Crocodile scarring ritual on video

National Geographic has an intense, stomach-turning video from Papua New Guinea of initiates undergoing scarification to make their skin resemble that of a crocodile. It's part of a rite of passage into manhood. The video is captivating and intense but not for the faint of heart. Link (Thanks, Transmission 3000!)

[#1 posted by Lilorfnannie , June 4, 2008 6:27 AM]

Ohhhhh- That's not Unicorns- *puts hand on mouth & runs to bathroom*

[#2 posted by MarlboroTestMonkey7 , June 4, 2008 6:42 AM]

Don't forget your Magical Water Princess, Lilorfannie!

[#3 posted by mikelotus , June 4, 2008 7:17 AM]

This link does not do anything for me in Firefox. Why is a javascript link being used to launch a player instead of just a link to the National Geographic page that has it anyway?

[#4 posted by markfrei , June 4, 2008 7:32 AM]

Now that tattoos are common place, look for scarification to take the US by storm - in fact it's already happening...

[#5 posted by isewell , June 4, 2008 7:38 AM]

And for all your unicorn chasing needs, may I direct you to unicornchaser.com ?

[#6 posted by StridentLobster , June 4, 2008 8:16 AM]

Nothing happening with the link in Safari, either.

[#7 posted by Anonymous , June 4, 2008 8:29 AM]

yes, sorry for being OT, but as mikelotus mentioned, the link isnt doing anything on Firefox (on the Mac at least)...

[#8 posted by Transmission3000 , June 4, 2008 8:38 AM]

Here's the direct link:

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/places/regions-places/australia-and-oceania/newguinea-crocscars-pp.html

[#9 posted by Lilorfnannie , June 4, 2008 8:43 AM]

Haha- yeah I'm a wienie- always was- waaaaayyyyy too sensitive- I just looked at the "pinhead" link where someone asked for a "unicorn chaser", and closed the BB page, and returned to it later & first thing I saw was THIS- soooo NOT a Unicorn Chaser- ;-)

[#10 posted by ThinkPositive , June 4, 2008 12:43 PM]

What savages. That's as bad as having lots of piercings.

[#11 posted by lummels , June 4, 2008 2:08 PM]

ugh. gak. hav ingggggg trubl e typIng om keyboad. vomit iN keys. or, maybe it was the next video about eating duck fetuses directly from the egg. goodness. thanks dp!

[#12 posted by Takuan , June 4, 2008 3:37 PM]

Luxury!

[#13 posted by Anonymous , June 4, 2008 10:19 PM]

Am I alone in finding the final effect rather beautiful? I watched the process, and would only be able to describe it as willing torture. The one brief scene showing a close up of the visibly infected wounds was more disturbing to me than the previous imagery of pain and blood.

They risk much in the process, but the reward of a beautifully adorned body and social rank must be worth it.

[#14 posted by Anonymous , June 5, 2008 10:18 AM]

I agree that the end result is quite beautiful. I imagine it must be very interesting to the touch as well.

[#15 posted by Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator , June 6, 2008 8:43 PM]

Markfrei, I don't think it's going to become as popular as tattooing because it doesn't work as well on people with lighter skin, just as tattooing doesn't work as well on very dark skin.

ThinkPositive, how bad is it to have a bunch of piercings?

[#16 posted by Antinous , June 6, 2008 8:50 PM]

I believe that ThinkPositive was mocking our horror of other cultures' perforative rituals while taking our own for granted.

[#17 posted by Takuan , June 6, 2008 9:26 PM]

try tattooing a sperm whale at 2,000 meters