Whump Reference Post for First, Second, and Third Degree Burns
Hi whump writers of Tumblr! Sorry it's been a hot minute; turns out grad school is hard. Anyways, I'm back with another reference post!
There is one image in this post, but there are no graphic images. It's a screenshot of text.
However, I do get a little bit graphic with my descriptions, as I'm trying to provide material that will help with writing, so read with care.
There are six categorizations of burns. They range from first degree (sunburn level) to sixth degree (exposed and/or charred bone).
In the interest of brevity (and also my limited knowledge), I'm going to only address the first, second, and third degree categories of burns. I have various information about each type of burn in each of their sections, and then I go more in depth on the pain associated with each type at the end of the post.
First Degree
Definition:
First degree burns are superficial, and affect only the outer layer of skin (epidermis).
Possible causes:
Mild sunburn, hot water.
Appearance:
First degree burns will be red, dry, and have no blisters.
Pain:
First degree burns are minimally painful in the moment, and negligibly painful afterwards. The skin becomes itchy as it heals, which may come any time from hours to a day or so after the initial burn.
Ideal treatment:
Run the burn under cold water, or apply cold compresses. (You’ll see some people writing about putting cold mud or dirt on these. That not decrease the pain. The tiny particles of dirt will rub all against the sensitive burned skin like sandpaper.)
Apply normal antibiotic ointment and bandage if desired, but honestly it’s not really necessary as long as the skin isn’t broken.
This can be treated at home.
Healing time:
Generally takes less than a week to heal.
Second Degree
Definition:
Second degree burns involve the epidermis and part of the dermis (the thicker layer of skin under the epidermis).
Possible causes:
Brief contact with boiling water, 1-2 seconds contact with hot metal (hot like a pan on a mid-heat stove, not hot like white-hot), some mid-level sunburn, etc. They're the most common type of burn.
Appearance:
Second degree burns will have shiny skin and the skin will be visibly discolored.
There may also be blisters that form within the first 24 hours. The blisters will be a very thin layer of skin that will fill up with fluid like a bubble. If you gently push on a part of this bubble, you can see the fluid move to the other side. Depending on the area of the body in which this burn occurs, the skin of this blister can be very delicate, and a lot of care needs to be taken in order to keep it unbroken (recommended for healing to protect against infection). If the blister breaks or comes off, the skin beneath will be red, wet, and slimy to the touch.
Pain:
These burns are very painful.
Immediately after the initial burn, it will be a strong and consistent pain. Ice can be applied or the burn can be submerged in cold water. If this is not done for long enough however, removal of the ice / cold water will bring back the pain in one or two minutes.
If the blister breaks, there is a significant increase in pain. Ideally, you shouldn't touch the exposed gooey skin because of the risk of contaminating it with the bacteria on your fingers. However, if you want to cause a lot of low-cost mid-to-high-level pain for a brief moment, your whumper can jam their finger right on that exposed wound. Salt and other granular substances are also extremely effective here; the nerves are primed for more pain. After a while however, this will have lesser and lesser of an effect, as the place becomes almost numb.
The blisterless open wound is a highway for bacteria. If you want to reduce infection risk, you need to clean it out thoroughly after the salt situation (which is also painful!) and then bandage it.
Keeping the burn bandaged will reduce the pain. Some doctors recommend temporarily covering a new burn with cling wrap until the burned person can get to a medical professional or treat the wound themselves. Oddly, regular cling-wrap does actually reduce the pain significantly.
Ideal treatment:
If the object that caused the burn wasn't clean, the burned area should be gently cleaned with soap and water.
One should then run the burned area under cold water for at least five and up to thirty minutes.
If the skin is broken, an antibiotic ointment and bandage should be applied. If the skin is unbroken, bandage anyways, but antibiotic ointment isn’t as necessary.
The burn should be kept covered for at least the first few days. If skin was broken, the area should be covered until new skin grows over.
This can be treated at home.
