Let me preface by saying that I don’t actually think it’s possible to be “scarred for life” (speaking emotionally, only, because of course physical and mental disabilities can do a fair number on you), provided that you die of old age. Certainly you can be scarred for a great deal of your life and maybe even 99.9% of it, but in the end nothing really matters. So ignoring the validity of the concept, “scarred for life” is a great phrase because it’s a really effective metaphor, but it’s used so commonly that it doesn’t call attention to itself. We use it as if it means “ruined or changed for life” and leave it at that, but the idea is much better and worse. 

First, there’s the imagery. Although it’s used to describe the effects of emotional or mental experiences, it automatically calls upon the listener to picture a physically marred equivalent, or at least it does if your imagination ROCKS. If we showed all of life’s traumas in our outwards appearance we’d look FUCKED UP. 

Then there’s the simultaneous dramatization and belittling of the situation. Although the person being scarred is subjected to something violent and bloody it’s acknowledged that however painful the resulting wounds may be, they eventually clot and heal (unless you’re an emotional hemophiliac, which I sincerely hope you’re not), forming nothing more conspicuous or distressing than faint lines of memory. 

And lastly, there’s the implied warning. Recall how it feels to scratch, bruise, or hurt in some other minor way an old (actual, physical) scar. A person who is “scarred for life” is guaranteed discomfort whenever the issue at hand is revived or brushed past. Considering the kinds of things that emotionally scar people, they’re bound to come up a decent number of times throughout one’s life, so one who is forever scarred is forever haunted by no longer existent wounds. Pretty pitiful, really. 

But do not fret! Some scars become faint enough that they can hardly be called scars anymore and most mend well enough to stop being ultra-sensitive, which also makes this phrase a hopeful one. Hurrah for healing!