Scars make better stories than tatoos

[Wahine]

First of all, I have nothing against tatoos.

I'm starting this thread because I have an amusing story that led, eventually to a scar. Well, I have several stories of this nature and I could carry the thread all by myself, but I'm hoping that others will contirbute.

Who doesn't like to compare scars.

My first story: In Prep for the Wedding

So, some of you may have guessed already but once upon a time I was a very durty gurl. I used to MTB every Wed morning with my best girl friend and we rode hard. I never came back without bruises, scratches, mud etc. The two of us also climbed together, a lot. She was my maid of honor and we did a double back bicep pose for the cameras in our fancy (backless of course) dresses on my wedding day.

DH, forbade me from MTBing for 4 weeks before the wedding. He hadn't seen my dress but knew that it was strapless and backless. He was very worried that I would show up on the day with a big raspberry on my exposed flesh. He advised my maid of honor of this rule as well and recommended that she also follow it as her dress did not leave a lot to the imagination either.

I was a very good girl and did as I was told. We (MofH and I) did participate in a climbing comp the night before the wedding but she wouldn't let me do anything too risky. We kept it very tame.

About 3 days before the big event I took my SUV to the car wash. One of those wand wash deals. Like I do everytime I wash, I climbed up on the running boards to clean the roof. Unfortunately, this time I slipped. In an automatic reaction I pulled my arms in and grabbed the rack to keep from falling to the ground. My strong climbing arms held me up, Yea!! But what was that burning I was feeling on my forearm? The pressure washer I was using was pointed right at my arm and was taking a good few layers of skin off as I hung there from the rack.

The result: a second degree burn on my forearm about 5 inches long and 2 inches wide. Not attractive at all!!

I had to phone the florist to make sure that the bouquet was going to be large enough to hide this in the photos. It was. But it was pretty amusing explaining to the guests why I had this big burn on my arm. None of them could believe that it was from washing the car when I do so many other "high risk" activities.

Well, the scar makes a good story.

So lets here em ladies!!

[KnottedYet]

I've got cancer scars (boring) and scars from falling thru a window. A few others here and there.

Actually, I want a cuff tattoo on my right bicep (deltoid insertion level) of a bicycle chain, just like Doc's temporary tattoos. I think I'll do it as my 15 years cancer-free celebration. (2010, whooo-hooo! Beer for everyone, and I'm buyin'!)

My 10 year celebration was getting my nose pierced, but it took me 11 years to get up the nerve!

[Wahine]

I've got cancer scars (boring) and scars from falling thru a window. A few others here and there.

Actually, I want a cuff tattoo on my right bicep (deltoid insertion level) of a bicycle chain, just like Doc's temporary tattoos. I think I'll do it as my 15 years cancer-free celebration. (2010, whooo-hooo! Beer for everyone, and I'm buyin'!)

My 10 year celebration was getting my nose pierced, but it took me 11 years to get up the nerve!

Cancer scars are cool. Not cool that you had to go through it but cool that you were tough enuff to beat it. And be careful what you say about beer, us Canadian girls can drink you folks under the table. It could be a big bar tab.

Congratulations Knott. I honestly hope that I can have a beer with you sometime in celebration.

[LBTC]

Yup, cancer scars are cool. Way to be a survivor, Knot!!

Scar stories....

Well, a million years ago, so it seems, we were out on the mt bikes on a dirt road, DH and buddy Scott and me. Well, my mind got to wandering at one point, when we were close to a steep drop off and I was picturing DH and how he said he had driven my cute little Tracker on this narrow winding road and I know how he drives so I was quite aghast that he had taken it down this road!! No sooner had this thought registered, and I was flying off the bike! At some point between the sudden dismount and the landing, I scraped my shin on something....pretty deep and bumpy. We bandaged me up so the grass wouldn't hurt slapping against my leg on the way out, and rode the rest of the way out. I have about a 4 inch x 1/2 inch scar on my right shin and the reminder is always there. Don't think about anything else when on the mountain bike!

Buddy Scott brought the story up at my 30th birthday party. He was impressed that I didn't cry! I might have cried then, it felt so good to know that I had his respect.

Hugs and butterflies,
~T~

[Aggie_Ama]

My only scar is from busting my chin open at age 4. NO good story there.

I have two tattoos and want to get one removed. Actually, I may just get a really good artist to do a great touch up on it. I don't know, it was what I always said I would get. I got it and 8 years later I am thinking I should have been more creative!

Now my brother has an ugly scar from breaking a toilet the night of his bachelor party. That is one heck of a story. He is divorced from the witch, so it isn't quite as fond of a memory these days.

[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.

[newfsmith]

My first biking scar acquired at about age 11. I was riding home from school and was coming down a steep hill on a washboarded gravel road when I lost it. I landed on the gravel and managed to drive a piece into my right elbow. My dad had seen me fall, so came in to help me clean up. We couldn't get the half inch chunk of gravel out of my elbow without "unroofing" the overlying skin. After 50 years it has shrunk down to a 1/4 inch by 1/2 inch white scar.

Both knees have shiny spots left from road rash, but my right knee has 2 parallel lines, tatooed by my tights from an early spring crash, it didn't tear the tights but did a good road rash and tatoo.

I have a scar on my upper lip from restraining a dog, it caught my lip with its back foot and gave me a hare lip. The weird part was that I didn't feel it at all. The vet heard the skin rip and told me to let the dog go. We cleaned it up, put a bandaid on it and went back to work. It healed very well, now it just blends in with the rest of my wrinkles.

My recent faceplant on a car trunklid left me with a little scar inside my lip, but it means I can't whistle anymore. That's probably a good thing, I never could carry a tune.

My arms are so covered with cat scratch scars that at my first physical with my new MD she thought I was a cutter.

Surgicals: 2 abdominal & 2 lymph node biopsies.

[mimitabby]

sheesh, i am in awe of all of your scars.
Mine are hardly visible and not worth mentioning.

[Running Mommy]

Yep, I was on my brand spankin new specialized allez dolce back in the day when I took my first "clippy pedal" tumble. I have a perfect triple ring tat on my upper calf. I might add that my calves are HUGE, so they make a great billboard for scars.
I also have some cancer scars. They were from the freaking treatment!! I was taking an anti cancer drug and developed these nasty wounds on my calf. My doc told me that they were basically a burn from the inside out.. UGH... Or something like that. All I know is cancer SUCKS!! Right knotted?!
My body is pretty much a scar fest. When I was 17 I was in a car wreck and broke my left femur. They did surgery to insert a rod, so I have a big scar on the side of my upper thigh.
And then when I was 18 I was thrown out of a car (another acident) careened down the center of 880 in oakland like a rag doll. Road debris was imbedded everywhere so my arms and and legs have lots of little round scars.
And then there is my c-section scar. But that is a good one!!
Dang, now that I think about it, my body is like a road map!!