Thoughts on a Documenatry I watched about Scarification
67Scarifiaction
The other morning I awoke to find myself picking at my forehead and it felt really sore!! Ahhh! And when I looked in the mirror there was a bloody gash in my forehead about half an inch long! …. I am hoping it will not scar.
What happened!? I do not know! All I know is before I went to sleep I was watching a documentary about Scarification. Scarification was practised initially by ancient tribes, amongst other things used as a rites of passage ritual, and also Identification with their tribe. It is popular amongst some people now in Western Society and used as another alternative to the tattoo.
There are a few processes of Scarification one of them involves cutting the skin using a Scalpel in a design the client chooses, the way the Scar forms after this process is the way that the end painting will appear on a canvas, the Scalpel is the Paintbrush, and the scar is the paint.
One of the processes I saw on the documentary was a girl who had a heart shape hole punched out of the top of her ear, they had to put a stud of metal in the shape of the heart in the place where the skin was missing as the skin would have tried to grow back and heal itself. Isn’t skin amazing it can heal itself, I know if one gets a splinter in their finger the skin will try to push it out.
So is deliberately scarring oneself a form of mutilation?! Of course what one does to ones own body is ones own choice, I respect the fact that we all have choice, but I wouldn’t deliberately do that to my body, (so I choose to do it subconsciously whilst sleeping as in the night after I watched the Documentary, Ha… hmm).
I suspect some have it done to make a statement and some just to decorate their bodies not even thinking about trying to be different, but in a way I would say Scarification is still being used as identification with a tribe, whether that is a tribe of people who are seeking an alternative lifestyle or to say that they are different then the mainstream. Many do not want to be trapped in the mainstream, but is what they are doing to their bodies making them trapped in another culture? Everyone wants to be different but some of the things that are done to express ones individuality can actually diminish the uniqueness they are seeking to portray, because by scarifying their bodies they are putting themselves in the same tribe as all the other people who scarify, like sheep who are branded into one tribe. But then that’s Human nature isn’t it, we are all like sheep really, we are all made to follow as well as lead, the key to being unique is to follow something that isn’t trapped by any culture.
National Geographic Tribal Scarification
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I may not be cool but I think this is sick. Not your Hub—it's fine and well done. But self-mutilation strikes me as not a good sign about someone's mental health. :)
Prasetio that sounds a pretty scary story too! hopefully I will write some more soon :)
James yes some do think that, glad you like the hub.
thinking about scarification has set me thinking about all sorts of things which I may write some more about, one of them being self harm (people who cut themselves) why they do it etc. and the differences between that and scarification.
I have never seen this in person,although I have heard many people have done this. I did once do a haircut on a young boy maybe 17 who had burned a wrench into his arm-it was gross and all infected looked like 1/4 deep.To each his own-but there are many better ways to express yourself.
prasetio30 Level 8 Commenter 2 years ago
thanks for share your experience. It looks scary things. But There is a story that unreasonable, when a woman get nine months pregnant just one night. Tomorrow the baby was gone. This is like your experience, but the difference is you had bloody gash in my forehead about half an inch long. great another story from you.