Michelangelo'sThe Last Judgment -St Bartholomew holding the knife of his martyrdom and his flayed skin; it is conjectured that Michelangelo included a self-portrait depicting himself as St Bartholomew after he had been flayed alive.
Flaying is a method of slow and painful torture and/or execution in whichskin is removed from thebody. Generally, an attempt is made to keep the removed portion of skin intact.[citation needed]
A dead animal may be flayed when preparing it to be used as human food, or for its hide orfur. This is more commonly calledskinning.
Flaying of humans is used as a method oftorture orexecution, depending on how much of the skin is removed. This is often referred to as flaying alive. There are also records of people flayed afterdeath, generally as a means of debasing the corpse of a prominent enemy orcriminal, sometimes related to religious beliefs (e.g., to deny an afterlife); sometimes the skin is used, again for deterrence, esoteric/ritualistic purposes, etc. (e.g.,scalping).[citation needed]
Dermatologist Ernst G. Jung notes that the typical causes of death due to flaying areshock, critical loss ofblood or otherbody fluids,hypothermia, orinfections, and that the actual death is estimated to occur from a few hours up to a few days after the flaying.[1] Hypothermia is possible, as skin provides natural insulation and is essential for maintaining body temperature.
Ernst G. Jung, in hisKleine Kulturgeschichte der Haut ("A short cultural history of the skin"), provides an essay in which he outlines theNeo-Assyrian tradition of flaying human beings.[2] Already from the times ofAshurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 BC), the practice is displayed and commemorated in both carvings and official royal edicts. The carvings show that the actual flaying process might begin at various places on the body, such as at thecrus (lower leg), the thighs, or the buttocks.
In their royal edicts, the Neo-Assyrian kings seem to gloat over the terrible fate they imposed upon their captives, and that flaying seems, in particular, to be the fate meted out to rebel leaders. Jung provides some examples of this triumphant rhetoric. From Ashurnasirpal II:
I have made a pillar facing the city gate, and have flayed all the rebel leaders; I have clad the pillar in the flayed skins. I let the leaders of the conquered cities be flayed, and clad the city walls with their skins. The captives I have killed by the sword and flung on the dung heap.[citation needed]
Searing or cutting the flesh from the body was sometimes used as part of the public execution oftraitors in medieval Europe. A similar mode of execution was used as late as the early 18th century in France; one such episode is graphically recounted in the opening chapter ofMichel Foucault'sDiscipline and Punish (1979).
In 1303, the treasury ofWestminster Abbey was robbed while holding a large sum of money belonging toKing Edward I. After the arrest and interrogation of 48 monks, three of them, including thesubprior andsacrist, were found guilty of the robbery and flayed. Their skin was attached to three doors as a warning against robbers of church and state.[4] AtSt Michael & All Angels Church inCopford in Essex, England, it is claimed that human skin was found attached to an old door, though evidence seems elusive.[5]
In 202 AD, SaintCharalambos was reportedly tortured mercilessly aged 113 during the reign ofSeptimius Severus. The torturers lacerated his body with iron hooks and scraped all the skin from his body.
In 260 AD, the Roman emperorValerian was seized during a parley byShapur I, king of Persia, atEdessa. According to some accounts he was flayed alive.
Vasak Mamikonyan, commander-in-chief of the Armenian army during the reign ofArshak II, king of Armenia, was flayed alive on the order of Shapur II, after he, along with Arsaces, was captured and imprisoned by the Persian king. His skin was thenfilled with hay and put before Arsaces to further mock and psychologically torture the imprisoned Armenian king. (c. 367).
Totila is said to have ordered the bishop ofPerugia,Herculanus, to be flayed when he captured that city in 549.
In 991 AD, during aViking raid in England, a Danish Viking is said to have been flayed by London locals for ransacking a church. Alleged human skin found on a local church door has, for many years, been considered as proof for this legend, but a deeper analysis made during the production of the 2001 BBC documentary,Blood of the Vikings, came to the conclusion that the preserved skin came from a cow hide and was part of a 19th-century hoax.
