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I’ll Share My Scars if You Share Yours…

I’ll Share My Scars if You Share Yours…
Carly Jacobs

I was thinking the other day how beautiful scars are. They are a permanent reminder of terror, bravery, foolishness and the fragility of life. I never hesitate to ask people about their scars, simply because I like them so much. I honestly don’t believe I’ve ever offended anyone by asking either, because my curiosity comes from a place of admiration, not disgust.

One of my best friends has a scar that runs from one side of her stomach to the other like a prehistoric ceasarean scar. She was in an accident when she was eight and was almost completely cut in half. I went to school with a girl who had a scar that ran down the thumb on her left hand and down to her wrist. She was born with two thumbs on the same hand. My great aunt dated a guy who was missing one of his ring fingers. He stuck his hand in a cage at the zoo and a monkey bit it off. (I actually need to clarify that one. I was told that when I was eleven and every time I repeat it as an adult, it sounds less and less plausible.)

Here are my scars.

Two small but deep cuts on my right hand.

I don’t know what they are from. Neither do my parents but I’ve had them as long as I can remember and they didn’t get there without an injury.

Belly button ring scar.

I got my belly button pierced when I was sixteen years old and my body rejected it. I now have a pink bumpy scar above my belly button.

A small round splotch on my knee.

I was a warty kid. I was the kid that no one wanted to holds hands with in year six because I had THIRTEEN warts on my hands. It was fifteen originally but three of them grew together on my thumb to form one giant Wart King, taking my count to thirteen. They disapeared soon after primary school but the knee one hung around until I was a teenager so I went to the doctor and burned the sucker off. Scar was totally worth it.

A red keloid scar on my chest.

I had a pimple there and I picked it. I now have a weird red, raised scar there. I now know I have the potential to get keloid scars, which are rarer and more unsightly than regular scars.

Share your scars?

 

 

30 Comments

  1. Nessbow 13 years ago

    I have a couple of chicken pox scars- one on my temple and one behind my elbow.  I also have a long, silvery scar on the inside of my forearm where my cat scratched me when I was nine.

    • Author
      Smaggle 13 years ago

      Actually I suspect my hand scars are from a cat. 

  2. Elle Marie 13 years ago

    I like how transparent you are in your posts, it’s so refreshing.  I have  a scar on my middle finger from where I punched my hand through my bedroom door when I was a teenager, and a few cuts on my arms from attempted…. “s”.   

    • Author
      Smaggle 13 years ago

      Thank you Elle Marie. 

      And thanks for being just as transparent in your commenting. 

      x

  3. Katie 13 years ago

    Four small scars along my jawline from incisions when I had my jaws reconstructed, a thin white scar that encircles both my thighs where a dog on a retractable leash ran around my legs, and a small nick on my right hand where a durian fruit stabbed me. Damn durian.

    • Author
      Smaggle 13 years ago

      That’s what you get for eating durian. That shit is nasty. 

  4. Karen Beth Martin 13 years ago

    I have 17 inches of scarring.  Several very small ones from childhood
    mishaps – cut my food on the pedal of my hotwheel, bicycle accident,
    etc. 

    My first big one is from a reconstructive spinal fusion when I was 18. 
    It runs all the way across my left side at a diagonal.   The second big
    one is from open heart surgery two years ago at age 32.  It is my
    life-line and for so long I tried so hard to keep it covered but now I
    don’t.  I’m proud of it.  It is why I’m alive and I endured a lot for
    that scar.  🙂

    http://zazazu.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/my-joyful-heart/

  5. faith prichard 13 years ago

    I have one on my cheek. It looks like a dimple. I got it when I was in about 2nd grade when I was running with a stick. I tripped and the stick went almost all the way through.

    • Author
      Smaggle 13 years ago

      That is all kinds of un-coordinated. Love it. 

  6. Nerida 13 years ago

    My best mate has a huge scar that runs down her chest like a zipper from open heart surgery when she was 3 to correct a hole in her heart. She used to cover it with high neck tops and I’ve told her forever its beautiful and shows her strength, she doesnt cover it anymore thank goodness. Life is fragile and a gift and scars prove this!

  7. Christy 13 years ago

    New reader, love the blog.

    I have a small scar in the middle of my forehead I got when I was about 2 or so. I was dancing to Thriller and twirled into the edge of the wall and the metal corner protector thing split my forehead open.

