Body Mutilations

Body Mutilations and Suicidal Acts and Behaviors

PSY 2012
Spring 2008

By:

Word Count: 3,018

First is the body mutilation or modifications. There are many types of body mutilations such as tattooing, branding, scarification, transdermal implants which are implants that are passing through skin, sub dermal implants which are implants that are placed underneath the skin to create a 3D look popping out of the skin. More types of mutilations and modifications are tongue splitting, ear reshaping, silicone injections, amputations, body building, plastic surgery, flesh suspensions and pulling which are where big hooks are pierced through the skin to hold you off of the ground or to be pulled from, and finally the ritual types of cutting (351). Some people would say that body building and plastic surgery aren’t types of mutilation of the body but if you think about it they both are. Anything that has to do with your body that isn’t natural is a type of body mutilation or modification. Some are way more extreme than others and when I say extreme I mean extreme like hanging from giant hooks from the ceilings to the not so extreme such as a normal ear piercing. Any type of body mutilation or modification isn’t good for your body, yes they are trendy or what’s in style but none the less when you are altering the way your body looks or appears isn’t good for oneself. For example I have 4 tattoos and stretched earlobes, both are considered body modifications. The tattoos that I have are to me a sense of style that makes me different from everyone else and it explains a different time in my life where I felt that I was free and didn’t have to worry about what people thought. There are many things that could go wrong from tattooing such as blood borne pathogens, and the transmissions of diseases such as HIV, CDC, hepatitis, but those are risks that you are willing to take in order to get a tattoo (124). Plus these bad things that could happen rarely ever happen to...