Every Scar Has a Story, and Sophie Mayanne Is Here to Tell It

As I type this story, I glance down and see an inch-long line etched onto the back of my hand. The time my childhood cat scratched me. There’s a thicker line just above it, running the length of my left index finger. The time my X-ACTO Knife slipped in art class. On my leg, I find a thick, discolored indentation. The time I scraped my leg in the park.

Scars are more than the tissue left behind after an injury. They contain memories and stories, etched into our skin and recounted in splotches of textured flesh that punctuate otherwise contiguous surfaces. They expose that there are stories in all of us—experiences we’ve had, pain we’ve endured, and mistakes we’ve made. These are the narratives artist Sophie Mayanne explores in her work.

Mayanne is a 24-year-old photographer based in the U.K. Her passion for self-portraiture eventually led her to her current project, Behind the Scars, which does exactly what its title suggests: showcases scars and uncovers the stories behind them.

As some activists have pointed out, scars have gone largely undiscussed in our cultural conversations around body image and self-acceptance; as her following grows, it becomes increasingly clear that Mayanne is helping open up a dialogue many social media users are eager to have.

“I grew up without realizing my body was different—until one day, I wore a bikini and was met with looks of pity and shock,” Michelle Elman, of the body-positive Instagram account Scarred Not Scared (@scarrednotscared), wrote in the caption accompanying Mayanne’s portrait of her. “I thought the solution was to hide them and never talk about them, but in fact, what helped me was the exact opposite.”

Many of Mayanne’s followers have expressed the same. “This is so inspiring. I love it,” one user commented. “OMG—same scar, same story,” another wrote. Others have felt so moved by the project that they’ve shared the stories behind their own scars in the comments.

Mayanne herself only has one scar: a small, not-too-visible mark in the middle of her forehead from when she had chickenpox as a child. So she attributes her interest in scars not to some defining experience in her own life, but instead to the ways in which society decides certain things are flaws.

Body positivity is, like healing and coming to self-acceptance, a process that changes every day. Scars do the same thing. They change. They morph. They are beloved at some points, scorned as memories of pain the next. But they are part of us and we are called to love ourselves. “I think there’s still a long way to go,” Mayanne tells SELF. “But if I can make at least one person feel more comfortable in their own skin, then I've achieved something.”