"Bali Stigmata." Photo of Will Tapper by UK photographer Andy Ford. Photo found in the "Surf: Worldwide" section here on Ford's Website.
I stumbled across Andy Ford's photography website and the photo above. When I saw this image I thought of surfing and hands getting raked bloody by coral and about the sacrifices in flesh and blood that we make sometimes for the sake of our passions whether they be sport, recreation, our life's work, etc. Literalness - both at play and aside - I also thought of the song "Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings" by Lucinda Williams which to me is also about passion. Much of Andy Ford's photography revolves around the underground music scene in the UK. Even though Lucinda's music defies genre-classification, it may not fit by sound very easily with the scenes Ford explores. In spirit I'll bet there are analogies that can be made though. Rawness and brutal truth are two elements of well used artistic vehicles (visual, musical, literary, and so on) that can articulate beauty and provocation. I can't help to keep looking at Andy Ford's photograph.
Concerning scars of passion: As in Will Tapper's gaze above, we at once shudder and are amused by our own ability to sacrifice and endure pain for the sake of quenching a desire or having an experience.