A voodoo doll is a doll that is linked to a specific person, and may be used to inflict any or all of the following effects on that person:

• Inflicting pain on the doll (poking it with a pin, holding it over fire) causes the person to feel the same pain.
• More generally, the person feels whatever the doll feels. Tickling the doll causes the person to laugh. Placing the doll in a hot or cold area makes the person feel hot or cold. In R-18 works, the doll's sensitive areas may be rubbed or licked to make the person feel the same thing.
• Any time the doll is posed or moved, the person is forced to match the doll's pose or movement. The doll may additionally be tied up to restrict the person's movements as though the person were bound like that.
• If the doll is wearing clothes, affecting them (tugging on them, removing them, ripping them) might affect the clothes the person is wearing in the same way. Less commonly, putting clothes on the doll might cause the person to wear the same clothes.

The doll may look like the person it is linked to, or it may simply have blank features. It could be made of straw, wood, or plastic.

Very often, linking the doll to the person requires taking a strand of the person's hair and attaching it to the doll.