Episode 51: The Scar Revisited

Thursday, September 21st, 2017
‘To be alive at all is to have scars’ (John Steinbeck, 1902-1968)
Welcome to Histories of the Unexpected, where you will discover the history of things that you did not know had a history; like the history of hands, or the history of oranges.
This time we shall cut our way through the mire of history, observing the scars on our landscape, as ‘The Man Who Laughs’, Dr Sam Willis, and the wounded warrior, Professor James Daybell, lead us on the unexpected history of the scar once more.
So, with bandages at the ready our motley pair career through the past, reviling details about their own scars, boating accidents, BCG’s and ladders. Sam and James travel from the gangs of 1920’s Glasgow and the grizzly ‘Glasgow Smile’ to Ethiopia and the cultural tribal markings and body artwork involving scars.
With their own histories written upon their bodies our battle maimed duo reveal that this unexpected history is actually all about; inoculation and medicine, gangs and scarification, tribes and the decoration of the body.
Oh, and don’t listen over breakfast, as James has some quite grizzly facts to relate!
‘Out of suffering have emerged the strongest should; the most massive characters are seared with scars’ (Kahlil Gibran, 1883-1931)
- Jean-Marie Camille Guerin, one of the inventors of the BCG vaccine.
- BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccine kit,
- African Scaring of the Forehead
- Scarification upon the forehead of an Ethiopian tribal woman.
- Victor Hugo’s ‘The Man Who Laughs’, published 1869.
- The Glasgow ‘Bridgeton Gang. Image was taken in 1914 and shows the city’s razor gang culture which was at this time widespread.
- Tommy Flanagan – noted by James for his distinctive scar which was a result of a knife attack.
- Ultrasound scan showing internal scar
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