways of telling the same things. It could be about love between a couple, drug addiction and problems of today, but think about it, it all is kinda linked together, it all has the same meaning, and its that meaning that binds them who is (as my opinion) the real messages in this song.

anonymous May 2nd, 2008 03:27PM  
The song reminds me of a difficult situation and how someone that loves you will get you through it. whether its drugs or whatever, the person that loves you will tolerate nearly endless complications and still try to soothe you and get you through it. They take pain and still give more of themselves, even if you figuratively shove your hand up their ass further and further each time....

anonymous May 12th, 2008 10:05PM  
It's about choosing compassion over fear.

anonymous July 22nd, 2008 10:30PM  
I think that the song means that we can't settle for normal anymore, and that we strive for something more extreme and/or abnormal

TheKinkyCupcake August 1st, 2008 12:52PM  
It's about addiction. Whether it be drugs, sex, or something else. With all addictions there is pleasure and pain. To me, it seems more sexual because of the line, "Blend and balance pain and comfort deep within you till you will not want me any other way." Yet in the same, you don't normally hear about people getting up to their elbow. Most likely a heroin needle. Pick your poison.

guitarprodigy September 6th, 2008 02:43AM  
This song is an analogy comparing drug addiction to taking a fist up the ass. "something has to change. an undeniable dilemma. boredom's not a burden anyone should bear." (many people resort to drugs when they are bored with life. many people result to tabboo to stimulate themselves sexually when they get bored with normal sex.) "it's not enough. I need more. nothing seems to satisfy. I don't want it, I just need it. To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive." and "finger, knuckle, elbow, shoulder deep within the border line" (people usually begin with "gateway" drugs, like pot, and eventually resort to more extreme means of stimulation, like heroin or crack, when they burn out. people who decide to take fists up there ass begin small with the finger and eventually make there way to the elbow.) "say the word and we'll be well upon our way" ("I can quite any time I want") "blend and balance pain and comfort deep within you till you will not want me any other way" (sometimes drugs and things up your ass make you uncomfortable at first, but eventually, if you're into either one, you get used to them and feel you can't live without them...well maybe not so much the ass thing. Someone would really have to have a problem to not be able to live without that. you get the point.) "something kind of sad about the way that things have come to be. desensitized to everything. what became of subtlety?" (the addict realizes they are stuck in a sad, ungappy place. They feel numb and wonder how things got this far.) "i'll keep digging till I feel something" (i'll keep looking for newer, more extreme ways for stimulation.)

anonymous October 6th, 2008 08:24AM  
Most of the interpretations I have read on this page are wrong, but some of you actually realize what he is saying in this song, it's about how we have to fend for ourselves and how we should just do things that we want to and things that we need to and not be pushed around like a piece of meat buy authority, and those of you that think this song is about his drug addiction in the past need to read the lyrics of ;H; one of tools many great songs, and when you have read the lyrics, think hard about what they mean, it will come to you.

anonymous October 10th, 2008 12:06AM  
Stinkfist is about society and the government, specifically American, completely putting it to us as citizens. They are using us, sodomizing, for whatever they want. Yet they don't admit it, they want you to just relax and just go along with it.

anonymous October 26th, 2008 02:42AM  
Something to hold in consideration with the interpretations, Maynard opens a the song on a video clip I just saw with "this song is about choosing compassion over fear" (there is a cut between him talking and them playing however it flows in context). Also, the clip was an interview in 1997 and this album was released in '96 I believe; point being he explains how at that point he was working on forming a balance between sexual gender within himself (the cross dressing). My final opinion on the matter though is that I feel the best thing about nobody coming to a final decision on the meaning in its entirety is that it has people thinking.

anonymous November 1st, 2008 06:39PM  
I too think that this song is a metaphor for today's desensitized society. The main reason this song is even about sodomy-- which is against the law in the US, right?-- is to make us go "WTF?!" However, within a few listenings to the song, it's old news. I won't bore y'all with my reasonings, as they're pretty much the same as what you've got. But I would like to say, "Well done!" The coolest thing about Tool lyrics, I find, is how they can be viewed on a thousand different dimensions. Anyone and everyone can listen to this music, can think, react, and exchange ideas: young and old; male and female; American, European, Asian-- whatever. To further emphasize this, just look at the way everyone's responded on the board. Some are literate, some simply aren't. Some think on a more shallow plane, while other's dig so deeply for meaning that it's mind-boggling. That's the point of Tool. To get us to think. After all, what is questioning everything but another way to "breath to, to feel, to know [we're] alive?" ~Mii (Newcomer? :O)

Rick_Roll November 10th, 2008 10:27PM  
LOL, ok FIRST of all, this song obviously talks about drug addiction, anyone who doesn't know that is an idiot.

anonymous November 11th, 2008 11:07AM  
No, that's all bullshit why must it be nothing but an addiction to drugs? How hard is it to consider he fell down that far?

Listen to me. It is about many things, but it deals directly with pornography. He couldn't feel anything, and so he drove himself deeper and deeper into it in a search for stimulation. I have done the same thing with my wayward friend and with something much more sinister as well. As he kept getting closer he became more and more numb and sought even deeper things, and as the urge to revolt grew stronger, he fought to nullify it. He wanted to kill that response, which is where all the 'take my hand' stuff comes from. The progression from finger to knuckle to shoulder is him getting number and number.
THEN, there's the other part, which is the discussion of society, how it has become numbed and needs such things to be stimulated, that things like anal fisting exist, what became of subtlety &tc. In each and every one of his songs there is a strong personal component. Noone ever, ever gets that because it is too esoteric, and they start throwing around all these wild interpretations. Keenan has seen anal fisting. He went that far, and the song, more than anything else, is a description of that....place - can't you HEAR it in the music? That sickly, hollow, insipid, decadent feeling - you cannot express that unless you've been there, and he wouldn't be able to make the song sound like that if he had only been discussing the desensitization of society. It's a ballad to that period of his life, that sensation, that pattern and what it felt like as much as anything else. I know this is correct.

SixShotSin November 19th, 2008 01:38PM  
Totally! this song is either about fist fucking, or addiction to sex.. what do you think?