Old scars

Toby Frost

Toby Frost

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A character has a long facial scar, similar to the duelling-scars you see on German officers in old films. The scar has been healed up for about five years, although not very tidily. I'm wondering what they will feel now. Presumably there'll be tightness of the skin and lack of movement (which they may well be used to by now and wouldn't really notice). Is there anything else that it would seem wrong not to include? I'm thinking of physical factors, not psychological ones.
 
Yes, they would feel it pull every now and then. I felt my appendix scar for years, and when I had children, it stretched, and I felt it all over again, so using that logic, weight gain, change of features could effect it. Cold would as well, it would redden. If nerves were damaged, he could develop a tick. Eye could be pulled down, and, or not close properly.
 
Ooh, interesting question, and I'll going to be making note of the answers.

I've only picked up a couple of scars over the years. A long one on my forearm (I wasn't as good a hurdler as I thought, and trying it on a fixed safety barrier above concrete wasn't the best idea I ever had) was unsightly, but caused no problems at all, though I have vague memory of itching, but that might have been as it was healing. And on my face is a tiny one in my eyebrow (headbutting an apple tree, aged 3) and I don't recall any problems afterwards; certainly nothing that persisted into my teenage years when I might have been conscious of it.

If it's a man who has the scar, and it's in the beard area, that will cause problems shaving I imagine, as the hair will grow oddly if my eyebrow is any guide. If it's a woman, no idea, sorry, but the psychological problems might be a lot more important if this is a society which accords value to a woman's beauty.
 
Guess I lived a wilder life than I thought... I make Frankenstein seem like he has a clear complexion. How deep would you guess his scar to be? Skin, fat, muscle, bone? It will make a difference. Also, where it is and how it runs precisely?

K2
 
Facial scars are more likely to come with some nerve damage, as the face has many more nerves per inch than the abdomen or arm. So the character could have some numbness or even some very minor facial paralysis not allowing them to express themselves normally. The scar itself could have more likelihood of getting dry skin and burning in the sun. It may also swell more easily when you sweat or abrade it - I have several like that.

It really just depends how sharp the knife was, how deep the cut and how poorly it was tacked back together.
 
I have a 22 cm (9 inch) scar on my leg. It tightens in certain weathers, and makes the skin around move differently to the same area on the other leg.

Also have a small 2-3 cm scar on my face, just below the eye (it was a close-run thing). Hardly noticeable in most circumstances, but it does alter the face shape ever so slightly, and causes the (numerous) smile lines* to take a different course, and creates a smooth island the size of a fingertip just below the eye socket.

The skin is tighter above the scar, but actually mildly baggier below. It was pretty well stitched, but gravity, and the weight of that part of the cheek, plus natural facial movements and talking may have made the wound settle differently. It also feels like it pulls the bottom eyelid, although I cannot see a difference, and that same lower lid seems to twitch more than it used to -- still only on the odd occasion, though. That could just be me noticing it more, due to my recognition of a past injury, like noticing people on crutches when you've broken your leg, a cognitive bias.

*We shall not refer to them as wrinkles, naturally.
 
I have a scar on my lower lip, from hitting a dashboard as a kid, and I can feel a lump of scar tissue inside my lip, between the inside and the outside, if that makes sense. I had stitches, where it basically split my lip. I would imagine a cheek would feel the same way, so one might run one’s tongue over it on the inside absentmindedly, as I do.
 
At what age did the character get hurt? If it was as a kid, you can point out later on how the scar looks different once he grows.

I was a pretty sensible kid, so only a few scars, but I nearly lost my left thumb as a child. Sliced it deep on a chromed metal table with bad finishings on its underside. I was little, panicked, and jerked my hand away while the metal was still deep in my flesh. Not a good day. Left it hanging from a string of--to this day I do not know--skin, tendon, or a muscle "string"? The scar would go almost all around my thumb. Nowadays it barely covers 30% of it. Don't know if this was of any help, but since we're comparing scars...:cool:
 
I have scars two on the forehead from before I was 7 years old. I remember those bothering me for a number of year and they were deep enough that they were prominent up through my 30s, neither was long enough to do damage to nerves or anything else and today they look more like white patches than scars.

I have scars from burns from around age 20 the largest was in the belt area and so not only did that one have tightness for quite a while it also would itch and burn from constant rubbing from the belts. I also had burn scars at the same time around my ankle which were tight or stiff. Those probably persisted for ten years but have now gone away or I've just gotten used to them. They don't look a bad as they did back then--that might be a perception issue.

I also apparently have an issue where I scar easily--the plastic surgeons suggested that they could fix the burn scars; however because of my skin condition those could come back, just a bit different after the surgery. I decided to tough it out.
 
