Or, it could hurt.
Heh, gotcha.
With my arm extended, I can grab a sizable flap of skin and pinch it rather hard and while can feel the touch, I don’t feel pain. I do feel pain if I grab a flap of skin and pinch it in the same manner most other places in the body.
Oddly enough, I can do this pinching below my elbow for a majority of my lower arm and no pain. Above the elbow, pain when pinching. Weird?
The plural of anecdote is not data. Therefore you must simply be wrong.
(I can pinch the loose skin on my elbow quite hard without any discomfort; a similar pinch to the loose skin in other places, such as my knee, is painful)
I am enchanted by the mental picture of people all over the world pinching, prodding and poking their elbows with various implements and then dashing to the computer to post the results.
To heck with the mental picture - if there’s a simple way to post a photo here I’ll repeat the ViceGrip stunt.
Doesn’t hurt me, either. We’re just talking about the skin, though. I think what is confusing people is that bumping the underlying bone definitely does hurt. One of the most painful moments ever for me was when I fell like a klutz and hyperextended* my elbow.
I can’t really think of anywhere else on my body that has enough floppy skin to try…except maybe my ear lobe, but that hurts more. And I’m not going below the belt for the other example…
- Well, there was some medical jargon that led me to believe this may not be technically correct because it involved a small chip in the bone, but let’s just say it bent in a way it shouldn’t
No pain for me when I pinch my elbow skin. I can feel a slight tightening sensation from drawing the skin into the pinch, so I wouldn’t say I feel nothing–but there is no pain even when I pinch as hard as I can.
Maybe the skin there is just really tough? I felt a little bit, but it didn’t hurt that bad.
Hitting your elbow against something, however, hurts like hell.
I thought the question was why is elbow skin so ugly? but I also feel very little pain with the pinch properly executed.
…with needle-nose pliers, even.
For the record, it doesn’t hurt.
However, thanks to the cold weather and dry air, my other elbow is slightly chapped, and I can sure as hell feel that.
Pinched and squeezed hard- barely any sensation.
Pinching and twisting, I felt.
Ain’t about to try sharp objects.
Heh.
I’d be funny if, tomorrow, all over the world, doctors reported the odd phenomenon of people showing up with bruised and tender elbows.
“Cecil’s Elbow”
I think the OP overstated his proposition and that is what has caused the disjunct between the reports of dopers in this thread and the doper medicos’ opinions. It is certainly true that you can do things to the skin of your elbow that hurt. Just ask a cyclist who has come off a few times, like, say, me. But it is certainly true for me and seemingly many other dopers that there is significantly less pain when you pinch a flap of skin on your elbow compared to other places.
Qed
So I’m thinking that skin, in general, isn’t really very sensitive to pressure type pain. What causes pain in pinch, pull or puncture injuries is what’s underneath the skin. The elbow is one of the few places on my body where I can pull enough skin to pinch without there also being significant flesh carried along with the skin. Being a male I can tell you that the skin on my scrotum is also pretty immune to most kinds of pain, I can pinch most of it, pull it quite a bit and if I did poke just the skin with a sharp impliment it wouldn’t be that sensitive. Same goes for the skin on my kneecaps, the web between my thumb and forefinger… and… really that’s about all that fits the bill. Muscle seems to be alot more sensitive to puncture than fat, I have to give myself a weekly injection and doing it on my stomach is MUCH easier than trying my upper thighs, which are not so padded. So I agree that elbow skin isn’t very sensitive but I would be that most of your actual skin isn’t either, it’s what is right below that skin that matters.
Well I guess that the vast majority of us can’t feel any pain or discomfort when pinching the skin. There are of course the awkward mutants out there :D.
I quite agree that banging your elbow sure does hurt, but it was the skin of the elbow I was referring to.
As cc says in post 20, if you grab an amount of elbow skin and pinch you won’t feel any pain but just pinch a teensy bit with your nails and you will.
So Qadgop why is this?
Count me in as another relatively painless elbow pincher.
Hey it works for your scrotum too!
Bastard hell!!!
Not for me it doesn’t :eek:
fuck me that hurt
My elbow skin don’t care much about being pinched.
I am however of a sufficient presence of mind not to test my scrotum… :dubious:
:d
You didn’t think I was serious did you?