Scars

[pearlblade]

I have a character who's been whipped all his life. I want his back, from the shoulders down to his knees to be covered in scars from the whipping. But I don't know how to phrase it so I can find the answer. I just need to know how it would look on a body (The whippings carried on from about age 5 until 15). The whip would be typical for flogging,

Comments

[jsherlock]

Warning: Image is rather off-putting. I googled 'Slave Whip Markings'. I got a lot of fetish stuff but this one picture seemed to fit the bill.

http://www.topfoto.co.uk/gallery/SlaveTrade/images/prevs/RV5425-12.jpg

[wylde_writer]

The Oprah picture I refer to in my comment looks not unlike this link. Its worth noting, too, that negroid flesh is very likely to keloid scar (which is what we're seeing in this photo). Whipping scars look different when flesh does not heal with keloids.

[tsubaki_ny]

Any darker skin, but particularly African and Asian (which is not necessarily darker, but is thicker than Caucasian) skin is more likely to keloid. And younger skin (which comes as a surprise to me).

I think it might be the thickness of the skin that's more relevant, because even very light-skinned blacks (or part-blacks) can get 'em.

[wylde_writer]

Oprah Winfrey's movie "Beloved" has a scene in it where her back is shown- the character was a slave who had been scarred from whipping in a broad and distinctive pattern. If you use a little google-fu you may also be able to find stills of that image on the web through Google Images.

Re this:
>>The whip would be typical for flogging<<

"Typical" is highly contingent upon culture, time and place. From the Russian knout that easily tears flesh down to the bone, with which 100 lashes was almost assuredly a death sentence, to the cat o nine tails (knotted braided hemp, used wet) that was a common discipline tool in the US and British Navies, to a wide variety of leather lashes in varying lengths and widths. The effects vary widely. Ergo:

What *is* the time/place/cultural setting for which you envision a "typical" whip for flogging?

[pearlblade]

Ancient Egypt.

The person doing the flogging was given a 'student', but he wasn't interested and took to abusing the kid with whippings all the time. I needed a type of torture that would be physical in doing, and hideable (this character will not wear any clothes that reveals the scars) I read that flogging was the term for torture based whippings. Thus the use of the term.

[archangelbeth]

Considering that a lot of egyptian stuff was allegedly slightly see-through, I'm not sure that flogging scars wouldn't show. You might want scars from knife-work instead?

Or my recollection could be faulty, of course.

[ap_aelfwine]

Considering that a lot of egyptian stuff was allegedly slightly see-through, I'm not sure that flogging scars wouldn't show.

That's tending to be my memory as well, FWIW. I'm thinking that a lot of the art shows even upper-class men walking about in kilts and not much else.