The starting point for this article is Erving Goffman’s concept of stigma. Referring to her own surveys, the author analyses Tseëlon’s claim that the physical body can be treated as a stigma. She considers which aspects of the body – e.g. the natural odour, old age, illness or the absence of depilation – stigmatises a person most, and in which social groups. The explanation is that it depends on different approaches to the body and treating it as inherited vs. achieved.