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– from: http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/yucky/scab.html
You’re running around with your friend, laughing your head off, when suddenly you trip over a rock and hit the ground. As you pick yourself up, you notice that your knee is bleeding. But while you’re trying to figure out where that rock came from, the blood from the cut on your knee is already busy at work creating a scab.
As soon as you scrape or break the skin anywhere on your body, special blood cells called platelets (say: playt-lits) spring into action. Platelets stick together like glue at the cut, forming a clot. This clot is like a protective bandage over your cut that keeps more blood and other fluids from flowing out. The clot is also full of other blood cells and thread-like stuff called fibrin (say: fy-brin) that help hold the clot together.
So now you’re home, you’re cleaned up, and you’re not bleeding anymore. But things are still happening on your knee. As the clot starts to get hard and dries out, a scab forms. Scabs are usually crusty and dark red or brown. Their job is to protect the cut by keeping germs and other stuff out and giving the skin cells underneath a chance to heal.
If you look at a scab, it probably just looks like a hard, reddish glob. But under its surface, all kinds of things are going on. New skin cells are being made to help repair the torn skin. Damaged blood vessels are being fixed.
White blood cells, the kind that fight infection to keep you from getting sick, go to work by attacking any germs that may have gotten into the cut. White blood cells also get rid of any dead blood and skin cells that may still be hanging around the cut. By the time it’s all done, a new layer of skin will have been made.
Eventually, a scab falls off and reveals new skin underneath. This usually happens by itself after a week or two. Even though it may be tough not to pick at a scab, try to leave it alone. If you pick or pull at the scab, you can undo the repair and rip your skin again, which means it’ll probably take longer to heal. You may even get a scar. So let that scab sit there — your skin will thank you!
The Heart of the Matter – Picking Scabs
from: http://www.skinpick.com/picking-scabs
“Pick one scab and leave the others alone. Make the one your friend”
As bizarre as these words may seem to some people, others will find a great deal of relief, camaraderie, even wisdom in them. They are, in fact, the advice one sister gave to another when discussing their mutual compulsions to pick obsessively at the scabs that form on their bodies.
Scab picking is a form of excoriation, just as picking at the skin is. When picking scabs, however, the picker will pick at scabs that have been caused from any trauma, be it accident or result of earlier picking episodes.
Picking scabs is a remarkably self-perpetuating way to act out obsessive-compulsive tendencies that often signal an underlying, often as-yet-undiagnosed mood or anxiety disorder. Patients often describe the experience as comforting even though painful. And very unsightly.
A common symptom of scab picking is eating the scabs after picking.
This form of skin picking disorder can be difficult to spot from the observer’s perspective. The person experiencing the scab picking behavior knows the results are unsightly and repulsive to others. For this reason, he or, usually, she will limit picking scabs to just the areas of the body that are most often hidden under clothing.
Repeated infections at the scab picking sites become problems that can have significant consequences. Permanent scarring is almost always a result of the behavior and sometimes the scarring can be profound and disfiguring.
There seems to be a great deal of shame associated with this obsessive-compulsive skin picking behavior, even more so than in other types of skin picking. Many people who suffer with this compulsion know they are doing something that is considered undesirable, even disgusting (to others), but they find it almost impossible to stop nevertheless.
What causes scab picking?
Habitual picking of scabs is classified in the group of psychological disorders associated with self-harm, such as deliberate skin cutting, head banging, and burning oneself. These actions are more often associated with girls than with boys and scab picking often starts when the subject is age 13 or 14.
Psychological symptoms that are often associated with picking scabs are depression, low self-esteem, addiction, eating disorders, and anxiety. A history of trauma or some sort of abuse is almost always involved.
Quite often the habit gets started as a way to relieve the pent-up frustrations or fears when other ways of dealing with conflict are not effective. Feeling that verbal communications are ineffective leave the scab picker feeling there is no other way to express the emotional turmoil going on inside.
Most people will pick a scab from time to time with no significant harm done. It’s when the act of picking the scab brings on emotional relief, desired pain, or pleasure that medical intervention is advised.
For more information about the scab picking disorder , its causes and treatment options, get the Complete Guide to Picking Disorders today.
Some Alternatives to Eating Real Scabs:
Some Very Cool Pictures of Noble Scabs:
This picture makes me envious……..
