SI and Body Art

It is a matter of some debate whether body art (tattooing, piercing, scarification) can be regarded as SI. I believe that it can be in some cases.

As with most things in life, what is normal, acceptable and right for some people may become unhealthy for others. For one person, piercing their ears (or anywhere else), having a tattoo or scarifying the skin may be a way of making their body beautiful, mere decoration and nothing more. For someone else though, it may become an addiction, a way of coping with pain, of making them "tough" to withstand pain, something they cannot stop but have only socially sanctioned. The latter I would class as SI.

The debate over whether body art can ever be seen as SI has continued, I think, because those people who are heavily into body art, who tattoo, pierce or scarify large parts of their bodies, have already come in for a great deal of (undeserved) criticism for their choice to do so. The charge that they are "secret SIers" may be used as yet another means of attacking their choice, saying that there is something wrong with someone choosing to decorate their body. That is not my intention - maybe 99% of people who have used body art are not doing so as a method of SI (even those who do SI and have piercings etc may not be using body art as a method of SI) but I do think some may be using body art as a means of SI.

The second reason why there is a reluctance to say body art devotees may be SIers is that that makes it rather harder to detect. It is easy to look at a line of scars or burns up someone's arm and say "they're an SIer", but not so easy to look at a tattoo and say that. To acknowledge body art as a potential source of SI is to complicate things a little more. But someone might just as easily SI through the services of another as by their own hand. Or they may begin by wanting to decorate their bodies, but end up addicted to the feeling, using it as a means of letting out negative emotion, and other traits of SI.

I doubt there are very many people who use body art to SI, though, mainly because if any body artist suspected his/her client was doing it for those reasons, they would (I hope) refuse to work on them. It is generally easier (and cheaper) to SI by yourself, as well as producing greater effects - such as blood, which is not around in vast quantities if you get tattooed or pierced for instance. If we are to define body art as a potential SI behaviour, we must, I think, acknowledge that it may develop into SI, but is unlikely to start off as it.

Links

Please be aware that the Body Modification Ezine deals with "extreme" body art, and contains content and photographs of this, including of scarification, which may be offensive or triggering.

Scarification Experiences (warning: includes pictures & descriptions) from the Body Modification Ezine

Scarification FAQ from the Body Modification Ezine

When Does Modification become Mutilation? essay from the Body Modification Ezine

If you know of any other links I can put here, I'd be grateful.