Tortured or Just Severely Beaten?

According to the BBC, Saddam has said during his court proceedings "I have been beaten on every place of my body, and the signs are all over my body," I know this to be true because I have seen photographic proof. Oddly, the image I saw was in the last place you would expect to find it. Just over or under a year ago, after a dinner at hipster restaurant Sushi Samba, I was with a group that visited a nearby piercing and tatoo parlour. While one of our party was getting her naval pierced, I took the time to examine my surroundings.

Upon achieving a 180 degree turn, I noticed a picture tacked to the wall. Approximately 8 men in desert fatigues bent over a hairy bloody face. One man was holding the bloody head (attached to a body, don't worry) like one would a dead bear recently hunted and killed. The bloody face was squinting, probably from pain. The mouth was open and a pool of red spilled from it. It was a gripping image, so I went in for a closer look. Closer proximity revealed to my eyes that it was, or at least looked like Saddam Hussein.

I asked the artist who was working on our companion and the reply went something like this: "Oh yeah. One of our guys that sometimes works out of this shop is over there and is in the troupe that found Saddam. That's right after they dragged him out and had some fun."

"Fun" could mean, in Saddam speak "torture." Semantics aside, I am fairly sure the "fun" didn't stop there. So next time you are in the West Village, NYC and are getting ink done, look around for this picture. It is a little piece of historical record right there next to the tools of body art. What a wonderful world!