The History of Scar Issue

About Scar TissueScar-Tissue.net is a website that has been created to provide information, advice and support on self injury and related issues. On the site you will find access to books and articles discussing various forms of self injury and depression; current news regarding self injury and injurers rights; frequently asked questions about why people self injure and what can be done to help them as well as a list of links to other boards dealing with similar topics.

We also run two messageboards which give peer support to those struggling with these issues. Both forums are fully moderated by a team of mods who have first hand experience of self harm and who are established members on the boards. Neither Scar Tissue nor Written on The Body promote the use of self harm as a coping mechanism, but provide a source of help and advice for those who self injure, as well as a means of venting or ranting about issues.

 

I hope you find what you are looking for here, but if there are any questions or suggestions you have, please contact me.

 

Scar Tissue: Past, Present and FutureScar Tissue began life as a message board on the ezboard network. Created by Julia, when I joined it was still a relatively small site with a few members, Alison (whose name I’m sure you’ll recognize as Scar Tissue’s other admin) being one of them. As membership of Scar Tissue grew, Ali became an admin with Julia while I became a moderator. When Julia decided the time was right for her to leave Scar Tissue, I joined Ali as admin.

From there membership increased until at one point, I think, we had somewhere in the region of 900 members. But there were problems with ezboard and those, together with ezboard’s proposed move to Yuku, meant we had to start thinking about Scar Tissue’s future. After a long discussion me and Ali decided to give the members the facts and put it to a vote – should Scar Tissue stay with ezboard or branch off and host the board on our own server, with our own website? It was a close vote, but moving away from ezboard was agreed and scar-tissue.net was born.

That was 18 months ago and I think it’s safe to say we haven’t looked back. As well as Scar Tissue (which has more active members than ever and a wider range of forums on self injury related topics) we also have Written on The Body – a message board where those who support self harmers can find help and a place to talk about how they feel. The Scar Tissue website is also growing and we now have a range of articles, downloadable leaflets and links to some excellent self injury information.

So what about the future? Well, as our new motto says we want to provide support, raise awareness, foster understanding and, where we can, aid recovery. We’ll do this by continuing to provide support and advice to those who self harm and the people helping them. The messageboards have always been what Scar Tissue is about and they’ll continue to have a strong focus placed on them. We also want to provide first hand information about self injury so will be providing more leaflets, articles and advice. We hope you’ll continue to check in and see what we have.

 

What’s in a name?Scar Tissue has been called that since its ezboard days but why that particular name? Well, scars (and so scar tissue) are an inherent part of self injury – no matter how you do it you’re going to end up with some. Scars also mean something to the person wearing them – whether that meaning is good or bad the scar is an important part of that person’s identity. But perhaps most important of all, scar tissue is strong – stronger than the skin around it and the same goes for our members. Everyone on the board has gone through something in their life that’s hurt them but they’ve dealt with it, come out the other side and are now supporting others. That takes strength.

Written on The Body has a double meaning for me. Not only is it the name of one of my favourite books but it’s also a name I suggested for a Scar Tissue forum on ezboard. While it wasn’t used on Scar Tissue I did think it would be a good name for a support forum. Self injury is a language that’s written on the body but like all foreign languages it’s not always easy to understand. Written on The Body aims to give parents, carers, friends and family a place to understand that language and help them communicate with the people who use it.