Non-suicidal self-injurious behaviour, such as inflicting superficial cuts on one’s own body with a razor blade or other sharp objects—often referred to by adolescents as “scratching”—or burning the skin with cigarettes, has long since ceased to be an adolescent psychiatric problem. Against the background that scientific research on non-suicidal self-injurious behaviour is nevertheless still predominantly clinically-medically based, this article places non-suicidal self-injury decidedly in the context of a cultural-anthropological approach. In particular, it focuses on the principle of body manipulation as a technique for regulating affects.