Sadly here in Belgium there is little to no enforcement of Halloween. Say all you want about it becoming a marketing product; I like what the industry has carved the day into. Wish there were more marks of it felt around here.

Thus I thought I would make an instructable (my first) after reading of the Halloween competition:
A VERY convincing scar!

The instructable is long because I tried to present in detail. But the process itself is rather simple and short. Good luck!

WARNING 1: Keeping it on too long can have simiallar effect to wearing tight socks for a long time would have around your ankles. This can be extremely disturbing.
WARNING 2: folding too much skin is sure to increase the effects mentioned in warning #1. Try to make a ratio of size and time& the more you need to keep it on; the better you keep the amount low.
WARNING 3: In this instructable you are advised to use glue directly onto your skin. As DIY'ers, we possibly already have simply too much experience with glue on our skin. But none the less you may want to keep in mind that this glue is to remaing for some time. Your skin won't breath it's usual amount and will be in constant contact. Do NOT choose any chemical that your body would allergically react to. Please USE YOUR COMMON SENSE.

Step 1: Blah Blah Stuff...

Let's begin with a little history (Blah blah stuff... you can skip it):

My childhood was a little unfortunate, resulting with a great number of stitches here and there (Hence had enough time to examine stitches thoroughly).
Around my first years of junior high I had come up with a way to make realistic scars. Due to my background in what they are suppose to look like. I had in fact even managed to skip an exam because my hand was stitched!
Although this was a method I have completely figured out on my own; I am more than sure that a lot of people must have done something similar since it is actually such a simple method.

Disclaimer;
For some additional information; I was a few years younger than the rest of the class... so it should be acceptable that I was more what childish at the time.

Step 2: What You Will Need&

Most importantly you are going to need
Some free time (it took me about 30-45 minutes to do this WITH taking the photos with one hand and WITH typing all the below. I recall making these in less than 5 minutes),
glue,
sharp scissors,
thread.

The basic ingredient could come down to only the above But to have the glue stick longer and better;
Ethyl alcohol would help.
Additionally you may want to have some
painting material to your choice.
and a set of brushes for afterwards...

To remove the scar:
Acetone works best (NOT on the picture... sorry hadn't crossed my mind until I was finished with the instructable).

Aids;
Some of you may want to have a set of
tweezers
or helper hands as well.

You can pretty well manage without the additional materials stated... it still looks amazing.

Edit: Super glue is a 'healthy' choice it seems... thanks for the heads up Kiteman!
Only thing I could say through experience is that it is less flexible and can layer easily from reapplying. But did have a natural 'crust' feel.

Step 3: Now First Let’s Make the Knots…

For those that may not have had a stitching before and haven't had the honor(?) of watching the first Rambo movie; It is basically trying to get the two edges together and sewing them.

And unlike the childish image I had from cartoons and so on; the stitches were not of one consistent thread; but more of short pieces that were cut and tied together after each stitch was performed.
So; we want to duplicate the same thing for a convincing result.

Now take a piece of string (here you can go very dramatic and make monstrous stitches ; but I am going to go for a thin (burnt umber/dark brown) thread that pretty much resembles the medical ones used in hospitals);

fold it in two

And start tying knots in them.

Leave about half a centimeter (that would about a fifth of an inch) gap between them. You may want to make them longer as they can always be made smaller later.

When done:

At a little bit less than a quarter cm (tenth of an inch) cut them.

Step 4: And Spread Their Legs :)

Make as many of these as you want...

The more the merrier as it may not be as easy to make later if you are going to add a stitch to your hand as I am going to do in this instructable.

For me I think 7 or 8 should be more than enough but making extras won't hurt.

Step 5: Victom Subject and "sterilisation'

Obviously you have to decide where to apply this to!

It may be a wise idea to free your skin from any oily surface. For most cases I use something in the lines of ethyl alcohol. It works best to my experience. But maybe just washing with soap would suffice. IMPORTANT edit: I can not believe I forgot to add... this thing WILL pull at hair in the region even if you use acetone. A word of caution to watch out for hair growth on where you apply it.

Since I am going to be doing this only for the photographs; I am going on with it as it is (thus not the best results; sorry. But that should give you an idea of how bad scars can look like to have reference of! Okay, okay... just too lazy).

Oh and btw:
I have decided to use my hand for this time.

Step 6: And the Cut!

Here is the really creative part:

You have to get a sort of tacky but quality glue that you are not allergic to (When I was a child I had always used superglue of some cheaper sort. It worked perfectly, but I have my doubts on its good nature to your skin to be wearing in great amount for a long time).

For this purpose I am using weak contact glue that was just simply lying around. If I was to be doing it really correctly I would use an adhesive that you would find in the costume shops or at beauty stores for fake eyelashes (not those for a fake nails... those are also super glue).

Decide where you want the scar to be. And apply the adhesive along it (You may want to first darken the area with make up for your scar)

Once you are done with the gluing part: just take two sides of it and stick/pinch/crease them together.

Now try not to be TOO picky on what it is going to look like. Through experience I have to say that usually wounds tend to be a little random. But for forensically corrected results you may want to pay attention to the langer lines for small scars because the skin tends to pull to particular directions.

Here I have folded my skin thoroughly to each end making sure that it holds each other securely. This may require some practice at first but it is not really too difficult a task to master.

You may always choose to lengthen the scar by adding more glue. I am going to leave mine such and add a little more glue to the ends to better cap it.

