Glasgow's deadly contribution

Tommy Flanagan, better known as Chibs on the FX hit series, Sons of Anarchy, has acted in over 42 titles including but not limited to Gladiator, Sin City, and the Smokin' Aces movies. He is most easily recognizable from other Scotch players by the marks on his face that seem to extend out from the corners of his face. The reason I mention his facial marks is because I wonder how and why he got them?
 In my recent study of torture, I learned of something called The Glasgow Smile and all of a sudden, I was able to put two and two together.

The Glasgow Smile also known as a Glasgow grin, Chelsea grin, Cheshire grin or Chelsea smile is a form of torture usually administered with a utility knife or a piece of broken glass. In Flanagan's case, it was administered with a knife while he was walking home from the nightclub where he worked as a DJ but at a nightclub: A fight breaks out, someone breaks a bottle and boom you have Heath Ledger as The Joker born in hatred.


In Flanagan's case, he lived through the experience and with the help of actor, theater owner and soccer pal, Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty, Trainspotting) He used this distinctive look to his advantage and became a very famous actor because of it. However, for most who receive the Glasgow smile, they die from exsanguination or bleeding out if they leave it untreated.  Even Flanagan admits in an article written about him called, "Where the ride takes you," "it was a wrong place at the wrong time sort of thing. I was D.O.A. when I arrived at the hospital, but somehow I was given a second chance, and that second chance gave me a new outlook on life, and is what really got me into acting.”

The face has numerous veins and blood vessels and slicing the ones in the cheek cuts open a main artery and a main vein causing blood to leave the body at a potentially exponential rate.  If you look at the example below, you'll see branches off the jugular veins and arteries that lead back directly to the heart.

Flanagan was born in the town where it originated which, although it does not guarantee him seeing it done to him, it does put him smack dab in the middle of a town sick enough to come up with the idea of cutting a person from the corners of their mouth to the bottoms of their ears in an attempt to kill or cause them extreme pain...

Glasgow, in its humble beginnings was nothing but "a small rural settlement" but in its haste, it became not only one of the largest cities in Scotland, one of the largest seaports in the world but also a major center for Scottish enlightenment. With the enlightenment, both the good and the bad become more creative. Good people paint pictures, write books, and create centers of industry and trade while bad people make gangs that try to literally emblazon joy onto your face like a Cheshire cat.

Although the enlightened Scottish invented the monstrosity, the English street gangs liked the creativity and adopted it as their own; most notably the Chelsea Headhunters, a London based soccer fan club that resorted to violence earning their title of fanatic.


So every time you see, Tommy Flanagan in Sons..., see his scar and know somebody tried to make him smile and that's why he and other victims of this cruel and unusual punishment end up either scarred for life or smiling to death.