Long term scarring or disfigurement from severe beating

[spartakos]

Hello, all. I have a character in a roughly late-medieval setting, who I want to be scarred (generally "uglified") via having suffered a brutal beating earlier in life (say, teens to mid-20s). Trouble is...I'm not sure what the exact nature of his scars should be. I'm considering a scar from a scalp laceration, broken nose (pretty standard), and

Comments

[lolmac]

Try researching keloids, or keloidal scar tissue. You can get ugly scars from just about any skin trauma if your character develops keloids as a result. A keloidal growth near the eye can deform the orbital area and slightly impair range of vision, without actually damaging the eye itself.

[arrowintwolakes]

One thing that can happen in a fight is iris detachment, causing the one of the eyes to lose most or all of its pigment.

[uozaki]

(Not the OP, but this is relevant to my work too.) A quick google isn't giving me much on this subject other than some closeup photos of a single case. Any further information?

[arrowintwolakes]

The story of why David Bowie's eyes are different colors is that it was the result of a fight he had when he was in secondary school. But that may be apocryphal and I didn't want to call it out. However through a roundabout way (reading Max Scherzer's Wikipedia page), I found out the condition is called acquired heterochromia.

[mkhobson]

Look up "saddle nose deformity" -- if one's nose is broken badly enough, the sinuses below will collapse and the end result can be quite disfiguring.

[anewdaysjourney]

*faints at sight of avatar*

You so rock.

[buboniclou]

A search term that might help is 'boxing'--that can result in plenty of different facial injuries. Though I agree with lolmac about keloids, that's definitely one way you can go. Also look up 'cauliflower ear', that's never pretty.

[buboniclou]

Also remember, if this is a medieval setting, I dunno how well they did fake teeth back then. So if he lost enough teeth to punches he could have kind of a sunken-looking mouth.

[syntinen_laulu]

Actually, given that the highest point score in high medieval jousting was earned by striking your opponent's helmet with your lance, missing front teeth must have been so common in upper-class males that it would hardly count as a deformity. (For example I'm fairly certain, going by his portraits, that Richard III was missing his. See here: http://www.richardiii.net/r3_man_portraits.htm)