The evaluation of self-mutilation and tattoos in cases of suicide and homicide

Suicide, which Albert Camus considered the only important problem of philosophy, and murder, which is as old as the history of humanity, continue to exist as the most tragic social issues from past to present. It is an inevitable necessity for the health of our social psychology to ensure that death, which is as natural as living and the absolute end of life, is not a tragic end and that it takes place in a more reasonable and acceptable way. In this study, the suicide and homicide cases comparatively with other cases by obtaining the files of all cases whose death examinations and autopsies were performed between 2019-2021 in Fırat University Hospital Forensic Medicine Department from the archives of Fırat University Hospital Department and Elazığ Forensic Medicine Branch Directorate were analyzed. The cases were retrospectively examined in terms of age, life stage, gender, marital status, place of residence, place of incident, origin of incident, mode of incident, type of tatuage, number of tatuage, location of tatuage, nature of tatuage, number of self mutilation, location of self mutilation and toxicology results and evaluated the data obtained. Of the 787 cases included in our study, 129 were suicides, 58 were homicides, and 600 were accidents and natural deaths. The ratio of cases with tatuage to all cases was found as 6%. It was also found that among 600 deaths other than suicide and homicide, 17 people (2.8%), 18 people (14%) in 129 suicide cases, 12 people (20.7%) in 58 homicide cases had tatuage. The ratio of non suicidal self mutilation to total cases was found as 4.3%. Among 600 death cases other than suicide and homicide, 6 people (1%) were identified as having non-suicidal self injury, 16 people (12.4%) in 129 suicide cases and 12 people (20.7%) in 58 homicide cases were identified as having non-suicidal self injury. It is seen that the most commonly used method of suicide was hanging with 50.4% (65 people), the most commonly used method of homicide was firearms with 58.5% (34 people), the most common months for suicide were June (12.4%); the most common season for suicide was summer (35.6%), the months with the highest number of homicides were April, June and August (15.5%), the season with the highest number of homicides was summer (41.3%); young adulthood is the stage where suicide and homicide are most common(age 22-39); 74.4% of suicide cases are male, homicide cases were 82.8% male; both the marital status-specific suicide rate and the marital status-specific murder rate (9.9 per hundred thousand and 3.8 per hundred thousand) were highest in singles; the residential-specific suicide rate is higher in the city (7.86 per hundred thousand), while the residential-specific murder rate is higher in the village (3.69 per hundred thousand); 65.1% of the suicide cases took place at home, 37.9% of the homicide cases took place in common areas such as roads, squares and parks; the most common tattoo content was star shape with 5. 9%; 89.9% of suicide cases and 86.2% of homicide cases were subjected to toxicological analysis; antidepressants were the most commonly detected substances in suicide cases with 13.2%, while amphetamine derivatives were the most commonly detected substances in homicide cases with 13.8% and THC (cannabis) with 8.6%. In our study, we concluded that tattooing and self-mutilation were significantly higher in suicide and homicide cases than in accidents and natural deaths. Therefore, we believe that our findings will contribute to understanding the dynamics in suicide and homicide cases.