Photo of matador Julio Aparicio impaled by bull’s horn through his chin and out through his mouth is one of the most iconic bullfighting images. We’ve had it posted on Best Gore before but I didn’t publish any backstory with it so I’m gonna remedy it now and include a couple of videos of the incident too.

As was the case with Juan Jose Padilla’s goring, Julio Aparicio’s bull had already been pierced with several banderillas and was ready to be killed when he got his revenge. Julio Aparicio unexpectedly stumbled, bull took fast advantage of it, charged the bullrider and gored him with his pointy horn right through the throat. The bull had the matador nicely hooked on the horn – had the beast flung his head backwards, like an emo kid with hair obstructed vision – Julio Aparicio would have been sent on a swan dive across the Las Ventas bullring where the event, which was part of Madrid’s San Isidro festival was held.

Julio Aparicio had to undergo two operation to save his life. Unfortunately for the bull, he was not so lucky. Props to Nicole for the videos:

One more video: