People Share The Painful Stories Behind Their Scars

Behind every scar is usually an interesting story. For most people, scars on the body are unfavorable; however, some people may argue that scars can be beautiful, as they lend a person some character and individuality. People from around the world took to the internet to share the stories behind their scars, and it's crazy to read about the unusual ways people ended up with their battle marks. If we can take anything from their tales, it's that sometimes we need to go through pain to learn our lesson and do better next time:

Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!

Air Force Medical Service

#1 The Terrible Toddler

I have a scar on my eyebrow from when I was a jerk four-year-old. I threw a tantrum and tried to pick up a small plastic kids table to throw it over my head. Instead, I dropped it, and the leg hit me with a sharp broken edge on the eyebrow. It started bleeding, and I had a black eye for Christmas. I was a terrible toddler.

#2 A Grisly Sight

When I was around five years old, I was cutting a cardboard box using adult scissors at this cake bakery my mom worked for. I learned that day that you don't cut with the blade pointing up. Of course, this was after I injured my gums. I didn't need stitches; I just remember making a bunch of cake artists freak out because a five-year-old was wandering this bakery FULL of cakes with a bloody mouth.

#3 Blame The Biscuits

I was cutting up frozen biscuits while paying more attention to American Ninja Warrior. I accidentally swiped past the biscuit and right into my palm. I could see the fatty tissue under it but I refused to get stitches. Now I have a thick perfect line there.

#4 Kid Logic

I was four. I was bouncing on a beachball. My mom told me to go upstairs to bed, so I thought I could bounce up the stairs on the beach ball. I missed the first step and ended up needing stitches in my forehead. That's kid logic for ya.

#5 Breakdancing Blunder

I had to get stitches on my head because I was breakdancing (in the early '80s). I was in the kitchen and my mom had the dishwasher door down to load it. I break-danced right into the corner of the door and hit my head. I assume its healed though—if not, it's definitely covered by hair anyway.

#6 Unfortunate Circumstances

When I was 15, I had keyhole surgery for appendicitis. I ended up with three barely noticeable scars, one of which is in my belly button. Unfortunately, something was left inside me and the morning after being discharged, I woke with a fist-sized cyst on my abdomen. I had gone septic and had to have whatever was left inside of me removed via non-keyhole surgery, which left me with a neat straight line scar about 12 cm long. Also, I had to have a drain into my lower abdomen, so I've got a big old hole about 6 cm below my belly button. Unsightly as heck.

#7 Surgery Scars

My wife had to get laparoscopic hysterectomy last year. She has three tiny little scars that sit below her belly button line. Pretty amazing what the doctor did, but she was really graphic describing how she performed the procedure. Thanks, doc, I guess.

#8 High Pain Tolerance

I had a friend who got appendicitis and apparently he has a ridiculously high pain threshold because he thought he was just constipated. Long story short, by the time he went to the hospital, his appendix had been burst for an entire week. They didn’t know it had already burst and thought it was just a routine appendectomy, so he went to sleep thinking that’s all it was. Hee woke up with a straight-line scar all the way down his abdomen. He spent two weeks in the hospital because obviously he had gone septic. The hospital staff couldn’t believe he was still alive after a week.

#9 A Ted Nugent Song

I have a pretty noticeable scar on the right side of my neck that often gets mistaken for a really bad hickey. When I was 5, I had been scratched in my eye from one of our house cats while I was asleep. The scratch had infected lymph nodes in my neck, causing it to become extremely swollen, where it was difficult for me to even breathe.

Doctors were baffled by what it was. I spent several weeks in and out of the hospital. They speculated it was lymphoma at the time. I had my neck drained from the fluid from massive syringes that I still have nightmares over. The scar ultimately came from me undergoing three separate surgeries where they removed infected lymph nodes from my neck. They later discovered I suffered from a very severe case of cat scratch fever. Yes, it's a Ted Nugent song, and yes it also my anthem.