Healing time:
Depending on the size, depth, and complications, this can take anywhere from a week (for small burns) to several months to heal.
Third Degree
Definition:
Third degree burns go all the way through both the epidermis and the dermis and may go into the hypodermis (the subcutaneous layer of skin that has the fat).
Possible causes:
Prolonged contact with stovetop-level-hot metal, prolonged exposure to flames from a fire, prolonged contact with or submersion in boiling water, acidic or basic chemicals, dry ice.
Appearance:
The burned part itself may be white or black. This is because the skin level that contains the blood vessels (the dermis) has been burned through.
The outer edges of the burned area may only be second degree, depending on how the burn was administered, and blisters may form here.
After a day or two, the very outer edge of the burned area will form a surrounding line of red. This is granulated tissue, and is a sign of the body trying to heal itself.
The area within an inch or two of the burn may become slightly red, swollen, and hot to the touch. As long as this is slight, this is normal, and not infection. The area of the body is just traumatized and working overtime.
Scarring will definitely occur. If the burned area is large, skin grafts may minimize the scarring.
Pain:
These types of burns aren’t really painful. There is of course the initial piercing pain shock when the hot object comes into contact with the skin, but after the skin layers that contain the nerves have been burned through, the pain is negligible (if there at all). This burn looks terrifying, and like it should be absolutely agonizing, but it’s not even close to that. There may be some slight pain around the outsides of the burn, where the skin is minimally affected, but most of the area will be nearly numb.
Ideal Treatment:
The area should be cleaned thoroughly, and I mean thoroughly. The outside layer of dead skin should be scraped off when cleaning with soap and water. Leaving the dead skin there may impede healing, and as long as the wound is covered with something, risk of infection isn’t too significant.
Antibiotic ointment and a bandage and gauze should be applied to absorb everything that leaks out (if the skin is broken, pus will leak out).
If the burn encompasses more than a small area (or a narrow area) skin grafts are recommended.
This can technically be treated at home, as long as there’s no infection.
Healing time:
Smaller burns generally take at least three weeks to heal. Larger burns can take years.
More In Depth On The Pain
First degree burns tend to feel "just the wrong side of warm" when they first occur, and shortly afterwards tend to feel kind of prickly. A longer time afterwards, it will be overly sensitive and warm to the touch, and will be uncomfortable to put clothing over. As the burn heals, the sensitivity will turn into mild itchiness.
Second degree burns are a sharp pain. If it's a quick cause (boiling water that quickly falls off, hot metal quickly removed), it's likely that the brain won't initially register the heat, just the sharp sting. Within a minute or so, that sting will increase significantly. As said before: running the area under cold water, or covering it with ice will reduce the pain, but it'll come back quite quickly once you remove the cold source. If you can suffer through the initial 5-10 minutes of the increased stinging, it'll fade enough that you can think rationally again. Longer term: the blister itself is not necessarily painful, but if the skin covering it breaks, the stinging pain from before will resurface (at a lower level, but longer-lasting).
Third degree burns start out with the same sharp pain as second degree, but that pain fades as the nerves in the skin are burnt out and killed. Depending on the vector of heat, this can be extremely quick (very hot metal will cause the sharp second degree pain to fade within the minute) or much slower (slowly heating water in which someone's body part lies will have a much longer period of the sharp second degree pain, and will be much more agonizing than the metal). Once the nerves are burned through, there comes a kind of numbness. The nerves at the very edge of the burn are still alive and somewhat functioning, and there will likely be a bit of sharpness there, but the majority of the affected area will be free from any sensation. The worst part of this type of burn isn't the pain, but the intrinsic horror that it's such a significant deformity that there is no pain.
The numbness will continue after the initial burn and into the healing stage, to the point where the affected person might not even remember they're injured until they feel the liquid from the burn trickle down over their skin. As the healing progresses, the itchiness will be absolutely maddening. The area must be covered by something because the affected person will likely unconsciously scratch at it to try to get some relief. Any scratching will set back the healing process a significant amount.
