Joseph Merrick
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|---|---|
| Name: | Joseph Merrick |
| Date of Birth: | August 5th 1862 |
| Occupation: | Various (including freak show performer) |
| Ethnicity: | White (English) |
Joseph Merrick (also known as the Elephant man) was one of the first well documented protocels, his inceldom was a result of his severe facial deformities, caused by a condition known as Proteus syndrome, a condition with fewer than 200 documented cases.[1]
He is used as an example of ugliness both inside the incelosphere and outside it. In terms of aesthetic appearance, not only does Merrick fall into the bottom decile, he is sufficiently ugly to qualify as the bottom percentile. Most incelospherians would designate him as a genuine truecel.
Early life[edit | edit source]
Born in the summer of 1862 in Leicester (England), he seemed like a healthy child for his first few years. At the age of 2, he began having irregular bone growth around his forehead and upper lip. His mother believed this was the result of an incident she had with an elephant during her pregnancy, Joseph would also end up believing his mother's theory, this is the origin of his nickname "Elephant man". Joseph's condition caused severe bone deformities, he couldn't properly walk and had to sleep by sitting down and slouching his head forward, if he were to lie on his back, he would die. His mother died when he was 10 years old, an event he would deem as his greatest life tragedy. When he was 12, his father forced him to work as a door-to-door salesman, he was unable to make successful sales or appeal to potential customers due to his looks, his father would blame him and beat him for this. At the age of 17, Joseph ran from home and went to go live in a Leicester workhouse.[2][3]
Adulthood[edit | edit source]
Around the age of 22, Joseph began performing in freakshows to make a living, he was advertised as "the Elephant man", he did not enjoy this life, he was even once robbed of all of his life savings. In 1884, he moved to London where he was eventually accepted into a hospital in 1887, where he would live for the rest of his life. His life then took a turn for the better, he finally had a safe place to stay where he could enjoy his hobbies (constructing models of buildings, writing/reading prose and poetry), he even met members of the British Royal family on a few occasions.[2][3]
In 1890, at the age of 27, Joseph passed away after attempting to lie down on his back, his death is widely considered to have been an accident, not a suicide. He simply wanted to sleep like everyone else does.[3]