The Curious Case of the Cutaneous Horn Women

Wikipedia describes a Cutaneous Horn as “an unusual keratinous skin tumor with the appearance of horns, or sometimes of wood or coral. Cutaneous horns are usually small and localized, but can in very rare cases be much larger.”

The cause of these “horns” is not known, but believed to be radiation exposure (like sunlight). An alternative explanation, as put forth by this dude, is SATAN.

Check out this lady. Zhang Ruifang, aged 101 (Linlou Village, China’s Henan province), has grown a cutaneous horn on her forehead. (“The Devils Horns!” as everybody calls them). The growth is 6 cm in length.

If you look closely you’ll notice that there’s another growing on the right side of her forehead. (Is this Hellboy’s mom?)

Another woman in China had a similar affliction back in 2007. Her name was Xiou Ling and her horn was 12cm in length:

At the time, the family was saving money to get the horn removed. As of 2010, we can’t find any more info on her.

Also curious is this image going around:

We have no idea who this “unicorn woman” is but she looks nothing like this:

Which makes us very sad.

It seems like this woman is examined in a book somewhere. If that blurb is to be believed, the horn was 17 cm long(!) before being surgically removed. Damn.