A few days ago I was ironing for the first time. I happened to be shirtless, and I was reaching across the ironing table (where I had the iron sitting on its heel), and got a nice little burn on my bicep.
The mark is still there, and it’s a reasonably prominent ~2.5 inch red/brown sliver of tissue with a little more of a wrinkled/crumpled looking texture than the rest of my skin. I call it Ironing 101.
I really hope I get to keep this scar, as I only have one other (my left eyebrow is split horizontally from when a schoolmate threw a Tonka truck at me (one of the big steel ones), was stitched up and subsequently split open again by my dad throwing a hose at/toward me on the lawn. I call that one Backyard Politics)
My hunch is that it will probably just heal and go away, as it has only been a few days. But I’m holding on to the hope it will stay, and am sharing with you all so you can give me your opinions on what will happen with it.
Of course, I would never intentionally inflict harm on my body in any way so don’t try and tell me how I can make it permanent. Battle scars have to be earned.
(I see I used the word “opinions” so this could technically be an IMHO, but it’s more of a factual question so I feel like it’s an MPSIMS. Not quite a GQ)
I doubt it will stay. In high school I had a little accident that involved a cutting torch and my forearm, and the scar from that went away after a year or two.
If you’re looking for battle scars, might I suggest Extreme Ironing?
Probably not, but YMMV. Some people scar more easily than others. I still have a rather faint scar on my forearm that arose from an unfortunate misjudging of the distance between said forearm and a skillet last year. My husband, OTOH, got really a really nasty flesh-dripping burn in a mishap with an acetylene torch. It was treated promptly and, obviously, very appropriately, since today you cannot tell which hand was sizzled.
I sliced my thigh open with the pin on the back of my name tag for work a few days ago, and it’s already healing up. No luck. (It looked really cool, too. ‘Oh, this? I got it in a battle with deadly pirate ninjas in the middle of the night…’)
I’m happy to see I’m not the only crazy person. No offence to previous posters. I recently had ankle surgery and when the nurse took the staples out I saw quite the impressive scar. I commented such and the nurse was quick to reassure me that it’d fade in no time.
But… but… Then who will believe me about wrestling timberwolves?
I saw a documentary on Bukowski once. He had some scars on his face, and he told a story about a time when he saw a guy with more and deeper scars than he had and he remembered feeling… jealous. That really made me smile.
Folks who get cuts stitched up in ERs are often told to avoid exposing the healing cut to sunshine. The reason, supposedly, is to avoid having a more prominent scar. So, if you actually want a scar, go get a suntan.
“I got a gash on my leg in a bike accident.”
“Have a scar?”
“No, thanks. I don’t smoke.”
I’ve gotten minor burns on my hands and arms (usually small, quick contact things when reaching for something else near a hot pan or something) and none of them have scarred. My husband, OTOH, scars quite easily, and has a large brownish scar on one arm from a burn he got like that. Scars on hands don’t really last though.
Dude, you want to see scars? Check out my body sometime. On my left hand alone, I just counted five scars, two of which are both on my thumb and are quite prominant. The larger one is about an inch and a half long and 3/16 of an inch wide. I got it while wrestling a rabid wolverine.(I was making a wooden boat for 8th grade science and the coping saw slipped.) My right hand has several on the knuckles from when I had to fight a glass golem barehanded to get the wizard’s key so that I could save the maiden fair. (Got drunk and smashed a window.)
A three inch scar on my upper right thigh from when a evil hag tried to cut off my wang, but missed when I dodged at the last second to cut off her head as she stumbled past (her teeth scraped against my leg as her head fell off.)(surgery to remove a lymphnode)
I also have lots of small scars on my back from when I was imprisoned by the evil vasier and forced to endure a thousand lashings before I was able to grab the whip with my shoulder blades, pull it out of the hands of the dungeon master, grab the keys with it, and throw the keys into the manacle locks, thus freeing myself.(I worked several summers in construction and stood up in many a space too small to stand up in, thus getting pocked and scraped in the back with all manner of nails, boards, tools, etc…)
Oddly enought, the one cool thing I SHOULD have a scar from (getting attacked by a bear) left no physical evidence behind, so it’s like, what was the point? Now I have to waste my time to find another grizzly and have it swallow me whole so I can whittle my way out of its stomach with just my pen-knife. (In the original encounter, the knife slipped out of my hand and cut my foot (slippery inside a bear, dontcha know.))
Not that I’ve been attacked by a bear, but yes, the things that should leave scars rarely do. The very bad burn I got from my thumb to my upper arm has left only the faintest of scars that you can barely see, and yet I have a permanent scar on the corner of my wrist that I don’t even remember where I got. Glass scars stay, that’s one way to keep one. I still have one from when I was 7. Iron scars never stay. Oh, and barbed wire scars stay. : looks ruefully at the four-inch one on her knee :
I get scratched and scraped all the time (either “clumsy” or “fearless” - you decide) and I often have the misfortune of getting a bit of a tan while healing and I must say if nothing else, the tanning makes the scar stand out.
I’m so scratched up right now though I can’t tell you if I have scars from previous years still or not.
I do have this scar from a month ago when I lightly and briefly touched my arm with a lighter I’d just used to light a fire…and then the next day when playing with the dog she managed to gouge me in the EXACT same place with her tooth…so I have a completely un-raised and very deep brown triangle on the inside of my forearm, thanks to some tanning.
If you want to draw it out as long as possible, go get some sun on it.
You never know - you might get to keep your scar. I have a triangle-shaped scar on the inside of my forearm from reaching across the ironing board with the iron standing up, sizzling my arm in the process. You can see the top of the iron’s shape. That was about 8 years ago, and it’s faint but definite.
All I have to do is draw blood and the cut will likely turn into a scar. Mole removal? Two big ones. Sliced god-knows-how? I have three that stuck around. The only one I rightfully earned is a bright white line through a mass of dark, thick, bubbly skin on my knee left over from a bike accident nine years ago, where I skidded three feet on concrete.