I did a year as a meat cutter out of high school.
My hands were constantly soaked in blood.
We didn’t wear gloves in those days.
I got warts on my hands that year but never had cracked skin.
After I quit I never got warts again.
When I was about 20 I worked in a little plastics factory. Across the street was a poultry processing plant. One night on break outside I met a kid (16? 17?) who worked at the processing plant.
His hands were the biggest mess of cracks and callouses I have ever seen from plucking feathers. Worse than the hands of any logger, rancher or any kind of worker I have ever met and mean guys who had been doing their jobs for decades.
That kid really impressed me that he would suffer that much to keep his job. He was hoping their was an opening at the plastics factory and I felt bad telling him there wasn’t.