Testicle plyers - torture device for testicles.

I remember a while back there was a post about a type of punishment in prisons where a man was tied upside-down with his legs parted and his testicles struck to cause him pain. I find its good to know that testicle torture is not new but has been done for thousands of years so I thought I would write about a device from the medieval period.

Just like now in the past it was important to punish men so there was a need for a device or tool that could be used primarily on the testicles and penis of a man. Like now there was a clear need to slowly and painfully destroy one of both testicles of a man. One device became popular for use on the testicles and penis to the point it became synonymous with painful castration. This was the Crocodile shears or crocodile plyers (seen below).

Unlike today people accepted a large number of men simply could not behave correctly or would commit sexual crimes towards women. This being accepted the use of testicle rupture was practiced widely and rarely met with resistance. So there was a good market for ways to cause rupture to a man.

Other men often did not want to touch another mans genitals and women often preferred methods of torturing the testicles without having to hold them for long periods of time. But it was recognised that the testicles could cause a man hours of high pain and removing them would also be a punishment in its self. That’s the two ways a man is punished with rupture, first the pain of it, then secondly the loss of the testicle.

So with clear demand black smiths worked to create tools that would allow for slow testicle destruction. The device we are discussing today was a modified set of plyers. The first thing you notice is the teeth that resemble a crocodiles. This served two functions. Firstly they helped to grip a single testicle for torture, then the teeth pierced the skin of the scrotum then the testicle itself. With the teeth holding the testicle the force on the plyers could be loosened to allow blood to flow and increased again to add more pain without the testicle escaping. This allowed torture to be very prolonged lasting hours.

The other feature was the long arms of the plyers which allowed the force being applied to a testicle to be carefully adjusted by the torturer. This meant a man could be made to feel extreme pain then the pain be lessened so he could talk during a session of questioning. This made them very popular for use on a man accused of a crime or being questioned about one as well as for punishment.

The plyers were easy to use and cheap to make so were made in large numbers. While they were purchased by local government records show many women purchased them as well. Women of rank were the first to buy them primarily to use on male staff or servants as a tool of punishment. Its at this point in history we see a change in male behaviour not just in the records but in fiction of the time as well. At this point we see men of lower station afraid to look for too long at a woman for fear of being accused of staring of saying a wrong word.

This is because of knowledge of the testicle plyers (as they become known as). If a man was to be seen stairing at a woman he would be taken and stripped naked. The man would then be tied usually laying face up with his legs parted, usually to a table. This was so he would be less likely to pass out from pain as he was punished. The woman would do it herself or ask usually another women to apply the punishment. Women were used as they would be crueler to the male.

The male would be encouraged to think of what he did wrong as he felt pain. The male often apologised in this state before pain was used. There was evidence that men feared this but accepted it was needed. Maybe even fair and just.

The male would then feel the plyers grip a testicle and the teeth slowly sink in. Screams would be heard for hours as the plyers bit down piecing the testicle then crushing it. The teeth would first push down on the testicle denting it inward as they were deliberately not perfectly sharp as you can see. This was done so the teeth would push in first then cause the testicle wall to rip at the point of pressure and tear the flesh rather than cut it as this cause the male more pain. The teeth were often covered in acid to add to the males suffering once the teeth broke the skin. Then they would slowly rip through the testicle bringing high pain from the start of the punishment.

Once the teeth were fulling sunk in the top metal would then compress and crush the testicle. This caused the man crushing pain so the male first felt tearing pain from the teeth impaling the testicle then crushing pain. It was believed combining the two types of pain would help improve the suffering for the male and help him learn.

The testicle was often bitten from several angles as the torture continued. Every effort was made to prolong his pain for as long as possible. Using the long arms of the plyers the goal was to pressure the testicle so it is as close to rupture as possible without actually bursting and hold the man there as long as could be done. This was done to cause the male the maximum level of pain while still being able to prolong it.

Eventually the outer wall of the testicle would rupture then the plyers were used to crush the testicle down flat. Once ruptured the torture would always continue very slowly until the testicle was a flat as it could go. The testicle would probably rupture at several points allowing him to feel the tearing more than once. The plyers were applied all over the damaged testicle to crush it completely flat across the whole ball. As this was to make the man learn from his mistake can incite fear.

Men were observed to still feel high pain despite the damage to the testicle so torture was continued carefully. To flatten the testicle the internals would need to have been torn away so many crushes would have been needed. This would have kept the man in constant pain for a long time so this thoroughness really helped improve the punishment. It was said that even small bumps left inside the testicle were bitten to flatten them. One source says the testicle was crushed so much the teeth went into the scrotum, right though the testicle wall then out the other side and were less than half an inch long so maybe 10mm.

As we see women applying punishment themselves this is a point we see women torturing testicles for personal pleasure rather than punishment. Some women would enjoy collections of the plyers and other crushing devices to use on men recreationally. This is still practiced today with women enjoying ballbusting as a hobby.

The plyers were used, as said before for questioning. As crushing the testicles did not stop a man walking or working it was a preferred method of questioning. A male would again be tied and have them used on him. This helped get confessions or guaranty the information given was good.

The plyers were often used on captured prisoners of war as well. As women primarily worked as care givers it is believed they introduced the devices to the places where the prisoners were kept. Before men often didn’t waste time questioning all the captives as there were so many of them and they were needed to fight the next battle. Women however did have time as used it well.

The plyers are part of our history and should be respected.