Cosmetic Mutilations, Part 3

Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine
by George M. Gould, M.D., Walter L. Pyle, M.D.

(Page 35 of 41)

The Polynesians have carried this dermal art to an extent which is unequaled by any other people, and it is universally practiced among them. Quoted by Burke, Sullivan states that the custom of tattooing continued in England and Ireland down to the seventh century. This was the tattooing with the woad. Fletcher remarks that at one time, about the famous shrine of Our Lady of Loretto, were seen professional tattooers, who for a small sum of money would produce a design commemorative of the pilgrim's visit to the shrine. A like profitable industry is pursued in Jerusalem.

Universal tattooing in some of the Eastern countries is used as a means of criminal punishment, the survival of the persecuted individual being immaterial to the torturers, as he would be branded for life and ostracized if he recovered. Illustrative of this O'Connell tells of a case in Hebra's clinic. The patient, a man five feet nine inches in height, was completely tattooed from head to foot with all sorts of devices, such as elephants, birds, lions, etc., and across his forehead, dragons. Not a square of even a quarter inch had been exempt from the process. According to his tale this man had been a leader of a band of Greek robbers, organized to invade Chinese Tartary, and, together with an American and a Spaniard, was ordered by the ruler of the invaded province to be branded in this manner as a criminal. It took three months' continuous work to carry out this sentence, during which his comrades succumbed to the terrible agonies. During the entire day for this extended period indigo was pricked in this unfortunate man's skin. Accounts such as this have been appropriated by exhibitionists, who have caused themselves to be tattooed merely for mercenary purposes. The accompanying illustration represents the appearance of a "tattooed man" who exhibited himself. He claimed that his tattooing was done by electricity. The design showing on his back is a copy of a picture of the Virgin Mary surrounded by 31 angels.

The custom of tattooing the arms, chest, or back is quite prevalent, and particularly among sailors and soldiers. The sequences of this custom are sometimes quite serious. Syphilis has been frequently contracted in this manner, and Maury and Dulles have collected 15 cases of syphilis acquired in tattooing. Cheinisse reports the case of a young blacksmith who had the emblems of his trade tattooed upon his right forearm. At the end of forty days small, red, scaly elevations appeared at five different points in the tattooed area. These broke down and formed ulcers. When examined these ulcers presented the peculiarities of chancres, and there was upon the body of the patient a well-marked syphilitic roseola. It was ascertained that during the tattooing the operator had moistened the ink with his own saliva.

Hutchinson exhibited drawings and photographs showing the condition of the arms of two boys suffering from tuberculosis of the skin, who had been inoculated in the process of tattooing. The tattooing was done by the brother of one of the lads who was in the last stages of phthisis, and who used his own saliva to mix the pigment. The cases were under the care of Murray of Tottenham, by whom they had been previously reported. Williams has reported the case of a militiamen of seventeen who, three days after an extensive tattooing of the left forearm, complained of pain, swelling, and tenderness of the left wrist. A day later acute left-sided pneumonia developed, but rapidly subsided. The left shoulder, knee, and ankle were successively involved in the inflammation, and a cardiac bruit developed. Finally chorea developed as a complication, limited for a time to the left side, but shortly spreading to the right, where rheumatic inflammation was attacking the joints. The last, however, quickly subsided, leaving a general, though mild chorea and a permanently damaged heart.

Infibulation of the male and female external genital organs for the prevention of sexual congress is a very ancient custom. The Romans infibulated their singers to prevent coitus, and consequent change in the voice, and pursued the same practice with their actors and dancers. According to Celsus, Mercurialis, and others, the gladiators were infibulated to guard against the loss of vigor by sexual excesses. In an old Italian work there is a figure of an infibulated musician - a little bronze statue representing a lean individual tortured or deformed by carrying an enormous ring through the end of the penis. In one of his pleasantries Martial says of these infibulated singers that they sometimes break their rings and fail to place them back - "et cujus refibulavit turgidum faber peruem." Heinsius considers Agamemnon cautious when he left Demodocus near Clytemnestra, as he remarks that Demodocus was infibulated. For such purposes as the foregoing infibulation offered a more humane method than castration.

Infibulation by a ring in the prepuce was used to prevent premature copulation, and was in time to be removed, but in some cases its function was the preservation of perpetual chastity. Among some of the religious mendicants in India there were some who were condemned to a life of chastity, and, in the hotter climates, where nudity was the custom, these persons traveled about exposing an enormous preputial ring, which was looked upon with adoration by devout women. It is said these holy persons were in some places so venerated that people came on their knees, and bowing below the ring, asked forgiveness - possibly for sexual excesses.

Rhodius mentions the usage of infibulation in antiquity, and Fabricius d'Aquapendente remarks that infibulation was usually practiced in females for the preservation of chastity. No Roman maiden was able to preserve her virginity during participation in the celebrations in the Temples of Venus, the debauches of Venus and Mars, etc., wherein vice was authorized by divine injunction; for this reason the lips of the vagina were closed by rings of iron, copper, or silver, so joined as to hinder coitus, but not prevent evacuation. Different sized rings were used for those of different ages. Although this device provided against the coitus, the maiden was not free from the assaults of the Lesbians.

During the Middle Ages, in place of infibulation, chastity-girdles were used, and in the Italian girdles, such as the one exhibited in the Musee Cluny in Paris, both the anus and vulva were protected by a steel covering perforated for the evacuations. In the Orient, particularly in India and Persia, according to old travelers, the labia were sewed together, allowing but a small opening for excretions. Buffon and Brown mention infibulation in Abyssinia, the parts being separated by a bistoury at the time of marriage. In Circassia the women were protected by a copper girdle or a corset of hide and skin which, according to custom, only the husband could undo. Peney speaks of infibulation for the preservation of chastity, as observed by him in the Soudan. Among the Nubians this operation was performed at about the age of eight with great ceremony, and when the time for marriage approached the vulva had to be opened by incision.