Cut in half and thus first believed to be a store mannequin when discovered, the body of Elizabeth Short, better known as The Black Dahlia, was found in a truly horrific state. Quoting from Wikipedia,
Short’s severely mutilated body was severed at the waist and completely drained of blood. Her face had been slashed from the corners of her mouth toward her ears, creating an effect called the Glasgow smile. Short also had multiple cuts on her thigh and breasts, where entire portions of flesh had been removed.
I mention this before posting a picture of Kenny Wagner’s new brands, done by Jeremy Pauley of Modern Relic Modifications, so you don’t jump to the conclusion that he’s a Joker (as in Batman‘s nemesis) superfan. Kenny tells me that he’s been long fascinated by the look of an expanded smile with “a darker twist to it” and after coming across images of the Dahlia cuts in horror movies the idea became set in his mind. The horror twist works especially well due to his black eyeball tattoos (the left done by Jeremy who did the brands, and the right by Chance Davis) — although he does admit it gets a little annoying having to constantly hear about Heath Ledger (“…but I’m quite polite most of the time, or sometimes even act like I’ve never even seen the movie!”).
Comments
10 responses to “Black Dahlia Smile Brands”
Hi Shannon,
This modification reminds me of a “Schmiss”- in English it’s called a smite I think.
It is a badge of honor amongst the so-called “Schlagende Studenten Verbindungen”- also called “Burschenschaften”, mostly in the German speaking area of Europe in the 19th Century. They had ritualized fencing duels with sharp sabers, and getting a smite, that is a scar that went from the ear lobe area to the mouth corner on the left side of the face was considered an honorable badge of courage.
What interesting in this regard is that although such saber duels are illegal nowadays, they are still held in Austria (where I grew up). With the increasing popularity of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) under Joerg Haider, these Burschenschaften became more popular. And with that, one started to see a return of the “Schmiss” scar, some times acquired during an illegal duel, but often acquired with the help of a friendly plastic surgeon! Many higher ranks in the Austrian Military will have such a scar. It’s actually somewhat un-nerving to see people in Austria walking around with such a scar, because these “schalgende Studenten Verbindungen” are politically very right-wing, and many members are well educated, and well connected politicians and industrialists.
I’d be more inclined to mention the film Pan’s Labyrinth & Captain Vidal…
Reminds me of kakihara from ichi the killer!! His mouth was cut like that with rings keeping it closed
Wow, I love the Ichi reference, Zion.
I wanna see this fully healed. Keep us posted please.
In jail and criminal society that sort of scarring might be interpreted as a punishment for being a snitch, but otherwise it looks cool!
This reminds more of Black Dahlia than anything else, and though i gather he had more thought behind it and it might serve as a mere reference point to him, i find this quite unpleasant to look at. The woman was brutally murdered and in my head this somehow glorifies the murder, or how it was set up, but maybe it’s just my problem.
Patrick – Yes, I’ve wrote a bit on this subject in the BME wiki [http://wiki.bme.com/index.php?title=Dueling_Scar – I’m sure this has been edited by others since] and Rob made a long post on it as well [https://www.bme.com/2010/08/09/the-more-you-know/]… I don’t know that I see the same thing as you do on this post, but there are definitely earlier posts on ModBlog that definitely scream faux-dueling-scar [https://www.bme.com/2006/12/04/dreaming-of-wotan/ and https://www.bme.com/2006/08/17/slashed-face/
Zion – Absolutely! By the way, if you like Ichi the Killer, don’t miss Marta’s tattoo [https://www.bme.com/2012/09/21/ichi-the-killer-uv-tattoo-and-piercing-update/ and https://www.bme.com/2012/08/23/martas-ichi-the-killer-uv-facial-tattoo/
Didn’t know about Schmiss. Very interesting.
Love that scar too.
I was slightly sad when I actually LOOKED at his chin tattoo, after a very quick glance below the cutting made me think he had ‘cuddles’ done…haha
beautiful.