Scar Tattooing: A Whole New Kind of Nasty
Apparently tattooing and good old-fashioned piercing aren’t enough for the kids these days. When I was a whippersnapper, we got Prince Alberts and huge tattoos we couldn’t really afford and we called it a day. Somebody’s always gotta keep ahead of the curve, though, and get something bigger, nastier, and more painful.
Like this young lady, who is probably going to get bored with herself in a year or two and get a manhole cover installed in her lower lip.
Apparently, that’s not red ink. That’s SCAR TISSUE. My friend Natasha sent me these photos which have been circulating Down Under for a while … no explanation, just these images of a potentially lovely young lady having her back scarred to look like bamboo. The following photos show the work in progress and should NOT be viewed by my mother or anyone who is trying to eat in the next few hours.
You’ve been warned.
That photo up there — it’s the freaking SKIN from her BACK. UGH. You can see the little pile of used razor blades in the right-hand corner there. The skin itself looks like pork rinds or earthworms, doesn’t it? You could catch a hell of a catfish with that stuff.
September 14th, 2006 at 7:33 am
Jesus Christ Jeff, it’s gonna take about three hours of cuteoverload.com to get over this one.
-Katie
September 14th, 2006 at 7:53 am
HOLY FUCKING SHIT, I think those are the White Cliffs of Dover there in the background across the water. My god, that’s an AMAZING natural wonder. Ever been there?
September 14th, 2006 at 8:37 am
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.
September 14th, 2006 at 9:34 am
ummm..that disclaimer….well its just not quite stong enuff…
September 14th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
I skimmed this, went on about my life, and am still haunted by it hours later…
*shudder* That’s a pile of skin! *shudder*
September 14th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Wow, seriously that is one of the most disturbing, vile things I have ever seen–wow.
September 14th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
scarring has actually been around for quite awhile. usually they put ash on the cuts to make the scars 3 dimensional.
September 14th, 2006 at 8:19 pm
That girl is such a wuss. I totally got a Scotch pine in scar tissue on my ass, then lit myself on fire to make it look even cooler.
September 15th, 2006 at 5:02 am
down south the signs in that neighborhood read: “Now, this aint no shit…..”
September 15th, 2006 at 6:55 am
Mmmm… Bacon…
September 15th, 2006 at 10:49 am
Catching catfish…you are a gas.
September 15th, 2006 at 8:10 pm
I just had dinner. Thanks. Thanks a lot. I hope your mother doesn’t read this blog.
September 16th, 2006 at 10:01 am
oh holy Lord of mine!
September 16th, 2006 at 9:39 pm
Finally! Tatoos just weren’t difficult enough to remove. Now this is disfiguring.
September 18th, 2006 at 9:00 am
this is truly sick
February 27th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
I think it looks beautiful and you all are a bunch of fucking pussies for bitching
if you think this is offensive check out http://www.b0g.org
March 9th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Can we see her face?
March 15th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Hey, that’s me! I thought it was funny someone mentioned a lip plate, I have a 00g hole in it already. To set the record straight, I’m not a pain freak. I really don’t like being in pain, I just dealt with it to get the end result. Scarification has been around for a very long time, long before western culture decided to call me crazy for trying it. The pain is mind over matter…you just deal and at some point it’s over.
Here is my myspace page if you wish to contact me further:
This is Jeff here, making an edit on 1.22.09 in response to this request: “Could you remove my myspace link from my comment? My mother is having a total breakdown because these photos are getting emailed to her small gossipy hometown. I would prefer to not have my last name or face associated with anything at this point.”
March 19th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
i’d love to have something like that
March 24th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Score one for Team Culturally Ignorant. As if scarification is a fun and new thing. The human body is meant to scar. I’d say it’s a hell of a lot weirder to be one of those creeps who meticulously applies Mederma to reverse the body’s natural healing processes.
I think this is a beautiful piece of work and to write about it as if it’s a rape scene or pile of dead babies is unfair and exemplifies cultural ignorance.
March 24th, 2007 at 9:44 am
i think it’s pretty. i wouldn’t do it to myself, but it’s definitly artwork on what i’d think would be a tough medium to work with.
