I’m not a violent person, but I have gone down on a road bike many times and one of the common injuries is skinned up knuckles. I have some deep scars as a result. It would be easy to assume they were the result of violence. My size and build also supports this assumption. I am entirely the opposite type of person.

For reference, I got a full back tattoo when I was 17, but the only thing I regret is having to get a few bad teeth pulled due to not taking care of them in my twenties.

Take care of your teeth kids. They don’t come back.

Be careful about offering up identifiable information that you can’t change on a random lemmy post, especially if you’re in the U.S.

All my tattoos, they are cheap and one contains my kid’s deadname so I keep it covered is much as possible.

Sure, one scar. We were demolishing a bigass concrete retaining wall and I was chipping out the wrought iron handrail. Couldn’t be arsed with safety glasses and safety squints weren’t doing it, so I was just chipping it out with a 35lb electric jackhammer with my eyes closed most of the time. As I got to the last parts, it was really starting to lean out over me.

Absolute looney toons moment. About five hundred pounds of wrought iron fell over onto my head while my eyes were closed and made a two-inch tear on my scalp. It was floppy enough that it didn’t break my neck, but I had to get staples.

I spent a short time in the US Navy, just long enough to get a couple of tattoos that I put literally zero thought into. One, a stupid cartoon character done at a whole-in-the-wall shop while I was drunk faded away pretty badly, but the other one, a sexy sailor girl (done by Philadelphia Eddie himself!) stayed pretty nice for quite some time. I was sober that time. That was about 44 years ago. I don’t necessarily regret them, but I wish I’d put more thought in to them, especially dumb old Yosemite Sam…

I have 2 significant scars I’m not happy about, but only one is my fault. The first is a big ugly scar from when I had appendicitis as a kid. They told me it would be small and go away, but 40-odd years later it’s still there.

The one that’s my fault is on my right kneecap. I was jumping on my parents’ bed and they had this big sturdy cedar chest at the foot. I lost my balance and came down real hard on my right kneecap. It hurt so bad I passed out briefly from the pain. I couldn’t put any weight on it for an hour and couldn’t walk on it the rest of the day. The scar is small, but it is a reminder of my own stupidity cause it wasn’t like I hadn’t been warned that jumping on the bed was dangerous.

I have 2 ugly tattoos that I got done on the same day, by the owner of the shop nonetheless. One of them looks like a drawing made by a 6 year old. The meaning behind the tattoos are basically gone, yes, but I don’t regret that at all…. just the poor quality. Even if I got tattooed an alien sharting itself in graphic detail, I’d have zero regrets if it was done well.

I blame myself to be honest, I wasn’t ready for tattoos and had the wrong mindset about it all. But the experience taught me valuable lessons:

Don’t lower your standards. Don’t feel like your appointment seals your fate — if they aren’t getting the design right, cancel and find a better suited artist. It’s permanent and it’s your body. Also, there’s no “saving money” with a tattoo you’ll end up paying to get removed later. A professionally-done tattoo is well worth the money and travel. Find well-known artists in your community, and talk with them before you even consider letting them tattoo you. Online reviews of shops aren’t good for vetting individual artists.

I’ve done so much self harm for over 12 years leaving so many scars. Got into skincare years ago which faded many of the old scars, but family finds it so funny that something below them is doing something out of its league instead of just knowing its place as scum below society so I’ve relapsed again with new scars from punching walls.

I don’t regret any tattoos.

I regret the piercings.

Got my ears pierced when I was a kid, hated wearing earrings and I still have holes in my ears.

At 18 I got a belly button peircing that was even more annoying, so that’s just another hole now. If you’re getting any part of your body pierced that you have to move, really think about what you have to do for the next two weeks because you’ll be VERY aware of it.

10" chest scar from open heart surgery. Some days I wake up, forget its there, then see it in the bathroom mirror.

“Ooooh… riiiight… that was a whole thing.”

I don’t regret the words of the tattoo I have, I just regret that I didn’t do a consultation first and went right into it. It’s… Not good and hardly legible. The coloring also looks bad imo, which is frustrating because I really looked at the artists profile beforehand and liked it quite a bit. Ouch.

I had to think a lot to remember then I saw someone mention their knee and I remembered I have have a scar on my own knee that is product of my own stupidity.

I forget it exists for the most part, but if I had a chance I would absolutely avoid going through it. I fell off a skateboard and got a deep gush on my knee. It was stupid because I’ve never been much into skateboarding. I was just trying to pick it up hoping to “be cool” and impress someone. Stupid shit like that you know.

Stretch marks…

I have a dumb fucking stupid scar on the meaty part of my palm under my thumb, from using a pair of wire strippers - backwards - as an ad hoc pickle jar opener. The little chunk barely attached left now a perfect little sharkbite scar that I’ve grown to despise as a reminder of hubris