This man likes to punish himself with the 220 antique torture instruments he owns.

Steve Santini has the largest collection of torture devices in the world and keeps them at his home in Ontario, Canada.

They include guillotines, whips, thumbscrews and finger presses.

He tried the finger press out on himself and it didn’t go too well.

‘When I began to tighten the finger press, it felt uncomfortable but after a while the digit just felt sort of numb,’ he said.

‘This should have been a warning sign to stop but instead I tightened the device further and did some rather agonising damage to myself. And yes, that was my finger cracking.

Mr Santini, a former escape artist, said the most painful torture device in his collection was probably the shin crusher.

He added: ‘This is a vice that by screw power slowly crushes the shin bone.

‘I have three different versions of the shin crusher in my collection and all of them send shivers up my spine.’

Despite his apparent enthusiasm for the devices, Mr Santini claims he does not really like them.

‘I do not love these instruments,’ he said.

‘In fact, I find many of them repulsive. That said, I collect them because I am fascinated with the creatures that created and used them.

‘We have not changed as a species. Sure, our technology may have evolved but we have not. We are still the greed driven, paranoid, superstitious species we have always been.’

‘It is these very traits that are the lifeblood of torture. This is the fuel that births it, feeds it, and allows it to somehow become ‘morally acceptable’.’

Mr Santini hopes to gain the Guinness World Record for most antique torture instruments owned by one person.

He is currently waiting to hear back from officials.

Source:
courtesy of METRO

by Jimmy Nsubuga

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