[FizzleDizzle11]

Firstly, hi! I'm new to this website.i labelled this as triggering due to mentioning self harm and briefly suicide, however I don't describe anything or go into details.
I'm hoping to get help with telling someone close to me that I self harm.
The person I'm wanting to tell is my boyfriend, who I've been in this relationship with for about 1 and a half months. However we have been best friends for a couple of years, especially during last year, before this new relationship started and are really close. I trust him as best as I can (however I sometimes have trust issues with everyone and doubt what people tell me).
I have anxiety and depression. He knows very briefly about my anxiety, however I do plan to tell him more about my issues as he needs to know. I was diagnosed in 2015, and I started self harming 1 or 2 years before that. It's been a way that I deal with emotional stress and other things when my mental issues get too much. A lot of other things have played a big part in it, but I have been getting a lot better since around the middle of 2016 and have been harming myself less often and less severely.
However there are still visible scars and I'm afraid that he may have seen some of the ones that are still most obvious. Being friends with him for a few years, I'd assume he may have noticed something but never brought it up. And I want to tell him because I believe he needs to know. But I've never told anyone about these issues aside from anonymous people online or in apps.
I'm most hesitant because I don't want him to get hurt. I've had two of my other closest friends go through self harm and talk about suicide, and this went on for a while and I saw and heard things from them that I wish I never had. It really hurt me and made my own issues worse and for a long time I was living with constant fear of never seeing them again. I still sometimes have bad thoughts and panic attacks or nightmares about it. I don't want to tell them that because I know that they come to me for support and I'm afraid that if they know then it'll stop them from talking to me about their issues. But I really know that I want to and need to tell my boyfriend, I just don't want him to get hurt like I have.
I know that I'm getting better and I'd tell him that. I haven't been truly suicidal in a long time and I have been recovering. But I still carry these scars and memories with me and have never been open about them to someone that I know in person. We do truly care about each other, which is good, however makes him more likely to get hurt if I tell him.

Maybe someone if you have been in a similar situation as I am, or maybe you're the one who was told by your boyfriend/girlfriend about their self harm, would you be able to offer some advice? I feel like he'd be understanding and caring about it, but I'm afraid of him being hurt by knowing that I have done these things to myself.
I also want to tell him in person, but I know that that will be extremely difficult for me so I might bring it up in text and then talk about it more next time I see him in person. Is this a good idea?

Thanks.