If You Were Stabbed By A Pencil And Still Have The Mark, You’re Not Alone
Jan 29, 2019 by apost team
A painful childhood memory quite often becomes a funny story when you look back; this collection of disturbing yet funny memories is one of them!
Humans of the internet are feeling nostalgic about their pencil lead marks. And they are sharing the stories of how someone in school stabbed them with a pencil. Some of them confess giving these "tattoos" to themselves!
Potential Murder Weapons
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While a lot of people have these marks on their legs, even faces, the most common place to find the tattoos are on hands. Of course, when you think about it, those marks didn't get on the body by accident. So I decided to investigate why people stabbed themselves or their friends with a pencil in school and if they ever tried to remove those marks later.
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I have to admit, that at first, I thought why would anybody do that! But after finding these real-life stories filled with horror and pain, I am feeling like an odd man out, missing out on all the fun?! It's insane, but it's true!
Just like the famous scene in Jaws, where Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw compare their scars, internet users, in no time, came forward to share their experiences with pencils.
I have categorised the victims as following because believe it or not, there are categories!
1. People who genuinely got it by accident
"When I was in 4th grade I dropped a freshly sharpened pencil on my knee and the tip broke off in my skin. It is still there (I am 24) Doesn't bother me. I hope it wasn't lead." -Amila on Mothering.
"Me, too! I've got a piece of pencil "lead" in the heel of my palm. Been there since 4th grade. It's so deep, there's no way that sucker's coming out!" said lrlittle on Mothering.
"when I was a kid I stepped on a pencil, it flipped up in the air, and the tip came down on the top of my big toe. There was this grey mark but no evidence of a break in the skin. Short of cutting my toe open, no one had any idea how to get rid of it. The mark is still there 25 years later," added Pumpkin.
2. People who got it because they had too much of free time and no Instagram
“Tossing it in the air so it spun around, then clapping my hands together to catch it. The first few times caught it like this: | The last time I caught it like this: __” - shared one Reddit user.
“Mine is very similar. 7th grade. Flipping a pencil up then slamming it onto the table with my hand to keep it from rolling away. For the whole period, I slammed it like this: ____ The last time I slammed it like this: |”, said Skitskatskoodledoot.
And finally, PlacurBetz added, “I was learning to spin a pencil over my thumb in science class (8th grade). I didn’t want the pencil to make a sound when I dropped it because the teacher was already pissed at me for being talkative during class. I slammed my hand down to catch the falling pencil and it stabbed me at the base of my hand. I bled my way to the nurse’s office and got a bandaid. The mark is still there, though it’s faded over the years.”
3. People who wanted more than just one of these tattoos!
Jeremiugh recalls his first pencil mark and says, "I call it my first tattoo. I was like 12, my best friend Franky and I were running down a hallway and for some reason he had the sharpest pencil ever in one hand, tripped and of course, this pencil goes straight into my forearm. The whole tip of lead broke off into my arm and has been there ever since."
He further adds, "I had a mechanical pencil sticking up in my pocket when I was in high school. I go to grab in… boom! Right in the palm.”
4. People, who force me to think, 'How did Homo sapiens get to the top of the food chain?'
“My dad has 2. One from when he was in elementary school, the 2nd when he was showing how he got the first one stuck in his hand,” said Gothiclg.
“Kinda like the guy that won the lottery, reenacted it, and won again… Except with pencils… And no money involved. Cool,” said a user called Outofmylemon
5. And the rest confirm that humans are capable of evil.
"This kid in middle school used to always try to stab me with his pencil and he did a couple times, he was a jerk. Anyways, he is now in prison after he stabbed his brother, so I guess I was lucky he only used a pencil on me,” says hdt19
"I got in an argument with a kid in the 2nd grade and he threw a pencil at me. I raised my hand to block it but it stuck right in the middle of my palm and the tip broke off. It's still there," adds ZeD00m. She further added, "EDIT: To clarify, I was also in the 2nd grade at the time. We were 7/8 years old. Also, I’m female.”
There was an interview conducted with Dr Troy Madsen, an emergency room physician at the University of Utah Health, to understand if a pencil stab wound can cause lead poisoning.
"Well, this is one of those . . . I have to answer by kind of referencing probably something all of us have seen as children, and that is a pencil stuck in other kids. And I remember distinctly as a kid, growing up in elementary school, and I don't know how this happened, but some kid threw a sharp pencil across the room and flung it, and it stuck in another kid's forehead, just stuck there," said Dr Madsen.
"And I remember that kid had, basically, a mark on his forehead for quite a while after that and actually had some of the lead in his forehead as well. And you could see that lead there for quite a long time," he added.
No surprise, but the interviewer also had a story to share!
"Yeah, I did the same thing with my leg. I have a lead that you can still kind of see the dark discoloration in my leg, but it's not really . . . And I think that's what freaks people out. They think, "Oh, lead, lead poisoning," but it's not really lead, is it? It's graphite, isn't it?
To which the doctor agreed and confirmed, "It's graphite, exactly. And it's not lead that's going to cause lead poisoning."
So, that's a relief because most people are worried to get Lead poisoning when they get pencil material in their skin.
He also suggested what to do in case you get stabbed by a pencil.
"Treat it like you would anything else that stabs you. If you're having neurologic issues, if it affects a nerve, if it affects tendons, if it's deep where it's going to potentially affect anything internal. Anything beneath the surface, yeah, go to the ER, but otherwise, the lead itself is not something you should be concerned about."
So, that's a relief because most people are worried to get Lead poisoning when they get a pencil "tattoo"! But if you are going to live forever with the mark, would you consider getting an actual tattoo around it? We would love to hear your stories and experiences of how you got your pencil tattoo. Please leave us a comment and spread the nostalgia to your friends and family members!