A Very Cool Mum playing with her child’s scab
Making Money From Scabs.
This is a link to an insurance company compensation website.
How to Use site and diagram:
1. Work out how much money you need
2. Click on the interactive body provided with details of injury to which part of the body
3. Keep doing until required sum of money appears
4. Go do it
5. Claim motherfucker, claim.
Acquiring a Scab – Ok so now you have read all about them, some of you maybe wondering – ‘hey how do I get one’, well here goes.
OK and if you are in the Military there’s a whole load of ways of acquiring scabs denied to us who are not:
The Cool Sounds of Scabs:
Three standout bands are The Rolling Scabs, Scabs and Human Skab.
The Rolling Scabs
The Rolling Scabs were a short-lived punk group fronted by two 13-year-old boys. The group played several gigs in and around San Francisco in 1988. They weren’t brothers, but they acted like it, they were best friends, and were born the same day on the same year.
One of the kids, Giuliano, died two years later, crushed by an elevator when he was horsing around in an abandoned building in Connecticut.
The Rolling Scabs first ever gig was at the legendary punk haven The Gilman Street Project in Berkeley. A cassette board tape of this was released by band member Li’l Mike on a limited edition of 500 7-inch EP on pus-colored vinyl.
Around the World in 80 Seconds
My Mom Smokes Pot
We’re The Scabs
Standout tracks..I Hate My Teacher and My Mom Smokes Pot…
They have a cool website @ http://www.rollingscabs.com/
Scabs
Scabs are an Austin, Texas band that performs very infrequently, but you can listen to Scabs here:
Fast Food Shuffle
Crackhead
The Human Skab
Is a thirty three year old musician who when he was ten was described as:
“This 10 year old kid knows how to punk rock real good, breath taking like a screaming demon, throwing rocks at windows, killing all the communists, things that you wouldn’t normally try yourself. Something you leave to the experts. — Sound Choice July 1987
“If Captain Beefheart were ten years old, this is what he’d probably sound like” — Spin May 1987
You can hear more Human Skab at his myspace page:
NEXT IN MY ‘NOBLE THINGS TO HAVE ON YOUR BODY’ SERIES:
PUS…COMING SOON.
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p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi, D!!!! May ‘Gone’ meet your standards. Maybe today’s post is a distant relative of yours, ha ha? It’s true the French seem to especially fall in love with foreign stars and artists who speak French. Understandably. I really should have forced myself to learn it fluently. I’ll just go ahead and put a down payment on the chateau I’ll be able to buy with my SCAB dolphin buttplug proceeds right now. Thank you, life saver. Love spending a few seconds trying to think up the perfect riposte to Baggyfreak’s charming question then deciding, oh fuck it, and chloroforming him with one hand while speed dialing an Uber with the other, G. ** Ian, Hi, Ian. Me too (no discernible talent, making collages). I stupidly always used rubber cement in my collages so they’re crispy and brown now. I really like your piece on Expat. Is it from the novel you’ve been mentioning you’re working on? Oh, my email is denniscooper72 @outlook.com. Thanks! Later gator. ** Misanthrope, That they do. I don’t recognise the name Callum but I’ll try to find him on FB. There used to be a d.l.called Callum long ago, but surely a different fella. I like that title: ‘Between Two Worlds’. That ‘Crazy Train’ riff must be hard, no? Maybe not. But surely. ** Sypha, Thanks, James. ** G, Hi, G! Great to see you! Hope you like it. It’s … what it is, that’s for sure. You good, pal? Love, me. ** Bill, That little Gabriel Blackwell text is very interesting. I’ll seek out the totality. No reference to the Bernhard novel, I’m imagining? Although the Bernhard is also dense, compressed, but differently. Thanks! ** _Black_Acrylic, Aw, thanks, Ben! And even more thanks for that latest Play Therapy. It made my brain swim. Hm, yeah, I do always think you as a Scotland guy. Fight for your right, man. ** Brian, Hey, Brian. I’m guessing ‘Gone’ will be ‘on the shelves’ for a while. Thank you. You pulled an almost Fassbinder-y all-nighter. As it should be. How many Fassbinders haven’t you seen? I think I’ve seen almost all of them, although I should go check his CV. Ha ha, I wound up paving over ‘Jurassic World’ with more hugely budgeted ‘garbage’ in the form of ‘Dark Phoenix’. I won’t