Our scars have a history. Sometimes they are harrowing accounts of fatal accidents, but more frequently they are simply footnotes to the commonplace but bloody detours that we experience on the highways of life.

Perhaps the first tattoos were scars—distinctive symbols that demonstrated one had through testing and prevailed. The one from my operation last year is still a furious and deep purple, but they fade just like tattoos do.

“Incoherent Scars” is a book of 31 writers who have penned down their thoughts and experiences about the scars they have or had.