It is of my personal opinion that the term mutilation can be applied to body modification when it causes physical or psychological damage to the recipeint. Therefore, I feel that tattooing, piercing, scarification and body suspension are not forms of mutilation. (An example of mutilation would be scars and burns done out of self harm, which is very different than body modification.)
None of these procedures cause health threatening damage (unless performed improperly), and the only long term impairment associated with these mods are the negative stigmas that are often attached with them in western society. If someone is able to rationally explain why they wanted a specific mod, and how its an integral part of their life story-even if the reason dosen’t make sense to you- their decision should be respected.
