Men and women over forty particularly from the Oyo-Yoruba area in Nigeria bear scarification motif of wall-gecko (omo-onile) on their stomachs. The wall-gecko motif was marked on their abdomens when they were either infants or teenagers. Sometimes these artistic scars are referred to as part of circumcision rites but for most part they are said to be meaningless, having only aesthetic import. The deeper meanings of this artistic marking which may have been lost to posterity or have been deliberately concealed from most people, is the focus of this paper. The paper associates the early marking of omo-onile on the stomach with the prevention of abiku spirit (born-to-die again child) and links its marking on normal children as a later practice and it being for purely decorative purpose. When a woman loses several children at infancy, she is said to be visited by a member of the abiku group, it being the same child who returns and dies again as abiku.
Through sympathetic magic, the wall-gecko as animal victim was compounded into a powdered form by the babalawo (Ifa medicine-man) and combined with other elements and this has been used as preventive medicine in abiku spirit management. The supernatural and mystical power this medicine has is expressed visually in art form first, on the stomach of the abiku through the scarified omo-onile motif placed there and second, through the woven omo-onile motif on the kijipa wrapper dress which the abiku’s mother wears. The placement of scarified omo-onile motif on the stomach has a relationship with the re-establishment of abiku to normal life via his umbilical cord where life is formed. On the whole, the paper opens further discussion on the relationship between cicatrisation and African medicine thereby filling some gaps in African medical art scholarship.