Love imperfection - or not?

perfection is so relative. I think that, that debate is really more focused on the social norms. Its perfectly normal in some cultures to "mutilate" or “modify” (depending on the viewpoint) ones self; scars, tattoos, giant lobes, lip discs etc etc. The doll itself is just a reflection of the innermost creativity and emotions of the owner but that’s a bit beside the point.



My doll is missing a finger and is covered in freckles. I adopted her without one finger and then thought it was quite charming. I kept it that way instead of replacing the hand cause I feel as though it makes her story more interesting.

Whichever side you are on, I think that all the dolls are beautiful, scars or otherwise.

 

Yes omg this is so true !!!! I'v never thought of it but it makes perfect scene, thanks for lighting that up OoO!

 

You are very welcome Spacerogue!!

 

I think it might be the opposite for me. I like looking at dolls with scars, occasionally reading tutorials, and I greatly admire the dedication and craftsmanship I see put into them. However, I just don't see myself putting a large scar on a doll of my own; I have quite a few scars from a very horrible and frightening experience that happened to me as a little girl. I guess as a result, I want my dolls to have a sort of 'untainted' beauty, although I do love body art such as tattoos. I don't mind scarred dolls, I just don't think its for me personally, at least right now.

I believe dolls help us project our thoughts of personal physical beauty, or at least characteristics we find fascinating. ^o^

 

I don't feel the need to give my dolls serious scars. Most of them have emotional scars of some kind (or the characters they're based on do, at least), and while normal humans tend to get many small scars over the course of life (I know I do), it's only in rare cases that these scars are noticeable and big enough for it to become part of our life story. For instance, I have a very faint scar on my hand from when I burned it on the inside of an oven (was taking my hand out and went up before out and got burned). Oddly enough, my brother burned his hand in the exact same way, in the same place, a few days later. Now not only do I have something that reminds me of being careful around ovens, I also have a physical reminder of the connection my brother and I have emotionally. But the scar is so faded now that I would have to outline it with a marker for anyone else to notice it, so it isn't a large factor in my life. Likewise, any small imperfections that would exist on my characters bodies wouldn't be worth copying onto their dolls.

I would consider some tattoos, but that's all. Tattoos are what I would call "artistic imperfections", so I think they fall in this category. XD

 

I think the doll helps stem part of who they are. I think it is something my doll is. Truly, there is beauty in faults. Everyone has a history..so why shouldn't they? Sure, I don't wish this upon people. These thigns give them character.

I really don't think anyone can be perfect. Maybe its because everyone has such a different idea of what perfection may or may not be. Dolls that are plain and dont have these things are just as beautiful too. I prefer dolls that are realisitic. because yes, people go through a lot of the pain that is depicted here on Doa. I think they can show good examples of real life tragedies.

Their storylines make them unique. They make your interaction with the doll so different then anyone elses interaction with their dolls. ^^

 

I feel that jacobean summed it up a lot of it very eloquently:

The other aspect for me is - scars, injuries, diseases, burns are an interesting way to mask damage done by previous customisations or accidents.

 

Oh, me and a friend were talking about this a few days ago!

I think 'imperfections' make a doll interesting to look at and more real. I see dolls that are imperfect and there are several things that I see. I see a certain aspect of realism, I see artistry, I see thought, and then I see a lovely beautiful doll. These little touches seem to make more real a character. Example, while my Ryu is rather 'perfect,' he has two beauty marks on his face. Why? That's the way I see Edward and I think for me he's my aspect of 'perfect.' In my mind, he's not a perfect character, his face shouldn't be esthetically 'perfect.'

It's been said several times by several different people, in customization, we are creating our version of perfect. These little touches bring our vision to life. My friend said that Edward's beauty marks take away from his perfection but I find the opposite. It adds to that wonderful thing that is only Edward.

To be honest, I LOVE seeing dolls with little physical quirks. Makes them interesting to look at, at least for me. It's nice to see what people can do with their dolls. What people dream up. It's awesome!

To each his or her own, ya know? For me, 'imperfect' is perfect.

 

sometimes the dolls they sell are TOO perfect.... and need something to make them more real or special. that's my opinion; I'm into scars on dolls... and freckles! not that freckles are imperfections, just not usually on faceups unless you ask.

 

While I can see the reasons that some folks have for scarring their dolls, it's basically a big no-no for me. I'm not fond of gore & obvious pain & simply don't find scarred dolls aesthetically pleasing. It's not that I'm after perfection or even beauty, many of my dolls have very sorrowful expressions, which to me reflects their pain better than a phyical disfigurement.

Tattoos & piercings are a completely different thing though. I don't think of those as any sort of damage but rather a character's self expression.

 

This is a very interesting topic... for me, my dolls portray characters from a story I've been writing on-and-off for about two years now. In that story, those characters have scars/get scarred at some point or another, so I felt that it was only right that I gave those scars to my dolls as well.

