Did this originally have an NC-17 rating?

I vaguely remember seeing TV spots to this back in 1993. However, at the end of the spot, instead of a rating, a voiceover said "CONTAINS GRAPHIC VIOLENCE AND GORE" or something to that extent. The newspaper ad had a disclaimer saying, "Due to shocking nature of this movie, no one under 17 will be admitted". My thought was is that it got rated NC-17 and the studio chose to surrender the rating, because NC-17 is the scarlet letter of the MPAA.

Could anyone confirm this? Personally, I think this could have squeaked through with an R rating. I'm not saying it should've have a wide audience, but maybe it could've been more of a box office hit in limited release had it had an R instead of no rating, since no rating movies are treated as NC-17 movies.

BLACKOUT!