#10 Acne Anguish

My family has cystic acne which is deeper in the skin than normal acne. It’s invisible until it pops. It hurts really bad though and the heads tend to be somewhat bigger than surface acne. My brother's acne was the worst I had ever seen. He went through two rounds of Accutane, and he still gets the odd pimple. I remember his acne was so bad that his back looked like it was covered in boils. They scarred as well.

#11 Rough Play

My brother and I were playing WWF in the house (even though we weren't supposed to). He grabbed the back of my head and slammed my forehead into the "turnbuckle," which was the wooden corner of the armrest on our couch. Blood started running down my face. He ran and hid under his bed. I got seven stitches in my right eyebrow. He didn't mean to hurt me, he just got a little too into the game.

#12 Injuries For Each Decade

When I was 13, I was trying to pry something apart with a chisel and pierced myself in the right hand by accident. When I was 23, I was using my box cutter at work to separate some boxes and hurt my left hand in almost the exact same place. I cant wait to see what stupid thing I do at 33.

#13 Don't Mess With Nature

I was mauled by a chipmunk when I was seven years old. My family once went to a national park that had ENORMOUS sequoia trees. While we were there, little seven-year-old me discovered a group of chipmunks running through the woods like some kind of wolf pack. I was running alongside them, imagining myself as the alpha of this chipmunk pack, when one suddenly broke away from the group and ran inside of a fallen log.

Me, being the little kid I was, wanted to hold the adorable chipmunk. So I first tried putting my hand inside to pull it out—no luck, I only scared the chipmunk into a little dead-end hole inside of the log. So then I did something extremely intelligent—I took a stick and tried to poke it down the hole. A tiny, chubby bullet of hate and sharp claws then leaped at my face.

I almost lost my eye to that chipmunk, but luckily it missed and scratched me pretty deep along the right side of my face multiple times instead. I still have a scar on the corner of my eye from it. Pro tip: don’t try to corner ANY wild animal, if that wasn’t obvious before.

#14 A Frightening Near Miss

I have a big scar down the center of my chest, and two little “star scars” right under it. I had just turned three and I was at my grandparents’ house with my family. My older cousin was spinning me around in a swivel chair. I fell off of the chair and landed on my side, on top of my grandmother’s knitting stuff that was sitting in a basket by the chair. A knitting needle went through my side and pierced my heart.

My aunt thought the needle was just caught in my shirt and she ripped it out of me. I went unconscious almost immediately. By the time I got to the hospital, I had lost a lot of blood and the doctors basically told my parents to prepare for the worst. Luckily, there was a great heart surgeon there that performed emergency open-heart surgery and saved my life! The star scars are from feeding tubes that were hooked up to me post-surgery.

#15 Careless Fryer

I have a burn scar on my right arm from when I worked at Chick-Fil-A and got too careless with the fry cooker. Also, I have a surgical scar on my left thigh from when I was three years old—I had to get an operation to fix a muscle problem.

#16 A Pesky Shiba Inu

I got windmilled by a panicking Shiba Inu before I could clip her nails. I've worked with perhaps dozens of Pitbulls, and my one dog-related scar came from a Shiba Inu small enough to be carried with one arm. I've forgiven her, though. She's a sweetheart in her own way (Shiba Inus can be like the weird anti-social cats of the dog world), except when it's time to clip nails or have a bath.

#17 Ankle And Thigh

I have one on the inside of my thigh when I had a small bicycle accident. I managed to get my thigh stuck between my steer handle and handbrake, with the handbrake impaling my leg. Also, I have another one on my ankle, which I got from ice skating in high school. We were standing on the ice, eating and drinking when someone who was passing by fell and slid past me. I ended up with a huge open wound on my leg.

#18 Shower Accidents

I have a scar on the arm that is really hard to see but I remember how I got it: when I was going out of the shower, my mom told me to wash better because there was still some soap on me. When I finished, I was angry and slid the glass door too hard. It broke. I was young, so I was screaming like a dying goat, but I was pretty smart and protected my head with arms. That's how I got the scar.

