~ the breast ripper ~

Cold or red-hot, the four claws slowly ripped to formless masses the breasts of countless women condemned for heresy, bloasphemy, adultery, self-induced abortion, erotic white magic and other crimes and unforgivable acts. In various places at various times – in some regions of France and Germany until the early nineteenth century – a "bite" with a red-hot ripper was inflicted upon one breast of unmarried mothers, oftentimes while their child, splattered with maternal blood, writhed on the ground at their feet. Besides the punitive function, breast-ripping also served as an interrogational and juridical procedure.