Mutilation or maiming is severe damage to the body that has a subsequent utterly ruinous effect on an individual's quality of life.
Police surgeon's drawing showing the mutilated body of Catherine Eddowes, Jack the Ripper's fourth canonical victim, as discovered on September 30, 1888.
Fredegund ordering the mutilation of Olericus
Dismemberment is the act of completely disconnecting and or removing the limbs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with regicide, but can occur as a result of a traumatic accident, or in connection with murder, suicide, or cannibalism. As opposed to surgical amputation of limbs, dismemberment is often fatal. In criminology, a distinction is made between offensive dismemberment, in which dismemberment is the primary objective of the dismemberer, and defensive dismemberment, in which the motivation is to destroy evidence.
15th century depiction of Adoni-Bezek being mutilated.
The Martyrdom of St. Hippolytus by Dieric Bouts
Aztec stone disk depicting a dismembered Coyolxauhqui which was found during construction in 1978 in Mexico City. Its discovery led to the excavation of the Templo Mayor.
The execution of Sir Thomas Armstrong, who was hanged, drawn and quartered in England for high treason in 1684
