Scar Stories

One of my favourite scenes in the film “Jaws” is when the three main characters are out in their little boat looking for the shark. They’re all a little wary of one another at first, but, as night falls upon the ocean and they share a few beers, the barriers between them begin to break down. They begin to find a common ground between each other, and (slowly sidling up to my point) they do this by comparing scars. It’s the one thing they all share.

In fact, it’s the one thing we all share – we’ve all got scars, be they big or small, single or numerous. Whatever their nature, it’s a sure thing that there’s a story behind each and every one. Be it funny or sad, triumphant or tragic, every scar tells a story – if the event was big enough for your body to remember it, chances are you will too.

So here’s what I’m proposing – a website (perhaps a series of websites) where people can post both their scars and the stories behind them. But rather than just having dull, text-based descriptions, the site has a fully rotatable 3d image of a generic person on it. You mark the size and position of your scar on the virtual model, and the story behind it appears only when someone moves their mouse over your virtual scar. And you can only add your scar and story if your scar begins where the other scar finishes. Kind of a morbid “join-the-dots” sort of thing. Eventually you’ll end up with a virtual model built up entirely of scar tissue, replete with stories about everything from “when I had my appendix out” through “when my little brother hit me in the head with a plate” to “my horrific car accident”.

I’m imagining something similar to those 3d models of vein structures that you see in medical textbooks – human-shaped tree-like structures of branching and intersecting lines, but on the outside of the body, and coupled with individual, unique stories for each lacerated path. The reason I mention a series of websites is that, of course, not everyone’s scar will necessarily abut onto one on the same virtual body. Separate models would probably be needed. Who knows - online communities may even arise – “Hello. You don’t know me, but your trapeze-accident scar continues my they-tell-you-not-to-run-with-scissors-for-a-reason scar. Would you like to meet up and be extra-careful together?”

It might take a while, but eventually you’ll have documented a single scar which covers an entire body. It will have wound it’s way through countless people; that same scar will have travelled across continents and flicked back and forth through god knows how many years – it’s really the repository of stories that results that’s the important thing.