i still wondering i have seeing many polish guys with cuts marks or scars on their arms??
Those are called
sznyty. Probably from Yiddish - to cut.
They are cuts made with razors to show "bravery." In the criminal world, bravery has it's own twisted meaning. Some wannabe bad guys self mutilate too.
Sznyty - common term referring to scarring, which is the result of deliberate self-harm of individual who is wishing in this way for possible clearly and permanently mark the skin of his body. It is a specific ornament which should indicate the courage and resilience of the person to pain, or identify this person as the associated to a particular community. In primitive societies it's a method of decorating the body, in civilized societies is popular among criminals, as prison inmates and in numerous youth subcultures. It is also a method of proving "masculinity" among adolescents, mostly male, by proving resistancy to pain.
Sometimes the cuts also makes a person who wants to overcome in this way own psychic pain, for example it can be an expression of despair resulting from the separation from a loved one. Sometimes such cutting can become even a habit. Such persons can then gradually cut on all, still intact parts of the body. This indicates that it is a form of building relationships with the world by making yourself the pain which suppose to feel it. Often this is an attempt to draw attention on oneself.
/wiki/Sznyt_(blizna)