March 24th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Oh for fuck’s sake, just grow up and grow a set already. You know what I think is disgusting? Women who go in and have facelifts, boob jobs, fat sucked out of them, etc. Why aren’t you posting pictures of the jars of fat from lipsuction? Or the discarded skin and tissue from tummy-tucks and rhinoplasties? Oh, that’s right… let’s point at the people who are embracing artistic forms of expression, rather than trying to look 20 years younger than they actually are. And for what? Validation. People who don’t love themselves are the ones who get plastic surgery. THOSE are the sickos you should be talking shit about, assclown.
March 24th, 2007 at 11:53 am
So it’s a girl expressing herself…big deal, she’s not hurting anyone. Noones making you do it or look at it, and it’s shallow minded people like you who make the world a worse place. It’s not something I want to do, but the end result is stunning, and if she has the balls to be who she wants to be, then good on her. I’m glad you put on the warning about not eating in the next few hours though, your ignorance makes me sick.
March 24th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Hi. I actually am the person who owns this blog. I’ve gotten a number of aggressive and vehemently hateful comments from some of you guys, and I can’t say that I appreciate it very much. For people that want tolerance and understanding and all these peaceful things, those of you that left the aforementioned comments are not setting a very good example.
When I reread that post, I am pretty embarrassed, myself. It came out much more negatively than I meant it to. I stand by the fact that I think that process is gross, and I really don’t understand it, but I do wish I’d worded it in a way that seemed less judgmental. I have a giant tattoo on my back, myself, and I feel the same way I imagine my parents felt when I got my back done.
I think the girl pictured in those photos handled herself the best out of any of us involved in this little conversation — she sid something nice that made me think twice about myself and left a link for further discussion. She didn’t hide behind a screenname and say anything hateful.
We had a pretty respectful back-and-forth for a little while, and she consented to be interviewed on my blog. I sent her a list of questions that she has not yet read or responded to, but I hope she does. I’ll learn something, and my audience will, too.
And hopefully anyone — myself included — will learn not to be such an instinctive hater. It’s really unpleasant and it makes the whole situation so much worse. If you want to be understood, be understanding. That’s what I’ve learned here — from her positive example and from the few of you that have set a negative one.
March 25th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Well done, Jeff. While I don’t know how you could have not realized your original comments were tasteless and borderline offensive to many modified people, I do appreciate you being mature enough to acknowledge it.
There are many things in the mod scene that I understand or see the attraction to, but there is so much beauty to found as well.
I look forward to reading the interview.
March 28th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
I wish I was brave enough to have something like that done. I bet it feels cool when you run your fingers across the art. It’s Beautiful. Anyway, I believe If the world wasn’t full of brave, beautiful, ugly, wierd and normal people we would be so boring.
April 5th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
I don’t think theres anything really that wrong with it I actually was thinking of getting it done and wanted to see what other people had(which is how I stumbled upon these cool pictures),Nothing big or flashy like the bamboo or the chinese fish that covered a womans entire theigh.I actually was browsing around and came across a picture of a very cute girl..with the Apple(yes the computer guys)Apple symbol verrry half assed and clearly done by herself on her arm,Which had several slashes accross her forearm(cough cutter cough!).Some proffessionals can actually numb it for people who don’t want the “rush” and just want the end results.If you want it great if you don’t thats fine too but you know,Don’t knock it til’ you try it..Oh almost forgot if anyone wants to discuss it further my E-mail is Sephiroth13lack@aol.com
May 24th, 2007 at 9:47 am
doesnt look that nice while its being done but i think when its finished it looks realy nice.
not the kind of thing that i’ll get done though
September 18th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
this is fucking nasty.. you are not a woman your a disgrace of a human.. cutting your skin off so it looks like bamboo or whatever the fuck you decided to put on your back is not only ugly but un-sanitary… you should have taken one of those razor blades and cut your wrists you stupid fuck of a woman… hope you get an infection and die!
