It seems a lot of my friends chose the last month or so to have surgery. One had something medically necessary that took her off work, but was too delicate to say much about. Another is spending the holidays with her jaws wired shut. Still another had back surgery that has restored her range of motion, but has left her with an interesting problem.

She has a scar. And understand, this woman has accumulated a lot of scars over her lifetime, so ordinarily she wouldn’t care much, particularly about one she can’t see. But this one looks like, um, an extended crack, which bugs her enough to toy with the notion of a tattoo.

“Tramp stamp?” someone else asked. There was head shaking. Clearly, without the scar, this never would have come up, so she was soliciting ideas.

Well, my first thought was a tail, but I kept that to myself. “A zipper?” I offered. NO was the reply.

Then there was the mention of the smaller appendix scar. “Ooh!” I said. “You could have an entry wound on the front and an exit wound on the back.”

Again, NO. This seems not to be one of my talents, and I racked my brains a bit but couldn’t come up with anything better. Except maybe …

a guitar neck? I’ll have to check and see how that one plays.

This post originally appeared on ourMidland.com, the online home of the Midland (MI) Daily News. Republished with permission.