In the interests of informing and entertaining, we bring you a new word to memorise and frighten children with. Piquerism is a paraphilia detailing the sexual gratification taken from piercing or penetrating the skin, with the most popular areas being the primary and secondary sexual characteristics (known in medical circles as the good bits). Between 1788 and 1790, a sinister figure stalked the London night, attacking women by pricking or lightly stabbing them with a pin or needle. Like some Diet Jack The Ripper, the man (who became known as The London Monster in the press) was reported to be a large man who would follow female targets down the street, yelling and cursing, until stabbing them in the derriere and running away. In two years, the number of alleged victims rose to more than fifty. The problem with locating and apprehending the prick(er) was that sensational accounts of his attacks had spread amongst the citys populace, many of whom loved a good giggle and made up their own attacks with wildly implausible details like retractable blades and spiked kneepads. In addition to that, once word got around that the victims of the London Monster were mostly highly desirable women, other women began to boast of having been attacked to increase their social standing, even going to the extent of faking light stabbing injuries to their hindquarters. On the flip side, panic spread amongst the non-narcissistic in the population, many going so far as to gird their loins with copper pans to prevent piquing the interest of the piquerist. All of which shenanigans contributed to the laws complete failure to catch the gentleman in question, until in 1790 one Rhynwick Williams was arrested and convicted, eventually being sentenced to six years in prison despite an overwhelmingly unsafe conviction due to the contradictory witness evidence against him, and the fact that he had an airtight alibi for the most infamous of the attacks attributed to the Monster. By this point the authorities were so desperate to be seen to have taken action that theyd have incarcerated a chimpanzee if he looked shifty enough.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
