I have a rather large, very visible birthmark on my throat. It’s situated just under and to the side of my adam’s apple. But when I look in the mirror, I never see it. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen it, or really even thought about it. But I guess when other people see me, they see it. And as it’s probably a strong characteristic visually, they remember me by it. Or so I think. I don’t know. I can’t think of anybody else I know who has a very visible birthmark, especially not on the head or neck. I remember a very quiet girl in second grade - one of a set of twins - had a very dark birthmark on her face, which she had surgically removed, and I was always kind of sad that they did that.

Once in a while somebody mentions something about it, and I end up thinking for a second, “Birthmark? What birthmark? What are they talking about?” Just now I had to go look in the mirror to even remember the shape, size and location of it. It’s weird because it gets me thinking of other things about myself that I never see or think about, but which other people must identify with me rather strongly.

Self-contemplation aside, I’ve also read a sort of interesting theory about birthmarks and reincarnation. There has been some research into children who remember past lives. Supposedly, in some of those cases, very prominent birthmarks correlate to the cause of death of the past life incarnations, and fatal wounds which they received. I don’t know how much stock I really put in that, but it’s interesting to consider that maybe I died through some kind of throat puncture or choking or something. I have had a handful of dreams which I interpreted as possibly past life dreams, but they never showed anything about how it all ended.