“Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful.”

I am a keloid: a raised ridge of skin that results from scarring. I am intentionally created in some countries, usually to form a distinctive design. I don’t like to brag, but wouldn’t you agree that I am quite visually stunning?

The process that forms me is, unfortunately, quite painful. It begins with an incision from a thorn or knife. Then the raw cut is rubbed with ash or plant juices to further irritate the skin. The healed skin forms me, a raised scar.

In some cultures, I am induced in preparation for a joyful celebration of puberty or marriage. Usually, my design reveals my lineage or tribe, or my status in a particular group. Sometimes my presence will scare off enemies or bad spirits. Above all else, I am a way of enhancing beauty. I make women more attractive to men, appealing to the sense of touch as well as sight.

(Regular tattoos, of course, cannot show up clearly on darker skin. That’s why my scarring is preferred in Africa.)

I admit, sadly, to one terrible drawback: my mark is permanent. I can’t hide. Nowadays, with civil wars sometimes tend toward genocide, my kind of beauty makes targeted identification and killing easier.

Here I am, I show up as a fine geometric decoration the torso of a gunshot victim at a South Sudan clinic.

Here you see me on a refugee woman dreaming of home.

And here, on a pre-teen girl in her rural village.

That’s me, the keloid in my many forms. If I could speak, I’d tell you to be your own proud kind of beautiful, wherever you are.

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