CUTTING

I took an interesting photo this week for Orange and Blue Magazine. It was a photo of a "cutter", a title commonly used and accepted by people who cut themselves. The person didn't have very visible cuts on his body, which is a good thing, so we decided to go with a serious portrait that, hopefully, drew out some emotion that is stored inside a person who cuts themselves.

Explanation of cutting:
Cutting is called self-injury, self-harm or deliberate self-harm and it is deliberate infliction of tissue damage or alteration to oneself without suicidal intent. Although self-injury is commonly used to refer to infliction of harm to the body's surface, the term may also be used to include the harm inflicted on the body by those with eating disorders

Source:"Self-Medication, Traumatic Reenactment, and Somatic Expression in Bulimic and Self-Mutilating Behavior."

One limited study found that, among those young individuals who do self-harm, both genders are just as equally likely to use the method of skin-cutting.[53] However, females who self-cut are more likely than males to explain their self-harm episode by saying that they had wanted to punish themselves.

Source: - "Repetitive skin-cutting: Parental bonding, personality and gender", Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice