My continuing fascination with scarification

Caution, all of the following links are NSFW, and will not be easy to take if you have a weak stomach.

Scarification intrigues me immensely. In terms of cultural precedent, it seems to sit where tattooing did 60-odd years ago. Where tattoos have become heavily co-opted by the mainstream, and taken to the level of irony, scarification remains entirely fringe. Like ink once was, it's the domain of the circus freak and weirdo. Proper scarification requires not only intense ability to accept, even revere, pain, the wounds have to be left to heal by their own power, so you can't touch the massive gaping cuts they leave. However, some more extreme people will deliberately slow healing in order to trigger the creation of extra scar tissue.

Scarification is one of the few things that can raise an instant gasp of pain/shock in me. Can you imagine the removal of that much skin? Some designs are gorgeously intricate, of metaphorical potency, and this one reminds me of nothing so much as Islamic architecture.

Keep in mind, all of these are done without anaesthesia. This is to some extent due due to the view that the pain is part of the process, but also the lack of legal anaesthetics due to the dubious status of the process. See, scarification is borderline illegal. It nears the line of surgery without any clinical benefit, undertaken by professionals without any formal training in the area, and occasionally questionable sterility. It is a procedure of the medical wastelands, the habit of freaks and geeks. And holy shit does it sometimes look beautiful.

While healing, it can look a little terrifying, but you cannot argue with some of the outcomes. Here's a sequence of healing process from start to finish: 1, 2, 3.

As you can no doubt tell, scarification produces an incredibly mixed reaction in me. Seeing the cuts makes me wince in pain, and the thought of getting it done is just about unfathomable in terms of the trauma it would produce. On the other hand, the product, both freshly cut and fully healed, is so beautiful that I find it astonishing. It really is something that I could never do, but I can admire.