Personas Que Se Lastimas a Si Mismos: En Ingles Self Injurers

David Hercules
English 100
03 August 2010

Many People do things to change their bodies in some way. People might undergo these changes to communicate something to others or just to feel good. Whichever one they pick, their actions have some deep repercussions in their bodies both physically and psychologically. Two examples people who change their bodies are self-injurers and body artists.The works: “Sometimes I Break” by Anonymous and “Living Canvass” by Jerry Addler depict people who are examples of self-injurers and body artists. Both groups have many different reasons for their actions, methods to change their bodies, displays for their actions, self–reactions, reactions by others and results from the changes they undergo.
The girl on “Sometimes I Break” and the people on“Living Canvass” have many reasons for their actions. Some of these reasons might be similar, but some can be very different. Self injurers like body artists injure or do something to their bodies to feel free, to release themselves. As the girl in the interview says, “Before I start, I feel extremely stressed or depressed. Usually some of both, during it, I just feel free. It’s such a release tome”(Anonymous).Both feel relieved, they feel good about what they do to their body, and both feel somewhat guilty afterwards. Body artists free themselves through art. As Enid Schilkrout states, “Everybody does something to their bodies to communicate who they are, even if it’s just combing their hair” ( qtd. In Addler) . They enjoy communicating who they are through their painted images and decorations.Different from body artists, self injurers do it when they feel angry, stressed pr depressed. To self-injurers, damaging their bodies keeps them from feeling any psychological pain at cost of physical pain. As well as having different reasons, both groups have different methods to change their bodies.
Both, body artists and self-injurers have different methods to change their bodies. Thepurpose of their methods is different, but both of them, at a certain level, do some damage to their own bodies. Self-injurers tend to be radical with their methods. They inflict harm to their bodies on purpose. When asked what her main method of SI was, the girl on the interview answered, “Burning with matches in particular. And cutting with razor blades, the kind that are used in utilityknives”(Anonymous). They use cutting, burning, head banging, eye pressing and self biting to injure themselves. This particular group of people can get to great lengths, such as castration and limb amputation which do a permanent damage to their bodies. On the other hand, body artists show their changes other people using methods such as tattooing, piercing, scarification, elongated earlobes and implantments.Both the people on “Living Canvass” and “Sometimes I Break” use painful methods that most people would never use or even think about. Their methods are also the way in which they display how they feel.
Displaying their changes, for the self-injurer on “Sometimes I Break” and the people on “Living Canvass”, is their way of showing how they feel or to communicate to others who they are. Manyself-Injurers display an awkward behavior because they have mental disorders, eating disorders, and other disorders that affect them. They don’t display their damage. They hide it under turtle necks and long sleeves. Most self-injurers don’t want to be seen injuring themselves, they are ashamed and feel guilty for it, but do it to feel relief. As the girl on the interview states, “After hurting myself,I calm down and stop injuring myself, I feel so relieved, yet guilty. It’s still worth it though” (Anonymous). Some of them suffer strange syndromes that make them be unconscious of making some damage to their own bodies. On the contrary, most body artists don’t show any type of mental disorder or syndrome. They just like to do it. They like to show their art to communicate messages to...