Body Mod

I'm a big fan of tattoos.  I love people covered in them, I want to be covered in them, etc etc.  But what is with this new fad of cutting?  Or shall we call it scarification, if you will.  I just don't understand.  I keep up with BME Zine through my Google Reader, and majority of what's posted now is straight up open wounds.  The first time I saw one, I was happily scrolling down the page admiring the tattoos people flaunt, when BAM!  I see gooey, bright red open flesh.  I cringed.  I thought, Holy shit. Why on Earth would someone want to do that to themselves??  After seeing around 50+ photos of all different kinds of this new body mod, it's not so gross to look at anymore, but it sure seems painful.  

Come to think of it, I'm acting like this is some new trendy way to inflict pain on yourself and then show it off a couple months later.  It's very comparable to body piercing and tattoos... just refining the ancient techniques.  Well, I took a class on Oceanic, African, & Pre-Colombian Art a few years back, and we learned a lot about scarification rituals of indigenous peoples.  The Bétamarribé of Benin (a little country wedged between Togo and Nigeria) have been performing these scarification rituals for many years.  The scars on these women's faces have to do with fertility.  At the age of 2 or 3, an intricate series of lines are cut into their faces with an iron tool made by the local blacksmith. Without these scars, they are “not Bétamarribé” in the eyes of the ancestors, and cannot be buried in the village cemetery.  Without these scars, the children are not considered "human".

Now now, this is a VERY different purpose than I would assume we would have for scaring our bodies.  This practice is a sacred and valued tradition to the Bétamarribé. Does Yoda up there have to do with fertility or religion, or just anything sacred in general?  Please, if anyone out there reading this has some insight, fill me in.  Of course, I'm not against this nor am I bashing people for contemporarily scaring themselves, but I just want to know reasons because damn, it looks painful as hell.