Honorable War Wounds

I became enthralled by Brian Jacques' Redwall series when I was about in third grade, and really liked them for a long time.
In one of them, (Salamandastron maybe) they talk about having Honorable War Wounds. I remember loving the phrase and using it frequently with my brothers in reference to scratches and bruises we obtained from run of the mill playing.
The past couple of weeks I have been spending a lot of time with some of my nephews and we have done a fair amount of roughhousing. I have a bruise on my hand, my heel and my foot. The one on my foot is the most painful, but you can barely see it. I find it a tad disappointing. Why have Honorable War Wounds if no one can even tell!
Although I suppose there are sometimes that not showing your bruises is helpful.