girl4you2
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Joined: 8/4/2005
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Researcher
Interesting topic to wade into for my first post.
As has been said before, capillaries are the tiny, microscopically small blood vessels which allow for the oxygen carried in the bloodstream to pass over to the cells, and the waste products to pass back. By definition, capillaries are, for all intents and purposes, thick enough for only a single red blood cell to pass through. The word microscopic is accurate. Here comes the important distinction: *Anything* else that carries blood through the body, that is larger than a cell or two in diameter, is technically a vein or an artery. (in medicine, they are sub-categories called Arterioles "little arteries" or Venules "little veins" however they *are* arteries and veins).
So... whenever you make a visible cut in tissue (ie skin) which bleeds, it's almost certain that you've cut arteries. It's pretty much physically impossible to have a visible wound which cuts capillaries and nothing else. Therefore, "artery play" could be technically and accurately defined as any form of cutting which draws blood.
(For that matter, when you sustain blunt impact causing a bruise (flogging anyone?) then you have caused the internal rupture of blood vessels causing blood to pool in the tissues [and break down from there causing all the pretty colours.] This, also, is a form of artery [and vein and capillary] damage.)
Yes, I know, when most people, especially non-medical people think of "arteries" the first thing that comes to mind is the big pipes which lie deep in the tissues, which you can often feel, which (when cut) will spurt out blood at an alarming rate and pose a serious and immediate health risk.
However, that's a stereotypical and extremely simplistic view, and it's only reflective of a few of the major arteries of the body, not the thousands of other arteries which make up the vast majority of the circulatory system. It is, therefore, quite possible and reasonable that someone can claim to enjoy "cutting deep and going for arteries" without intentionally or in practice engaging in significantly life-threatening behaviour (as comes to mind when we all think of hacking through the radial artery, etc)
All that being said... know what you're playing with before you play. Hemorrhage, infection, nerve damage, permanent scarring, circulatory impairment, and psychological and social repercussions....
Play safe.
welcome to the boards. and yes, an interesting topic to start from.
to further clarify this a bit more in medical terms, an arteriole is a blood vessel that extends and branches out from an artery and leads to capillaries. the arterioles, the smallest end arteries, typically consist of about 20,000 of them in a 150 lb individual. it is the arterioles and venules which most frequently are injured (and therefore result in bruising) from "minor" trauma (i.e. flogging and walking into the coffee table at night).
arteries are muscular tubes that carry blood flow away from the heart to the tissues and organs of the body ( by contrast, veins are the return path tubes).
the arterial system is the higher-pressure portion of the blood system. since the heart output is pulsatile, arterial pressure varies between systolic, the peak pressure during heart contraction, and diastolic, the minimum pressure between heart contractions, values with each heart cycle. this pressure and blood volume variation within the artery produces the pulse which is palpable in any artery, reflecting the heart action.
the aorta is the main systemic artery. it receives blood directly from the left ventricle of the heart. as the aorta branches and these arteries branch in turn, they become successively smaller in diameter, successively down to the arteriole. the arterioles supply capillaries which in turn empty into venules.
the arterial system is extremely important in sustaining life. with deep cutting, the chances of hitting an arteriole are heavily outweighted by the possibility of hitting the larger arteries. unless one is very well informed about and skilled with dealing with variances in human vascular anatomy including the placement of the larger arteries versus the smaller arterioles, cutting deep is much more likely to result in damage to those deeper larger vessels than the smaller ones.
trauma (this is where cutting begins) or infection (which has a high chance of setting in if you've somehow managed to survive the initial arterial cutting) are the main determinations which compromise the vascular system, which determines whether we continue to live or die.
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RE: Artery cutting? - 
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