Panel Discussion on Scars, Body Modification & Self/ Acceptance with Adetutu Alabi, Adenike Oyetunde and Chidera Muoka at the 2019 edition of Ake Festival

A visible disfigurement or scar can have a profound psychological impact on the individual concerned. Increasingly however, whether for social, cultural or cosmetic reasons people are deliberately defacing their bodies. Why does it occur and what does it achieve? This panel explored the psychological implications of living with a vissible difference whether accidental or deliberate, and consider the complex influence of the physical, cultural, and psychological factors involved.