Burns...

Remove all ads!

Well, after getting a nasty little acid burn from boiling hot sulfuric acid on my arm tonight (don't worry, it's only about the size of a pea...although it hurt like a b**ch!), it got me thinking about all the times I've been burned in the past.

Growing up in So. California, and spending most of my summers at the beach, I've had plenty of sunburns...so many that my doctor has labeled me as "high risk" for skin cancer.

But besides those, I'm also a pyromaniac, and I've had several things blow up in my face before getting a knack for working with combustibles and explosives. I have a few permanent scars on my hands and arms from some of the more....memorable...times.

So how about you? Any memorable burns?

 

Yes, that one time where I was welding something above my head and burning hot flux landed straight on my crotch, burned through my pants and landed straight on my privates.

Hurted like hell. Looked like a freaking idiot wandering with a bag of ice stapped around my crotch, too.

 

Not really memorable but the number of hot-rock burn scars that scatter my thighs is astounding. Also I managed to burn a huge patch of my fore-arm once with a hot iron. Very painful but I remember thinking "I'm glad I realised that was too hot, I'd have ruined these trousers..."

 

When casting tin soldiers I once spilled some molten lead over my left hand. It hurt a lot and it was difficult to remove because it was hot, remained hot for a while and sticked to the skin After some 15 years you don't see much scar left, except when you look real close. Good, because it was not exactly memorable.

Hot sulphuric acid is vicious, in addition to the burn because of the temperature, you also have the chemical burn, you're double burned. I once burned a wet fingertip with basically the opposite, NaOH, during chemistry lessons, taught me to not touch chemicals but use an appropriate tool, also hurt a lot, and also, after 15 years there's no visible scar left.

 

Interesting topic. I burnt my hand on the sauna stove when I was a kid, there's still a slightly different shade of colour on that part of my left arm but it's hardly noticable.

 

I thought this thread was about Burns night (last night)

I burnt my hand when I was about thirteen in a moment of true stupidity when me and my mates sprayed a cardboard box up with deodrant and I put my hand in with the lighter into the mist to get it going. I got away with a couple of blisters and a mark that has since faded, the hair has grown back too

 

Well, back when I was young and stupid (as compared to my current status of old and stupid), I was trying to start a propane BBQ. The starter wasn't working very well, and after several clicks, it still hadn't fired up. Of course, the propane kept building up, and I had my head right over the BBQ, so when it finally did start, my eyebrows and hair gor seriously singed. Fortunately that was about it, but I smelled a bit burnt for awhile afterwards.

 

One summer I was routinely manning clean up fires, and regularly singed the hair on my foreamrs.

Back in my dope smoking days, I used to roach joints early because I didn't lime butning my fingers passing them, hence I got the nickname "The Roach Nazi".

But otherwise, nothing worse than sunburn or the BTW that's hot reminders...

Trading jokes with family and friends is another story...

 

I'm sat here with a burn on my knuckle from cooking. Hurts a lot too because of where it is - the skin has peeled back.
I've had a lot of burns. I actually refuse to by clothes that require ironing because I always burned myself. Yes, I am that clumsy.
Worst burn I had was back in the days of yore when I was temping at a warehouse. They had us temps on the box making line, glueing cardboard boxes together. They give you a glue gun which takes crayon-like pellets of glue and then heats them up to nuclear temperatures. The glue guns leaked. They did not (at first, anyway) give us gloves.
I got through my hour or so glueing and felt quite smug that I hadn't been burned like everyone else. Then I felt something hot on my hand. Big glob of glue. Ouch. I decided to be smart and let it cool but that turned out to be a mistake as when I peeled the glue away, several layers of skin came with it, leaving a lymph-oozing hole. I now have a small but very permanet scar at the base of my left thumb.

I've also suffered sunburn several times - one of my interests is visiting amusement parks and I've been caught out a few times. I burned my scalp once along my parting, and then bought a cap. Then I burned the tops of my ears so badly they blistered and I bought a floppy fishing-type hat instead.
My worse burn was when I was at Venice Beach once during one of my E3 trips. I wasn't sunbathing but my colleague wanted to go and play paddle tennis. I hadn't taken sublock and there wasn't any shade. My shins were so badly burned it hurt to walk and I had the shivers that evening. When I got off the plane back to London, I realised my legs were wet beneath my jeans, and basically the whole top layer of skin had formed a giant blister which had started to ooze.
I am really anal about sunblock now (especially as I'm no longer in the first flush of youth). I even wear a factor 40 block on my face during winter.