![]() Kiersten Johanna Johnson, a tattoo artist at Millennium Gallery in Fort Collins, Colorado, has many clients that come in for what she calls “pain therapy” – using tattooing or piercing as an alternative to self-harm. In that study, nearly a quarter of the participants with tattoos and/or piercings reported a history of self-harm. One qualitative study from Germany suggests that people with a history of self-harm sometimes report getting tattoos or piercings for the purposes of pain or additional bodily harm, and that, in those cases, it might be considered a self-harm symptom. There has been very little formal research on the possible association between self-harm and tattooing, piercing or other forms of body modification. ![]() Others who have self-harmed indicate that it’s a way they handle being devoid of feelings and can also serve as self-punishment, a way of avoiding unpleasant responsibilities, or signaling the depth of pain to others – although the latter cause would be unusual among people who hide or keep secret their self-harm, she says. It can serve several functions, Keenan-Miller explains, the most commonly reported of which is to temporarily alleviate emotional pain. On the other hand, self-harm involves deliberately injuring the surface of your own body, usually through cutting or burning, and it’s typically not meant as a suicide attempt. Extra precautions – like picking a “safe word” that any party can say if they’d like to stop – are built in to ensure that everything taking place is safe and consensual. Informed consent is the linchpin of the practice of BDSM: nothing can happen without all partners involved clearly stating their intentions and agreeing to specific activities. Danielle Keenan-Miller, Director of the UCLA Psychology Clinic, says that without hearing from McLemore about his desires and experiences related to the repeated piercing and tattooing, it’s impossible to know whether the “church” rituals were part of a BDSM practice or a form of emotional regulation.īDSM – a catch-all term for a type of sexual roleplaying that can involve bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism – frequently involves an element of intentionally inflicted pain for people who find it pleasurable. For some people, pain is not only a distraction and release – but something that makes them feel better. It does, however, raise questions over where to draw that distinction. ![]() It’s not made clear in the podcast whether McLemore’s requests were a manifestation of his mental health issues, a chance to bond with the person he considered a son, a pain-as-pleasure experience, therapy or a combination of the four. ![]() At some point, “church” – drinking Wild Turkey whiskey, talking and having Goodson tattoo and pierce him – turned from a form of therapy into something that concerned Goodson enough to refuse to partake in the ritual. “He got addicted fast.”Īt the same time, Goodson admitted that he was the one who told McLemore – who vocally hated tattoos – to consider getting one as a therapeutic, stress-relieving experience. “He got enough tattoos in one year that someone could get in a lifetime all at once,” Goodson told Reed in the podcast.
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