An important thing to keep in mind is to not make the fold with too much skin folded underneath it. As a result it will be an area that shall not get as much blood and can cause problems. Also the more skin it has to hold back the more strain the glue has. Thus it may be for the best of interest to make light stitches until you get the hang of it.

Step 7: Better Stitch It Up Now!

Okay;

Let's take the little pieces of string and glue them along the wound.

Now here there are a few things to pay attention to:

_ Firstly you don't want to over-glue it, because the amount of glue showing would be glossy and take from the convincing effect (and they do have bad combination with the paint/make-up).

_ You want to try to think of the positioning tactically. Not one doctor has had a worry about the strings looking aesthetic that has tailored my skin... on the contrary they had all done a pretty rough job for the strings itself; but they did however pay attention to where a thread was needed in order to hold it together.

_ Last of all try to pay special attention to not allow the thread tips to split at the ends (they are supposed to be IN your skin remember). I used to apply glue around the tips after or just before I cut them to prevent this from happening.

Step 8: Lets Wrap This Up;

Now to finish it off... lets cut the tips of the threads.

At this step you are going to be very grateful if you supplied sharp scissors. Since bad ones will make this step a big mess.
NEEDLESS to say: sharp things can do a boo-boo beyond reconstruct-ability; so BE CAREFUL WITH IT!
(or you may need REAL'istic' stitches)

Well that just about sums it up!
Fast and easy convincing stitch that cost just about nothing , and didn't take any time at all!
(Sadly I've spent more time trying to figure out how to submit an instructable than preparing it :( ... maybe next time I'll stick to a video)

Next:
Taking the result a little further from here on in the next steps with paint (as an example)

Step 9: Take It a Few Steps Further Now!

Add bandages, blood and what not. It's your wound: dress it however you wish to.

For instructasamplable sake I am going to apply a little paint postwork
(Using my airbrush acrylics for this one)

To add some realisticity (is that a word?); don't forget to add marks of the blood being smeared off, or also some yellowness from chemicals used to prevent infections... or maybe a little bit of washed off blue to make it more pale around the area

Note:
I am reminding you that it was all done very crudely... the only reason it looks good here is because of the steps taken. The fold of skin is a real fold of skin and the strings knotted on top are real strings knotted on top.
I am SURE you can get much cooler results with a little bit of creativity.

Step 10: As Dramatic As This Ones Going to Get...

Now a little more work on mine... and Ta-daah!!

Well to be honest; I think I liked it in the last step before I added the last coats of paint. But oh well.. can always take it off and do it again.

The last steps were actually more to give you an inspiration/idea. The only real reason that this looks any good is the materials being realistic.
You can take this a good step further...
You can introduce fake blood under the stitch...
You can paint it more...
You can use staples or thicker threads mine or what not (pun unintended)...
You can mix the glue with paint to make it look more like a crust.
Etc...

There are a LOT of options you can go for from here.

Step 11: Everything Has to Come to an End.

Well even real stitches have to come off at some time!

I was sort of disappointed when real stitches were taken off when I was a child. I was so looking forward to walking around without the bandages and a Frankenstein look (yes I was an interesting case).

You can just pull it apart if you wish to. I doubt you can do too much damage.
But if you have any doubts; you would be better off using acetone (nail polish remover) as it tends to dissolve just about any glue you would possibly be using.

Here I just ripped it off:

EDIT (Acetone usage):
Being correctly warned through SueUpton that I should not advise people to use Acetone as an agent to remove the glue... I've researched and found countless reliable/serious sites stating acetone for removal of glue. But the BIG finds were those of glue brands such as superglue, gorilla glue and miracle glue advising to use acetone. And commercially available removers tend to have products with up to 86-90 percent acetone in it.
I have also found out that medically acetone is used for pain treatments and orthopedic castings. Thus I can not reason to rule out the advise.

So was she wrong? Absolutely not!
Acetone can be very toxic. And I would appreciate that in her line of business (as I get it she is professional make-up artist) the constant usage of the product would present serious damage.

Thus as much as I can not rule it out I would feel it correct to state that you SHOULD use it with caution.
There are apparently many alternatives including non-acetone nail polish removers found in pharmacies.

Thank you SueUpton for the heads-up here.

Step 12: All Gone!!

Isn't it cool? No trace!!

Well this is because I did not have it on for too long... Half an hour at the max. When you hold it on too long you get marks you would get on your leg from tight socks. And just like the elastics of tight socks, this will also "tell" you when it is getting to be too much.

When you use a considerable amount of skin; this can be about one or more hours.. truly depends on where you put it. Like on my forearm I had it on for half a day with a lot of skin. If you don't pinch too much between, then you can keep it on for a good amount of time. I would none the less advise you take it off at the moment you are done with the party
For those that want to use this to skip an exam or doing your homework: You can take it off after showing it to your teacher and then dressing it up with bandages for a week.

A last little IDEA addition: I used to make blood capsules and fold my skin over them. Then I would bust the wound "open" (read: force the glue to let go) making the blood rush out.
Unfortunately its results with my experiments were everything but dramatic... though once a while it did look convincing (keep in mind the bit I told you about folding too much skin. The capsules are the same thing. They should be kept small and thin and not glued for a long time)

Happy Halloween!

Black

Ps: Don't forget to comment, rate, vote and "what not" to make me feel loved and cherished =)
(Well scratch out the "what-not" bit... that CAN come to some pretty nasty things)