January 5th, 2009 at 2:58 am
WTF?! who would do that? Very gross and you should not have cut yourself just to get some weird ugly looking bamboo thing on your back! It kind of looks like a horror show the way you did it.. lady, your crazy! Theres blood and stuff everywhere, its plain nasty!
February 15th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
i’ve wondered if thats possible before, but those pics, uuugghgg that is pretty fucking nasty shit right there
February 28th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
I think this is cool… definitely different. but who are you people to criticize? you go gurrrrl, do whatever you want, it is the 21st century.
March 18th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
Jonathan Says:
April 5th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Don’t knock it til’ you try it
Umm, I don’t have to cut my skin off before I’m allowed to knock it. You should get the head of your dick tattooed and pierced. You might like it. You can’t say you won’t because you haven’t tried it. And if it’s something you might potentially like, you should totally do it. Are you doing it? Do it now. Why aren’t you doing it?! Closed minded asshole!
March 30th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
That is amazing! The fact that someone would sacrifice so much pain for that work of art is incredible. It takes a brave and passionate woman to do that. She totally wins over Van Gough. <33
April 8th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I guess that the ONLY thing we have….that is really ours…is our respective bodies, and as such , no-one but us has control over it.We should be able to do to our bodies what we wish.
in an accident[maybe?]
Having said that,I wouldn’t do this….some parents I know have been freaked out majorly when their kids have had this done…and rightly so.
But the question must be asked…Is it an expression of you, is it a rebellion..or is it just another fashion?
For the last reason ..I have not gotten [nor contemplated] a Tattoo [tho I DO have a pierced earlobe].THAT IS my choice….and even tho I have [at times] been encouraged to get tattooed…I probably won’t.
The only practical reason [as I see it]if I DID, would be that my body would be more easily identifiable
Morbid thought tho.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Just beautiful, amazing artist.. i’m jealous
April 28th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
i think in the end it looks pretty damn cool, very painfull. i would not have the tolerance to do it, but whoever does then the more power to ya. and i think that this is another form of art and its amazing. not everyone can like the same thing, that would be boring.
if you dont like it then dont look i guess, thats how i feel about it.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
This is freaking sweet looking. I wouldnt do it myself….well nothing THAT big. For all you haters…stfu. You live once! The process of this is gross…but the outcome is freaking awesome.
Kudos to you girl! WHOO!
April 29th, 2009 at 11:21 am
You know, it almost makes me want to cry when I see how blatantly hateful, judgmental, and cruel people can be. Props to the author of this post for going back and apologizing for his tone, but shame on anyone here slandering the poor girl. YOU are the disgusting ones; at least we, the modified, have the guts to change our bodies in a way that makes us happy, without shame.
On an informational level, for the record, scarification is not terribly painful; I have around 12 hours of tattoos on my rib cage alone, and every minute of it was horribly painful. By contrast, I hardly felt the scarification I have on my hip/stomach while it was in progress.
May 7th, 2009 at 5:25 am
seriously?!?! WHY the hell do ANY of you think it’s within your rights to critique her?!!?
) i hope all is well for you and you may also contact me via the e-mail adress provided above 
positive or negitive wise, you have no riht, i respect the publisher [Jeff] for his maturity in accepting that it was her choice and that it was not deliberately put on his blog to have IDIOTS throw bigg headed antagonistic remarks at her, it’s her choice yes i will express my opinian in that i would most likly get a smaller or line based one as well, but I’m not critisiing her!!
it’s bloody pathetic when a 15 year old kid has more maturity then cyber freaks like you that have nothing better to do then throw pea brained judgments and insults at her, just coz she’d have bigger balls than you
to the editer i think it’s amazing you found such fantastic pictures and reveiled another side to scaification -i’m using one of the pictures in an art assignment about tattooing if you would like to see it e-mail me at monkeylilsister@hotmail.com
and to the lady who gutsed it and had 1/2 her back scraped off, your friends that were there must bereally supportive and loving if they stayed with you and watched you being sliced up: i’m not sure howmany of my friends would do that with out an urgh to grab the razor and hurt me with it (i’m not verry popular at the moment, boyfriend made a bit of a rift between myfriends and i when i dumped `im
May 29th, 2009 at 9:46 am
wow…amazing
i have a small pentagram done on my leg.. dont think i could tolerate that much.. hurts like a bitch…. f’n amazing artist though… love it
June 4th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Though it is not something that I would try myself. Its beautiful, shes beautiful and that is an amazing piece of art.