#19 Waffle Fail

I was tired after flying home. It was like 4 a.m and I was making a waffle in the toaster. Then, I sort of blacked out for a bit, and next thing I knew, the toaster was on my arm. I have this nice scar now around my wrist from the time I horribly failed at making a waffle.

#20 Botched Work

A botched appendectomy in the '70s. After the good doctor took out my stitches, I went home, and a day later, the incision started to open again. I think I was 13 years old, and the scar is now 8 inches wide. For years, it looked like a purple earthworm just under my skin.

#21 Cooking And Childhood Stupidity

Cooking and childhood stupidity. I've got an eight-inch scar going down my calf from trying to hop a barbwire fence and getting stuck in it. Oh, and three other scars from making spit wad shooters out of the wrong type of pens and shaking burning plastic on my arms.

#22 All For A Girl

I tried to impress a girl in high school. So I got into a really big tire and had some people roll it. It went pretty poorly. I thought it would be a good idea to slide down the inside of the tire as it was rolling so that burned into my shoulder. Then, she dated my best friend, so all in all not worth it.

#23 Peacock Kerfuffle

Catching a peacock. They have sharp talons. I got to see free peacocks up close in Lisbon last year and after the incident, I now wouldn't want to come anywhere near those claws. Even though those peacocks were used to humans and got very close, I was very aware of how much they could mess me up if they wanted to.

#24 A Smart Doctor

I was on meds for eight weeks because of a lymph node swollen to the size of a golf ball in my neck. The antibiotics did nothing, and my doctor was starting to talk about surgery. On the next visit, I just picked some old shirt off the floor, which was covered in cat hair. The moment he saw that shirt, he knew what the problem was. He prescribed me a new line of meds and two weeks later, it was like nothing happened.

#25 Lucky Number Eleven

Eleven surgeries. I was born with Prune Belly Syndrome. I also developed Chronic Kidney Disease at six months old. This is a battle that will go on for my whole life. I am 29 and CKD does not go away. My right kidney “died” when I was six years old,  so I had surgery to remove it. I only have my left one which is working at about 25% and that means that if it ever drops at about 18-20% I will need a transplant. But I am fine, I take care of my body A LOT. I follow a really strict diet and I have to work out four times a week, but I can live a pretty normal life.

#26 Ben Carson Magic

Ben Carson looked at my brain. I had craniosynostosis when I was born and he went in to put some bolts in my head. 152 stitches across the top of my head. His politics are whack but dude saved my life.

#27 BBQ Mishap

I backed my arm up against a barbecue grill when I was younger. I was the perfect height to get my entire upper arm. Elbow up to shoulder. I still have noticeable scars 20 odd years later.

#28 Total Wipeout

I jumped off a skateboard after getting speed wobbles while going downhill. I ended up wiping out and landing on my elbow. I couldn’t bend my elbow for a week or so without pain. Now 15ish years later, I have what I think is a bone chip. Luckily, it doesn’t hurt and nothing was seriously injured.

#29 Another Cat Catastrophe

I was forced to be in a room full of people. I started clutching my cat for comfort. What I forgot was that my cat also has social anxiety and she bolted from my arms. I caught her back claws down my chest. It was two years ago and I still have a long scar (it’s a good four or five inches) running from my collarbone halfway down my chest.

#30 Hockey For Life

The one on the side of my head was a birthmark. It changed color and everyone I knew freaked out. They demanded I go to the doctor. When he took a look at it, he said, "Let's cut it off right now and test it." After he was done and I was all stitched up, I said, "So I'm good to play hockey tonight?" He replied. "NO! No hockey for two weeks!" But I didn't listen. Playing hockey that night, I took a shot right in the side of my head. Big bloody mess.

#31 Fishing For Scars

I have two noticeable scars on my wrist. I was fishing one day, and the fish hook snagged. I jerked it really hard, and it broke free and flew straight into my wrist. The first hole is where it went in, the second hole is where the doctor cut it out. I also have a scar on my upper lip where I crashed skateboarding as a kid and one of my teeth punctured my lip.

