The scene outside the “Today” show studio at Rockefeller Center, usually adorned with homemade messages for loved ones back home, was transformed Thursday morning by a Queens man who slashed his arms after ranting about his tax problems.

Apparently it was not the first time the man, identified by the police as Pak Chong Mar, 75, had harmed himself in a dramatic and public fashion. A man by the same name and age similarly cut himself at a parade in Flushing, Queens, in 1995.

In that episode, the man hacked at his fingers in protest over a pending eviction from his home, Newsday reported at the time. The macabre events on Thursday began outside the first-floor studio at 7:50 a.m. Papers tossed into the air drew attention to the man, standing in a crowd. Then, the police said, he brandished a box cutter.

One person tried to grab the weapon, but Mr. Pak held on, witnesses said. He exclaimed to those around him that he would not hurt them; he only meant to hurt himself.