I've done this before and yeah I'll do it again. What are you gonna do. Flashing my @coyotehusk goretober badge i have permission
←Previous - Castys Masterlist
Ingredients: bone carving using some tools, broken bones, vivysection <3, i talk about organs, whumper is a lil intimate but still in an unsexy way
Castys wished he wasn’t so used to looking at the inside of his chest cavity.
Kuro had sliced him open and peeled the sides back before just cutting them off entirely, leaving his ribcage very exposed. She hadn’t strapped his forehead to the table this time, so at least he didn’t really have to look. The sight didn’t exactly bother him that much, but he’d just rather not at the moment. Instead, he watched Kuro come over, and today’s weapon of choice was a hammer and chisel. Delightful.
“Are we carving marble in class today, Professor?”
“Close! It’s something else that’s white. Got any other guesses?” She climbed on top of the table, straddling his waist.
Castys cocked his head, thinking. “Hmm…ice?”
Kuro laughed, stroking one of his ribs. “I think you know the answer. I just thought it’d be fun to try it out.” Castys just sighed as she readied her tools, the chisel resting against bone. The hammer came down, but Castys didn’t hear whatever sound it made since his body decided he needed to let out a little yell, because that was a lot more painful than he was expecting. He’d sort of hoped he wouldn’t be able to feel it at all, but alas, there was only suffering.
Kuro tapped the hammer steadily, and all Castys could do was clench his teeth and squirm under the tight straps as the pain grew worse and worse, each chip broken off a fresh spark of agony. From time to time, Kuro would stop and consider her work, giving Castys a little break where there was no new pain, which was all he could get at the moment. It was annoying how he wasn’t dying from blood loss or something thanks to the wonders of cauterization, and he’d gotten too used to The Horrors for shock to set in and take him. Unless it didn’t work that way; he wasn’t exactly sure.
One thing he was sure of is that having someone you very much dislike basically laying on top of you while you’re strapped down and vivisected was the worst. If it was just pain, fine, whatever, he’d felt many a pain, but the added intimacy bullshit just really drove this over the top, what with Kuro stroking his organs or petting his face with her tentacles as she worked with her hands.
Finally satisfied, she sat up fully, staring down at whatever she’d carved into his ribs. “There we go. I know these probably won’t still be here after you die, but it was still fun. Do you want to see?”
“Maybe later. I’m not in an art appreciation mood.” Why did he bother, he wasn’t sure, because a moment later Kuro had yanked his head up by the hair, practically choking him on the strap over his neck, forcing him to look down and his fucked up ribs. She’d carved some letters into one of them, probably her name from what he could tell looking at it upside-down, and then some…blob looking thing. “What the fuck is that supposed to be?” he sputtered after she let go of his hair, his head thunking back on the table.
“It’s my na-”
“No, the fucki-”
“Oh. That’s a bird!” Kuro’s eyes narrowed, one of the few expressions he could actually see. “I’m not sure why I carved one, I just…felt like it?”
“Riveting. Could you slit my throat or something now?”
“Aw, come on, Castys.” She fully laid down on top of him, crossing her arms on top of his chest. “Where’s the fun in that?” Before he could say anything, one of her tentacles slammed the hammer into one of his ribs, most definitely breaking it. All he could do was bite back screams as she did it again, breaking the rib off completely. “This’ll be quick, too, watch.” She grabbed the jagged piece of bone and he swore he could feel her smiling as she drove it into the spongy flesh of his lungs, puncturing them.
Whump Reference Post for Fingernail Removal Torture
Hi whump writers of Tumblr! I recently made a little introduction post in which I said I’d be making reference posts. This is one I already had typed up, because for some reason this was the first thing I thought of.
There are no images attached, but I’m putting the rest of the post under a readmore since the majority of the content is semi-graphic written description of the how-to’s and wherefore’s and such of fingernail removal torture.
