You're never fully dressed without a .....
Japan has no shortage of stories regarding vengeful ghosts, ghouls, and supernatural entities. Few, however, have inspired as much fear as Kuchisake-onna: the slit-mouthed woman. Indeed, her story has not only inspired films, books, video games, and late-night tales, but genuine mass hysteria and panic. Even in today's world, there is some truth. According to legends that date back to the days of the samurai, Kuchisake-onna (also known as an onryō) is a malevolent spirit that haunts dark alleyways and streets of Japan at night in search of victims.
She is described as a beautiful woman in a blood-red dress, with alluring eyes framed by long dark hair and a gentle voice that guides strangers towards her. However, beneath a wooden mask (modern stories are of a surgical mask) she wears around her face are horrific scars running from the corners of her mouth to her ears
If encountered by someone, she will ask them if they think she is beautiful.
If the person answers no, she will instantly kill them with the long metal scissors she carries around. Stabbing and slicing them beyond any recognition.
But if the person answers Yes, she will slowly remove her mask to reveal her mutilated face, showing her gruesome smile, before repeating the question.
Answering it with another yes, will result in Kuchisake-onna cutting the victim's face in such a manner as to mirror her disfigurement. Leaving the victim with a gaping smile, permanently disfigured to be as beautiful as she is.
According to some reports, mutilation is the best outcome a person can hope for if they're unfortunate enough to meet the slit-mouthed woman.
Should you stand your ground and say No, after seeing her face, she is not beautiful, in variations of the tales suggest that Kuchisake-onna will return to kill the individual in their sleep. She will return nightly, in nightmares and shadows. Making the victim go slowly insane from lack of sleep. Telling people of their struggles will only increase her terror. Many of her victims become sick, sleep-deprived, unable to function within society. This is when she will come to you one last time in a waking dream state to take your life. People believe that because of your attempt to deceive, the victim will ultimately be destined to become an onryō themselves.
Neat story eh? Is this one so far-fetched?
Have you heard of the “Glasgow” Smile (Aka Chelsea Grin)
Inflicted by cutting from one or both corners of the victim’s mouth, sometimes all the way to the ears, the so-called Glasgow smile originated in a dark period in the Scottish city of the same name. The victim’s screams of pain only served to tear the cuts open further, resulting in a terrifying scar that marked the wearer for life.Perhaps the best-known instance of the Glasgow smile is the one that disfigured the beautiful Elizabeth Short, known after her death as “The Black Dahlia.” Short was a waitress and aspiring actress in Los Angeles when her mutilated body was discovered one January morning in 1947.
The extent of Short’s wounds made national headlines: cut cleanly in two at the waist, her limbs bearing extensive knife cuts and set in a bizarre pose, and her face cut neatly from the edges of her mouth right up to her earlobes. The grisly, haunting grin that slashed across her face was kept out of newspaper photographs. *Images below
Still too far in the past? Well we have the joker, sure fictional but still a chilling example of the horrible crime. Did you know that even medical textbooks today have treatment schedules for the Glasgow smile.
In fact, two well-known celebrities in our modern world, Thomas Flanagan (SOA), in 1991 was attacked outside a nightclub, During the confrontation, he was brutally attacked by a group of assailants who left him with significant injuries, including deep scars across his face.
Not close enough? 2008, Surrey, BC Cole Stevenson was violently attacked and in that horrible event was left with a Glasgow Smile. Cole Stevenson also known as Merkules.
When lore is far more touched in reality than we want to believe…something to think about.
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