Model Catherine McNeil displayed disturbing cuts on her forearms at a media event for a teen magazine last week.

The model was photographed with more than a dozen cuts on her arms at a function for Girlfriend magazine at Ivy pool on Wednesday – her first public appearance in months.

The 20-year-old has been on a five-month break from modelling for the world’s top designers, among them Chanel, Hermes, MaxMara and Christian Dior.

Instead, she has made headlines over her romance with MTV star Ruby Rose, whom she was snapped kissing at a Sydney pub last month.

McNeil wore a sleeveless top and made no attempt to hide her arms when she posed for the cameras at the Girlfriend Model Search function.

The troubling trend has raised concerns among psychologists, who said self-harm was now considered fashionable in some circles.

But McNeil’s agent denied that the model had cut her own arms, saying she had simply fallen off a skateboard.

“Catherine has nothing to cover up or hide – she fell off her skateboard into some bushes,” agent Kathy Ward told The Sunday Telegraph.

Monash University professor of psychiatry Louise Newman, who did not comment specifically about McNeil, said self-harm had become fashionable.

“Self-harm is, sadly, very common and is becoming a bit of a trend,” Professor Newman said.

“In some groups of young people, it’s even considered virtually a fashionable thing to do or a way of expressing unhappiness or distress.”

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