To be clear: I will be going into as much depth as I possibly can without using images. The content of this post will be purely academic. There will be no artistic liberties taken. This post is meant to be as accurate to (and descriptive of) a real-life situation as possible.
I hope some part of this post eventually winds up being a helpful resource for someone!
1) Not as painful as it’s made out to be
-It's painful, but definitely not to the extent it’s shown in movies or whatnot. A lot of the "pain" comes from the shock factor of seeing your body without something it’s always had, as well as the inherent "wrongness" that comes with experiencing a part of your body being removed.
2) There is very very thin film of skin between the fingernail and the finger.
-If one is careful in removing the fingernail by peeling it back slowly, one can preserve this thin piece of skin.
-If one pulls the fingernail back quickly and without taking care, this thin film will rip, and the nail will pull away with bits of flesh attached.
3) The flesh under the nail will be vertically striated.
-If one uses the peel-back method, and is careful to not let the thin film of skin between the nail and the flesh rip, the skin/flesh underneath the nail will be as visibly striated as the fingernail itself.
If you look closely at your fingernail right now, you’ll see that there are many tiny grooves from the tip of your nail to the base. This is true for all human fingernails. If the nail is peeled back with sufficient care, those striations will be echoed on the skin underneath the nail.
4) The “peel entirely off” method versus the "peel back and then stop" method versus the "pull out entirely" method.
-The “peel entirely off” method is how I will refer to the method of grasping firmly the tip of the fingernail in some sort of vice (usually pliers) and then peeling it backwards, moving the pliers from the nail at the tip of the finger towards the hand itself. Using this method, the nail will remain firmly grasped in the pliers the entire time. The movement of the pliers only stops when the base of the nail is ripped entirely out of the finger.
This will necessarily result in ripping out a fair bit of skin past the cuticles, as the technical base of the nail (aka “nail matrix”) is generally around half a centimeter hand-wards past the cuticles (and follows the curve of the nail, so is deeper than the cuticles as well). Due to the nature of skin, I would expect a tear reminiscent of an extremely deep hangnail that goes from the base of the cuticles to at least halfway between the first and second knuckle (and at most goes to the second knuckle).
In this case, it is not guaranteed that the nail will grow back. There is a chance it’ll come back, but there is also a chance that the nail matrix is permanently damaged and will not be able to grow a new nail.
Since every human is different, there’s not an exact science to determining where a person’s nail matrix is before it’s ripped out. A (very) general rule of thumb is to follow the curve of the existing fingernail, and draw a point on that curve before it hits bone. Obviously, this is extremely subjective.
-The “peel back and then stop” method is how I will refer to what is essentially the previous method, but one stops before the nail-ripping goes past the cuticle and snips off the peeled part, leaving a milimeter or so of fingernail existing on the nailbed.
In this case, it is assured that the nail matrix is undisturbed, and the fingernail will grow back.
This is the method I will assume is taken for the future steps
-The “pull out entirely” method is how I will refer to the situation where one grasps the protruding part of the nail firmly, and applies force away from the hand and in the direction the finger points.
In this case, there’s a large chance that the nail will rip. This depends largely on the care taken with the pulling object (pliers, usually) to grab the nail exactly parallel with the sides of the pliers.
If any part of the pliers digs into the nail at a singular location, this will create a point at which pressure will build up, and the nail will likely rip at this location. The strength of the individual’s nails also affects the ripping. The individual’s nail strength can vary based on nourishment as well as on a general person-to-person basis.
Personally, I do not recommend this method.
-If one wants to make the removal definitely permanent, there’s the possibility of peeling it back all the way down and out, and then chemically burning where one assumes the nail matrix is. (Some serious irl hikers do this to their toenails on purpose, to reduce the chances of getting ingrown toenails from being laced into hiking boots for days on end.)
Removing the nail permanently will obviously reduce the opportunity to peel it off again, but will give a permanent Horrific Aspect to the victim.
5) For the first three days, the exposed flesh will be painful.
-The entire tip of the finger will be a constant deep and throbbing pain. Any deviation from this norm will be an increase in pain, never a decrease (save medication or an ice-bath-for-full-minutes immersion to the point of numbness).
-Any contact with the exposed nailbed will increase the pain. Knocking the exposed flesh against anything, even extremely gently, will result in a visible bright red welt under the thin layer of skin (bright red on light skin only! on darker skin, the welt will still be visible, but will show as a dark red-brown). It is a visual similar to an extremely tiny, non-protruding blood blister. Knocking the nailbed against something less gently will result in fully scraping off that delicate outer layer of skin.
-Using the finger for anything will be painful (though not unbearably so), and it may even be painful to bend the finger at all.
-Any moisture on the exposed flesh (including anything from regular water to antibiotic ointment) will hurt a lot. This will intensify the throbbing at least twofold across the entire nailbed, and will also result in an amount of stinging as if one had just realized one had been stung by a bee.
6) For treatment and healing thereof (if quick healing is desired)
For those first three days, any bandaid application is inadvisable
-The exposed flesh will be so tender and vulnerable that any bandaid (even the non-stick kind) will stick to the exposed flesh and rip it upon removal. I can only assume this is in part due to the curvature of the finger, which means that any wrapping-around type bandaid will inherently put pressure on the nailbed, resulting in sticking.
-To promote healing, the first three days should be without any sort of covering on the wound.
After the first three days, a scab will form.
-At this point, the pain will be much less. it might be uncomfortable to bump the nailbed into objects, but it will not be the same pain as in the first three days.
-The wound will also be much less sensitive to moisture.
-When the scab starts to crack (usually a vertical crack), one should apply antibiotic ointment and a bandaid. At this point in the proess, it is desired for the scab to remain as consistently moist as possibly. This will help the scab fall off when it is ready to do so.
-At this point, the finger can be used normally (within reason) without much (if any) pain.
After two or three days with the bandaid covering, the scab will start to fall off.
-One may expedite this process if one is careful.
-At this point, the skin on the nailbed is sensitive to the touch, but not to the point of pain.
-There will be some dry, loose skin around the edges of the nailbed.
-The previously visible striation will no longer be there.
-Pressure on the exposed nailbed will not be necessarily painful, but it will feel decidedly Odd. Though not painful, It will be an extremely sensitive area.
-The nailbed will be a delicate pinkish color.
Around a week after the initial scab falls off, there will appear to be another scab. It will be a relatively thin layer of dry, dead skin.
-If the nail is allowed to grow normally, it is likely that it will cover this second scab before it has the chance to fall off.
-If the stub of the fingernail is trimmed routinely, it is possible for the scab to fall off, leaving only relatively smooth unblemished skin where the nailbed is. This skin will be roughly the same color and texture as the skin on the tip of the finger.
7) The rate at which fingernails grow back is extremely slow
-The average growth rate is about 3.5 milimeters per month. There are several factors that can cause this to vary:
-Fingernails on the dominant hand grow back faster than the nails on the non-dominant hand.
-Fingernails grow back faster than toenails.
-Nails grow back faster in warm weather than in cold weather.
-Depending on the nail and the aforementioned conditions, one can expect a total regrowth time of anywhere from three to six months (or more).
8) Life Without Fingernails
-Fingernails affect a large part of our everyday lives. We mostly use them when we’re manipulating objects with our hands, and we use them to scratch. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s a lot. It’s hard to explain just how weird it is to not have fingernails to someone who’s never experienced it, but here goes:
-Fingernails are the Hard Backs used to brace our fingers against a hard shell when we manipulate something with our hands. If you pinch your fingers together right now, you’ll see a white band along the top of your fingernail. This is where the pressure from the pinching goes; it’s braced against your nail.
-Picking something up without fingernails feels extremely odd the first few hundred times you do it. It takes a long time to get used to it.
