Beauty in Imperfection

[Ms. Toad]

I've posted this before in the Photography forum. This image has been accepted into the juried student art show which will run from tomorrow through March 1. (I submitted 3 photographs; this one (my favorite) was accepted. It is my first ever self-portrait. I have sarcoma (a rare cancer). I have shared the image fairly widely. I have heard from a number of people who struggle with their body image, in the wake of scars left by cancer treatment, that seeing the scar as part of a beautiful image has been helpful.)

Image Description: The black-and-white image is of an woman sitting at an table on her deck cradling a bouquet of roses which obscure her face. From her hands you can tell she is older. She has a significant scar on her right arm from removal of a sarcoma (cancer). The bouquet of roses she cradles are wilted and dried.

[claudette]

1. Many can

identify with that beautifully moving photo. Thank you. 😌

[Ms. Toad]

3. Thank you!

[MLAA]

2. Congrats on being accepted for the show! Wonderful shot.

I have many scars on my wrists and ankles from orthopedic surgeries from age 5 to 17. I have grown to consider them badges of honor!

[Ms. Toad]

4. Thanks!

I've got a few scars on my legs too - both from a spiral fracture of my leg a few years ago, and an altercation with a roll of barbed wire when I was 5.

I thought of creating a series of all of my scars (I have in the ballpark of a dozen scars from surgery or accidents - all but one on the right - and the one that crosses the center line is a c-section scar that runs across both sides.). I may still create that series, but it will take a lot more thinking (both about how to set up the shoot, and about whether I am willing to appear as unclothed as I would need to be to see some of them)

[MLAA]

6. If you go forward with the idea and want to open it to others I'll take a few pics and post some from my collection

of 12 or so, many of which served for multiple surgeries on the same joints across a number of years. I’m also a nice roadmap of the evolution of scars from one that looks like a caterpillar to the more recent that are nearly invisible. 🙂

[Ms. Toad]

8. The one from when I was 5 and tangled with a roll of barbed wire looked like a caterpillar for quite a while.

It's legs have faded over time, but it is still about 5" long, right down the center of my leg. It was back in the era (60s) and location (local farming town) when they paid more attention to a quick stitch up to get you (or your parents) back to work than to minimizing the scar.

Aside from my arm, my favorite one is the fading square on my leg where they peeled a layer of skin to cover the hole in the arm.

[MLAA]

10. My caterpillar is from 1965 and about 3 curt inches and when it had black stitches it really looked like

a caterpillar.. we don’t need tattoos, we have scars!

[Ms. Toad]

12. I'm actually considering a tattoo.

The sunflower is a symbol for sarcoma - and I think the scar would make a delightful center for a sunflower.

But I'll have to wait for my 92 year old mother to die before I get tattoos other than the dots the used to align the radiation machine! (Otherwise I might get written out of the will. )

[MLAA]

15. Haha, or you could put where mom won't see!

Edited to add: Don’t risk getting cut out of the will!!😬😂

[Ms. Toad]

16. It would go on my forearm with the scar as the center. She'd notice.

She's legally blind, but it is amazing what she can actually see.

I actually have the legal authority to raid the estate anytime I feel like it. We have done extensive planning, and they figured it would be easier if they gave me the authority now rather than waiting until there was an urgency about such things.

My sister actually has several tattoos. She saw my parents shortly after she got one when it was really bright (and still sore). Mom scratched at it thinking it was a temporary tattoo - yeouch! She still gets her share of the estate - without the work of managing it. Hmm . . . maybe I should get a tattoo.

[MLAA]

17. My dad was a plan ahead-er as well. He had written down all information and phone numbers of

everyone who needed to be called along with his account numbers. Put all the kids as beneficiaries on the accounts and insurance policies etc. Prepaid his burial as well as let the funeral home know all his preferences for the funeral. As he use to say ‘plan your work and work your plan’. It’s motivated me to do the same. 😉

[bahboo]

5. I didn't even notice the scar, until I read your post...

I was digging the composition. Good luck!

[Ms. Toad]

7. Thanks!

That is part of what I like in the image. The composition is classically "good" and the initial impression is simple and elegant. But as you look more, you notice scar, the fact that the flowers are wilted and dried, the aging hands . . .

[consider_this]

9. That is beautiful and powerful

... just like the impression that I have of you due to your posts in DU.

Thank you for creating and sharing this image.

[Ms. Toad]

11. Thank you!

Your avatar makes me smile. I have a necklace with that image from high school.

[LoisB]

13. I love this!!

Black and white makes it "perfect".

[Ms. Toad]

14. Thanks so much!