Abstract

A scar is about a story, regardless of whether it is planned or not. This article discusses symbolic meanings associated with voluntary scarifications and the role of pain during the whole process. Through the incision or the burning of skin, individuals process emotions and key life episodes, embodying relationships and shaping desired forms of selves. Cutting skin is often interpreted as destructive behavior, evidence of a disorder or suffering that the person tries to morbidly relief. Going beyond a pathological and pathologizing approach, ethnographic data indicate transformative meanings of scars and engravings. They are analyzed as self-poietical projects aiming at the enhancement of the person. Despite the absence of traditional cultural frames or therapeutic legitimations for the experience of pain, the article illustrates practices of body modification on Western bodies that unfold tensions between approaches to pain, disclosing intentions of self-care, aesthetic improvement and happiness