A form of body art, where (shallow) cuts are made in the skin, usually but
not always leaving a visible
scar.
Decorative and
ritual cuttings are
made using sterile conditions, usually using surgical scalpels (very few
knives are either sharp enough to do this or easy to properly
sterilize.
Pigments (usually tattoo ink or ash) are sometimes added to a cutting to
provide permanent color, the cutter may also apply and ignite alcohol
fire-play to the fresh cutting to induce irritation and enhance
visible scarring.
The (intentional) scars left by a decorative or ritual cutting are difficult
to predict. Because it can be impossible to guarantee the degree of
permanent marking (or indeed that there will be any permanent marking),
cuttings are not recommended to people who cannot deal with a degree of
uncertainty. Particularly keloid scars are usually formed by cuttings
on people with dark skin. People of asian and african descent often
form keloid scars.
learning to practice cutting is a substantial endeavour in part because
there are very few practitioners in the leathersex (BDSM) community.
Self-injurious behavior SIB is different from the practice of ritual or
decorative cuttings.