The occipital ridge is the region at the back of the head where the base of the skull meets the spine.
This general area is quite vulnerable, and as such offensive maneuvers (esp. in martial arts) have been created to target the occipital ridge. If the occipital ridge is hit with sufficient force, it will cause immediate blackout. Only trained combatants should consider this tactic as a mistake is capable of causing death.
Famous quotes containing the words occipital and/or ridge:
“in the absence of feet, “a method of conclusions”;
“a knowledge of principles,”
in the curious phenomenon of your occipital horn.”
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972)
“I hate journalists. There is nothing in them but tittering jeering emptiness. They have all made what Dante calls the Great Refusal.... The shallowest people on the ridge of the earth.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)