-Writing is even worse. Without the hard shell backing your fingers, the pencil tends to slip out of your grip more often. If you usually have long enough fingernails that you balance your pen/pencil on them, you’re extremely likely to have the pencil completely slip out of your grip multiple times a sentence.
-You don’t realize how much you unconsciously scratch itchy parts of your body until you no longer have the ability to do so. If you’re only missing a few nails, you have to consciously adjust your hand so that you can scratch with the existing ones. If you’re missing all of them, you have to actively find an external object to alleviate the itch.
Some places on the body one can scratch with their teeth, but for most places, one needs to either find an “itch stick,” or rub that part of their body on something scratchy. A lot of clothing is scratchy enough to work for this. One needs to learn how to vary the pressure so that one can alleviate the itch without tearing through the skin or scratching themselves.
Pros:
-Body horror
Fingernail removal is a more mentally significant mutilation than cuts or burns, if only because it draws on the "that was there and now it's not" aspect of body horror.
-Can be inflicted more than once
Since fingernails grow back, they can be removed again and again and again. Though it may take some time for the nails to regrow, it isn't even close to the type of permanent that’s chopping off a finger or a toe.
-Helplessness
Since it takes a few days for the nailbeds to heal enough to be able to use one's fingers, a complete removal of all fingernails will take away one's ability to use their hands. Even after this initial period of extreme sensitivity, the lack of fingernails is something most people aren’t prepared for. The previous section explaining how fingernails affect daily life is significant here.
Cons:
-Can’t repeat often.
Once a fingernail is off, it's not coming back for at least three months (likely longer). It doesn't have the relatively quick reset time that burns or cuts do.
-Relatively short amount of time in pain
All of the pain is in the first few days. It is inconvenient afterwards, but there is little to no pain at this time.
-Amount of care needed
One needs to be relatively careful inflicting this. Fingernails are not as resilient as you'd think, and the likelihood of them ripping before you can finish ripping them off is fairly large if you're not being careful.
If you have a short-tempered or impatient whumper, this might not be their particular wheelhouse.
Conclusion
Overall, I’d say that the effectiveness depends entirely on the desired result. The time it takes for the fingernails to regrow versus the amount of time in which the subject is in pain is not a very productive ratio, so if you’d want your whumper doing a particular torture regularly, I wouldn’t recommend this.
However, if the whumper’s goal is to appeal to the body horror aspect without permanent damage, this is a great option. The fact that it takes nails so long to regrow gives the victim a sense of horrified freakishness. It also has the added benefit of reducing the victim’s maneuverability far after the fact.
The semi-visible nature of this method of torture can be effective if one wishes to horrify characters outside the whumper/whumpee relationship. You don’t immediately look at other people’s hands when you meet them, and as such it might take a while for outside characters to notice the lack of fingernails (especially if they’re past the three day mark). But once they notice, it will be hard to look away.
Hi, whump community of Tumblr! I’m (kind of) new! I’ve been in the whump community on here for a hot minute, but never was active beyond a couple messages, and maybe a like or two on a post.
I don’t write much, and I publish even less. This blog will likely be more for reblogging things other people have written than it’ll be for original works.
However, I will be making reference posts.
For various reasons, I have a lot of extremely in-depth knowledge of a fair few different types of physical injuries. I will likely be making in-depth reference posts on various types of injuries, healing times, short-term effects the injury would have on one’s everyday life, as well as potential long-term consequences of the injury. A bit of the knowledge I have comes from unfortunate past personal experiences, but a large portion comes from fixating on an incredibly niche medical topic for so long that I acquire a ridiculous amount of information about it. (That is to say: no one is being hurt here!)
I am unsure of the market for such reference posts, so please let me know if this is something you’d be interested in! (I’ll likely be making a few anyways, just so I can tell myself I’m doing something productive with my knowledge, but I likely won’t be posting regularly.)
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