npr:

bitchitoldyouigottaste:

Some photos of WWI veterans with their tin masks, some surviving pieces, and a couple WWI plastic surgery photographs. Sorry if this offends you somehow; I find it fascinating.

Because of advances made in medicine, in WWI far more soldiers were surviving disfiguring facial injuries than ever before; this led to the rise in cosmetic surgery and prosthetics- the masks, though more aesthetically appealing than the early plastic surgery, were unsettling because they obviously didn’t move with the wearer’s face, creating a dead-eyed, doll like look. They fell out of favor by WWII, but many men who had received tin masks kept and used them for life.

I appreciate that they incorporated this bit of history into “Boardwalk Empire” via the Richard Harrow character.