Betraying my age now, but my smallpox vaccination became infected, and my left arm just below the shoulder is a mass of scar tissue about 50mm in diameter.

As I was inoculated at 6 months, I have no memory of the injury itself, but cosmetics aside, it has no effect whatsoever on the use of my arm.
 
The Judge said:
I've only picked up a couple of scars over the years. A long one on my forearm (I wasn't as good a hurdler as I thought, and trying it on a fixed safety barrier above concrete wasn't the best idea I ever had) was unsightly, but caused no problems at all, though I have vague memory of itching, but that might have been as it was healing. And on my face is a tiny one in my eyebrow (headbutting an apple tree, aged 3) and I don't recall any problems afterwards; certainly nothing that persisted into my teenage years when I might have been conscious of it.
Click to expand...

Is it just me, or does all of this cause a horrible cognitive dissonance regarding the perceived persona of its author?
 
I have one small scar on my chin (landing chin-first on asphalt as a young child), a moderate sized on one my leg (same stretch of asphalt) from roughly the same time, and one at the edge of my hairline (head to head collision playing American flag football without pads in college) but I don't really feel those anymore. The facial one only shows up when I have stubble; if I grow out a beard it pretty well hides it, and that is pretty well universally true if the scar is more than a few cm below the hairline and grown out a bit.

The scars that still hurt are from my martial arts days, but they are all internal. I took a good shot to the side of the head which cracked my jaw (that hurts occasionally when I am chewing), jammed/broke my thumbs enough times that the second joint in both of them only partially works (and I cannot clap without pain unless I golfer clap), my ribs took MANY kicks and punches, and I feel those when it rains, and my right knee absorbed some leg sweeps and shock from dodge techniques, so that it pops like one's knuckles when I lay down on, move certain ways, or first put weight on it. And, I pulled some tendons in my arms, and they flare up every now and again.

So, my experience (and it seems like most others here) is that skin scars are mainly cosmetic and a bit of tightness at times, and muscle scars typically heal up almost entirely, but bone injuries tend to hurt when putting stress on them or when it rains for some reason, and tendon tends to flare back up when they are being used too much.
 
I have a scar over my eye that is visible but has no physical effects that I notice (got it when I was twelve). OTOH, I cut my thumb fairly deeply (while chopping lettuce, good grief) about six or seven years ago. There are no visible scars, but I can still feel where I cut it. I'd say it's a numbness, except that it's more like a small line of numbness with a heightened sensation around it, almost like a very mild burn. It doesn't hurt, but I'm aware of it and find myself rubbing at that thumb (it's at the tip) in a way I certainly do not with the other thumb.

I could see the scarred person absently rubbing at the scar, probably sometimes not even aware he's doing it.
 
-K2- said:
Guess I lived a wilder life than I thought... I make Frankenstein seem like he has a clear complexion. How deep would you guess his scar to be? Skin, fat, muscle, bone? It will make a difference. Also, where it is and how it runs precisely?
Click to expand...

Well I guess I'll just mention a few other things then.

First off, any damage to bone may cause a number of conditions. One would be bone chips and calcium granules (like grains of sand) to over the years work their way to the surface. Once all of the bone chips are gone, the calcium grains will continue. Damage to bone be it a break or even a chip/gouge/notch will cause pain throughout a person's lifetime with weather/temp./pressure changes and so on.

Like most severe injuries that develop chronic pain, you get so used to the pain that you don't even feel it except during extremes (like weather or health), or oddly, when the pain is taken away. When my hands are deeply massaged, it still stuns me how much pain I am constantly in, only recognizing it when it is taken away.

In any case, dependent upon where the scar is, how deep it is, how well it healed and so on, you might experience tics, uneven expressions (partly due to the damage, yet also due to subconsciously training yourself to either guard or not test the wound/scar). Pain either constantly or at odd times, spasms, alterations in speaking (not fully forming your mouth), seeping from the eye or nose, other crooked features dependent upon how recent the wound was (the skin overly tightened to seal the wound), headaches, etc..

The list goes on and on... Again, where, how severe and how old is it?

K2
 
I've had several operations (lucky me) and one thing I never realised about scarring is that it can be really painful even after it's healed. If I get tired/run down/ill all the scar tissue becomes quite sore. It's also often very itchy. You have a constant low level awareness of it.
 
I have two scars on my knee (got whilst swimming in a loch). Didn't feel a thing (apart from some kind of bump) when it happened and only noticed when the water around me was red. Skin cut right through to the subcutaneous fat. That was over forty years ago and ended up in a trip to casualty. Now, the scar area is completely numb. I can stick pins in the flesh and not feel a thing so I assume the nerves have been cut.

Maybe you could have your character freak somebody out by stubbing a cigar out on his scar?
 
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