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A new trend of pinching your own face until scars appear is emerging on Tik Tok and seems to be gaining more and more followers among teenagers. However, the practice is not without risks.
Vigilance if your teenager appears to you with a face full of red marks: the latest TikTok challenge, as reported The Parisian is a game called “scarring” which consists of pinching the cheek, cheekbone or other visible part of the face very hard to create a mark or a bruise. Marks that can last for several days.
Scars to invent a story or look “stylish”
There are now many teenagers on the networks who have experienced this superficial mutilation, and testify, scarred faces facing the screen. : “I did this last week. At first it hurts a little and it swells. Then the pain passes, thankfully. I still kept the mark for four days” evokes Selma, a fourth-grade student in a Parisian college.
“My teacher called me to find out if I was beaten at home” relates another Internet user, who is surprised that his high school wanted to make an appointment with a psychologist for him. In fact, the reason for this trend is often also superficial: telling a story, being tough or for some “stylish” and of course, getting as many online views as possible. At the cost of his skin.
But the risk of an indelible spider angioma
Those who find the approach trendy do not know that they are exposing themselves to a risk. For Marie Jourdan, dermatologist who is part of our Doctissimo expert committee and contacted by the Parisianthe “game”, could well cause dysfunctions of the blood microcirculation and irreversible physical damage:
“If you want to mark your cheek temporarily, the danger for these young people is to get a stellate angioma that persists, and therefore to keep aesthetic sequelae”.
Angiomas which, if they persist, will have to be erased by laser for at least a hundred euros per session, not reimbursed by Social Security.
If the dangerous nature of the challenge is no longer in doubt, the Chinese network however expressed itself on Monday, and refuses for the time being to ban videos of this type, the scars caused not being part of its criteria for self-harm.