Frida Kahlo, The Broken Column, 1944

In 1925, when Frida was 18, the bus she was riding was rammed by an out-of-control trolley, she sustained multiple injuries including being impaled by an iron rod, several broken vertebrae, a broken collarbone, two broken ribs, a shattered pelvis, eleven fractures in her right leg, and her right foot was crushed. The rod pierced her entire body, exiting through her vagina, causing Frida to later say that the accident took her virginity. She spent a month in the hospital, immobilized in plaster casts and traction, followed by several months in bed at home. To pass the time Frida began painting for the first time.  [i]