Wow... A friend and I were working on a story in 1992 where the main character and his friend go to a "stumping" salon to have their left legs amputated at the knee. We had some disagreements on how the main character would deal with the after effects--He wanted the stumping to make a major difference in the character's attitude and character...My take on the scenario was that the main character would have to deal with the inconvenience of having a self inflicted handicap with only slightly more trauma than getting a bad tattoo (as losing a limb in an accident would create a lot more trauma and personality shift then doing it intentionally). We figured that there are always a few brave souls out there willing to cross the line while making self mutilation a fashion statement--but I doubt it would, or could, ever become a major trend. Personally, if I were to choose a form of self mutiliation, It'd be grafting coral horns to my skull. Somehow, horns seem to be the least aesthetically distracting of any of the bizarre trends in mutilation.