#32 "Oops"

I have a scar on the upper left side of my forehead. I got it when I was three years old. I was finding it fun to run around the perimeter of the house. Then, I tripped on a little concrete step and fell on my face. I just saw blood and thought, “Oops.”

#33 The Dolphin Dive

At the age of four, I decided it would be a good idea to dolphin dive onto my parents' bed. I completely botched the dive and ended up hitting my face against a sharp part of the bed frame. It only left me with about a 3.5 cm scar on the right side of my face. I don't remember much about the hospital visit other than my mom reading me Dr. Seuss.

#34 Quick Karma

I was exterminating fire ants with a shard-ended and broken pole. They climbed the pole silently after a while and scared me so bad that I dropped the pole and it gashed the side of my arm near the elbow. I ran crying with blood on my arm while my sister laughed at me. She told me it was karma because I gave her a larger gash on her leg after dropping a sharp ended mop near her. Moral of the story, no matter how careful you are, never play with sharp metal objects.

#35 The Harry Potter Scar

I was 10, building a snow igloo with my neighborhood friends. While digging the tunnel, one girl threw the metal shovel full of snow over her shoulder, making contact with my eye. Imagine a Harry Potter scar in the middle of the eyebrow, extending down into the eyelid. It would be hardly noticeable if only hair would still grow on it.

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#36 Wasp Woes

I have a little hole in the center of my forehead from when a wasp stung me at age 9. I was performing in front of a panel of judges when it happened and just froze for what felt like an eternity before they realized that I was in pain. They let me get first aid and start over. The welt was massive.

#37 The Cat And The Violin

I have one from a friend's cat. We were both sleeping  (the cat and I) and we scared the heck out of each other when we woke simultaneously. Another is from my violin—I was 11 and had zoned out whilst another section in my school orchestra was playing a piece. Somehow, I managed to scratch myself with the bridge while getting ready to play.

#38 Unlucky Events

#39 Sharp Edges

My father and I wanted to move our old washing machine out of the house. So we did, but as we put it onto the ground again, we slowly lowered it until it reached the ground... or at least, that's what I thought. I released my grip and the machine fell the last 10 cm. I suddenly felt a slight pain in my right hand and shortly after I looked at it, I passed out. Turns out, a sharp metal piece scraped off part of my right hand's skin. It took the doctor 10 stitches to put it back together...

#40 The Scoliosis Scar

There’s a scar going from the start of my neck all the way down my back from spinal surgery. I had nearly life-threatening scoliosis and got it corrected with titanium implants. I’ve been healthy since then and I move around and function the same as anyone else would.

#41 Forehead Access

There's too much to cover, so I chose the most visible one to share. I was about three years old and was walking on my bed. At the side of bed there was a small wardrobe. I tripped over and hit the corner of it with my forehead. Now I've got a small hole on my forehead.

#42 Peach Pickin'

I have a big scar on my thigh that looks like an earthworm. I got it from picking peaches. I had a big barrel strapped to my chest filled with them. I saw a perfect plump peach on the other side of a barbed-wire fence. I went up the ladder, overreached, and lost my balance. I fell pretty hard got a gnarly scar all while a ton of peaches fell one me. Still got the plump peach though.

#43 Permanent Bruise

I have a welt on my chest that I got from the fencing club. It’s literally never disappeared or anything... ever since I got it, it has stayed.

#44 Marble-Like

I went down a hill with freaking plastic wheels. I immediately hit a pebble and bailed. I slid for about three meters on the pavement. My knee really hurt, and I bruised my ribs, but I only later realized all the skin on my elbow was gone. I could see fat mixed into the "meat," like marble. That one hurt.

#45 Lethal Cat Bites

 I ended up in the hospital from a cat bite. The red line of doom was going up my arm, fast enough that I could watch it move. They told me in the hospital that about 10% of the population doesn't have a lot of resistance to cat's normal mouth flora, and if I'm ever bitten again, I'd need to get myself to urgent care right away. My co-workers made me a Cat Bite mixtape. It was funny as heck.