Anatomy of The Wrestling Mask
The original wrestling masks were often masks attached to a top that snapped in the groin making it very uncomfortable for the people wearing it. If the masks were not attached to the top, then they were made from uncomfortable material such as brushed pig skin, leather or suede. It wasn't until a Mexican shoe maker called Antonio Martinez created a mask on request from Charro Aguayo that would become the standard for wrestling masks created since then. The basic design has not changed much over the years, consisting of four pieces of fabric sewn together to create the basic shape that covers the entire head. The mask has openings for the eyes, nose and mouth with colorful trim around the open features, this trim is known as "Antifaz" in Spanish. The back of the mask is open with a "tongue" of fabric under laces to keep it tight enough to not come off accidentally during a match. The first variation in style came when the jaw and mouth area was removed from the mask to expose the skin. Other masks have solid material over the mouth, nose, eyes or all three, in the case of fabric covering the eyes a stretched fabric that is see through up-close is used.
Originally being made from fabric masks have evolved and are now made from a variety of materials from cotton to nylon to various vinyls in all the shades of the rainbow. Several additions have been made to the mask decorations over the years with the most prevalent and visually striking being foam horns and fake hair attached to the mask. Artificial ears are also commonly used, especially if the mask has an animal motif such as a tiger.
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Famous quotes containing the words anatomy, wrestling and/or mask:
“But a man must keep an eye on his servants, if he would not have them rule him. Man is a shrewd inventor, and is ever taking the hint of a new machine from his own structure, adapting some secret of his own anatomy in iron, wood, and leather, to some required function in the work of the world. But it is found that the machine unmans the user. What he gains in making cloth, he loses in general power.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We laugh at him who steps out of his room at the very moment when the sun steps out, and says: “I will the sun to rise”; and at him who cannot stop the wheel, and says: “I will it to roll”; and at him who is taken down in a wrestling match, and says: “I lie here, but I will that I lie here!” And yet, all laughter aside, do we ever do anything other than one of these three things when we use the expression, “I will”?”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Mediocrity is the most effective mask a superior spirit can wear, because to the great majority, which is to say, to the mediocre, it will not suggest a disguise:—and yet it is precisely for their sake that he puts it on—so as not to arouse them, and, indeed, not infrequently to avoid this out of pity and benevolence.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)