make any kind of case for it, but I will say it was 100+% more fun than ‘JW’. But I hope to now pave over ‘DP’ with something actual and in a theater even, I hope. ** jamie, Hi, Jamie. Thanks! Yeah, when Infinity Land asked to publish that scrapbook, I had to have a real think about that because, as you say, it was made for my eyes only. I didn’t know there are Leif Garrett porns out there, and, without even seeing them, I feel like I can declare them fakes, at least if they’re supposed to date from his star days. He did turn into a huge drug mess in his adult years, so I suppose anything circa then would be possible. But maybe I’ll check. Well, do the dark rides then. They’re my favorites, even much more than the coasters, and you can handle them, for sure. It is very nice indeed to be talking with you again daily, I must say. My Tuesday was nice. A bit too warm for me, but everyone but me surely thought it was glorious outside. Did a bit of Tuileries hanging and bought the new issue of The Wire and had coffees and so on. My friend Michael’s kid is … I forget, 3 years old maybe, and he talks a veritable blue streak and basically nothing but the weirdest poetry. Have the greatest Wednesday, sir. xo ** Damien Ark, Hi. Well, your description of your current writing woes sounds awfully familiar from many times in my writing history, and, if so, yeah, the blockage will just vanish unexpectedly at any time for no discernible reason. Strange stuff: inspiration. Take care, maestro. ** Steve Erickson, I don’t keep up with true crime like I used to when it was housed in sensationalised print magazines. There is some true crime podcast out there hosted by a guy named Dennis Cooper, which I only know because people occasionally think he’s me. You can’t do what I do or try to do in my fiction in visuals without either coming off ludicrous or assaultive and numbing. It’s just not possible. With writing, it’s a 50/50 power split between reader and writer. With visuals the viewer has almost no power, at least in the moment of viewing. Everyone, Mr. Erickson has reviewed Japanese Breakfast’s new album JUBILEE right here. Thanks! ** Okay. Long ago there was a d.l. of this blog who sometimes called himself Put The Lotion in the Basket and sometimes called himself Stoopid Slapped Puppies. His real, or at least ‘real’, name was Nick Brooks, and he was quite a brilliant guy. I often wonder whatever happened to him. Anyway, he made the yummy post you have before you today. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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I’m great, thank you! Hope you are, too? My brother’s visiting, and it’s suddenly sunny and pretty outside, and I’m getting my first jab today! I’m just really excited for some reason. I feel things are opening up finally. How’s Paris treating you? Might you have an IRL launch for GONE? I just can’t wait to receive my copy – I had a dream about it last night, although it was ever so slightly confusing… I’d like to review (praise) it in QueerGuru. Did you see the email I sent you a while ago (I think it got lost during the awful hacking situation)? Anyway, I’ve become a book reviewer at QueerGuru, and I’d also love to review I WISHED. But GONE is coming first, so I’m focusing on that right now. Not long until I have it! Sending you all my love.
He was indeed very brilliant and back in 2020 the man appeared as Nick Brooke in this article for our Yuck ‘n Yum zine. The text was about 18th Century writer William Beckford and I think Nick wrote the first paragraph there.
Thank you re Play Therapy! Feels good to be back in the swing. Yes my living arrangements are still very much up in the air right now, but I am focussed on my fitness and trying to get back to how things were before that recent Covid jab. Gonna support Scotland in the forthcoming Euros tournament, that much I do know.
Hi!!
I’m absolutely sure that “GONE” will meet my standards and then some.
Hahaha, today’s post has a special place in my heart, for all the obvious reasons.
I used to study French in high school. It was one of my graduation subjects, in fact, so I spoke French pretty well. Unfortunately, I know next to nothing now, only some very basic sentences.
Oh, I’m sure that poor baggyfreak didn’t see that coming, but… such is love, I guess, haha. Love giving you five packets of Scab-A-Roni, just in case, Od.
Dennis, Oh, there’s nothing like eating a scab, is there?
I remember this day from…back in the day.
