I have 5 scars from surgeries and the one on my left shoulder is the largest and the oldest. It is made up of a scar when I was young from the chicken pox. I had just moved back to Montana with my mom and brother after my parents divorced. That time transformed my life.

I received treatment for the scar a few years after the keloid grew and again years later as an airman in the Air Force before my tour in the middle east during the first gulf war.  In the last year, I have had three more scars from a shoulder surgery that overlap and add to the original scar area. When I look at the series of photos I see my face changing from tension and discomfort to a more relaxed self acceptance and joy. The photoshoot and the photos don’t reveal the stories of the scars but in a very over simplified way, it illustrates the many emotions I have with the moments. The scars don’t go away and yet no matter how I feel, they don’t force me to deal with the past or my present. They simply are and I am left to accept them, to live with them and manage them because they are there as long as I am.