Regarding clean torture, what can be done with little time or equipment? I need a character to inflict pain on another without leaving any obvious physical marks (it should not be easy to tell the character has been tortured by the next morning, though a few bruises or injuries not obviously from torture are fine). The other limitations are equipment and time-this is not professional torture, it's merely one man trying to inflict pain on another over the span of a few hours.
This isprobably a lot less limiting than you think. A lot of clean torture is carriedout without much in the way of equipment or using equipment that’s readilyavailable in most houses.
The majorlimiting factors are time and baddie himself. The baddie not being a‘professional’ is only limiting in the sense that he might not have heard ofsome methods, most of these things are incrediblyeasy to actually do. Torturers don’t tend to like complicated procedures.
What yourbaddie is likely to have heard of depends on your setting. I think the mosthelpful thing I can do is list some things that are common and don’t take longwith pros and cons in terms of likely injuries, time and equipment. You candecide what’s reasonable for your characters and setting. :)
Cleanbeating uses soft, rounded objects or repeated ‘soft’ blows from open hands onsofter areas of the body. This might require some experience or know-how on thepart of your baddie but not to the level of a professional torturer. Equipmentisn’t necessary and this would be incredibly painful for the victim. Theremight be some indistinct bruising or red areas but in general there probablywon’t be any marks the next day.
Taken toofar the victim can be beaten to death, evenwhen there are almost no marks. The victim is likely to be in a lot of painand exhausted the next day.
Beatingon the soles of the feet. Following the same principals of clean beating thiscan be done without leaving marks. Again it doesn’t require much in the way ofequipment- common implements are slippers and hose pipes. The victim wouldprobably still find walking painful the next day, but apart from some rednessthere won’t be any visible signs. (If the victim is in a setting where this isa common torture the local doctors mightknow that specific MRI tests can identify internal damage caused by thistorture but this would probably only come up if the victim asked a doctor forthis specific test.)
Taken toofar the victim could end up with a lot of broken bones in their feet. They’relikely to be exhausted, in pain and have trouble walking the next day.
There area lot of these. The one that comes tomind in terms of causing pain quickly and needing no equipment is what theBrits called ‘tying the neck and heels’, also known as ‘the rooster’ or ‘murga’position. The victim bends forward until their head is between their knees andstays in that position. This can be enforced by tying them there but in Indiaand Pakistan they’re often simply made to hold their ears and stay that way. Itleaves no marks and becomes painful within minutes.
A commonstress position that uses equipment is ‘the parrot’s perch’. The victim’s legsand arms are bent and they’re tied so that their arms are over their legs, likethey’re hugging their knees. Then a stick (for example the handle of a broom)is threaded in the gap below their knees and above their elbows. This isexcruciatingly painful and leaves no outward marks.
Anotheroption is standing cuffs. The victim’s hands are tied together and tied tosomething above their head with their feet barely touching the floor. Thiswould be painful in 1-3 hours but it’s usually used for much longer periods. Itmight not be suitable for your scenario.
In a fewhours these shouldn’t cause significant muscle or organ damage and the victimprobably won’t start bleeding. They might have trouble walking immediatelyafterwards and will probably be tired, in pain and dehydrated the next day.
Whetherthis is done ‘dry’ with a plastic bag or ‘wet’ like waterboarding this is painful,fast and leaves no marks. The baddie is essentially choking or drowning thevictim. Whether the torturer is ‘professional’ or not it is really easy toaccidentally kill someone this way. The difference between conscious andunconscious is fractions of a second and the difference between unconscious andbrain damage is similarly narrow.
Dependingon your setting this might not be on the cards at all. Your baddie is unlikelyto have anything that would prevent marks entirely but the burns caused by athrown-together device he’s made in a few minutes are unlikely to be easilyrecognisable. I’m including this because if you’re writing a modern settingit’s something your baddie could do relatively easily. However it would be veryrisky for the victim and without precautions possible side effects includeburns, broken bones, asphyxiation and death.
If thebaddie has salt, black pepper or chilli peppers close to hand packing these inthe mouth, nose, eyes, genitals or anus is extremely painful and leaves nomarks. Depending on your setting this might not occur to the baddie. It’s not acommon torture in Western cultures but it is in parts of Asia and Africa whereit’s often used against women and children. It would be really easy to addhumiliating aspects to this whatever your setting, which combined with the lackof marks might make the victim more reluctant to talk about their experience.
Thisrequires more equipment and like pepper might not occur to your baddie becauseit’s more unusual in the Western world. This method involves forcing water intothe victim until their internal organs become painfully swollen. They’rebasically made to swallow water (sometimes laced with substances like salt,bleach or human waste) until liquid is sweeping out of their nose, mouth andanus. It is supposed to be the most painful thing that can happen to a person’sinternal organs.
At thetime it’s incredibly messy, but the nest day there probably be won’t be anymarks or obvious signs. As with pepper the victim may well feel humiliated andviolated. They’ll probably still be in some pain the next day.
I hopethat helps. Good luck with your story :)
