I like scarification. I have been drawn to it from my earliest memories of it, in National Geographic, and then later on BME. Piercing and tattoos are additions to the body, metal and ink. But scarification is simply a reaction of the body. Like an oyster making a pearl: a bit of grit, some irritation and after time you have beauty. It is an incredibly easy thing to do. The lines of the body that just beg to be enhanced, the texture of scarred flesh, even the soft zip as the skin gives way beneath the scalpel. I love it.
At A Glance Author Tammy Contact Nox_fg@hotmail.com IAM Tammy Artist chiquitayy Studio Home Location Clemson, SC At the same time it isn't something I think I could have done in a studio somewhere. It is a prolonged and painful experience, something I'd prefer to undergo in the comfort of my own home. Where we can proceed at a relaxed pace. This latest experience was no different.
I set aside several evenings where work could be done. On the first my roommate and I simply finalized the design, placement, and size. Placement was the biggest concern as all my tattoos, all my piercings, and all my scarification either has to be placed on the centerline of my body, or balanced with another modification (For instance I have a tattoo on my left hip, and a scarification/skin removal of the same design on my right hip.). For this reason placement is usually fairly difficult to decide on. It worked out fairly well this time, however, as there were two designs I couldn't seem to choose between. I decided to get one over each shoulder blade, and about 4 inches in diameter. We decided which one to do first and quit for the evening.
The next night my roommate and I scrubbed down the work area and created a paper model of the design. It would be 5 nested circles, arranged to give the impression of a primitive goddess figure. The area that was the head and the arms would have the skin removed over it, and rays would be cut between the 3rd circle and the 4th which was the skirt of the figure. We cut out each of the 5 circles and used those as stencils to mark the design on my back. That night we were only planning to do the cutting, not the skin removal. So it only took her about half an hour to get the circles and rays cut, with only occasional rest breaks. After cleaning the blood off and wrapping it we quit for the night.
The third night of this project was dreadful. I was still sore from the night before, but it was like a sunburn, only sore to the touch. The real experience came when the skin removal started. This wasn't either of our first times, but it was the largest area of skin removed at one. Having one's body cut into is far less painful than having bits of one's body cut off, so the night before hadn't really properly prepared me for the experience of that night. Around the area that was to be removed she retraced the lines she'd cut the night before and then with a scalpel she slowly separated the skin from the layer of fat beneath it. She stopped often to clean as the blood from the parts she'd already removed threatened to obscure where she was working. She did the arms first, taking off a good sized half moon of skin in one chunk. After that, the removal of the skin over the head of the goddess was quick and comparatively painless.
As she took the skin off she placed it on the tray we'd set up. It was an amazing experience to see the skin removed, to play with it, to feel the inside of my own body. It was like a flower cut from its bush. Even though it is dead, it still retains the illusion of life for a little while. There was warmth to the flesh, softness to the skin. After we'd finished cleaning all the blood up (and there was a fair amount since we took off about 2 square inches of skin) we covered the cutting in gauze and went to bed.
The healing so far has just been really uncomfortable, as I am still learning what movements I can and can not make with my right arm while healing. It isn't anything unbearable but I have to be careful when sitting back against things, or having someone pat me on the shoulder or hug. For the most part it is simply a constant soreness, like a burn healing. I've been using an old toothbrush on the cutting portions of the scarification as they'll probably need the extra attention to keloid properly. I've been using a topical steroid on the skin removal because I have a tendency to have an aura of darkened skin around scars and I'm hoping to prevent that. I don't want the detail of the design to be fuzzed by it. Also, after seeing the design applied to flesh, we realize that we should remove the thin rim of skin between the 4th and 5th circle, however, I don't want to tax my body's healing abilities too much so I'm going to wait until everything is healed before going back in and taking that out.