Thanks about the title. I took it from Matthew Arnold’s poem Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse. These few lines always got me:
Wandering between two worlds, one dead,
The other powerless to be born,
With nowhere yet to rest my head,
Like these, on earth I wait forlorn.
My two characters are stuck between adolescence and adulthood and fighting feverishly not to go forward while at the same time kinda wanting to. I opened it up yesterday and I’ve got 188 pages and almost 110,000 words. I’ve already gotten through the first 17 pages. I’ve thought about this thing so much over the past 20 years, it’s like coming across an old friend you’ve not spoken to or seen in that period of time and picking right up as if you’d seen them the night before.
Well, they kinda “dumb down” some of these riffs, so “Crazy Train” isn’t THAT hard. It’s more the speed I have to work on to get it right, which I’ll be doing before I move on to something else. 😀
I love this post, Dennis and Put the Lotion in the Basket, if you happen to be around. I’m going to listen to the Scabs tomorrow. I was surprised that there was no mention of one who crosses a picket line also being known as a scab (maybe that’s just a UK thing?). It’s such an oddly nasty sounding slur, but shouldn’t be as scabs are okay.
How was your day, Dennis? Mine was mostly taken up with feeling ill, but that seems to have passed already. I did see a woman in the street grab a pigeon then hold it in the air by both wings, swinging it.
Dark rides it is then!
Hope your Thursday roars.
Love, Jamie
Speaking of scabs, I saw my doctor and learned that the cut on my leg has become infected. (It looks like something out of a body-horror movie.) But when I picked up the prescription for antibiotics, it started a health insurance nightmare which I hope I can resolve tomorrow!
Did you hear the new Moor Mother single? I hope signing to a large indie label will get her to at least an Yves Tumor level of stardom.
Another classic today. Hope Nick/the Lotion is doing ok in this craziness. I know that scabs book, yes.
I don’t know Bernhard’s Correction, not sure if Blackwell is making a reference, hmm.
I finally saw the ’80s NY downtown flick Smithereens. So much fun.
Bill
Hey, Dennis,
Quite a rewarding and even rather poetic post on this most fascinating of topics. Thank you, Nick Brooks, if you can hear this. It livened my midweek blues. I still have to see a lot of Fassbinder’s stuff. He was so prolific that it could be years before I get around to everything. So far I’ve watched sixteen (thirteen movies, two TV series, and a short film). That leaves me with some twenty nine projects left to check out. This week I’m thinking “Despair” and “Fontane Effi Briest”. Glad to hear that “Dark Phoenix” at least provided greater entertainment value than “JW”. But also how wonderful to return to a theater! What are you planning on seeing? I have tickets booked this weekend for “8 1/2” (never seen it), and next week for a big screen showing of “Cruising” (should be great fun). There’s a lot of interesting stuff playing now that everything’s reopening. One place is even showing two of those famous experimental Fred Halsted pornos from the seventies. I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to that one, but it sounds incredibly interesting. Anyway, all stuff to look forward to. I do hope this Wednesday finds you in the best of places and that there are treats to come in your week. Bonne nuit.
What I have always found most compelling about scbas is removing them without allowing bleeding to resume.
Here’s a Flanders and Swann number that I think you know Dennis.
I have written a length piece bout the historical personage know as “Joan of Arc” explaining why he is in fact a transgender male. Taking it around to a number of places for possible publication. I’ll keep y’all posted.
Dennis– For some reason DC Blog often pops late in day here in Cali, and I miss the window for comments. Therefore, here is my (belated) comment on the Infinity Land post: Dennis — this is very special. Thank you and Infinity Land for bringing it back. Some very elegant compositions too! The interview: your differentiation of degrees of porn vs. art could have been argued before SCOTUS ! ! Plus, This is during the period we hung out and now, retroactively, adds a dimension to your teen idol idee fixe of the time !!!… Now I’ll pick a that scab….
In real life “Lord of the Flies” turned out Quite Copasetic
Here’s the skinny on the new Leos Carax: “Annete” — a musical starring Adam Driver and marion Cottillard with songs by Sparks
The Real Lord of the Flies
Here’s the skinny on the new Leos Carax: “Annete” — a musical starring Adam Driver and marion Cottillard with songs by Sparks
None of the posts I’ve bee writing on ths blog are showing up. Why?