Icky

Showing 5 oddities.

This tag flags entries that are mildly gross, not dangerous, just a bit much for some readers. Tonsil stones, gleeking, and eyelid flipping all involve something wet, smelly, or unusual to look at.

The tag exists so a reader can choose to skip these entries, or seek them out, depending on taste. Nothing tagged icky is a sign of illness on its own.

This list will tell you what makes each entry unpleasant to encounter, and why the body produces it anyway. It will not soften the description to make the entry more palatable. If the honest description is a bit much, the tag is doing its job by warning you first.

Spiritual 5 Icky 5 Not an emergency 21 Get it checked 15 Try it 67 Learnable 18 Party trick 19 Vestigial 7 Genetic 37 Sleep 6 Illusion 22 Childhood 8 Debunked myth 11 Community 14 Famous people 14 Record 7

Eyes Trick

Eyelid flipping

Turning the upper eyelid inside out so the pink inner surface shows. Nobody has counted how many people can do it. Eye doctors do it to patients to look for grit.

No formal count Icky

Mouth Trick

Gleeking

Shooting a thin jet of saliva from under the tongue. It can happen by accident, often during a yawn, or on purpose. No survey has counted how many people can do it.

No formal count Icky

Mouth Trick

Gorlin's sign

Touching the tip of your nose with your tongue. About 10% of people can do it. About half of people with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome can, so doctors use it as a quick check for stretchy connective tissue.

~10% of people Icky

Mouth Involuntary

Tonsil stones

Small white or yellow lumps that form in the folds of the tonsils and sometimes come out when you cough. They smell bad and feel like something is stuck in the throat. They are usually harmless.

Up to 10% of people; up to 46% on CT scans Icky

Bones Trick

Voluntary joint dislocation

Pushing a joint partly or fully out of its socket on purpose, then back in. Between 10% and 25% of people have some joint hypermobility. One survey of students and their siblings found 0.5% to 2.6% could dislocate a shoulder at will.

0.5–2.6% (shoulder, one survey) Icky