I take your point about accurate tagging … but my point was more in response to calling it self mutilation and I was mainly trying to argue that it’s not self-m

I take your point about accurate tagging … but my point was more in response to calling it self mutilation and I was mainly trying to argue that it’s not self-mutilation… but like a lot of Mapplethorpe’s work, it kinda makes you want to talk about it, it’s “confronting” but I’ll stop myself before I go down a tangent again. Specifically addressing my argument it’s not self mutilation is that this is the sort of thing that if they stoped doing it today would “heal”. Elasticity would change and the body would slowly return to normal. Which is why i specifically called out the gauged ear piercings. When you turn a 1mm hole in your ear to say, a 25mm hole (large but not extreme) that’s not really “self mutilation” when compared to people that deliberately undergo processes for artistic scar patterns or to use another ear example, have shapes cut out of the ear cartilage. The gauge piercing will heal, so would this and there are vastly more shocking things people do in the body modification world… many of which id say it was entirely fair to judge as self mutilation… like sclera eye “tattooing”… having something done to you that has a high potential to impart your vision or even blind you for the sake of achieving a specific artistic look on your face feels like a much more clear cut case of self mutilation than this particular photographed act.