Quote Originally Posted by neflight86 View Post
From what I remember, the manga starts with him insisting to his grandpa (Garp) that he wants to be a pirate, and after getting laughed at, cutting the scar into his eye to show how serious (and stupid) he is. That was apparently too edgy/imitatable for Nihon TV in 1999, so it was skipped over in the anime... until now, even if it was remixed into the shanks bar scene.
Cool. I'd always wondered.