Effects of Mouth Stitching or Ways to shut up young men who don't know their place

[fisher_queen]

Setting is medieval without a specific period set in mind yet

Comments

[calcitrix]

If I were reading the story, I'd be thinking the whole time that the wounds would end up getting infected because a) they had no idea what bacteria was and "sanitary" didn't exist and b) he'll have to eat at some point. I mean, even ear/other piercings in the modern day get infected fairly regularly, and that's even when people follow directions and clean with alcohol or whatever and don't get food or questionable water near them. Just something to consider. If they gave him liquor to make him quiet/still enough to do the work, that might help with the infections, I suppose...

I'd think if they were removing the stitches and putting them back in he'd have holes for a while, but like ear piercings, the holes would close up eventually and not be overly noticeable.

[rurounitriv]

I find it less plausible that they'd stitch his mouth shut (with the accompanying problem of trying to keep him fed when he can't open his mouth, plus the chance of infection and the generally higher difficulty level of stitching safely on someone who would be struggling mightily) than that they'd just wad up a rag, shove it in his mouth, and tie it in place. They want him quiet, they gag him, they need to give him food or water, they pull the gag out.

[cinnamonselkie]

Agreed. If you (the OP, that is) are set on the lip-stitching, you will need to come up with a plausible explanation for why gagging won't work. I don't think that "they're just that sadistic" would cut it, either; gagging can be done in plenty of horrible and nasty ways - depending one what is used and how tightly it is bound in place - and would be a lot easier and less hassle to do/undo for captors who presumably have plenty of other things they need to be getting on with.

[mintywolf]

I agree with the above commenter that it would make a lot more sense to simply gag him if they want him to keep quiet. Stuff one rag in his mouth and tie another around his mouth to the back of his head to hold it in place. Stitching would take a considerable amount of time and be quite difficult, especially if he were fighting and struggling, and there is a chance that he could simply rip the stitches and/or his lips once the procedure was over if he was determined enough. Also, he would still be able to make quite a bit of noise even with his mouth sewn shut. Gagging him would at least muffle the sound. (He would still be able to make noise and even talk, although not very distinctly, with his tongue cut out too, btw. You don't need it for all vocal sounds.)

[cinnamonselkie]

You don't need it for all vocal sounds.

*Nods* Including screaming, I am fairly sure (though obviously I have never been in a position to experiment with this hypothesis). As far as I can tell, most of the action of screaming happens in the throat; the lack of a tongue might garble the sound a little, but I don't think it would reduce its volume or efficacy at driving people up the wall/drawing attention.

[cyberninjasio]

Something slightly off the wall here, but I'm getting caught up on your character's age. Given a historically medieval setting, a 17yo would be pretty much physically mature. Our childhood's have been extending over the years, and we are taking longer to develop into adulthood than people were a couple hundred years ago. Seventeen can be boyish now sure, but if you're going for accurate historical setting, it may come across as a bit of an anachronism.

[sollersuk]

Agreed. He'd have to look 11 or less to be treated as a child

[marycatelli]

Er -- no. We get treated as children for much longer nowadays, to be sure, but we mature earlier. Puberty has been moving earlier and earlier.

He would, however, have received many more responsibilities than an 17-year-old of our day and age, and they might be more frustrated at childishness.

[cinnamonselkie]

From the perspective of piercings, damage of any kind to the mouth/lips/tongue heals a lot more quickly than equivalent damage to the ear or bellybutton area. I am afraid I have no more detailed information, but I suspect that a google search for healing times after piercings would turn up the required information fairly quickly.