# Do you have a piece of pencil lead embedded in your skin somewhere? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 21, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-piece-of-pencil-lead-embedded-in-your-skin-somewhere/525921 "2010-01-21T23:54:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-piece-of-pencil-lead-embedded-in-your-skin-somewhere/525921/141 "2014-05-12T01:36:26Z")
Do kids even use pencils anymore? Remember the dreaded #2? ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-piece-of-pencil-lead-embedded-in-your-skin-somewhere/525921/142 "2014-05-12T01:41:19Z")
Mine is between my thumb and pointer finger on my left hand. It’s probably been there for 40 years now. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-piece-of-pencil-lead-embedded-in-your-skin-somewhere/525921/143 "2014-05-12T22:03:33Z")
Inside the first joint of my left index finger. (Wait, at which end of the finger do you start counting the joints? Its the joint closest to the fingertip, in any case.) I somehow managed to get inadvertently jabbed by the guy sitting next to me in my high school architectural drafting class in 1983. We kept our drafting pencils damned sharp. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-piece-of-pencil-lead-embedded-in-your-skin-somewhere/525921/144 "2014-05-12T22:14:09Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > Yep, and I got mine about 30 years ago. I was climbing to the top of a vertical fuel tank (a 30 foot tall tower) because I need to measure how much fuel was in there. I had a pencil in my front pocket and somehow jabbed myself in the forearm. Oh man, I was all excited to be able to reply to this thread… I didn’t realize it was a 4 year old zombie. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-piece-of-pencil-lead-embedded-in-your-skin-somewhere/525921/145 "2014-05-18T23:23:32Z")
I love reading the stories of how people came to have graphite or ink dot tattoos. No worries. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-piece-of-pencil-lead-embedded-in-your-skin-somewhere/525921/146 "2014-05-20T23:15:39Z")
I almost missed this one … plus it’s 4 years and 5 months old, plus it was the last topic in today’s (IMHO) thread. Yes, it was 1968 on a USN barge in Newport News, VA next to a dry dock with my submarine in it going through overhaul. I needed something to write with and was the only person in the operations office at the time so I went over to the commanders desk and opened the sticky desk drawer to retrieve a pencil and when I went to close the sticky drawer a sharp lead pencil pops out and as I shoved against the desk drawer to close it the pencil stabs me in the chest and breaks off. My left chest above my heart had a piece of lead stuck in it for years. Now it’s grown over with fat being a 70 year old man, but it was there every time I shaved for years in my youth. what a thread … how I could I ever forget plus I should’ve left the commanders desk alone anyway lol [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-have-a-piece-of-pencil-lead-embedded-in-your-skin-somewhere/525921.md?page=7)