Songfacts®:

• "Zick Zack" is about cosmetic surgery and the compulsive tendency of people to endure pain so they can look better.
  
  Who wants to be beautiful, must suffer
  Vanity is never modest
  Needle, thread, scissors, light
  It can't go without pain
  
  According to Genius, the lyric alludes to a rhyming German nursery rhyme that teaches toddlers knives, forks, scissors and fire are dangerous items.
  
  Knife, fork, scissors, light
  Are not for small children
  
  Rammstein replaced knife and fork with needle and thread as a warning that cosmetic surgery is a painful process.
  
  (Lyric quote translated into English using Loudwire as the source).
• The "Zick Zack" title is intended to be the onomatopoeia of cutting. An English speaker would say "snip-snip."
• Rammstein first announced the song on April 3, 2022 via Instagram when they posted edited pictures of what they looked like after plastic surgery. They captioned them "More beautiful, bigger, harder" (the opening lyric) and "Zick Zack Beatuy Klinik." The promotional campaign also saw the band create a "Zick Zack" hotline, which allowed fans to book appointments at a "beauty clinic" of the same name. Rammstein released the song as the second single from Zelt via Vertigo/Capitol (aka Vertigo Berlin) on April 7, 2022.
• Other songs about plastic surgery include:
  
  "Saving My Face" by KT Tunstall (A critical look at ladies of a certain age who try to look like teenagers by resorting to plastic surgery).
  
  "Puzzle Pieces" by Saint Motel (About a model the singer met who had way too much plastic surgery).
  
  "No Nose Job" by Digital Underground (Details how society-mandated beauty makes black women undergo plastic surgery to thin their lips, while white girls look to make them bigger).
• Here are some plastic surgery fun facts from Encyclopedia of Trivia::
  
  The term "plastic surgery" was coined in 1839, 70 years before plastic was even invented. It comes from the Greek word "plastikos" which means "sculpting" and has nothing to do with plastic.
  
  Sir Harold Gillies (June 17, 1882 – September 10, 1960) is considered the father of modern plastic surgery. A New Zealand otolaryngologist working in London, he developed many of the techniques of modern facial surgery in caring for soldiers suffering from disfiguring facial injuries, usually from gunshot wounds during the First World War.
  
  Dr. Donda West, the mother of Kanye West, died at 58 on November 10, 2007 because of heart problems resulting from her cosmetic surgery. Arising from the tragedy, Governor Schwarzenegger signed the "Donda West Law" legislation, making it mandatory to prove well-being prior to undergoing cosmetic surgery.
  
  Seoul, South Korea, is the plastic surgery capital of the world, where one-third of the women have gone under the knife.
  
  India has the oldest plastic surgery patients in the world - over 54% who undergo operations are over 50.
• The song topped the singles chart in Germany, becoming Rammstein's fourth #1 in their home country. Their previous three were "Pussy," "Deutschland," and "Zeit."