William Henry Johnson, known as Zip the Pinhead, was an American freak show performer known for his tapered head.
Zip the Pinhead
A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to in popular culture as "freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, those with intersex variations, those with extraordinary diseases and conditions, and others with performances expected to be shocking to viewers. Heavily tattooed or pierced people have sometimes been seen in freak shows, as have attention-getting physical performers such as fire-eating and sword-swallowing acts.
A freak show in Rutland, Vermont in 1941
Coney Island and its popular ongoing freak show in August 2008.
Madam Gustika of the "Duckbill tribe" smoking a pipe with an extended mouthpiece for her lips during a show in a New York circus in 1930. Her lips were stretched by the insertion of disks of incrementally increasing size.
The Black Scorpion performing in 2007