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The human body is pretty amazing, and I mean that in the true sense of the word: it’s both impressive and, at times, genuinely surprising. It’s easy to take that for granted, forgetting that our bodies aren’t just what we see on the outside, but a complex, interconnected network of cells, tissues, organs and bones working together in ways we don’t always understand.

It’s just as easy to forget that beyond the obvious differences in how we look, we’re all unique in ways we might never expect—that is, until someone shows off a “party trick” like touching their nose with their tongue. (I pretty much made this my unofficial life mission after watching my grandmother do it.) Some of these quirks are more common than others, but some are the kind of anomalies you’d rarely come across, and those are exactly what this list is about.

#1 My Niece Has 6 Fingers On Both Hands

#2 My Child That Was Born Last Week Has Natural Blonde Highlights

#3 I Was Born With One Of The Rarest Forms Of Belly Buttons In The World

Looking through this list, you’d be excused for thinking your body is hardly unique. After all, how many of us can say we have a whole extra set of teeth, a naturally forked tongue, or a mysterious spot that glows under UV light? But that doesn’t mean your body is anything less than one of a kind. In fact, as Dr. Sermed Mezher reminds us, each of us has differences that “manifest in our genetic makeup, cognitive processes, emotional responses, life experiences, and even in the microscopic communities of bacteria that live within us.”

#4 I Have Vitiligo & Heterochromia

I was born with Heterochromia & developed Vitiligo when I was around 8-9 years old. I used to hate living with both conditions, but have learned to embrace & love my appearance.

#5 I Was Born With A Giant Congenital Nevus

#6 My Tongue Is Naturally Forked

That first one—genetic makeup—might seem pretty obvious. You only need to have watched a single episode of CSI to know that DNA can be pretty useful for distinguishing one person from another. But did you know that, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute, any two people’s genomes—complete sets of DNA instructions found in every cell—are typically around 99.6% identical? Don’t let that seemingly small 0.4% margin fool you, though.

#7 Vitiligo Turned My Eyelashes And Beard White

#8 I Have A Birth Defect That Makes Me Unable To Bend My Thumbs

#9 I Have (Almost) No Eye Colour

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, humans show considerable genetic variation, with no two people—apart from identical twins—being genetically identical. Most of these genetic differences have little or no noticeable effect, but some contribute to differences in physical appearance, aspects of personality and susceptibility to disease. And genetic differences can also influence more than what we can see or easily measure. As Dr. Mezher explains, “These genetic differences” can also influence “how we metabolize food, and how we perceive the world around us.”

#10 I Have Fraternal Thumbs, 1 From Each Parent Due To A Genetic Mutation On My Dads Side (Unilateral Brachydactyly Type D)

#11 I Met The Guy Who Has No Middle Joints

#12 Webbed Toes – After 40 Years Of Hiding These… Ive Decided To Reveal!

While genetic differences might account for some of the anomalies on this list, it’s worth remembering that all of our bodies are perhaps even stranger than we often realize. Much of what happens inside us is hidden from view: many of our cells are constantly being replaced, electrical signals are firing, and bone is continually being broken down and rebuilt. We rarely give any of this a second thought because, as Cris Tolomia, writing for Quartz, puts it, “that smoothness is the trick. The body only draws attention to itself when something goes wrong, so the ordinary state of being alive tends to hide the parts that are genuinely peculiar.”

#13 I Was Born Without Finger Or Toe Prints

#14 My Left Hand Is Missing A Finger As It Was What Formed My Thumb

#15 I See Your Single Webbed Finger And Raise You Both Hands

And maybe that’s part of what makes the human body so fascinating: what we consider “ordinary” is often really just the version of it we happen to experience every day, and no two people’s ordinary looks quite the same. In that sense, although some of the anomalies featured on this list might be pretty rare, they’re part of a bigger picture. The human body is full of quirks, variations and peculiarities, many of which we simply go through life without noticing.

#16 My Blood Vessels Pick Up More Dirt

#17 My Sons Hair Is Half Straight Half Curly Almost Down The Middle

#18 Feet With No Toe Nails

And so, while most of us only have eight fingers, two thumbs and ten toes, we each have our own unique traits—maybe a lopsided smile, an oddly shaped ear, or a tongue that reaches the tip of our nose. Because being different, it seems, isn’t the exception; it’s the rule. It’s just that noticing it sometimes requires a closer look.