With the internet full of Photoshopped and retouched images, many of us are led to believe that our bodies should be smooth and flawless.
Of course, most of us are looking down right now and realizing that our bodies and the bodies of everyone we know don't look quite like they do in the magazines.
The bodies of real women tell a story. Photographer Sophie Mayanne from the UK sought to capture this idea in a moving photo series called "Behind the Scars."
In the series, Sophie features raw photos of people and, most importantly, their scars.
Every scar tells a painful story but also highlights the strength of the individual who overcame whatever had caused the marred skin in the first place.
The women featured below bravely bare all for the camera, and even more courageously share their own accounts of how they got their scars, and how they've conquered their pain.
Photos: Sophie Mayanne
Adele:
In 2014, I was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma, a bone cancer. I had chemo for nearly a year and several surgeries for bone transplantations in my arm. They took pieces of bone from my leg and thigh. One time, my transplant broke, so I had a major surgery which took 8 hours. In two years I had 10 surgeries and I have one planned for November 2017.
Anna:
In August 2016 a lorry [large truck] ran over my arm: the wheel stopped on my elbow before reversing off again, taking my bone and skin with it. Over the year I’ve had 5 surgeries, most recently a bone graft and a muscle-flap skin graft from my back. Clarissa Pinkola Estés says ‘The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door’. I love this! In my scars I find pride, sensitivity and beauty. My arm was remade of myself. But there is also anger and deep pain: scar tissue is tough, dry, and inflexible. It limits further the movement of my arm. I don’t think my pain and my pride can ever be separated. They will always be connected. But I feel in touch with both states and this makes me feel multiple, it feels exciting.
Barbara:
In 2014 I was diagnosed with angiosarcoma of the breast, a rare and aggressive cancer. Three surgeries and two chemotherapy treatments later these are the scars I bear. My recent operation was an innovative surgery which involved removal of my sternum and four ribs, which were replaced by surgical cement, muscle from my back and a skin graft. It took me a long time to finally embrace my scars. They document my journey and the courage and strength I did not think I had. Recently I was told the cancer had returned. Surprisingly I feel at peace.
Bintu:
When I was young, I pulled a cup of hot boiling tea off the counter. As a result, it burnt my left shoulder down to my left breast and stomach. My scar has been with me since I was 11 months old — it is all I know, I don’t even remember my body without a scar. I have my confident days where I say “It’s just a scar.” I’m sure everyone has a scar. I’ve definitely had my bad days, but only when I meet a new face and they stare at it in disgust. It makes me think OMG is there something on my body? And then I remember “the burn” lol. I wear this scar because it is a part of me. It’s just a scar.
Chloe:
I started self harming when I was 13 and have struggled with it ever since. The issue with self harming is it gets progressively worse and you end up doing more and more damage to yourself than you think is possible when you first start. It truly is an addiction and you get to a point where surgeons tell you that plastic surgery can’t fix the appearance of the scars, so the only thing you can do is love your scars so much that all the negative connections that come along with self harm slowly disappear — along with all the pain attached to the scars.
My scars tell my story, and I’m never going to let anyone else’s thoughts or opinions change that.
Deborah:
My body is full of scars that represent my cancer journey. Each one is a war wound that has meant I have faced cancer and kicked it head on! At first I hated my scars, but as time has gone on I’ve learnt to love them. I suggest we carry our scars with pride, knowing they have built us rather than defied us. 7 months ago my life was turned upside down when I was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer. People say I’m brave to be going through what I am, but I’m not — I just have no other choice. I’m still me, I can still be sexy, I can still have fun — cancer doesn’t need to define me.
Hannah:
I was told I had breast cancer in April 2016. After various tests and biopsies (from which I have a few tiny scars), I had surgery a week before my 27th birthday. I don’t remember much about those first few days, expect I watched a lot of The Sopranos and I was in a lot of pain. The first time I saw my wound I was inconsolable. I had a lot of issues over the next few months – my nurses said I’d broken the record for longest time taken to heal after a lumpectomy. My body rejected the dissolvable stitches, and I had a couple of infections. One day I was out with friends, and my wound opened up on one side, by the time I got to A+E blood was pouring out and my shirt was drenched. So the scar is much thicker than the original incision.
It’s difficult to talk about still, and I’m definitely not totally liking my scar yet, but I’m getting there. It’s not easy having a scar on a part of your body that’s “Sexy” — I don’t have that relationship with my breasts anymore.
This journey with cancer has taught me a lot, and I appreciate my body for doing it’s best and keeping me alive. I know that soon I’ll appreciate this scar too, as a reminder of how I had the strength to get through.
Isabella:
In the summer of ’15 I was in a house fire. My clothes and way of life up in flames. I spent my summer in a burns unit on Fulham Road. My scars and scar tissue continue to change, but I have never felt more beautiful.
Mercy:
My scars are from a fire related to domestic abuse. I got burnt at the age of 29, and it’s been a difficult journey coming to terms with it. The comfort I take from my scars is they make me who I am today. I call them my most precious, and expensive piece of jewellery I own.
I have survived and if having my picture taken, and exposing my scars can help anyone else then that’s good for me!
Nell:
My scars were made whilst I was in a coma for 90 days. The scars on my face, neck and groin are there because I was on life support known as ECMO — my lungs had been devastated by a necrotising pneumonia and they had to stop me breathing — the ECMO oxygenated my blood and kept me alive for 66 days. The other round scars on my body are from chest drains because both my lungs had collapsed and infection and air was trapped in my chest cavity. The scar on my back is from surgery I had because my chest had filled with so much blood that it was impacting my heart. All this began when I went on a school trip to the Ardeche in France. I left on the 26th June with the school and came home on the 24th October. I was in a French hospital in Montpellier, in Intensive care all that time. They never gave up on me and fought with me.
My scars are the map of my survival and I’m very proud of them. They give me strength and individuality. It’s very rare for people to survive this infection — and in actual fact I survived two, because after the first pneumonia, I suffered a second infection — hospital born MRSA and went into multiple organ failure. We all fought on. I have a small scar on my throat where I had a tracheostomy — it was strange to have no voice when I woke up, but I wasn’t afraid — I only believed.
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