Paul Marshall was a self-harmer. Using knives, razor blades and broken glass, he slashed his body to release tension or to get what he wanted. He slashed himself more than sixty times, leaving his arms, chest and face a mass of scars.
'Scarred For Life' is a collection of stories, told by Paul, about the times he self-harmed and the times he harmed others. He takes us through the experience and frustrations of his childhood and the evolution of his self-harming adulthood, which began from the moment he helped another inmate to self-harm and discovered what an effective tool self-harming could be. He includes incident reports and psychiatric reports from the boys' homes and gaols where, from the age of ten, he has spent most of his life.
It is at once fascinating, disturbing and inspiring. Paul describes for us in detail his crimes and his life in the prison system. He takes us through his desperate ongoing struggle to stop hurting himself. And, finally, he shares with us his success in finding an alternative to "slashing up".
Paul Marshall is thirty-one years old and is presently an inmate of Cooma Correctional Centre, where he will remain until 2005. In 2000, he was placed in the self-harm and suicide unit at Long Bay Gaol, known as the Kevin Waller Therapeutic Unit. There, finally, he began to understand why he self-harmed and as a result, he was able to break the cycle. He has not slashed himself for two years - a record for him.
