My Scar Tattoo

Ethiopia

…It was September last year when we spent time filming with the Suri Tribe in Southern Ethiopia.  Half a year on, and I still have one memory from my time there permanently imprinted in my mind.  Well, on my body actually… and semi-permanently I think .  Whilst we were there I had my shoulder scarred with a toxic plant to form a tattoo.  Don’t ask me what the name of the plant was. All I remember is that it was a grass, which a local lady had stripped of its cuticle to reveal a white sap within.  The strips of grass were then laid on my skin and left for 20 minutes while the poison scarred my arm.  It didn’t hurt much.  I will liken it to the aching feeling you get after you’ve had a series of injections in your upper arm.  Sleeping on it at night was uncomfortable for a couple of nights too.

The scar immediately after the grass was removed from my arm

After 2 weeks the scabs had fallen off revealing a white imprint of the pattern the grass had made on my skin. The Suri told me that the scar would last a year.  I think it probably will.  Anyway, 6 months later this is what it looks like…

The scar 6 months later

. . .

Interested in more stories from Ethiopia?  Try HERE

TASEARCHETHIOPIA

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 6:16 pm. It is filed under Travel, View the complete Archive and tagged with Africa, BBC, BBC Earth, BBC Human Planet, blogsherpa, Ethiopia, Human PLanet, Human Planet BBC, Planeta Humano, scar, scar tattoo, Suri, Surma, tattoo, Timothy Allen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.