If you were to get scalped and survive the procedure, what health complications would you likely face with a permanently exposed skull bone?

Necrosis or osteomyelitis usually. Often the hair grew back though, if the skull is intact. You can thank the government and English colonists for the popularity increasin, since they offered bounties for indian scalps.

Depends on how far down the scalp went. if it went all the way to the bone, you could have all sorts of issues. You would be breaking the meninges which protect the skull and the spinal column. It contains fluids that help act as a shock absorber. If you have a break in this you can have debilitating head aches and possibly spinal troubles in addition to what @KNOWITALL gave us.

I think that once the wound is shut and the scalp is solid bone (which is pretty dense) then the risk of infection is low.

However, that process – from open wound to healed bone – would be fraught with danger.

@ragingloli are you planning to scalp someone soon?

@elbanditoroso are you volunteering?

It’s one way of getting a head in the world.

The bone would not be permanently exposed. Granulation tissue would grow on the bone.

Infections up the wazoo!

Many scalpings were only a narrow section of scalp, not the whole thing.
The French were the ones who came up with the idea and taught/told the Indians.