I can't even remember where I heard this before, or whether I made it up myself or whatever, but whenever I see scars on dolls, I think to myself; 'scars are physical memories that never fade, you can try your hardest to forget whatever it was that happened that gave you that scar, but the scar will always remain' i.e. sometimes, no matter how hard you want to forget, it's impossible to forget something completely ^^;

I personally think it gives a doll more character and, perhaps, more realism as well... which is exactly what I love doing to my dolls. I realize they're just dolls, but I like it when people start to take interest in my doll's character and not just see it as an inanimate object. So yeah, scars are a good way of piqueing someone's interest if you ask me Like, sometimes I'll look at someone else's doll that has scars/mods and I think along the lines of... 'heey now, that's an interesting scar/tattoo/mod they've got. I wonder what happened to them that resulted in said scar/tattoo/mod?' ^__^

 

i think it's hard for me to love absolute perfection because i can't relate to it.

 

I am not to much for the gore mods , but the scars are intersting when they have a story behind and they are not over the top , and make a doll more unique. I think that most people just want to personalize their dolls. However I have seen people that just have nice face ups and nice clothing and you can tell their doll right away, the doll is unique.

 

I think as much as I love my dolls I would never want them to be 'perfect'. that would make them so boring to me. adding bruises and scars adds more to their personality! but thats me.

 

I think, like most others, it gives the doll character. Also I think it's cool to place scars on a doll that you would never think twice that they would have scars. Like with a Anu, my nabee, looking at him you would never think his back was completely destroyed and scarred up, at least I wouldn't if I was someone else. Then that leads you to wonder what happened to cause those scars. Also I believe it shows that no matter how beautiful a doll is on the surface once you delve deeper you find that not everything is perfect about them.

 

As a girl with unblemished skin and no scars, I don't feel the need to change that. I get freckles in the summer and the occasional blemish around my nose when I get sick, but don't worry, I'm overweight. I'm not perfect, unless you like a Reubens girl. ^_^ But I'm not buying a doll to be a character. I'm buying a doll to love and play with. I cosplay, and I expect her to as well, but I would not give myself a scar for a cosplay. Same for my doll. I might add one temporarily with makeup, but not anything that could not be easily undone. Not for me.

~Angelkitty

 

here's how i see it:
my skin's not perfect. my face breaks out... i have zits, i have scars because when i was younger i used to pick at my acne (gross, i know... one is actually ON my lip but not from acne... long story involving a pebble and my "boyfriend" when we were 3)
i dont wear any kind of cover-up makeup because i love my freckles too much, so my zits and scar show.
i wouldn't give my doll acne (i think it's gross enough on me, i wouldn't want to look at a doll covered in zits lol) but i wouldn't be opposed to giving a doll freckles.

my body is also not "perfect" by some standards... i have two tattoos and am working on a third (one on the back of my neck, one on my ankle, third one will be on my forearm)... i know some people who consiter body modifications to make you "imperfect", but if i found a rub-on tattoo that i fell in love with, or bettered my painting skills until i felt confident enough to tat my doll, would i? sure. it's part of who i am, why can't it be part of who they are too?
they're a big part of who i am... i love showing off my tats, i love getting tats, i love looking at other people's tats, i love talking about tats... so something that's such a huge part pf who i am, should certainly be at least a small part of who my doll is.

my body is also not perfect for another reason. i'm disabled. thankfully, my friends love me, imperfections and all. so i can't see myself not loving a doll because he or she is imperfect. not everyone is perfect, but people aren't cast aside for their imperfections... even animals who have imperfections are loved just like any other animal. why should a "flawed" dolly be undeserving of love?

 

This is such a succinct way of putting it! Honestly no one is perfect so it is very hard to relate to perfection, even those dolls who do not have physical imperfections often have emotional of behavioural imperfections in their personalities, just like people. One may be a temperamental brat, one may be an alcoholic (I know there are alkie dollies out there) a smoker, a gambler, promiscuous, psychotic even!you look through this forum you will find almost all dolls have something. I only have two who even come close to any sort of "perfection" both are physically perfect, but one is so incredibly enmeshed in his relationship that he seems to forget the rest of the world, and tends to enable the bad habits of his friends, and the other is intimidating without meaning to be.

I suppose in the end it comes down to what we view as an imperfection, but honestly for me it is the imperfections that make them perfect, whether that is an imperfection in the resin body, or in the doll soul.

 

The look, mostly. I haven't scarred any of my dolls yet, but I will probably scar an upcoming one.

Most of the time its for story line, making a character look more like the way they were imagined.

 

I think I definitely am drawn to the imperfect more because I think it has character that I can relate to. Human beings are so amazing and beautiful in their sheer complexity and capability, but we also look so different from one another. As a girl that is certainly not perfect in either my looks or my mannerism, I'm drawn to dolls that are kind of the same. It's the small things I see in the sculpt that make me see personality in them, and these are the things that make me want to buy them. My SDF Howl has such droopy eyes that he always looks somewhat tired, my Volks Rose has a big head and her eyes are far apart, my Yugiri has big pouty lips, and so on and so forth. The dolls I have now or have planned in the future are definitely not to everyone's taste, but they are so much fun to have around because of whatever it is about them that is unusual.

With all that said, on the subject of scars, I do have one and only one planned in the future to have a scar on her eye and missing a couple of fingers. But it all adds to who she is.