This is a really odd topic. I know. Probably not something you’ve seen before but I got inspired to write this just by looking at my feet one day. You see, one day I was just sitting down looking at my feet and I was reminded of a birth mark I had there. As I thought more about it, memories of everything about it flipped through my mind. What people said it means, when I first noticed it and all that.
Then I realize that it’s something that has been with me my whole life. Most of us have at least some birthmark some part of our bodies and there’s always a story behind (I have a LOT of them, too many to probably cover in this one entry). Whether it’s because someone always told you it meant something… or whether because you were ashamed to show it to people when you were younger.
So this is a story of my birthmarks and scars… starting with this scar I have on my arm.
1) The Burn
Notice that I have that sliver of darkened skin there?
Well I actually got this really recently. Almost as long as my relationship with Shorty. It was just shortly after Shorty and I just got together some 3 years ago. It’s actually caused by this.
For the guys who don’t know what this is, this is…. the ENEMY. This gets hot when it’s turn on and if it touches your skin it burns!!! This… gentlemen is a “curling iron”. The ladies use it to make curls on their hair.
Shorty and I were at my place in Penang getting ready to go for dinner. Shorty was getting all dressed up and curling her hair when we got into a fight. She was annoyed that I never put the toilet seat back down every time I’m done with it while I told her she should just make it a habit to put it back up every time she uses it. So we got into a bit of a fight and she eventually got so angry, she picked up the curling iron she was using to curl her hair and struck me with it.
My reflexes kicked in and I raised my right arm to block the iron… only to have it burn. It hurt like a mofo!!! It got worse over the next few days. It grew to this big boil and I had to wait for it to pop and all the water to come out. When it happened, Shorty was so worried my parents in Penang would notice it and scold her for it but they were quite understanding :).
And no that wasn’t exactly what happened although whenever people ask me that, I tell them that fake story just to see the look of shock on their faces before I tell them the truth. What happened was…. well.. Shorty’s very careless when it comes to placing her heated curling iron. It’s like an accident waiting to happen. This one time she put it among some things on my dressing table and I reached for something not noticing it was hiding behind some stuff I couldn’t see. So I ended up burning my hand.
On other days she even puts the curling iron on the floor right below the dressing table. I worry that one day she might burn a toe of mine or something. But yeah that’s what happened. She didn’t go all apeshit and strike me with a curling iron. So don’t worry… Shorty’s not crazy 🙂
The next scar I have is this one on my leg.
2) The Centipede
Do you see a light scar that looks like a centipede? Well I’ve had this since I was 3 years old. It used to be a lot more distinct but over the years it has faded… and this is how it looks like some 24 years on. For those of you who don’t know, I was born with a lazy eye. That means one of my eyes could barely open. It was at such bad a stage that the doctor then was worried that if I wasn’t operated on, I would lose all vision from one eye.
So when I turned 3 my parents decided they had to do something no parents would ever want to do to their 3 year old kid. Put him through surgery. What I was told when I was a kid was that the doctor would cut open my thigh, take some of my muscle from there and put it into my eyelid so I can open it. That’s how my parents explained this little scar to me as I grew up.
Somehow locked in one part of my brain is this memory that I would never forget. A memory of me being awake in the operating room, watching the doctor cut open my thigh into little cubes just like the scar represented. I remember I could see it, but not feel anything. My parents said that it wasn’t possible though because I was under general anesthetic and fully asleep. So I’m not sure if I just dreamed that memory up one day.
3) The Globetrotter.
This is one of those birth marks I never knew I had until some time in primary school. It’s this black spot on my foot.
I remember the day I noticed it when I was a kid. I thought I had some kind of ink on my foot so I started washing my foot with soap. It wouldn’t come off so I rubbed harder and harder until I was like “WTF???”.
Eventually my parents calmed me down and told me that it was something I was born with. You know how moles and birthmarks sometimes have “meaning” right? Well growing up lots of people told me that having this mole or birthmark on my foot means that one day I will travel a lot. Well I guess that turned out to be sort of true. I do travel a lot for work these days to all the countries that Nuffnang and ChurpChurp are in and more.
4) The Burden
I don’t have a picture of this one because I’m finding it really hard to take a picture of it… since it’s on my back! I have this big mole on my back. The meaning of this one though isn’t good. Many people say having a mole on your back means that you will have a lot of burden to carry next time. I’m not sure if that came through because yes I have a lot of stress but so does everyone else.
I guess one burden I feel is taking care of all the Nuffies and giving them job security. If that counts.
5) The Famous One
You know how sometimes you want to describe somebody to someone you always go “the bald one”, “the fat one”, “the dark one”…. well for me it’s “the one with the mole”.
Yes yes don’t lie! If any of you have ever described me, you say the word “mole” on my face right?
The mole on my face is something that I was ashamed to have for the longest time. I don’t know… I mean it’s not like anybody ever goes “WOW THAT MOLE LOOKS GOOD! YOU SO HEMSEM!”. Sure when I was growing up some kids in my school used to call me “Sexy mole” but they meant the word “sexy” sarcastically. I had always want to have it removed.
I think these little things affected my confidence when I was growing up as a kid. This and a few other things that I will probably have to save for another blog entry. By the time I hit age 17 though I began to grow more confident of myself. Â That’s when I met my first proper girlfriend. Her name was Melissa. Today she’s happily married with this great guy named John and she has a beautiful baby!
I remembered asking her if she thought I looked better if I removed my mole on my face. She said “No… because it just wouldn’t be you anymore”.
After that I stopped feeling ashamed of my mole on my face.
What does my mole mean? Well many people say that if you have it so close to your mouth, it means that you will never have shortage of food in your life. That’s true for me so far I guess. One day I met one of my Dad’s friends in China. She’s 50 or probably 60 by now and she had a mole exactly the same place where I have mine. She told me that she used to be ashamed of it too… using her hand to hide it every time she took a picture.
I asked her if she ever had any shortage of food in her life. She said “No”. So I guess maybe that’s true.
The funniest thing happened to me when I was studying in London. I was buying groceries at my neighbourhood supermarket and lining up to pay. Right in front of me was this really old lady who looked like she was 80 or 90 years old. She had a cute little shopping basket with her and she was in the queue to pay for her things. She suddenly turned around to face me and said in the thickest English accent.
“That is a really really really lucky mole do you know that? A really lucky mole!”
A bit taken aback I just said “Uhh thanks hehehe”.
I never got to ask her why she thought it was a lucky mole. But looking at my life so far. I guess I’ve had some good luck. Not sure if it’s the mole on my face… but that could just be it 🙂
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space