The Face

Genetics

May 29, 2025

My dad had pointy ears. I have one pointy ear on the left side and one more rounded shaped ear on the right side. That’s genetics.

When I was born my dad was nearly 50, so I inherited some genetic degradation effects. That’s the ageing process in the father’s genes.

At the age of 29 I felt that I was beginning to look old. Underneath my eyes was beginning to look a little bit baggy and haggard, so I became worried. I got some Vaseline skin cream and began to apply it beneath my eyes, rubbing away the dry skin cells of the epidermis and reducing the appearance of fine lines.

I went too far.

I rubbed a little too hard and a little too often and, consequently, I drew blood.

So then I had a small bloody mark under one eye and I had to stop applying the skin cream while I waited for the scab to heal up.

A few weeks later, when the scab had healed away, I found to my dismay that it had left a red mark where the blood had stayed under the surface of the skin. It looked similar to a birth mark and has been there ever since. Numerous times over the years people have referred to this mark as a “birth mark” or a “strawberry mark”. I tell them it isn’t a birth mark, it’s a scar. They usually look at me with a puzzled look on their faces. They seemingly can’t assimilate the information that the thing which looks like a birth mark isn’t a birth mark.

So I’m stuck with that. Serves me right for having such vanity and fear of ageing. I accidentally gave myself a face mark from the age of 29 onwards. Yet another example of my foolishness.

Ironically, when I reached middle age I looked astonishingly young for a forty year old, and I have the photos to prove it. I looked remarkably youthful from my forties until my late fifties, when my age really caught up to me with a vengeance.

Here’s some photos of the that ageing process (the red mark on my face doesn’t necessarily show up in all photos and lighting conditions but is very noticeable in real life)