    I have a 4 inch scar just inside my hairline.  Got kicked in the head doing capoeira. He either really needed to pumice his heel or had really long toenails.  Head wounds bleed profusely so I’m unsure which but I suspect the heel. 

    Permanent bite marks on the sides of my tongue. My tongue is really big, like Gene Simmons big. It naturally rests between my teeth so over the years impressions were made. 

    Quite a few small scars from scratching mosquito bites. Evil buggers. I have trouble resisting scratching.

    • Author
      Smaggle 13 years ago

      Best comment ever. ‘My tongue is really big, like Gene Simmons big.’

      Welcome my friend, you’ll fit in perfectly here. 

      x

  8. Angela 13 years ago

    I have a scar like that last one in the middle of my back, where I had a potentially cancerous mole removed when I was young. I was so uncomfortable with it when I first went into high school, and once formal dances started (and in came halter-top and strapless dresses!) I learned to embrace it, put a bit of sparkle on my back, and go with it.

    I also have a large scar on my chin, where I fell off the school stage in high school. They turned the lights off early and I couldn’t get to them without walking down the stage stairs in the dark, misjudged where they were, and knocked myself out on an armrest of one of the auditorium chairs.

    I also have a few smaller scars on my face, which my boyfriend lovingly calls my “head dents” from the chicken pox. They’re perfectly round, and I never really minded them much.

    I scar easily, and while it used to drive me absolutely crazy, I no longer worry too much about it. It’s just interesting when someone points out the scar on my back, since it’s fairly large and people often wonder where it came from.

    • Author
      Smaggle 13 years ago

      Oh I love ‘head dents’. 

      I scar easily too. As you can tell by the incredibly lame ways that I got mine. 🙂

  9. Silvara 13 years ago

    Ohhh too many…but l,ike Nerida’s friend my biggest is a long scar from under my shoulder blades to down the middle of my chest to just below my boobs. It’s from a heart operation I had when I was 6 months old to fix a hole in my heart.

    My mother used to refuse to let me wear tops where you could see it – I of course, rebelled, and wore low cut tops proudly. My scar is a part of me, proof that I survived 🙂

  10. Corrine/Frock & Roll 13 years ago

    I think scars are beautiful, too. They’re proof of the incredible and interesting lives that we’ve lead!

    I have the exact same belly button scar (my body rejected my belly button piercing THREE TIMES, so I have a huuuge scar!) and my other most prominent scar is one on my nose, from when my sister (accidentally!) hit me in the face with a piece of wood when we were kids. (Ouch!)

    • Author
      Smaggle 13 years ago

      Three times??? I took the hint the first time. 🙂

      Let’s not talk about how many scars my brother has because of me… 

  11. Joy F.G. 13 years ago

    Ooo boy, I have been working on my comment for a bit. I have a scar on my left thigh that looks like a potato bug. I don’t remember what caused it and neither does my mom, brother nor did my dad.

    I have a hairline scar just below my jaw where I had my lymph node biopsied because it was enlarged for quite a long time. I was 12 and it all worked out alright.

    Finally, I have a scar that shames most people but is evidence that I survived. It took 13 stitches to close and it draws diagonally through a tattoo I got on my second anniversary with my husband (he has a matching tattoo). I went through a pretty serious mental health crisis 1 1/2 years ago and took a pair of hair cutting shears to my wrist. I am well now (medicated well) and plan on staying that way but when I see that scar, I do not see failure of mind. I see the beginning of my wellness because it was after that I took my mental health seriously and actually took my meds for my bipolar disorder. I’m a much better wife, mother and person for it.

    Lady Smaggle, you charming and lovely lady, have been thought provoking again.

    • Author
      Smaggle 13 years ago

      Thank you, dear Joy. 

      And thanks for sharing. I’ve always thought self-imposed scars are the most interesting and eerily beautiful. 

      xxx

  12. Jordan Best 13 years ago

    I am riddled with scars. They are like a book about my life written on my body. I also love them.

  13. Sarah Rooftops 13 years ago

    Mm, I have two from having moles removed and three teeny tiny ones from laporoscopies.

    I have one mangled finger from when I was a projectionist; the person who had been doing the shift before mine had threaded the projector up with the wrong tension and my finger got pulled between the sprockets while I was checking it out.

