Can you point me in the direction of the straight line in the attached image?
Great, now I have to find a graphic program to paint lines in the pic and I am so untalented with those things.
But if you look at the outer right, you see the cut starts with a round shape (entry point of the blade) and goes straight down and to the right.
Parallel and to the left of it to it, you see another cut, also going straight from the start point down and right in the pic.
The next pattern are three overlapping cuts, each of them straight but short except for #5, which shows in about the middle a little folding up of skin (I am not sure, whether this is from the original cut or from the puzzel work, the ME did here).
#6 and #7 are both to the left of the group #3-#5. Both are straight cuts, but #7 is more in a downward-left direction. which indicates, the killer sat a little too near.
Under #7, you see #8 and #9 in a perpendicular pattern. Interesting in it is, #8 runs also perpendicular to the skin tension, so with any kind of muscle tension, this one would be gaping. #8 is so straight, you can lay a ruler at it.
And so it goes on and on. I hope that helps.
I am having a hard time finding the straight line.
Again, start on the right side of the pic. Or wait, till I found a graphic program and I find a way to paint it in the photo with some kind of bright neon color for you.
Also, what if the victim was unconscious, sedated, or anesthetized? Couldn't you then cut them without muscle reaction? How do tattoo artists draw straight lines with their needle on living customers? (I actually don't know the answer to this)
Tattoo artists needle ink in the skin layers. So two effects come to bear for them:
a.) They can correct the straight line while under way, which is impossible with a blade.
b.) Tattoos are not so deep as those cuts, so the pain is a lot less.
Normal unconsciousness wouldn't be enough to prevent "hard-wired" muscle tension. The problem here is the reflex wiring of the nerves. You can suppress, what runs via your brain, but you can't prevent what goes through the nerve shortcut via your spine. And if someone could help me out with the correct English terms for that, I would appreciate it.
Sedating would only knock out conscious reactions, not unconscious. So you would need full scale full anesthetics at least. Which would mean, at least a permanent drip and knowledge how to use it.