Some people say cutting their skin brings them relief from emotional pain - an act usually referred to as self-harm. Others enjoy having their body pierced with metal and their skin inscribed with permanent ink. Is there a link between these acts? According to the German psychologists
Aglaja Stirn and Andreas
Hinz, in some cases there might well be.
The researchers collaborated with the body modification magazine
Taetowiermagazin, recruiting 432 of their readers to complete a comprehensive questionnaire about their tattooing and piercing practices and motives.
One hundred and nineteen of the participants admitted to cutting themselves in childhood. That's 27 per cent of the sample - a much higher proportion than is found among the general population of Germany: 0.75 per cent.
Compared with the readers who said they had never self-harmed, those who had were more likely to report "bad things" having happened in their lives, and to say they had previously had a bad relationship with their own body.
Moreover, the self-
harmers reported that they often had their skin tattooed or body pierced to help overcome a negative experience, or simply to experience physical pain. Another clue that self-harm and piercing/tattooing might, in some cases, be linked, derives from the fact that many of the self-
harmers said they had ceased cutting themselves after obtaining their first piercing or tattoo.
Stirn and
Hinz concluded that most people who partake in body modification clearly do not do it because they have any psychological problems. "However," they continued, "because body modifications have become so common and accessible, they are also used with probably increasing frequency as a convenient means to either realise
psychopathological inclinations, such as self-injury, or to overcome psychological traumas."
译文:
纹身——身体穿孔与自残之间有无联系？
有些人说割破皮肤———一种常被视为自残的行为能缓解他们情绪上的痛苦。还有一些人享受金属刺穿皮肤然后被永久墨水刻上图案的过程。这些行为间究竟有无关联？根据德国心理学家Aglaja Stim 和Andreas Hinz的研究结果,它们在一些情况中存在联系。
研究者与文身杂志Taetowiermagazin合作，对招集的432名读者就文身、刺穿皮肤的行为和动机进行了全面问卷调查。
占参与者的27%即119人承认他们在孩提时就割破皮肤了。这一比例远高出德国大众的0.75%。
与那些自称从未有过自残行为的读者相比，有割破皮肤行为的读者认为自己在生活中遭遇打击和与身体相处不协调的几率更大。
此外，自残者还称他们常用文身和刺穿身体某部位的行为来驱赶颓废的经历，或仅是为了体验身体的疼痛。另一能证明自残和文身在一些情况下可能相关联的证据源于许多自残者都说他们在刺破皮肤或文身后已停止了划伤自己的行为。
Stirn 和 Hinz总结得出，绝大多数有“修饰”身体行为的人并非因为他们有任何精神问题。“而是”，他们继续说 ，“因为'修饰'身体的行为已变的如此普遍与可行，它们也正逐渐成为在治疗精神机能倾向如自残，或克服心理问题方面的一种便捷方法。”