In 1314, the brothers Aunay, who were lovers of the daughters-in-law of kingPhilip IV of France, were flayed alive, thencastrated and beheaded, and their bodies were exposed on agibbet (Tour de Nesle Affair). The extreme severity of their punishment was due to thelèse majesté nature of the crime.
In 1323, the Mexica tribe asked for Yaocihuatl, daughter of Achicometl, ruler of Culhuacan in marriage. Unknown to him, she was sacrificed, with the priest appearing during the festival dinner wearing her skin as part of the ritual.
In 1404 or 1417, theHurufi Imad ud-DinNesîmî, anIslamic poet ofTurkic extraction, was flayed alive, apparently on orders of aTimurid governor, and forheresy.
In September 1611, Dionysios the Philosopher (orDionysios Skylosophos) was flayed alive by the Ottomans after a failed revolt inIoannina. His skin was filled with hay and was paraded.
In 1657, the PolishJesuit martyr,Andrew Bobola, was burned, half strangled, partly flayed alive, and killed by a sabre stroke by Eastern Orthodox Cossacks.
In 1771,Daskalogiannis, aCretan rebel against theOttoman Empire, was flayed alive, and it is said that he suffered in dignified silence.
In the United States,Nat Turner, leader of a rebellion againstslavery inVirginia, was hanged on November 11, 1831. His body was then flayed, his skin being used to make purses as souvenirs.[14]: 218
On June 23, 2023, a video was uploaded to the Internet byCártel Del Noreste, which depicted a rival cartel member having his entire head flayed, his tonguepulled out of his throat, and heart being ripped out of his chest. The video, which is known as the "Zacatecas Flaying" or "Red Skull" video, was first uploaded toWhatsApp, before later being reupload to sites likeTwitter andReddit.
In the 1984 filmIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the skins of flaying victims are visible in the backgrounds of multiple shots, hung up within the Temple of Kali.
In the 2008 French movieMartyrs, a female character is flayed alive by a secret philosophical society seeking to discover the secrets of the afterlife through the creation of "martyrs".
TheSlitheen, a family of criminal extraterrestrials in the science-fiction seriesDoctor Who, disguise themselves using the skins of their deceased victims. It is heavily implied that some of their victims are flayed alive.
In the 2012 filmDredd, drug kingpin Ma-Ma orders three rogue dealers to be flayed alive before being tossed off a balcony.
In the 2019 folk horror filmMidsommar, one of the main characters, Mark, is flayed off-screen and his executioner is later seen wearing his face as a mask and his legs as a pair of pants.
In the 2020 filmHunter Hunter, Anne, one of the main characters, flays the face and upper body from the man who murdered her husband and daughter.
In the 2021 filmSpiral, a character is flayed (partially on screen) as part of the spiral killer's plan.
In the 2024 filmDeadpool & Wolverine, Cassandra Nova uses her powers to flay an alternate version of Johnny Storm, which includes not just hisouter skin but his muscles and the inner layers of his skin too, leaving him to collapse into a corpse of chunks of blood, organs, and bones.
^Cromwell, John W. (1920). "The Aftermath of Nat Turner's Insurrection".The Journal of Negro History.5 (2):208–234.doi:10.2307/2713592.JSTOR2713592.S2CID150053000.His body was given over to the surgeons for dissection. He was skinned to supply such souvenirs as purses, his flesh made into grease, and his bones divided as trophies to be handed down as heirlooms. It is said that there still lives a Virginian who has a piece of his skin which was tanned, that another Virginian possesses one of his ears and that the skull graces the collection of a physician in the city of Norfolk.
^Gelbin, Cathy (2003). "Metaphors of Genocide". In Duttinger; et al. (eds.).Performance and Performativity in German Cultural Studies.Peter Lang. p. 233.
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