Once inside the Iron Maiden’s conical frame, you’re unable to move because of dozens of steel points stabbing from every direction. The Iron Maiden has an embrace anyone would want to avoid. (Images via dani drainpipe, party-service,and rouleau) This is a punishment that takes all your focus, and doesn’t let you forget for a moment what you did to get into this position. The cruelty of neck torture lies almost entirely within its side effects: Being unable to lie down, or lean back, or even lower your head without pain, prevents you from sleeping, or even eating, comfortably. While hooked into a neck device you’re unable to adjust into a comfortable position, while the very visible punishment announces your shame to the world.
In turns humiliating and painful, neck torture is an endurance test. (Images via jason.risley, keithc, rouleau, and Okinawa Soba) Here’s an exploration of 16 of the most cringe-worthy torture techniques and devices to ever come out of the haunted halls of human history. Whether torture was used as a form of punishment for crimes, real or imagined, or in an attempt to extract information, it’s truly frightening to see the creative cruelty spawned by the human mind. Crime and punishment have been a necessary part of human society since we first began living in groups, and as long as laws have been in effect, there have been punishments to match.
