Facial wounds (Jack applying beauty surgery)

Jack's beauty treatment:

Spoiler:

From the above analysis, it is worth noting that, of the nine or so cuts to Eddowes’ face, most appear to have been inflicted completely at random. Only the “inverted Vs” seem to have been deliberately placed, but this is almost certainly artefactual as we shall see. The rest is just so much slashing and scoring, far from symmetrical, and these mutilations aren’t in any way delicate or “designed”. Indeed, Jack appears to have been experimenting with Eddowes and, savage though they are, her facial wounds appear almost “playful”, and certainly lacking in design or forethought.

Many authors have made the “clown’s mask” analogy, or similar, to describe the mutilations, but it’s very unlikely that Jack set out with any preconceived “pattern” in mind. Indeed, any pattern that emerged could just as easily have occurred by accident. The killer seems largely to have improvised and little of what Dr Brown reports suggests anything particularly controlled or deliberate. On the contrary, the killer was simply hacking across the features, inflicting random cuts and wielding his knife violently in different directions and angles, combining almost side-to-side slashes with a deep, scoring action on those occasions he cut through bone or gum.

The nicks to the eyelids were executed inconsistently and are differently placed—the one to the left eye penetrating the top eyelid and being more-or-less central, the one on the right cutting the lower eyelid only, off-centre and closer to the bridge of the nose. If a “deliberate” placement had been attempted, one would expect the wounds to have been more-or-less equidistant from the bridge of the nose, of somewhat similar length, and achieving a more consistent penetration into the underlying tissues. It is significant that they exhibit none of these qualities. In fact, it is as if Jack merely attempted to close Kate’s eyes with the tip of his knife and, in the process, nicked the eyelids to varying degrees.

As to the rest of her facial mutilations, the cuts zigzag everywhere. As a by-product of one such cut, the tip of Eddowes’ nose was sliced off. As a by-product of another, her upper lip and gum were cut through. There was a further, isolated, horizontal cut running parallel with the lower lip on the right hand side, but no corresponding cut on the left.

The vast majority of her facial wounds were clearly not placed at all, but randomly slashed into the skin. This is not to deny that the killer deliberately inflicted those wounds—of course he did, but only in the sense that he deliberately intended to mutilate. Beyond that, the manner of execution was almost entirely random and any perceived symmetry was a mere by-product of the natural symmetry and topology of the face.

Why around the nose like that, though?

I think he was just randomly thinking of what he could cut on the face. The nose seems obvious to cut off if you play around with a knife and a face, like you do.

Expressions of anger, hatred. Instead of hitting the victim with a fist a knife is used. More damaging, not as noisy as a blunt object.
Mordke may be right about the eyes. Since JtR is a misogynist paranoid, why would he want her watching him?

I agree. Hacking up the face removes her identity and is somewhat ideal for taking out his (what must have been immense) rage and insanity. Also it provides another method of attempting to reach his darkest desires which evolve over time into what effectively is MJK. Yet even with almost imaginable destruction, JtR will never reach his fantasy.