this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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My mother has one; a little spot on her arm where her skin just, kind of wrinkles inward a little. It doesn't stand proud like a wound that scabbed over, it's sunken in.
I'm a millennial, I'm not vaccinated against smallpox, it was certified eradicated 5 years before I was born.
I know someone whose scar looks more like this
Genuinely thought someone branded them with a cig.
What the hell is that what it is? My mom has one too and I never realised that it's a vaccine scar
Yep that is the old vaccine. It is still used in some poorer parts of the world as well.
Smallpox vaccine was live cowpox virus which causes this scarring. It was one of the most effective vaccines.
Smallpox is a horror.
BCG vaccine for TB causes scars like this
I haven't noticed mine in decades but we all had them growing up.
We also yearly got these pink tablets to chew that colored your teeth - darker meant you weren't doing a great job brushing your teeth.
Holy fuck. I'd totally forgotten about those. They would stain the plaque on your teeth so you knew where to brush.
Yeah that's exactly it. I've never seen one of those...fresh. I think they stopped using that kind of vaccine before I was born, again I never got vaccinated against smallpox, joys of being born in the 80's. Was it an open sore? Or did it just...sink in?