History Main / ALoveToDismember

* The title character of Creator/OscarWilde's play ''Theatre/{{Salome}}'' (and Richard Strauss's operatic adaptation) orders John the Baptist's head to be cut off so she can kiss it.
-->'''Salome:''' Ah! thou wouldst not suffer me to kiss thy mouth, Iokanaan. Well! I will kiss it now.
* The tale of ''Isabella and the Pot of Basil'' from Creator/{{Boccaccio}}'s ''Literature/{{Decameron}}'' (and later on, a [[Creator/JohnKeats Keats]] poem) tells of the titular character preserving the head of her lover inside the aforementioned pot. 19th and 20th century depictions such as those painted by Prerraphaelites like [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_and_the_Pot_of_Basil William Holman Hunt]], [[http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/pictures/isabella-and-the-pot-of-basil-1907.html Waterhouse]] or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image%3AIsabella_and_the_Pot_of_Basil.jpg John White Alexander]] fall squarely in this trope.

* In ''Discworld/{{Lords and Ladies}}'', a portrait of Lancrian Queen Ynci the Short-Tempered shows, "One hand ... caressed the hand of a captured enemy warrior. The rest of the captured enemy warrior was hanging from various pine trees in the background."

* In the seventh book of the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' series, Feather Witch is revealed to have kept one of Brys Beddict's severed fingers, and the narration is not shy about [[{{Squick}} what she does with it]].

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Love & Monsters" has a variant in this, in that the main character's girlfriend is attacked by a monster which leaves her as a just a concrete head (but still alive) - yet it's stated that they still have a "love life". Interpret it however you will.
* In the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "Day One", Jack holds the Doctor's hand... after the jar he usually keeps it in is broken.
* The Hitcher of ''Series/TheMightyBoosh'' has been known to simulate the act during the stage shows, yielding the following memorable quote... "Yeah, I'm a stump fucker! Which is a concept we couldn't quite get past [[Creator/TheBBC BBC 3]]!" [[SarcasmMode Can't imagine why.]]
* In ''Series/{{Dexter}}'', the Ice Truck Killer is referred to as having chosen not to kill a hooker when he realised she was an amputee. She says that he "started worshipping it (her fake hand)" and did "some freaky stuff with it (as well as her stump)". Given his obsession with dismemberment, it is implied that he may have used the parts of his victims for this as well. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that they are lingering issues from his mother's death and dismemberment by a bunch of gangsters with a chainsaw. He's Dexter's big brother Brian.]]

%% [[folder:Music Video]]

* Turns up in the "Shuinji and the Suicide Girl" stories on ''Webcomic/SexyLosers'' once or twice (probably more).
* ''Webcomic/ContemplatingReiko'' has [[http://taintedink.com/?comic=226-holding-hands this]] example.
* ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'':
** [[http://oglaf.com/salome/1/ This page]] involves an adult [[Literature/TheBible Salome]] being presented with a severed head by a diplomat who seems to be under the impression that she has a fetish for that kind of thing. [[spoiler:She has him beheaded... which needless to say does nothing to quash the rumours.]]
** A [[http://oglaf.com/salome/epilogue/ hidden follow-up strip]] [[spoiler: has her about to kiss the gifted head when one of her handmaidens interrupts]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'' brings us "The Finger," an overweight human with polydactylism who is in pursuit of Bigfoot. He takes advice from a shrunken head he wears around his neck, and if that isn't weird enough, he calls it "Mama"
* Played with in the ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' episode "Muriel Meets Her Match". Cat-burglar Maria Ladrones keeps her husband [[PunnyName Mano]]'s severed hand around with her, but the hand is ''alive'' to the point that it effectively still ''is'' her husband.
* Bobby Hill in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' had an experience with one of Luann's practice heads from store mannequins for her beauty school.

** Dirk and Jake's BigDamnKiss is also a severed head smooch. Justified in that the kiss allows Dirk to be resurrected, and Jake is rightfully horrified by the whole thing and has to be badgered into it.

* Anime/{{Berserk}}: Rakshas is the latest in the new Band of the Falcon/Hawk. He jumped to Griffith's aide only to state that he will protect him as long as he gets to have his "beautiful head" when the time comes to kill him.

* ''Webcomic/{{Oglaf}}'' [[http://oglaf.com/salome/1/ did a take on this]] which involved an adult [[Literature/TheBible Salome]] being presented with a severed head by a diplomat who seems to be under the impression that she has a fetish for that kind of thing. [[spoiler:She has him beheaded... which needless to say does nothing to quash the rumours.]]

** Suzu recovers the head of his beloved Yoshida (who was decapitated during the Ikedaya Incident), who he was implied to have a crush on. He has it varnished and carries it around, in a affectionate way, while talking to it as if Yoshida were still alive. He also lays seductively at times while dressed skimpily and licks his master’s skull in the cd drama in a moment of depravity while longing for him.

* Seiji from ''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}'' is quite a bit obsessed with Celty's head. Then again, Celty ''is'' a [[HeadlessHorseman dullahan]]...

* Anime/Berserk: Rakshas is the latest in the new Band of the Falcon/Hawk. He jumped to Griffith's aide only to state that he will protect him as long as he gets to have his "beautiful head" when the time comes to kill him.

** Suzu recovers the head of Yoshida (who was decapitated during the Ikedaya Incident), has it varnished and carries it around, in a rather affectionate way.

* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul :Re'' includes the Ghoul Karao "[[RedBaron Torso]]" Saeki, who's called like that for the body part he takes home with him. His apartment is shown to be filled with the headless, limbless corpses of women. He likes to cuddle with them, and refers to one as his "lover". After he's forced to go on the run, he notes that it's hard to sleep without a cold body beside him. When he kidnaps Mutsuki (whom he has a stalker crush on) in chapter 64 he cuts off his arms and legs and tells him they're going to get married while holding his arms and legs and saying with a NightmareFace "I worked very hard for these!".

* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' VisualNovel Bad End #01 of 40: [[spoiler:Ilyasviel kills Shirou and rips his head off, while casting a spell that makes him unable to die unless his head gets smashed, and takes him home to do God knows what.]]

* {{Cupcakes}}. Oh god, ''{{Cupcakes}}''. It's creepy enough that Pinkie Pie wears an outfit made out of cutie marks, wings, and severed horns, but she eventually decides to stuff Rainbow Dash's corpse and keep her ''so she doesn't miss her beloved friend''.

* Music/TomLehrer:
** The song "I Hold Your Hand In Mine" is sung by a man about his love's hand, which he cut off of her the night she died. (He made it a point to joke that, of all the songs he'd ever sung, that was the one he got the most requests ''not'' to.)
--->''"I'm sorry now I killed you, for our love was something fine/But till they come to get me I shall hold your hand in mine!"''
** Invoked in "The Masochism Tango":
--->''"Let our love be a flame not an ember. / Say it's me that you want to dismember..."

* Happens in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII''. [[spoiler:You investigate the disappearance of several women who disappear either completely, or you only find part of their remains. It's revealed that the abductor/killer sends the victim white lilies before abducting them. Not too much later, your Mother disappears and you find white lilies that were delivered. You track down your mother, you find that the killer was abducting women in an attempt to stitch together his dead wife, and the last piece was your mother's head.]]

* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'': Very early in the series, after a Survey Corps failed expedition,a mother clutches her dead son's severed hand and cries. Turns into a TearJerker when the commander says this-
--> '''Commander:''' That's all we could [[BodyHorror bring]] [[NightmareFuel back.]]

* Before the action starts in ''Film/HighTension'', the apparent antagonist is seen in his truck getting fellated by a disembodied head.

* Oogie Boogie does this by accident in ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas''. He finds Sally's [[ShowSomeLeg bare, flirtatious leg]] quite attractive until he finds out it's not actually attached to anything. Fortunately, Sally's a Patchwork Girl.

* ''Film/ThreeHundredRiseOfAnEmpire'': Artemisia, the commander of the Persian navy, has the best Greek warrior from a scouting party brought before her. When he insults her, she decapitates him and makes out with the disembodied head. Even her generals appear [[EvenEvilHasStandards disturbed by this]].

* In ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'', Patrick Bateman spends a while walking around the room with the head of one of the prostitutes he just killed still impaled on his erection.

[[quoteright:350:[[http://taintedink.com/ http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reiko226smallcolor.jpg]]]]

* The page image is from ''ContemplatingReiko''

->''That right hand of yours... I've got it displayed in my bedroom. I go to sleep with it every night. Doesn't that make you hard?''

* ''Series/AllyMcBeal'': One client is charged with murder, accused of chopping off his wife's hand with a chainsaw and causing her a heart attack. He claims she had a heart attack and that her cut it off after her death to have a thing to remember her by. He's pronounced not guilty, and he wonders whether he could ask to have the hand back. Cage and Fish had mostly weirdo clients.

* The Music/TomLehrer song "I Hold Your Hand In Mine" is sung by a man about his love's hand, which he cut off of her the night she died. At the end:
-->''"I'm sorry now I killed you, for our love was something fine/But till they come to get me I shall hold your hand in mine!"''
** He made it a point to joke that, of all the songs he'd ever sung, that was the one he got the most requests ''not'' to.
** Also invoked in "The Masochism Tango":
-->''"Let our love be a flame not an ember. / Say it's me that you want to dismember..."

[[folder:Music Video]]
* "Sha Shou", by JJ Lin.
[[/folder]]

** A [[http://oglaf.com/salome/epilogue/ hidden follow-up strip]] [[spoiler: has her about to kiss the gifted head when one of her guards interrupts]].

** A hidden follow-up strip [[spoiler: has her about to kiss the gifted head when one of her guards interrupts]].

** A hidden follow-up strip [[spoiler: has her about to do it with the gifted head when one of her guards interrupts]].

* ''Manga/TokyoGhoul :Re'' includes a Ghoul known as [[RedBaron Torso]] for the body part he takes home with him. His apartment is shown to be filled with the headless, limbless corpses of women. He likes to cuddle with them, and refers to one as his "lover". After he's forced to go on the run, he notes that it's hard to sleep without a cold body beside him. When he kidnaps Mutsuki (whom he has a stalker crush on) in chapter 64 he cuts off his arms and legs and tells him they're going to get married while holding his arms and legs and saying with a NightmareFace "I worked very hard for these!"

* Yoshikage Kira from Part 4 of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' has a bizarre hand fetish, and will carry around his latest victim's severed hand with him.

* The ongoing incarnation of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' brings us "The Finger" an overweight human with polydactly who is in pursuit of Bigfoot. He takes advice from a shrunken head he wears around his neck and if that isn't weird enough, he calls it "Mama"

** Baron Ãœnderbheit has the heads of his seven wives mounted on the wall, as well as keeping the hand of one (still wearing the wedding ring).

:: Lehrer made it a point to joke that, of all the songs he'd ever sung, that was the one he got the most requests ''not'' to.

* Oogie Boogie does this by accident in ''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas''. He finds Sally's [[ShowSomeLeg bare, flirtatious leg]] quite attractive until he finds out it's not actually attached to anything.