It may come as a surprise that the tiny island paradise of Micronesia is one of the leading teen suicide capitals of the world. This isn’t because it’s a depressing place to live or because of unpleasant social pressures (as you’d see, for example, in some northern Canadian Native communities) — it’s simply because it’s cool. It’s not uncommon to see a teen suicide after a minor breakup or an argument with ones parents, and some kids have even died just because they “wanted to try suicide”.
It started with the popular son of a prominent family. He had two one month old babies by different mothers, neither of which knew about the other. The stress caught up to him and he hung himself — and the two mothers met each other at the funeral. This “cool” suicide opened the door of acceptability, and this one death grew into an epidemic of unnecessary hangings.
Anyway, self cutting is of course a million times healthier than suicide, but many people still consider it a bad idea. I tend to disagree and actually consider it a good thing, but that’s not the point of this entry. What I do notice is that cutting has absolutely broken through into cool territory, and a sort of cutting chic is developing. Pictures are shared and the poetry of the pictures is as important as the first-hand sensation — it’s a form of therapeutic interactive and communicative performance art for teens (and adults) who want to share an emotional message.
Thanks to my friend SilverSweets for the first pictures in this entry, and also to Skimask for this “Mang Cutta” tattoo by Craig at Central in Thunder Bay.
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The following comments were imported from our old comment system:
Posted on 11-28-2005 23:42:48 by anon
That makes me want to cut a mang…
Posted on 11-30-2005 06:11:46 by fantasien
how do you get to enjoy being cool, if you’re dead?
Posted on 12-17-2005 17:28:56 by the Dr.
Cutting yourself. Cool? No. An Emotional message? maybe but I’m sure the message is not translated effectively. Not good for anyone, anyhow; medically and psychologically speaking.
Posted on 12-21-2005 12:34:10 by monkeyevil
LIFE IS PAIN!
Posted on 12-29-2005 04:34:51 by EroticCabaret
This post made me think of the movie Suicide Club, due to the suicide quotes.
Posted on 01-20-2006 09:32:26 by caitlin ryan
the story about kids in micronesia is from a book called the tipping point by malcolm gladwell, it is excellent.
Self harm isn’t hot, and never will be. I fail to see how having a severe mental disorder or being a pathetic little camwhore is attractive.
hahahaha Cutting… sexy, cool? I can see why you would say that. Actually sometimes I believe it. But on a good day, I think it’s bad just like the rest of the “rational” world. Don’t equate good words with cutting, not because I really care about me doing it, but because I want to save my friends and those around me from it. It’s addictive.
Wow I had the cherries on my forearm done at the same shop!
I love your take on this, could not agree more.