Smallpox vaccine scars, What they look like and why.

I vividly remember noticing a unique scar on my mother’s arm when I was a kid. It’s positioned high up, near her shoulder, resembling a ring of small indentations surrounding a larger one.

I can’t quite say why it caught my eye back then; the reason escapes me now. I just know it did, but like many things, it faded from my mind over the years.

Of course, I didn’t completely forget about it (it’s still right where it always was), but I did lose track of the curiosity I once had about how it came to be. Maybe I asked my mom about it once, and she shared the story. If she did, though, that memory has slipped away too.

That was until a few summers ago when I assisted an elderly woman off a train and noticed the exact same scar in the same spot on her arm as my mother’s. My curiosity was instantly reignited, but with the train ready to depart, I couldn’t exactly inquire about the story behind her scar.

I decided to give my mother a call, and she reminded me that she had actually mentioned it several times before. Apparently, my mind didn’t consider that information significant enough to remember. She explained that her scar was a result of the well-known smallpox vaccine.

Smallpox was a viral disease that once caused great fear among people. It led to severe skin rashes and fevers, and during the worst outbreaks in the 20th century, it claimed the lives of about 30% of those infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many survivors were left with lasting scars.

Thanks to the effective and widespread use of the smallpox vaccine, the virus was declared “extinct” in the United States in 1952. In fact, by 1972, smallpox vaccinations were no longer part of the standard immunization schedule.

Until the early 1970s, every child received a smallpox vaccination, which resulted in a noticeable scar. You could think of it as an early version of a vaccine passport—a mark that indicated you had been successfully vaccinated against smallpox.

And yes, that scar is something my mother has, just like nearly everyone else from her generation.

Why did the smallpox vaccine scar?

The smallpox vaccine left scars as a result of the body’s natural healing process. Unlike many vaccines we receive today, it was administered using a unique two-pronged needle.

The individual giving the vaccine created several small punctures in the skin, unlike the single injection typical of modern vaccines, to ensure the vaccine reached the dermis, the layer beneath the outer skin.

Once the virus in the vaccine was introduced, it began to replicate, leading to the formation of round bumps. These bumps eventually turned into vesicles, which are tiny blisters filled with fluid, that would later burst and form scabs.

This process resulted in the well-known scar we’ve mentioned throughout this article.

Do you have a scar from the smallpox vaccine? Share your experience in the comments!