Visual Vocabulary: Rictus

Rictus: a gaping grimace. As in, "Billy Bob's rictus showed both his pain and a lack of good dental care." (Perhaps Billy Bob could be related to this sigogglin Honey Boo Boo).

I've been sitting on this word for a while, and I couldn't figure out how to make it different enough from the sigogglin illustration I did, so I just left it alone for a while. Enter a bout of insomnia one night last week, and my go-to multitasking insomnia activity is figuring out what my next word illustration will be. I happened to remember this photo my brother had posted on Facebook about a hockey goalie whose mouth had an unfortunate and painful looking run-in with a puck. (Found it, but be forewarned it's fairly gross). "Hmm, how can I use that?" I thought. ENTER: The Rictus Stopper! 

Because a hockey mask isn't creepy enough on its own, the Rictus Stopper is an aspirational (of sorts), rictus preventing hockey mask that shows what one's mouth would look like if they played hockey without a goalie mask. Or if they were Hannibal Lecter with a goalie mask. 

Visual Vocabulary is a project I created for myself in which I attempt to sear new words into my memory by illustrating them.