Centering on the symbolic meanings of unintended work-related scars in occupational settings, this article examines how in certain professions scars produced through painful mistakes are leveraged into workplace advantage. This finding—derived from body-anchored interviews with commercial chefs and cooks (n = 50) and embodied ethnography of a casual restaurant-bar in the USA—is counterintuitive, as scars acquired from error conventionally represent failure, naivete, or lack of skill. This paradox hinges on the values of the macro-level cultures and idiocultures of particular workspaces. In the context of commercial kitchen culture, where stoic suffering is prized, physical marks from injuries that are then expounded upon by corporeal storytelling and other forms of cultural bodily markings challenge conventional notions and become advantageous and meaning-laden. Ultimately, this article expands the understanding of the uses of unintentional scars within the framework of workplace idiocultures through an intimate, embodied lens.

本文以职业环境中与工作相关的意外伤疤的象征意义为中心，探讨了在某些职业中如何将因痛苦错误而产生的伤疤转化为工作场所优势。这一发现源自对商业厨师和厨师（n = 50）的身体锚定访谈，并体现了美国一家休闲餐厅酒吧的民族志，这是违反直觉的，因为错误造成的伤疤通常代表失败、天真或缺乏技能。这种悖论取决于特定工作空间的宏观文化和独特文化的价值观。在商业厨房文化的背景下，坚忍的痛苦受到重视，受伤的身体标记随后通过有形的故事讲述和其他形式的文化身体标记进行阐述，挑战了传统观念，变得有利且充满意义。最终，本文通过一个亲密的、具体化的镜头，扩展了对工作场所文化框架内无意伤疤的用途的理解。