History Main / FlayingAlive

* Non-torture usage: In cases of severe or extensive burns, doctors may have to perform what is called a debridement - that is, removing the dead skin so that healthy skin may regrow, by either scrubbing at or peeling the burns. The exposed dermis is likely to complain regardless.

* Both ''HouseOf1000Corpses'' and ''TheDevilsRejects'' is showing Otis' idea of spending his free time.

* In ''{{Saw}} 4'', one of Jigsaw's victims is trapped in a device designed to slowly scalp her by pulling her hair.

* In Iain Banks' ''Use of Weapons'', the villain [[spoiler: and protagonist]] Elethiomel was fond of this. "The first messenger we personally sent came back without his SKIN!"

* Non-torture usage: In cases of severe or extensive burns, doctors may have to perform what is called a debridement - that is, removing the dead skin so that healthy skin may regrow. The exposed dermis is likely to complain regardless.

* In MassEffect 2 you walk in on Liara threatening a person with this.

** Then, in the Season 7 episode ''Same Time, Same Place'' the demon Gnarl rips its victims' skin off in strips, and eats it. It's in the process of eating Willow's skin when Buffy catches up with it, and kills it.

* The apostle Bartholomew is said to have been flayed alive by an Armenian prince after the latter's brother, the king, converted to Christianity; and indeed, he is often represented in art as [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Last_judgement.jpg this holding his own flayed skin]].

[[AC:{{Mythology}}]]

* In 1934's ''The Black Cat'' Dr. Vitus Werdegast (BelaLugosi) does this to architect Hjalmar Poelzig (BorisKarloff) with very good reason.

* An episode of ''GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' features a serial killer who removes the skin of women in the shape of a T-shirt. [[spoiler: It turns out he was one among many who were ordered to use the technique as a strategic terror weapon. The character Batou found the unfortunate survivors, and wasn't very happy...]]
* In the ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'' manga, Dark Marik uses the Millennium Rod knife to skin his father,removing the sacred tattoos from his back,then kill him. The father, however, had been stabbing Rishid with red-hot knives just before this, so no one should feel too sorry for him...

* Happens quite a bit in the various ''{{Hellraiser}}s''.

[[AC:Literature]]

* At the end of ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' Season 6, Willow does this to Warren when she catches up to him. It was fairly gruesome for standard television, but he didn't survive for very long after his skin had been removed. [[spoiler:HeGotBetter in the comics continuation, though.]]

** In "About Face" the villain cuts his first victim's face off while she's still alive. Earlier in the same episode, Reid mentions Rossi once helped put away a guy nicknamed "The Scarsdale Skinner".

[[AC:Mythology]]
* The satyr Marsyas challenged Apollo to a music contest, flute against lyre. There are several versions (either Apollo made a new condition that made it impossible for Myrsias to keep up, like singing or playing the instrument upside-down; or the judge was Midas who declared Marsyas the winner), but both end in the same way: Apollo flays Marsyas alive.

[[AC:Tabletop Games]]

* In the ''Eberron'' setting of ''DungeonsAndDragons'', members of Dragonmarked Houses who commit a terrible crime against the House would be expelled from membership. This was known as "excoriation", after the (mostly) discontinued practice of having the shamed member's Dragonmark flayed from the skin. If the excoriate survived, the Mark would grow back elsewhere, but would be very painful to use.

[[AC:[[VideoGames Video Games]].]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]

[[AC:Real Life]]

-->-- Dark Willow, ''{{Buffy}}'' Season 6, right before flaying Warren alive.

-->''"[[BuffyTheVampireSlayer Bored now.]]"''

* ''ANightmareOnElmStreet: Suffer the Children'' has Freddy cause {{goth}} girl Kat's tattoos to come to life and peel themselves, and the skin their printed on, off her body.

[[AC:[[VideoGames Video Games]]

* In the Yu-Gi-Oh manga, Dark Marik uses the Millennium Rod knife to skin his father,removing the sacred tattoos from his back,then kill him. The father, however, had been stabbing Rishid with red-hot knives just before this, so no one should feel too sorry for him...

* In the ''SilentHill'' movie, Pyramid Head does this rather quickly. He just rips the skin off with a hand motion and he's done.

* The TorturePorn horror flick ''Martyrs'', OrSoIHeard.
** [[NightmareFuel You heard right.]]