Meathook

This reminds me of "Roxanne". "Roxanne, you don't have to wear that dress tonight, walk the streets for money, you don't care if it's wrong or if it is right. Roxanne, you don't have to put on that red light"..

I've always been thinking of the song that there's a woman in a relationship with a man, but the man isn't really worth the woman, since he's so cruel. She loves him, even if he's broken her heart. She shouldn't make him feel proud, she shouldn't be lustworthy for HIM , 'cause she deserves someone better. She thinks she would be nothing without this person since they've spent so much time together.

Though, the woman doens't know what to do, gets depressed and starts to cut herself to relieve the pain this man has caused her heart. Though, this pain, could never ever wash away the the emotional pain he's caused her.

I think she's telling someone not to sleep with someone (red dresses usually have those sort of connotations..) or at least not to bother making an effort for him because he'll treat her badly either way.

By "don't be afraid of the dark" I think she's referring to the unknown, because the person she's singing to can't remember a time before him.

For the rest of the song, I agree that it's about self-harm, because I've heard that's something to do with wanting to be able to control something when everything else seems beyond you. So they control the pain. "What is dominion over a faltering soul and a heart that has severed from the body" she's saying "what does it matter if you're in control of that, controlling that won't make everything better". "Is it anything to control someone that has been broken open?" = "Why would you even want to control anything when the thing you're controlling is just misery".

Ooh, get me being all deep and analytical ;)