Tis only a flesh wound. (obvious joke)

August 30, 2003 10:18 PM

Wound Gallery [The main site is click-safe, all text. So you won't see a wound right away if you're squemish, just descriptions.] Say, wouldn't it be great if there was a site where you could submit your ticketstubs to and tell the story behind it? Well until somebody makes one of those, let's tell stories about our horrible cringe-inducing wounds instead. I lost all my stubs anyway, but I still have a giant scar from Hootie and the Blowfish '99 baby! Spill it, what's the story behind your most impressive or memorable wound?
posted by Stan Chin (18 comments total)

oh fucks sake stan chin jesus fsdfawefasfwefwref
posted by shadow45 at 10:27 PM on August 30, 2003

sorry. now that i've calmed down and the Freudian side of me has thoroughly clicked through that site- wow! jeesus. i'm freaked out. stuff in there that makes you cringe, and makes you second guess about the skills of certain medical professionals.
posted by shadow45 at 10:28 PM on August 30, 2003

I'm going to also guess some of these weren't user-submitted and just stolen pics off of rotten.com-type groups, (like the Fourniers Gangrene pic), but I think there's some genuine ones there. Neat concept still though.

As for my most impressive wound, I don't have many since I have a way of avoiding serious injury (knock on wood). One of those never-broke-a-bone doing incredibly stupid shit types. Also being a designer, I have more absent-minded X-ACTO knife injuries than you can count, but they're so sharp that they're like scalpels and don't leave a wound. I have yet to have one of those horrible "First day of Art School instructor lectures about that one kid who cut off his thumb" accidents with a knife. I suppose my most disgusting looking wound would have to be the giant bruises on my forearms after doing kung fu conditioning drills, after which looked like my arm was seriously infected with that Gangrene. Mostly consisted of ridiculously hitting my forearms and shins on blunt objects for two hours straight. I did this because it was fun.

There is a scar from Hootie though. Slipped on the stairs.
posted by Stan Chin at 10:35 PM on August 30, 2003

i first visited Send Me Your Wound.Com when an old friend i recently reconnected with sent me the url along with the story [scroll down to 01/20/03 or ctrl-f "Buffus From Michigan"] of his fight with cancer. [warning: graphic image]
posted by quonsar at 10:35 PM on August 30, 2003

Holy shit. Some of that stuff is...well, indescribable. Funny shot: the "paper cut" picture. Pales in comparison to the other ones.

Very interesting. Thanks, Stan.
posted by davidmsc at 10:58 PM on August 30, 2003

almostcool.org also has a small portion dedicated to stories about scars.
posted by hobbes at 11:11 PM on August 30, 2003

Wow, that stuff is excruciating -- why do I keep looking through these pictures. About a year ago, I stumbled on a link to rotten.com where I was similarly revolted, yet fascinated. WARNING: there are some truely horrible pictures on that site -- don't look if you need a good night's sleep.
posted by bicyclingfool at 11:24 PM on August 30, 2003

"severe pole vault injury"
Took a while to click on that.
At least no shooting stick injuries.
You know the stick breaks and the jagged wood spears towards .... Yikes
posted by johnny7 at 12:33 AM on August 31, 2003

Morbid curiosity caused me to look at each and every picture. Blech
posted by mabelcolby at 5:47 AM on August 31, 2003

and showmeyourwound.com!
posted by agregoli at 6:50 AM on August 31, 2003

[self-link and talking wound warning] I posted this to one of these sites a long time ago, but can't seem to find it in their archives. At the risk of smoking my server, I present to you: Mister Bloodmouth.
posted by majcher at 9:35 AM on August 31, 2003

My most memorable wound? Probably the one on my right hand. Lost my temper, punched a wall. It happened to be plaster on lath... hard. The wall won.

I had a few seconds to marvel at the odd position my hand was in, until the pain kicked in.

I broke my fourth metacarpal near the wrist, and dislocated the jagged, broken end of it, as well as my whole third and fifth carpals, back *over* the top of my wrist.

Fixing it took surgery, four big pins sticking out of my hand, being stuck in a splint for three months, and several months of physical therapy. And now I have a big-ass L-shaped scar on the back of my hand to tell stories about.
posted by jammer at 9:39 AM on August 31, 2003

There is a scar from Hootie though.

You got off easy. Where I come from they hang Hootie fans, not just scar 'em.

Showing wounds can be fun, though. Last time I needed stitches I had a snippy nurse doing the intake, so I stretched open the gash in my palm, showed it to her up close, and said, "Do you think I can go back to work after this?" She turned white then green. Heh heh! Good times. Um, yeah...
posted by Shane at 9:51 AM on August 31, 2003

I gross out easily, so I've so far resisted the temptation to click on the link....but it's difficult....I'm getting weaker...

Anyway, my worst injury? I've got two: one, I was in the 7th grade and was merrily riding my bike past an A&W (little details that stick with you). I hit a patch of gravel and flew off the bike and skidded along the ground. When I sat up, I noticed my arm was bleeding, and a lump under the skin near the wound indicated there was a piece of gravel in there. Had it removed in a painful ER session, and still bear the scar.

Another time, during the same Summer in fact, a group of us in the neighborhood were playing flashlight tag. I was cutting across back yards in the dark, climbing fences as I went along. I dropped off one fence and felt a sharp pain in my left foot. I took a step and tumbled; there was a long piece of wood attached to my foot. Turns out the residents there were having aluminum siding installed, and I had stepped on the nail of a discarded piece of molding. With great elan (produced by shock), I stepped on the board with my other foot and wrenched the nail out. When my friends caught up with me, my shoe had filled and overflowed with blood. I was rushed to ER and got a tetanus shot out of the deal.
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:44 AM on August 31, 2003

When I was a kid I was chasing a boy around my grandmother's Buick. Remember chrome on cars? A piece of it was sticking out and it stabbed me in the stomach. I was stuck there for a few seconds before I realized what was happening and when I backed away from the car just a little bit of my guts came out. Ewww.
posted by oh posey at 11:41 AM on August 31, 2003

Knife vs. Pinky
posted by shoepal at 2:03 PM on August 31, 2003

Some years ago, I jumped from a platform onto a boat I was working on and caught the side of my knee on the edge of the transom door (that was still being constructed, so had sharp edges). It felt like I had been hit in the leg, until I looked down and saw that the whole side of my knee had been ripped open. I got someone to drive me to my doctor's office and, when the receptionist expressed her annoyance at my turning up without an appointment and asked to have a look so she could see if it really was as urgent as I claimed, I removed the pad that I was holding against it and the flap fell back, exposing the workings of my knee. She sat down very quickly and said in a small voice "go straight in". I now have a long curving scar down the side of my knee and a large area with no feeling in the skin. I have many other scars caused by everything from setting myself on fire to an axe wound above my right eye, but this one is the largest.
posted by dg at 4:34 PM on September 1, 2003

I'm holding out for a gallery of emotional scars.
posted by jonson at 7:48 PM on September 1, 2003