The most ghastly wound is on a man who looks about nineteen: a ragged cicatrix that winds from one corner of his mouth to beneath his left ear, then all the way around his head, under the right ear, and back to the other corner of the mouth, as though the assailant intended to peel off the top. A sadist’s trophy.

cicatrix (n) : a mark left (usually on the skin) by the healing of injured tissue [syn: scar, cicatrice] – source: ”Guarding Sing Sing”