Scars make better stories than tatoos

[colby]

Great story, Wahine. (And Cancer scars do count, Knotted )

I don't really have any obvious or fun ones. I have what used to be a deep scar on my hand from scraping the lane lines doing butterfly the first time in competition in swim team (must be down to 1" long, now). I must have scraped that plastic pretty hard on the outside of my hand to get a scar that's still here 15 years later! I have a 1-2" scar on my forehead from smacking into a fireplace when I was very very young (old enough to walk... into the fireplace ). I can only imagine the screaming if the scar is still around what must be 25 years later (I vaguely remember it).

I do wear shorts and tshirts to work (casual Friday every day!), so if I have any scrapes or scratches, they are very noticeable. I do get comments asking what I was "up to" over the weekend.

I always love sunburns. You can tell what I was wearing/doing by the sunburn. Bike jersey/gloves burn, kayaking burn, swim suit burn, trisuit burn, sunglass burn, goggle face...

Hoping for more scar stories

[crazycanuck]

I'm rather boring & have very few scars..I will tell the hit head on pavement at 30km/hr story after.

I will however, tell you about a cool scar Ian has on his right wrist-yes from mtn biking. Whilst in NZ (Rotorua-where he's originally from), Ian went off mtn biking in Whakarewarewa/ the Redwoods (on his own as i couldn't get a new tire as mine was badly stretched after my tube exploded when we inflated it on christmas eve..& went home a few days later without any biking.. )

Anywho, Ian decided to do one of the harder trails & had a stack. As he fell he noticed his bike flying towards his head whilst he rolled & put his right arm up.Apparently it was either be hit in the head or arm by his chain ring.
He ventures into town & oddly enough found eachother at the perfect time.( my mobile doesn't work in NZ)He tells me a visit to the A &E wouldn't go amiss. Long story short, he ended up with 9 stitches in his wrist & has a lovely scar.

I love stories

[Velobambina]

I have a tattoo of a bike on the outside of my left calf. Very simple & understated.

My scar stories are not too interesting, but add character to my body: a deep gash (right calf) and two puncture marks (right shin), plus road rash scars on both knees from a dog attack. Long thin slash scar on left shin from wiping out on a icy bridge while hiking in the woods. Nine-inch scar on the back of my head from a car wreck (T-boned by a red light runner). Scar on left breast from a lumpectomy (benign). Scar on left shoulder from where I fell and broke my shoulder (I was training for a marathon and tripped on a manhole cover). Several scars of varying sizes where I had suspicious moles removed. A couple cat bite scars on my right hand (one's a little pit).
Bike wipe out scar on my left thumb -- lost the thumbnail a few months afterward -- from losing control of my heavy ugly rust-orange "Sears" starter bike when bombing down a hill when I was 8 or 9. I had better luck when I inherited my sister's purple banana bike a year or so later.

[han-grrl]

Well my first scar i got 2 weeks AFTER my wedding...

I was doing an mtb race. I was have a great ride, and then part of a branch of something low got into my wheel and I endo-ed and my face smacked another part of another low branch. well my lip did.

i thought i was going to have a fat lip, but i didn't realize that i had split my lower lip and i was bleeding. When i crossed the finish line, everyone was looking at me kind of worriedly (is that a word). My friend goes "uh, hannah..." and puts a kleenex to my lip.

i looked at my bike glove and it was CAKED in blood. i had no idea. it was a deep cut, and i actually drove 5 hours back home and went to the hospital there AFTER dinner. (we had cleaned it and put a bandaid thing on it to hold my lip together). At the ER, the nurse RIPPED off the bandaid and it started to bleed again. she says "i guess i shouldn't have done that...fortunately for me, i got to see the doctor about 5 minutes later. so i was in and out of ER in under an hour. (unheard of around here). The doctor just put a glue stich on it and away i went.

My second scar is my 15 staples down my tummy from the surgery on New Years day. it actually goes around my belly button (the surgeon made sure i still had one). I used to have a belly button ring, (it actually still does go in), my husband wants to get one with a zipper end, so well, you get the idea...

[lph]

Wow, some great stories here. I have a few small scars, with mildly interesting stories:

My lower lip has a faint but noticable line and a bump inside, from a faceplant into gravel from a bike when I was 16 (story told elsewhere on this forum). Broke two front teeth, pulled them halfway out and incidentally split my lower lip wide open.

My calves have two matching circular dotted scars about the size of a coin. Any horse people recognize those? I rode race horses when I was 16-20, and one race (or exercise race, can't remember) the stirrup straps royally grabbed onto the skin on my calves and abraded off a layer or three. Everyone on the racetrack had those dotted scars.

I have a small raised line on the inside of one knee. I had my own horse, she was unshod, and I was carving off a little off her hoof that had grown too long and started to split. The knife slipped and tore a hole in my pant leg, but I didn't feel anything until I noticed that my FOOT felt wet... Long gash.

And my right forefinger has a distinct triangular scar at the base. I tried to punch open a window (long story, locked out, young and stupid and macho), cut myself a bit, freaked out and jerked my hand back again towards me. Result was a BIG chunk cut out, blood spurting out in a pulse. I managed to stop it, but when I tried to remove the bandage again out came a little pulse fountain again. So I called a dr, who drily told me: "If you stopped it the first time, you can stop it again. You don't need stitches."

And now of course I have a zillion little cat scars from our small but ferocious tiger, but they are temporary.

The only times I've hurt myself semi-seriously (broken bone, kicked in the head by a horse once) I healed up without scars. A friend of mine used to be irritated over how she hurt herself in invisible places while I got "hero scars" - minor injuries that didn't hurt much but were very visible

[Pax]

I have both, tats and scars...I like the tats because I got to pick them whereas the scars weren't voluntary.

I pretty much look like the bride of Frankenstein as far as scarring goes, I have HUGE scars from breast reduction, and then the scars from four knee surgeries/three abdominal surgeries/some small burn scars from my firefighting days/various and sundry scars from a lifetime of sports... I don't mind any of them, I earned them and they are really part of my identity, each one brings back very vivid memories of what I was doing at the time.

[DebW]

Glissade patch on the outside of my right knee from descending Mt. Ranier in 1980. Just a whitish patch of skin 3"x2.5". Only bad part was that the gauze I put over it got stuck, and when a nurse removed it 3 days later, I passed out.

2 inch scar on right outside calf from Earth Day 1975. I was collecting trash from a local pond and something sharp I'd put in the trash bag cut my leg. Got a ride in a fire truck and about 12 stitches.

A couple eyebrow scars, one from surgery to repair my broken xygomatic arch, the other from a silly game of Photon Ball (which involved playing catch in the dark on winter camping trips).

Also lumpectomy scar on right breast but that was a very long time ago and is very faded.