It’s never been any other way to Han Han, who grew up in the Southern part of the Philippines. Her birthmark has always been suerte (good luck) according to those around her. She now lives in Toronto and works as a nurse. As I child, she believed it all.

Her grandmother told her that, since the moment she was born, there was an “encanto” (an enchanted being) always watching over her. Her mom reinforced the belief. Children did tease her by calling her sunog (burnt) and she grew up with many superstitions. She remembers her grandfather spitting saliva on her birthmark to supposedly stop it from spreading.

She recently got a tattoo from a remote village in the Philippines. The elder tattoo artist  there called her birthmark lucky. Apparently, In the Sama culture, the birthmark represented clouds – which are always present; meaning their support will always be there.

The birthmark makes her feel like she’s some kind of super hero. Strangers have often just randomly told her that she was the chosen one. She says this gives her some kind of power, the stories have affected her psyche, for the better. “So when I see other people with birthmarks, I feel connected to them. We are the Mutants!” she exclaims.

“It’s my God-given tattoo,” she says. “That’s what I say when children ask me about the birthmark.” Nursing school called it an “abnormality.” She learned the medical definition. She read about previous cases of people with birthmarks; they apparently joined traveling freak shows. If I had been born at that time, she says, I could have been The Girl with Red Arm.

“It’s entertaining to other people because they don’t understand it,” she says.

TO LEARN MORE check out: the Work-in-Progress Screening Secret Perk, Han Han on Bandcamp, the Huffington Post article by Robert Bolton, and listen to the Soundproof podcast – Birthmark Part 1. More soon from Lester Alfonso.