I got one on my right leg [from hip to almost knee] that's 21 inches... had over 100 stitches [internally and externally] back in the day.
Yes...but that's my point...mine's not a leg...it's the little finger....can't get much smaller...
Well yes, it can, but we don't need to go there today..... 
Seriously, though, I am amazed at what surgeons can do these days through the smallest of incisions. Keyhole surgery, as they call it, is truly brilliant and reduces recovery times considerably. As I said, the first surgery to my right leg left me with a 21" scar, and the second almost as long, but several surgeries later, when I had to get a steel plate removed due to calcification, the scar was/is just 2.2".
Another scar I have is just above my right eye. It is just under half an inch and allowed a steel plate to be inserted to repair a fractured eye socket and depressed cheek bone. Yup, they improved upon surgical techniques from the early 70's to the late 90's, and it's even better now. My sister had a hip replacement in 2010which is similar surgery to what I had in the 70's, and the entry wound/scar is around 4 - 5 inches... a big, big difference from 21".