    I have another big scar on a finger from trying to get a sharp knife out of one of those plastic packets. I’d just moved into a new home and didn’t have any knives or scissors which WEREN’T in packets, so I was having to force one of them out through the plastic and it didn’t go too well! I was also waiting in for deliveries and didn’t have a first aid kit so I ended up having to stick a panty liner round my finger and hold it in place with a latex glove.  Nice.

  14. Magatha May 13 years ago

    I’ve got a few marks on me over the years but I’ll start from the feet up.

    I have matching scars on the back of each ankle from breaking in a pair of New Rock boots, both knees are badly scarred from years of playing basketball on an outdoor court, I have a 6″ scar on the inside of my left thigh from when I was playing in a scrap yard and jumped off the bonnet of of an old car and caught my leg in the broken aerial, my nipple ring was rejected by my left boob but it only left a very small scar, the back of my left hand has three little scars where a mean boy in school dug his nails into my hand, I have a big scar patch on the little finger on my right hand where I sliced off a section of my finger with a mandolin, and finally my birthmark is actually a scar that divides my bottom lip, I hated it for many years and thought it made me very ugly but really no one even noticed it and now it’s like my little secret thing.

    Great topic, I always love hearing scar stories.  

  15. dr stumpy 13 years ago

    I have scar envy. I only have a small one on my middle finger of my left hand where I nearly sliced my finger off cutting up potatoes and one on my left arm where I had a mole removed and took the stitches out myself.
    And stretch marks, do they count?    

    • dr stumpy 13 years ago

      opps I forgot one – on my right ear – up the top – where I had an earring when I was 16 and when I took it out it healed funny.
       

  16. MissusB 13 years ago

    I have one down the middle of my forehead from being hit by a car and splitting my head open on the curb.

    I have one on my left shin from being in a car accident – my shin split open the glovebox.

    I have one on my left middle finger from splitting it open when opening a can of dog food. 

    I have a bellybutton scar that is now a whole lot more ‘decorative’, matching my stretchmarks from being pregnant with my daughter.

    And then two on my face, one on my belly, and one in my hair from getting moles removed.

  17. Davinia 13 years ago

    I have a scar on my eyebrow and on my navel where my piercings were rejected; I have four small scars on my abdomen from when I got my gallbladder removed; A long scar on my left foot from when I had to have pins inserted into my little toe after I broke it in three places; and a VERY faint blotchy scar on my right hand from where a kid pushed me into a tree in kindergarten.

  18. Reyna 13 years ago

    I have a great scar around my ankle, a thick, straight line from a white water rafting accident. I also have a straight, vertical line on my forehead from where I tripped and hit my head on a brick wall. I had to have plastic surgery for that one. Fortunately, it was pre Harry Potter days, or, as a 5 year old, I probably would have begged for them to stitch me up in a lightening bolt shape. 

  19. Ashleah Davis 13 years ago

    Under my bottom lip i have a small line from when i monkeyed my way out of my crib as a baby, and split it open. 
    Directly under that is a failed labret piercing hole, genius 19th birthday present as i figured it was the end of my ‘teen rebellion’ years, it lasted about 9 months before i noticed that it was making my bottom front teeth move and i like my teeth more than metal in my mouth.
    i have an appendix scar from when i was 12, its really fat and raised because my appendix nearly burst and they weren’t too concerned with the scar at that point in time.

  20. Megan.p. 12 years ago

    ive got two scars from getting stitches and one from making french fries.
    but on a kind of different subject a new thing is now branding… purposely scarring yourself for fashion, like a tattoo but a burn that eventually scars you… and im not gonna lie, im on the fence on whether i think this is a good or bad idea. on one hand i think that it could be really cool, but on the other hand i think scars are there to remind us of how fragile everything is. how just stupid clumsiness can hurt you, but in the end it also reminds you of your strength, yeah you were a mess when you were seven and cut your head open, but you made it through even if at the time, even a hug from your mommy couldnt erase your minds fear.  

  21. Jess L 7 years ago

    I have a scar on my right hand from when I was 11, story’s not much, I had fought with my little sister (she had long, uncut nails) and we always fought physically. You can guess the next part. I never took much notice of the injury after it healed, but once in while when I look at it, it looks and feels pretty cool. Like I survived something so hardcore (in this case, my tyrant of a little sister). I also have an unseen scar beneath my chin from when I was 5, after slipping in the bathroom and slamming jaw first on the floor. It was “stitched together” (doctor’s words) and whole process was painful, but Mama said it was lucky I didn’t have the scar on a more obvious area on my face.

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