August 13th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Leave it to the ignorant fucks for +/- criticism. I think it looks wonderful, enough said.
I’ve got 3 tattoos of my own, and currently considering a Sak Yant/general Bamboo tattoo for my back when I leave for my Thailand vacation.
P.S.: To Michael, I strongly disagree with the utter bullshit you stated in the hopes of making your argument, but I’m not going to address it in a counterargumentative manner. However, I would like to tell you that I’m 100% confident you’re a 30yr old fuck, still living with your parents, and that you haven’t been laid since…since….ever. Am I right am I right? Why did I just say that? CUZ YOU’RE A DAMN NERD/PUSSY without the balls to to withstand the pain. Go on with your Mormon life little boy…
November 9th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
First, I love how people talk about it being a cultural thing like she is OBVIOUSLY an Aboriginee or Maori, or one of the other cultures that practice this that she clearly doesn’t belong to.
Second, you want to make comments about people not withstanding pain being “wussy”? Here’s what’s wussy: you taking personal offense when you aren’t the subject at hand. I think it’s HILARIOUS how body modifiers want to claim they’re expressing themselves and that other people’s opinions don’t bother them, then go scream and bitch because someone says, “um, wow, this is really gross.”
All of you need to get off your high horses. Being willing to poke yourselves full of holes and cut your skin off doesn’t make you special.
To the girl pictured: I’m sorry that posting your Myspace led to your harassment. I don’t believe people should attack you any more than these dipshits here who are attacking the author.
December 17th, 2009 at 2:39 am
*Continues to eat chips* Was that meant to be discusting? Meh.
December 24th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
This is not beautiful, she’s peeled a shit load of her skin off to get a stupid outline of bamboo on her back.
You people think you’re being really alternative and cool by saying this looks good. You want art? Buy a Picasso and don’t disfigure and agonise yourself.
January 31st, 2010 at 8:11 pm
fucking stupied
August 5th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Thinking that you’re not supposed to expose new scar tissue (as in less than 1 year old…) to strong sunlight, because it is much more prone to turn into cancerous cells, this just seems absolutely stupid.
And I’m also pretty sure u wouldn’t be doing this procedure without strong painkillers either, unless you’re into SM big time; and unless u don’t sleep on your back!!
Bit different id something is part of a culture ie the MAINSTREAM thing & usually a spiritual thing as well or part of a subculture ie to do it to be different.
Whatever floats someone’s boat though, I’m just worried about the amount of people the NHS will have to sort out again later with free surgery, as with loads of “enhancement ops”.
Having breast implants to me is equal with this, both mutilation by choice for looks.
September 20th, 2010 at 1:18 am
I wish I didn’t weary myself by reading all the mean comments left by everyone else. I am not in anyway bashing this beautiful girl or anyone. I just want to say that, as a former self mutilator, this saddens me very much. When I was 13 or 14 (can’t remember) I learned about cutting in a teen magazine. Being depressed I began to do it myself, but I would do it in the form of tattoos. I thank God none of them were so deep as to be recognizable today, but I once carved a crow on my belly. Then I just began simply cutting myself. Now, if I did that to my back, I would end up in the psychiatric unit in the hospital, but I think it’s amazing that a professional tattoo artist can do that on someone else and people think it’s amazing. I’m not sure if underneath it all, there’s a sense of depression or emptiness in a person wanting these tattoos or if they really do it for “art”. I can only speak for myself that when I did it, “art” was only a fringe benefit to why I was really cutting myself. It makes me sad though because she is so beautiful and I know that I look at my scars and can only wish they would disappear (I’m not good with all the creams to get rid of them). Anyway, These are just my thoughts. Please no hateful comments. Just wanted to share how these pics made me sad.
December 5th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
mmm, who’s hungry?